标题: 2018.09.19"我们的时代 "是一个不断增长的智慧库 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-2-14 00:36 标题: 2018.09.19"我们的时代 "是一个不断增长的智慧库 Something to Bragg about
“In Our Time” is an ever-growing library of wisdom
The unashamedly intellectual discussion series turns 20
Sep 19th 2018
BY B.F.
LISTENERS to BBC Radio 4 on October 15th 1998 would have heard the Cumbrian-inflected voice of Melvyn Bragg introduce a new programme without much fanfare. He welcomed those tuned in to a series “in which I hope we’ll be looking at some of the ideas and events which have influenced the century”.
In that first episode of “In Our Time”, two academics soberly discussed the wars of the past 100 years. Since then, the show has explored more than 800 subjects, such as the 18th-century gin craze, Agrippina the Younger and the mathematical constant e. “In Our Time” has the feel of a university seminar, with some of academia’s brightest—Mary Beard and Marcus du Sautoy are regular contributors—taking 45 minutes each week to discuss a topic, live and unedited. The programme’s return this month continues its marathon run into a 21st year. For the BBC, “In Our Time” is not just part of the furniture but a load-bearing pillar, propping up the corporation’s occasionally wayward efforts to enlighten the public.
If the radio programme evokes an academic enclave, then Mr Bragg is both the insufferable swot and, on occasion, the fresher who forgot to complete the readings. He is far from a perfect moderator. He will frequently interrupt his guests mid-flow (listeners inevitably take to Twitter to lament the interruption of a female contributor), often seems crotchety and occasionally ties himself in knots with his questions. Despite these idiosyncrasies, he succeeds in making often complex and obscure subjects approachable and interesting. Will Self, an author, described him as “the dilettante’s dilettante”, and his eager curiosity is contagious. Indeed, few broadcasters could sustain an audience of millions with a discussion of the sixth-century legal code of Justinian.
In its two decades the show has expanded its reach well beyond middle England. In 2005 producers asked listeners to suggest their favourite philosopher to be featured in a future programme. They received 30,000 responses, with Karl Marx declared the eventual winner. (The Economist encouraged any readers hoping to fend off a victory of the proletariat to vote for David Hume instead.) Today, in addition to a weekly listenership of over 2m, each month the show is downloaded about 2.5m times as a podcast. Over half of these listeners do so from outside Britain.
In many ways “In Our Time” makes for a better podcast than broadcast show. History podcasts rival true crime as the downloads du jour, thanks to shows such as the Watergate-recounting “Slow Burn” and “Revisionist History” from Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist. The few minutes of bonus material on each download of “In Our Time” free it from the time constraints of live radio, and guests often spar over what was included in—or omitted from—the broadcast. Taken together, the heaving online archive of “In Our Time” is a digital Library of Alexandria, a rich seam of commute-enhancing, dinner-party-reviving wisdom freely available to mine.
Simon Tillotson, the show’s producer—and the voice calling time with the offer of a cup of tea at the end of each podcast—attributes its popularity to the guests’ generosity with their knowledge and the unrehearsed sparkiness of the discussion: “It’s a live exchange of ideas, which seems to be compelling.” The unabashed high-brow feel of “In Our Time” probably won’t help the BBC fight any accusations of elitism, but the strength of its fan base might. The show’s catholic range of subjects, respect for listeners’ intelligence and its quality of insight mean that “In Our Time” endures in a time when shrinking attention spans and an abundance of poorly cited information can make well-informed intellectual discussion tricky to find. Even as the number of installments approaches four figures, there are plenty of stones left unturned.
