A Point of View

A weekly reflection on a topical issue.

Episodes

Total: 772

Climate Change Belief

2011/12/16

Lisa Jardine thinks selective hearing skews the debate over climate change and urges climate scienti

Beware the Experts

2011/12/9

The historian Lisa Jardine recalls CP Snow for lessons on the dangers of leaving political decisions

The historian Lisa Jardine welcomes recent moves to promote the teaching of history in schools and f

The Oxbridge Interview

2011/11/25

Mary Beard reflects on the purpose of the much-maligned "Oxbridge interview" and defends the "Would

With the euro in turmoil, Mary Beard reflects on the very first monetary union, two and a half thous

On Age and Beauty

2011/11/11

Mary Beard takes a peek at Miss World 2011 and ponders why - unlike her days as a radical feminist t

Mary Beard: On Tyrants

2011/11/4

From the ingeniously ghastly ways they killed their opponents to their weird forms of dress, Mary Be

The Arms Trade

2011/10/28

Will Self deplores the arms trade and Britain's role in it, including the sale of weapons to authori

Will Self reflects that racism is rarely a sole cause of social injustice but alongside other proble

In praise of wind turbines

2011/10/14

Will Self praises the beauty of wind turbines and says protests against them spring from a misconcei

Why Prisons Fail

2011/10/7

Will Self sees an urgent need to reform the prison system and deplores what he sees as a lack of pol

Will Self attacks the people who join political parties as "donkeys led by donkeys". He criticises t

"For a couple of days in May 1940, the fate of the world turned on the fall of a leaf" says John Gra

Believing in Belief

2011/9/16

John Gray argues that the scientific and rationalist attack on religion is misguided. Extreme atheis

Cats, birds and humans

2011/9/9

John Gray considers why the human animal needs contact with something other than itself.He tells the

The author and philosopher John Gray presents a hard-hitting talk about capitalism. He argues that o

Kim Philby

2011/8/26

As recently discovered letters from Kim Philby are published, John Gray argues that the spy's life i

The celebrated thinker John Gray gives his reflection on the meaning of folly. Taking the myth of th

Alain de Botton on why pessimism is the key to happiness. He argues that the incompatibility between

Modern Parenting

2011/8/5

Alain de Botton takes a witty look at modern parenting. He explains why today's parent simply can't