In Our Time: Religion

Whether you love him or hate him, this show’s worst and best moments were all thanks to him. He was adequately prepared for most conversations despite the breadth of topics the show covers, but he got in his own way quite a bit (and in the way of the scholars even more frequently!). Despite all of this he will be missed and I hope the new host will be as organised, curious and confident as Melvyn was.

Melvyn Bragg is extremely condescending toward many of his expert guests (the Lakshmi episode was too painful to listen to in full). He cuts them off and poses non-sequitur questions with a strange unnerving aggression. To give this person the entire series makes no sense to me. He grills each expert and has no curiosity about what they then say in response to his questions. His interest seems to be solely directed back toward his own musings. The guests are great, yet the program is often painful.

I was very excited to learn about Lakshmi but in that episode I only made it about 15 minutes through because I was already totally lost thanks to the host. It was very difficult to stay with the story of Lakshmi and understand what the guests were trying to teach because the host just kept interrupting them literally over and over again. What’s the point of having guests on if you think you know better than them and you won’t let them finish their thought?

As an American but one who loves learning, I am so happy the BBC allows the superb Melvin and his guests to provide me with the opportunity to learn.