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PODCAST

Sideways

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

society & culture

All Episodes

28:18

25 Years of the 21st Century: 2. The Age of Mistrust

Sideways ·

2025/01/06

Have we lost faith in institutions, politicians - and even money? Some people say there is an onslaught of misinformation and a battle for truth. So who do we trust now?In this series, we’re remembering some of the big events of this century and asking how they’re shaping us.Matthew is joined by Margaret MacMillan a historian and author, Rachel Botsman the author of three books on trust and Helen Margetts, a Professor of Society and the Internet at the University of Oxford.Production team Editor:

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28:59

25 Years of the 21st Century: 1. The Age of Digital...

Sideways ·

2025/01/06

In this series, we’re remembering some of the major events of this century and asking how they’re shaping us. This programme is all about war and conflict: from the events of September 11th 2001, to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. We're also looking at artificial intelligence on the battlefield. Where might that take us? Matthew is joined by historian and writer Margaret MacMillan, former Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nick Carter and author, Professor Anthony King.Production team Editor: Sara

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15:26

Appetite for Distraction: 5. The Future of Attention

Sideways ·

2024/12/03

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.In this final episode, he considers where our media consumption might be headed. Many are concerned about smartphone addiction and a disintegration of public discourse, but others see a brighter future and our current times as a turning point to a world where the capacities of technology are used to benefit of society.Matthew speaks to a former tech engineer who has become a philosopher and activist on

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14:27

Appetite for Distraction: 4. Attention Shortfall?

Sideways ·

2024/12/03

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.In this episode Matthew traces the inexorable rise of shortform video and investigates its success. He asks what the increasing popularity of this type of media might mean for our attention and finds out about the people using for purposes that may have surprised Neil Postman.Apps such as Tik Tok, Youtube and Snapchat are ubiquitous and for many have become the chief way that they consume media. What does

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14:58

Appetite for Distraction: 3. Medium and Metaphor

Sideways ·

2024/12/03

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode, Matthew analyses the medium through which we consume so much our media, the smartphone, and asks how whether it changes the nature of how we read, watch and interpret the world around us.Matthew looks into the culture of smartphone use around the world and finds out what we can interpret from the growing use of the devices, particularly among younger generations. He looks into the

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14:22

Appetite for Distraction: 2. Have We Always Been...

Sideways ·

2024/12/03

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.In this episode, Matthew looks into history to uncover different approaches to focus. He finds out where the idea of 'attention' came from, whether there has always been a fear that humanity's ability to focus was declining, and what the historical relationship of technology to distraction has been.He hears from the historian of science D Graham Burnett. Burnett has explored different philosophies of attention

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15:07

Appetite for Distraction: 1. Postman's Prophecy?

Sideways ·

2024/12/03

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.In this first episode, he seeks answers in the work of the media theorist and educator Neil Postman. Forty years ago Postman wrote 'Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'. Postman feared that the rise of television had created a world where the image became more important than information, and that democracy was in danger to becoming entertainment.Postman cited the author

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17:26

Introducing... Uncharted with Hannah Fry Series 2

Sideways ·

2024/09/09

From exposing fraud to finding true love, mathematician Hannah Fry follows the numbers on thrilling adventures of data and discovery. Join her for Series 2 of Uncharted.

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28:20

66. One is a Whole

Sideways ·

2024/08/28

We all know the power of a great love story. In films, literature, television - a “happy ending” is shorthand for the main characters coupling up at the end. But are these romantic aspirations really a key ingredient for a happy and fulfilled life? Matthew Syed explores the idea that you can be long term single, and happy. Social scientist Bella DePaulo always knew that marriage wasn’t for her. At 70 years-old, she is happily single, and always has been. She’s spent her career researching, writing

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28:46

65. Divergent Histories

Sideways ·

2024/08/21

In the 1960s and 70s, Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon were two black British children wrongly labelled as “educationally subnormal”. They were sent to schools where children were never taught to read or write.They’re just two examples of a scandal that affected hundreds of children in the UK, one that has never been officially acknowledged.As adults, Noel and Maisie made a surprising discovery - they were both dyslexic. And with that diagnosis came a profound reimagining of themselves and what had

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29:31

64. The Masks We Wear

Sideways ·

2024/08/14

As a teenager, Raven Saunders dreamt of playing basketball, but their physique led them down a different path. Exceptional strength and size destined them for shot put, ultimately earning them a place on the US track and field team.In 2021, amid the pandemic, Raven became known for their choice of distinctive protective masks at competitions. But the day they chose to wear a mask of The Incredible Hulk, they not only captured the world's attention, but they also showed hidden parts of

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28:27

63. The Art of Unfinishing

Sideways ·

2024/08/07

Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan have bonded over a mutual love for knitting for decades.In 2022, the pair of avid knitters decided to search for strangers to help finish an incomplete blanket their bereaved friend’s mother had started. It kickstarted a movement of ‘finishers’ - people around the world who complete the half-knitted works left behind by others. Their concept challenges the idea that we are successful only when we finish what we start, an idea entrenched in our present culture.Matthew

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28:49

A New Frontier: 4. With the Gods

Sideways ·

2024/07/31

When astronauts journeyed to the moon in the early 1970s, few were paying attention to the psychological impact of the experience. Yet many among those who have left the Earth’s boundary say it is extraordinary and life-changing. They experience a cognitive shift known as the "overview effect".Matthew ponders the potential of staring down at Earth for our collective good and charts how, decades on, the overview effect has found its place at the heart of space tourism. He also delves into the

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28:34

A New Frontier: 3. Life on Mars

Sideways ·

2024/07/24

Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini-series from Sideways examining the ethics of space exploration in a rapidly expanding era of travel and transformation.In this episode, he explores the role and ambitions of the new actors in space exploration. More people than ever before can now aspire to travel into space with private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. This democratisation of space allows those who can afford it to become astronauts and view our world from a

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29:04

A New Frontier: 2. For All Humankind?

Sideways ·

2024/07/17

Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini series exploring the ethics of space exploration, by returning to the origins of the space race, which saw America and the USSR battling for supremacy. He takes a hard look into the reasons why we go to space and whether it has really benefited all humankind. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July 1969, humanity as a whole felt like we’d reached a new frontier. The two astronauts left a plaque behind them, at the bottom of their lunar

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28:59

A New Frontier: 1. A Message to Ourselves

Sideways ·

2024/07/10

In this special series from Sideways, called A New Frontier, Matthew Syed explores the most out of this world ethical questions posed by the evolution of human space exploration. He takes us into the cosmos with stories from astronauts who’ve been there and those who can only dream of going, to explore the moral debates that have permeated space exploration since before the moon landings, and are evolving dramatically today in a new era of commercial space flight, of asteroid mining and almost daily

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2:36

Introducing – A New Frontier

Sideways ·

2024/07/03

Travel into the cosmos for a four-part series about the ethics of space exploration. Matthew Syed invites you to enter the vast wilderness of the galaxy to explore the moral dilemmas that sit at the heart of space exploration, and why they should matter to you.When the space race began in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated. Today, multiple commercial entities and many more governments vie for space in the skies above us. Now we may go to other planets not in order to bring

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28:54

62. Lost and Found

Sideways ·

2024/03/27

In 1984, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Joe Boylan gets lost in a blizzard on an Austrian mountainside. Joe will have to fight with everything he has to survive and be reunited with his family. How he does it reveals often typical patterns of behaviour exhibited by lost people in similar situations.Through the story of Joe’s extraordinary 48-hour battle against the wilderness, Matthew Syed examines the fascinating area of study called Lost Person Behaviour, which has changed the way search and

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29:11

61. Brain Strain

Sideways ·

2024/03/20

In 1972, at the liberal Vassar College in New York, 18-year-old Rick Shenkman stood out for his unwavering support of Richard Nixon, especially as the Watergate scandal unfolded. His unconditional allegiance raises a perplexing question - why would a bright, well-educated student overlook the facts and maintain blind faith in the president?In this episode, Matthew Syed delves into one of the most intriguing facets of human psychology - cognitive dissonance. Conceptualised by Leon Festinger in the

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29:05

60. For the love of maths

Sideways ·

2024/03/13

As a child, Kate Ertmann starred in commercials, in soap operas and on Broadway. But acting wasn’t her first love - mathematics was. She considered it to be “a balm" for her brain. And yet societal and teenage pressures made her turn away from maths.Growing up in Sweden, Sebastian Nillson Qvist loathed maths and found it a real struggle. But he still challenged himself to study it as part of a Political Science and Economics degree. It did not go well.But still, maths came back into their lives. In

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108 results

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