I looked, and there's more than 1000 available episodes of IOT on the BBC, they're all (at least every one I've heard) brilliant.
I'm curious if anyone here has any particular favourites?
I remember really enjoying the Plankton episode because it took me the classic IOT route of "That doesn't sound interesting, but I'll give it a listen" to looking up all the reading list.
Its odd that when places like HN or Reddit ask for favourite podcasts the amazing resources of BBC radio (that precede all modern internet podcasts and the best of which still wipe the floor with most of them) are often forgotten.
In Our Time represents the best of the form, and the BBC, and that's significantly down to the excellence of Bragg.
The archive (you may need a VPN outside the UK):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/player
Some curated lists:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Dw1c7rxs6DmyK0pMR...
Ach, very sad. Like Paxman on University Challenge, he was clearly finding it harder and harder towards the end. I hope he's alright, it'd be a tough one to let go of, I can't imagine a better show to present.
Brilliant series, can't recommend highly enough to anyone who's not encountered it.
I'm going to miss his waffle-free 'Hello' intro. It is/was like stepping on to an airport travelator that's moving 30% faster than you were expecting.
May be of interest: https://www.braggoscope.com/directory (a categorised catalogue of episodes)
Sad news - I hope it continues and they manage to get someone who keeps the quality high. As others have pointed out, the thing that makes In Our Time great is it assumes the people listening are interested in learning something without pointless fluff.
I was watching the first episode of the new-ish BBC TV series Human last night and, although there was some interesting information in there, it was unbearably slow and overwrought - 20 minutes of interesting content stretched out to 60 minutes by overly dramatic speech and pointless visual interstitials with soaring music. Such a stark contrast in terms of information density if you watch the original big BBC documentary series like Life On Earth or Civilisation.
Although I am often critical of modern day BBC output, or indeed all "mainstream Tee-Vee" output, this is among their best work. Exposure to higher culture trains the mind to think abstractly, to appreciate beauty, and to orient life toward something greater than just existing.
Here's a t-SNE map of all 1,000+ episodes:
https://www.braggoscope.com/explore
(Outside the UK, the "Listen" link doesn't work except for the most recent ~350 episodes. You'll need to get the program page link instead which is in the footer.)
I like his very slightly impatient, very slightly interrupty manner with his guests.
Melvyn Bragg would always rush the experts, pressuring them to get to the point asap. I found him a bit off-putting and even rude at times, but it was what made made the show unique and never stagnant.
He's one of the great ones!
People might also enjoy "This Cultural Life" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010fl4 More than 100 episodes already with some of the world's leading artists and creatives.
British working-class hero, though he'd probably prefer I say English.
I'm still working through the back catalogue, been at it for years, I've listened to every episode from the start until about mid 2012. I'll finish it eventually!
You could see this coming with his voice weakening over the years. It’s nice that he was able to continue for as long as he did.
My weekly dose of highbrow-ness from the UK:
1. In Our Time
2. University Challenge
I highly recommend the back catalog In Our Time if you want some good brain fodder on an amazingly wide range of subjects.
I love this programme and have listened to it since its inception. My goodness though is it guilty of reinforcing two quite negative parts of British media culture to which I am quite sensitive: let’s call them boffinphobia and basicism.
Boffinphobia is where an otherwise interesting scientific topic gets downplayed by a programme or news presenter as being too difficult for them to understand, and in particular said in a dismissive jokey way.
Bragg was particularly susceptible to this! In almost every episode* that touches on cosmology he would resort to a whimsical “gosh these numbers are too big for me!” or a “wow that’s going over my head!”. There’s one notorious episode on computer science** where he’s downright rude to the guests regarding complexity. Contrast with how he can barely contain himself when showing how much he knows about Horace or Napoleon or Brahms. (I contend that the virtue signalling exhibited by claiming “maths is too hard, leave it to the boffins!” is the opposite side of the same coin to showing off how much poetry and history one has memorized.)
Basicism is where, for example, black hole discussions always talk about spaghettification and then run out of steam before the interesting stuff. Any discussion of a complex topic will touch on the first handful of spectacular introductory facts and never get any further, all on the assumption that the listener has never encountered the topic before in their lives. I know the pigeon story about cosmic microwave background already: please elaborate on the latest anisotropy findings!
In Our Time is a fantastic listen, but brace yourself for a bit of eye-rolling at — and forgive me for paraphrasing Lord Bragg’s tone a little, here — the “omg stahp, nerd stuff makes my brain hurt!” schtick.
* Bragg seems to take things more seriously when Simon Schaffer is there. Carolin Crawford is part of the dream team as well. Both are exceptional science communicators.
** Another commenter points out this is the P vs NP episode: https://www.braggoscope.com/2015/11/05/p-v-np.html
I love how he ends every show by forcing the producer to come in and humbly serve tea to the guests.
I interpret this as some kind of cute little power play by Melvin. Even if so, he definitely earned it, and if were the producer I would serve with pride.
Sad news. 'In Our Time' episodes are actually timeless, I am frequently amazed by the quality of episodes from over twenty years ago.
Frankly, I believe that instead of finding a new presenter, the BBC could be retire the whole series and its legend. Let the new presenter start a new series, even if the set-up remains the same (including having further discussions with a cup of tea after the radio time limit has ended)
Is it just me?
At the end of each podcast there's the outro when they ask if Melvyn and his guests would like tea of coffee.
This keeps throwing me back to the bit at the end of episodes of Bod, when the Frog conductor is asked which flavour milk shake he'd like.
Once having itemised all of the contents of Thunderbird 4's pods over time, I have had an inkling to use some Machine learning system to gather the drinks options from each In Our Time.
Water has cropped up?
Perhaps I place too close attention to it.
Highly recommended. "In our time" is incredibly informative, and we're so lucky to live in an era where we can enjoy the endless recordings of this show!
His genuine interest in such a vast range of topics and his ability to keep experts away from rabbit holes made the show exceptional. He will be sorely missed
one of the greats, his interview and moderation style was exceptional - being able to challenge experts with respect, encouraging them to say more.
This has been my go to podcast for bedtime or when I can’t sleep… the broad topics, depth of discussion and tone are all fantastic… the ONLY thing that bugs me is the volume of guests microphones not being equalized, so you get some guests on the same episode being so much quieter than others
It won't be easy to find somebody with his breadth of knowledge to replace him.
I've listened to quite a few dozens of episodes ... I'm wondering ... did they seek out experts with speech impediments.
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https://youtu.be/JeplRmADW3E?si=RV1WigZ8Z7eP6OQ6
How economics became a cukt
In Our Time has been my favorite podcast to listen. It made me appreciate how well moderated a discussion among experts can be and how poorly most moderators on other radio programs or conference panels do their jobs.
My complaint with In Our Time is that BBC started inserting the "this program is supported by ads outside of the U.K." ads in the middle of the discussions. The ads start and end with an extremely annoying loud chime that just blows out the speakers if I have the volume turned up to understand a guest that's speaking in a more soft voice.