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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

28:51

78. Hide and Seek

Sideways ·

2025/09/10

In 2014, Lydia Laurenson moved to San Francisco. As she struggled to find her place and her people in a new city, one mysterious invitation changed everything. After a compelling - if slightly bizarre - induction, she was welcomed into a secretive and exclusive group called The Latitude. Their aim? To experience life more creatively. There’s something undeniably powerful about being chosen. For centuries, secret societies have perfected a mix of mystery, camaraderie, and selectiveness. And that taps

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28:58

77. Crazy Cat Lady

Sideways ·

2025/09/03

Anna Go-Go has always defied expectations - she was a drummer (still rare for a woman), then a comedian and now a mass Go-Go dance instructor - always with her beloved cats by her side. But when she turned 40, she noticed people’s attitudes changed towards her. They saw her as an older woman living alone with cats and really began to treat her like a ‘crazy cat lady’.The idea of a woman living alone with cats has caused cultural panic for centuries. In 2021 when US vice-president JD Vance was a

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28:40

76. When Time Slows Down

Sideways ·

2025/08/27

Movie stuntman Brian Hite often experiences a dramatic slowing down of time while performing complex stunts in a matter of seconds, like car hits - entering the fabled place often described by top sportspeople as “the zone”. It’s something Matthew’s experienced himself during his professional table-tennis career. Brief, heightened moments in which the ball feels larger, the racquet becomes an extension of the body, and everything slows down.These intense slow-motion experiences are generally

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28:56

75. Me, Myself and Mine

Sideways ·

2025/08/20

Few people you’ll come across on the street look like Ryan Emans. His body is heavily modified, from head to toe - including a tongue split that gives it a forked, snake-like shape. These changes weren’t accidental or something he was born with, Ryan chose each modification deliberately as a way to make his outer self reflect who he truly is inside.Many of us see the body as our only true property. While not everyone chooses to modify their body as radically as Ryan, we find meaning in believing it

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29:08

74. Inventing a Language

Sideways ·

2025/08/13

Identical twins Matthew and Michael Youlden invented their own private language as toddlers. They’ve gone on to become accomplished multi-linguists, but kept up their childhood invented language and still use it today. Matthew Syed explores the extraordinary human capacity to invent new systems of communication and considers whether language can penetrate and shape the way we see the world. He discovers the fascinating process involved in developing fictional languages with language creator Jessie

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28:50

3. Peace Reimagined

Sideways ·

2025/08/06

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, one man declared the use of weapons to defend his nation as morally wrong. He faces years in prison for his views. He’s a pacifist, and believes that war is not justified under any means - a view Matthew Syed’s own grandfather held in the Second World War. In this final episode of Chasing Peace, a special three-part mini series of Sideways, Matthew Syed scrutinises the arguments of people who are radically committed to non-violent

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28:33

2. A Peace that Lasts

Sideways ·

2025/07/30

Uganda, in the mid-1990s - 35-year-old Betty Bigombe is sent by President Yoweri Museveni to the north of the country to open peace talks with rebel groups. Her mission: to stop the violence by negotiating with those behind thousands of deaths and horrific massacres. But to bring peace, she might have to compromise - and that might mean offering concessions or even immunity to people who have perpetrated unimaginable crimes. Could Betty end the suffering without sacrificing justice?Stopping violence

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28:49

1. Wired for War?

Sideways ·

2025/07/23

It’s December 2008. Wasim’s newborn daughter Yuna urgently needs care. He has no choice but to navigate the flames engulfing the streets of Gaza to find a doctor. In that harrowing moment, Wasim feels a profound injustice. This is not the future he wants for Yuna - or any other child. Despite the disheartening decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, on that day, Wasim still resolved to dedicate his life - to peace.With conflicts and wars flaring across the globe, many of us struggle

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4:03

Introducing – Chasing Peace

Sideways ·

2025/07/09

Is true peace actually possible?As wars rage around the globe, peace can seem like a fleeting ideal, rather than something humanity can ever actually achieve. Some people hold onto it as a real possibility, a deeply human endeavour still worth striving for. Others see it as a fragile ideal, repeatedly shattered by harsh realities. One thing is certain: peace is fleeting, and that’s painfully clear in 2025, as new , new conflicts flare up and old ones intensify.This tension between hope and reality

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29:07

73. Reliving History

Sideways ·

2025/03/05

In a theatre in Buenos Aires, six veterans from opposite sides of the Falklands War united to re-enact their experiences of the conflict in front of hundreds of people. The play was called Minefield, and it was an ambitious experiment by the Argentinian theatre director, Lola Arias.Former Royal Marine Dr David Jackson was one of the veterans who flew across the world to act out his memories of war alongside men he’d fought against over three decades earlier. There were hundreds of people watching,

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28:49

72. Limitless Love

Sideways ·

2025/02/26

After the break up of the Soviet Union in the 90s, the problem of street children in Ukraine began to grow. Pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko started taking them off the streets in the now devastated city of Mariupol and adopting them. The 56 year-old is now father to over 40 kids, serves as a military chaplain on the frontline and continues to adopt throughout the war. Matthew Syed asks whether it’s possible to truly love so many children. He hears from a biologist about the scientific limits of love and

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29:27

71. Tempting Fate

Sideways ·

2025/02/19

Tempting fate is often seen as a fine line between courage and foolishness. It’s rooted in the belief that pushing certain boundaries or showing too much confidence might invite some kind of cosmic retribution.Even those who don’t believe in fate hesitate to take chances, driven by an instinctual fear of what might go wrong. Matthew Syed explores why we’re both drawn to and wary of tempting fate, and why our minds often trick us into a bit of magical thinking.By unpacking the dynamics of hubris,

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28:48

70. Digital Ghosts

Sideways ·

2025/02/12

Amy Kurzweil’s dad is a famous inventor, futurist and pioneer in the field of AI. In 2015, she discovers his aspiration to make an AI chatbot of her late grandfather, Fred. Fred was a musician who dramatically escaped the Holocaust, but he died before Amy was born. Matthew Syed delves into Amy’s fascinating journey with her father to build the ‘Fredbot’ and have an online conversation with the grandfather she never met. He also hears from Lynne Nieto, who worked with her late husband to make an

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29:07

69. Memento Mori

Sideways ·

2025/02/05

The passing of time brings inevitable change - corrosion, disintegration and, eventually, disappearance. While the certainty of this process may seem like cause for despair, Matthew Syed explores the beauty that can be found in the process of decay.American composer William Basinski, watching his old reel-to-reel tapes disintegrate into a masterpiece of ambient music, discovered how even decay can lead to something unexpectedly profound.In Detroit’s abandoned neighbourhoods, the ruins tell a story

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29:24

68. Bliss in Suffering

Sideways ·

2025/01/29

When David Wright went to Iraq as an 18-year-old soldier - he had no idea the battlefield would become a place where he’d enter deep states of bliss. For decades, David remained silent about the intense joy he experienced alongside the horrors of war. Matthew Syed ponders the extraordinary possibility of experiencing joy while suffering and hears more about the remarkable potential of the brain to respond to trauma in unexpected ways. He discovers how others too, like actor Renu Arora, experienced

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29:20

67. Reality Shifting

Sideways ·

2025/01/22

In 2020, a curious trend went viral on social media, especially among teenagers and young adults. As much of the world stayed at home to curb the spread of COVID-19, Reality Shifters began claiming they could move from one reality to another, referencing multiverse theory.Beyond the actual possibility of switching between realities, this craze raised intriguing questions about the fabric of the reality we experience. Philosophers and scientists have long speculated about the existence of multiple

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2:15

Sideways: Series eleven - coming soon…

Sideways ·

2025/01/10

Sideways returns with seven new stories of seeing the world differently and the ideas that shape our lives. Stories about everything from the ethics of using AI to simulate conversations with the dead to viewing decay as a vehicle for rebirth. Listen to the eleventh series of Sideways first on BBC Sounds.Presenter: Matthew SyedProducers: Julien Manuguerra-Patten, Vishva Samani and Caroline Thornham Series Editors: Georgia Moodie and Max O'Brien Sound Design and Mix: Daniel Kempson and Nicholas

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28:06

25 Years of the 21st Century: 5. The Age of...

Sideways ·

2025/01/10

Geoffrey Hinton's work laid the foundation for today's artificial intelligence systems. His research on neural networks has paved the way for current AI systems like ChatGPT.In artificial intelligence, neural networks are systems that are similar to the human brain in the way they learn and process information. They enable artificial intelligence to learn from experience, as human beings would.But Geoffrey Hinton has warned that machines could one day outsmart humans. He has even warned that

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28:36

25 Years of the 21st Century: 4. The Age of Changing...

Sideways ·

2025/01/09

As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, Matthew Syed asks how technology has altered the way we approach dating, friendship and community.It’s not all technology, though. Key changes in social trends, medical innovations, demography and economic factors have also played a part in how people live. How have relationships changed in the past 25 years?Contributors Margaret MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford and author of several acclaimed

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28:19

25 Years of the 21st Century: 3. The Age of Outsourcing

Sideways ·

2025/01/08

Is this the age of outsourcing? This is not a show about call centres in India. Rather, it's a look at a much deeper shift in who we are, how we think, and where value is created. In some ways, it's the most dizzying and philosophical shift of all. In this episode, we attempt to understand outsourcing at the macro level - how corporations have outsourced so much that they’ve become hollow. And we look at the micro level - how we've outsourced our minds and memories to technology

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