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by BBC Radio 4
Understand from BBC Radio 4 - unravelling the complexities of the biggest stories and subjects that really matter right now.
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- 4 days ago41 min
The Value Crisis: 3. Prompting a Crisis?
In this episode, Ros Atkins asks whether AI is solving our ‘value crisis’, or making it worse.He takes the optimistic case seriously - that AI could deepen our relationship with the world around us, unlock new forms of creativity, strengthen human intimacy, and help us solve big problems. Then he tests each claim. If AI brings us closer to each other, what happens when that closeness is manufactured rather than real? If it can make us more creative, what happens when it's built on other people's work, taken without payment or consent? If it can solve our biggest problems, who benefits when the technology itself is owned by a handful of companies? And if it does our thinking for us, what becomes of the expertise we spent years building?Featuring economist Daniel Susskind, futurist Amy Webb, businesswoman Alex Mahon, New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka, writer John Lanchester, research adviser Roberta Pierfederici, musician Holly Herndon, Baroness Beeban Kidron, digital anthropologist Caia Hegel and sociologist Sherry Turkle. A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
- 4 days ago42 min
The Value Crisis: 2. We've Been Here Before
Technology is transforming what we value at breakneck speed. But is this really new?In this episode, Ros Atkins looks to four moments when earlier technologies forced a reckoning with value: the printing press, which flooded the world with words and upended who got to claim knowledge and authority; the Luddite rebellion, a skilled workforce fighting not technology itself but their own devaluation by it; the scandalous arrival of photography in Victorian England, when images could suddenly be captured, copied and faked; and the dot-com boom and bust of the 1990s, when a generation learned how quickly value can be invented, and lost.Featuring historian Ada Palmer, technology reporter Brian Merchant, cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins and New Yorker journalist John Cassidy.A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
- 4 days ago42 min
The Value Crisis: 1. Crisis, What Crisis?
Ros Atkins thinks technology is dramatically shifting what we value in the worlds of friendship, culture, finance and work. In this episode, he sets out to test whether that shift amounts to a crisis - or something else.He examines how technology has made our relationships more frictionless, and perhaps thinner as a result; whether an algorithm can tell the difference between what's good and what merely holds our attention; how in the world of finance, price has come loose from worth altogether; and how in the world of work, some of us are wondering how long our value will hold.Featuring contributions from philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, sociologist Sherry Turkle, journalist and broadcaster Zing Tsjeng, the New Yorker's Kyle Chayka, writer John Lanchester, Financial Times columnist Jemima Kelly, translator Ruth Martin, software engineer Andrew Hamilton and economist Daniel Susskind.A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
- 1 weeks ago42 min
All Kinds of Minds: 3. Neurodivergence and Adulthood
Across three episodes, author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.Episode three turns to adulthood, asking what it means to receive a diagnosis of autism or ADHD later in life, and why increasing numbers of people are now seeking assessment. Nathan hears from clinicians managing huge waiting lists, alongside adults reflecting on how a diagnosis has shaped their understanding of themselves and their lives.Through lived experience and expert insight, the programme asks what it would take for more neurodivergent adults to be better understood, better supported and better able to flourish.Featuring contributions from Pete Wharmby, occuptional therapist Charlie Hobbs, Ian Ensum and Sarah Zohadi from the Bristol Autism Spectrum Service, peer mentor Ben, neurodiversity coach Emma Wee, Matthew Punter; founder of Eden, and Annie and Patricia from Project Art Works in Hastings. Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
- 2 weeks ago42 min
All Kinds of Minds: 2. Growing Up Neurodivergent
Across three episodes, author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.Episode two asks what it means to grow up neurodivergent in a school system under strain. For some children, school can be a place of learning, friendship and support. For others, it can become overwhelming: a world of sensory overload, social confusion, anxiety, burnout and absence.Through the experiences of children, parents, educators and clinicians, the programme considers what happens when a child is labelled difficult, disruptive or unable to cope – and what changes when adults begin to see distress differently.From autism and ADHD to school avoidance, SEND provision, sensory integration and the pressure on families and teachers, it asks how education might better meet children where they are.Featuring contributions from Matthew Punter, Labeebah Islaam, SENDcos Georgina Smith and Stewart Dudgeon, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Occupational Therapist Charlie Hobbs.Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
- 3 weeks ago42 min
All Kinds of Minds: 1. The Language of Neurodiversity
Author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life. Episode one begins with the language of difference: as terms like neurodivergent and neurotypical have moved from activist and specialist spaces into everyday life, they have brought comfort, identity and community, but also confusion.Through lived experience and expert insight, the programme travels from autism and ADHD to self-diagnosis, TikTok, rejection sensitivity and the limits of labels.It asks not only what we call one another, but how we listen, understand and care.Featuring contributions from Labeebah Islaam, academic psychologist Lucy Foulkes, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Alex Partridge, author of Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Living and Loving with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria. Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
- Jul 27, 202614 min
Ten Fights That Made the Green Movement: 10. Rival Visions
Facing climate fatigue and denial, a backlash against green policy, and increasingly urgent warnings from scientists, the green movement is shifting into a new era. Two environmentally-minded politicians spell out their opposing visions for where the movement should go next. Zack Polanski is the leader of the Green Party, preaching a message of ‘eco-populism’. John Gummer is a Conservative Lord and former head of the Climate Change Committee; he thinks the most powerful tool to make change is the free market.What is the future of the green movement?Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke Archive: Doechii at Glastonbury, Glastonbury and Doechii filmed by BBC, 28/6/2025 Green Party Hustings at Glastonbury Speakers Forum, The Green Gathering, filmed by Zoe Broughton, 8/7/2025 Margaret Thatcher speech to the United Nations General Assembly, C-SPAN, 8/11/1989
- Jul 27, 202614 min
Ten Fights That Made the Green Movement: 9. Crackdown
Just Stop Oil is “hanging up the hi vis” after three years of throwing soup at paintings, interrupting theatre performances, and blocking roads. It’s 2025. They’ve been racking up arrests - and opponents - and now, the UK government has passed a string of new laws cracking down on disruptive protest. They say they’ve achieved their aims - a ban on new oil and gas licenses - but were they policed to extinction? With their hardcore campaigning for the climate, did these activists prompt a change in law that made all green activism harder? Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Producer: Alix Pickles Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke Archive: ‘Just Stop Oil is Hanging up the Hi Vis’, Just Stop Oil, 27/3/2025 Just Stop Oil Louise M25 protest, Just Stop Oil, 7/11/2022 Lord Deben on Just Stop Oil, ITV Robert Peston, 5/7/2023 Rupert Read talking about The Climate Majority Project, Some Dare Call It Conspiracy podcast, 24/4/2024
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