741 episodes

A weekly reflection on a topical issue.

A Point of View BBC Radio 4

    • Society & Culture

A weekly reflection on a topical issue.

    Permanently Restless

    Permanently Restless

    Sara Wheeler asks whether trying to get away from it all is a futile endeavour.
    'We go to all that trouble', writes Sara, 'up at 4.30, cancelled planes and trains and bent tent poles - only to find ourselves, boring as ever, glum and pink on a beach or glum and damp in a Welsh cottage!'
    But there are still good reasons, Sara argues, why so many of us want a change of scene. And so 'off we go, in large numbers. At every opportunity'.
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher
    Production coordinator: Katie Morrison
    Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    • 10 min
    A Clean Break

    A Clean Break

    Tom Shakespeare calls for new thinking to fix the current crisis in our prisons. Against a backdrop of overcrowding, violence and high rates of reoffending, he says we need a clearer vision of what prisons are really for.
    "We want them to do lots of rather different things: punish people who have broken our laws; protect the public from violent criminals; rehabilitate offenders and teach them useful employment skills. Yet we are guilty of stigmatising people who have spent some time in prison."
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher
    Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Editor: Bridget Harney

    • 10 min
    Apple Days

    Apple Days

    Rebecca Stott is on a quest for a decent tasting apple. Along the way she discovers a revival of interest in wonderful heritage varieties: the rough textured russets like Ashmeads Kernel, the rich, aromatic Saltcote Pippin or the sharp tanginess of the Alfriston.
    Rebecca asks why - given the UK has an impressive two and a half thousand varieties of apple - we can only buy four or five in the average supermarket.
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher
    Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
    Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    • 10 min
    Protagonists of Reality

    Protagonists of Reality

    Megan Nolan on the allure of New York and the city's 'main character' syndrome.
    The city is, she says, 'the place that makes me happier to be alive than anywhere else - not in spite but because of its thoroughly human hopelessness.'
    'Nature is nature, permanent and without moral taint,' writes Megan, 'but cities are paeans to the marvellous filth of the human spirit.'
    'The real challenge is being moved by the effort to remain open to one another despite being consoled by surroundings made not of beauty and relief, but of cement and strife.'
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher
    Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
    Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    • 10 min
    Me and my medical data

    Me and my medical data

    Patients care apps - which give patients unprecedented access to their health records - are being rolled out by NHS trusts across the country.
    You might imagine, says Will Self, that 'this previously unimaginable access to such a wealth of medical data should empower me, make me feel I have a choice, and enable me to assist those treating me by being what every conscientious statistic wants to become: a good patient.'
    Will argues that, on the contrary, this 'revolution in healthcare' only makes us more impotent, reduces patients to the status of customers and undermines the authority and expertise of medical professionals.
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher
    Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
    Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    • 10 min
    On Anger

    On Anger

    Caleb Azumah Nelson on why anger is no longer a stranger to him, but a friend.
    He talks of a childhood in which he tried to navigate a world which was 'already coding a young black man as dangerous, threatening. Angry.'
    'As I've grown older,' writes Caleb, 'the question is not whether I should be angry, but do I love myself enough to be angry, to object when I feel wronged or faced with injustice.'
    Producer: Adele Armstrong
    Sound: Peter Bosher:
    Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

    • 9 min

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