11 June 2008
Welcome Feedback listeners!
Posted by Adrian under Meta
Welcome to everyone who’s coming here from Radio 4 Feedback! While this site might not be as up to date as I might like, there’s still a lot to look back over on the blog, forums and wiki. I’m aiming to make some new entries on programmes such as the Black Death, and more importantly, if you are interested in contributing to this blog or helping out in any other way, please leave a comment on this post!
28 Comments so far...
John Dillon Says:
21 June 2008 at 4:06 pm.
I heard you on Feedback and couldn’t resist contacting your site. I am amazed, though, how few people seem to have found their way here!
All I can say is that ‘In Our Time’ is just about the most fascinating and wide ranging programme out there in the ether and Melvyn Bragg is totally superb as the chairman.
I feel privileged to be listening, almost as if I were overhearing an Oxbridge senior common room discussion.
I shall be keeping my eye on the site and hopefully participating.
Adrian Fry Says:
22 June 2008 at 10:53 am.
A worthy endeavor. Found out about the project from Feedback. The problem with discussion forums - and the reason the BBC seems to be rather negative, even about its own - is that contributions rapidly degenerate from the pointful and convivial to the trivial or hostile. I have seen countless discussion forums become slanging matches or - just as bad - exchanges of one line posts agreeing or disagreeing with what other users have said. I hope such a thing will not happen here.
John Pendrey Says:
22 June 2008 at 8:55 pm.
I also found you through ‘Feedback’ and agree with everthing John Dillon says about this brilliant series.
Valerie McCarthy Says:
22 June 2008 at 8:58 pm.
I have just listened to Sunday’s edition of feedback and heard about the web site and agree with John Dillon that I feel previlaged to be able to listen to such erudite and learned speakers. Melvyn Bragg keeps it all moving in a very relaxed way and although I appreciate the science subjects I love the historical discussions.
I will be checking the site out regularly and look forward to reading other peoples views
Catherine Lawlor Says:
22 June 2008 at 9:08 pm.
I have just found this site by listening to Feedback as well. I’m very pleased to be here and will try to keep coming back.
I must admit I’m really behind on listening to In Our Time at the moment. I do all my listening on my MP3 player and I hoard all the old podcasts so my disk is full. I’m just going to have to throw some off for now.
Alyson Breuer Says:
24 June 2008 at 12:29 am.
I’m another listener (online) to Feedback and the joy of many other BBC programmes from Chicago, including In Our Time. I agree that the standard BBC comment forum is limited and it’s wonderful to have a more laid-back setting to read and perhaps, to perhaps to comment! Terrific idea — I bet you’ll get many more visitors.
Alison Jenner Says:
25 June 2008 at 11:29 pm.
I too heard about this on Feedback and kicked myself not to have thought previously whether there was a follow up page somewhere. Well done. I feel that IOT is, in the best way, the antidote to the celebrity culture: in that you have the joy of listening to erudite experts discussing topics close to their hearts, ably mediated by an eloquent interlocutor. I love to hear discussions by people who know well their subject and can communicate their thoughts and their excitement to the listener so that we want to go and find out more.
Nick Says:
27 June 2008 at 11:57 pm.
Don’t do it Catherine!
Running out of space is God’s way of telling you to buy a bigger hard drive!
Nick Says:
27 June 2008 at 11:59 pm.
Anyone know by the way of anyone’s doing a similar site/wiki aimed at Fooc? That’s a show that really could benefit from having a full searchable index.
Colin Robinson Says:
28 June 2008 at 10:41 pm.
I’ve decided to open a bottle of wine, log on to AOT and slouch in my chair while I enjoy a stimulating evening of conversation….. …. …. …. …. …. …. …. …. ….Oh well, early days still, I’ll drink the wine anyway.
Nevertheless AOT is a wonderful idea; after listening to IOT I can’t discuss the programme with my neighbours; with them I have to discuss ordinary things like gardening, or their bad back, or house prices, or their pending court case. I am not an aloof intellectual, I accept that these things are important, well apart from bad backs of course, the NHS has finite funds and there are more serious things to treat; so a bad back just isn’t important is it? Anyway I don’t know what my neighbours would think if I started talking about the music of the spheres. I’m sure that things here at AOT will eventually get going, I’ll just have to change my itinerary for this evening, perhaps a bit of gardening.
Giovanni MacCormack Says:
1 July 2008 at 8:55 am.
At last the recognition this programme deserves. As John Dillon says it is the most fascinating programme on the airwaves. Well done to all especially Melvin.
Anne B Says:
7 October 2008 at 9:03 pm.
As a follow up to the election of the ‘Greatest Philosopher’ why not next elect ‘The Philosopher of the Year’ - what fun that would be! Anne
Oliver Dickson Says:
8 October 2008 at 6:42 pm.
Am I the only one unable to ‘listen again’ to the ‘Miracles’ programme on 25th September: the link is there, but it does not work - for me at least.
Gardner Campbell Says:
11 October 2008 at 9:23 pm.
I heartily second what Alison eloquently writes; “you have the joy of listening to erudite experts discussing topics close to their hearts, ably mediated by an eloquent interlocutor.” Erudition, passion of long standing, and an interlocutor whose eloquence is matched by an apparently bottomless curiosity and sense of wonder. As a professor (in the US) of literature and media, I find IOT indispensable to my own continuing education, to my work in the classroom, and to my sense of hopefulness about the very possibility of education. I’ve shared it with my colleagues and my students, many of whom are now ardent fans as well.
If there’s anything I can do to help AOT become the community it can be, I am only too glad to assist. Perhaps I can in some small way repay the enormous debt I feel to Melvyn, his guests, and the BBC for providing this ongoing exercise in the finest liberal education.
IAN BARRETT Says:
5 November 2008 at 12:30 am.
This is perhaps more feedforward than feedback I am saddened by the paucity of interest there is in the subject of the origins, history and uses of RADAR. partiicularly as this is a major development made by Britain
Winning the Battles of Britain and The Atlantic; Kickstarting electronic computers and the Electronic and Digital Ages; Safety in the air and at sea; Satellite comms; Microwave cookers, Mobile phones, even Transistor develpment started from radar silicon components etc.etc
There is no public section on radar or defence comms. to be found in the Imperial War Museum nor in the Science Museum. There are no Service BRs (books of reference) about the equipment in the British Library now released after 30+ yrs. from classified secret and confidential status. Schools do not generally teach anything of the History, the use or the Technology nor use the subject to llustrate the use of Maths and Physics.
Few subjects compare with the importance of this one by which the Nation won freedom and which has happened “IN OUR TIME”.
The situation is actually very desperate as there are but fewremaining related components and systems. and there seems to be no money to preserve them or interpret and show them off. A penny fm./on each Air and Sea ticket would help!
We can spend millions with Tony Robinson digging up old pots and stones yet fail to save our own radar heritage stuff for the benefit of future generations. Is this yet another example that the government and people of this country have got their priorities wrong? An effort is being made to form a Centre and log the remaining bits but it needs interest as well as effort and funds to operate.
Mervyn, BBC, MOD and Depts of Culture,M&S and M. of Ed please act to assist.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? You can find out more about DEHS and HMS COLLINGWOOD Radio Museum on websites.
IAN BARRETT
Jane Gregory Says:
5 November 2008 at 5:40 pm.
I just happened to notice ‘After Our Time’ on the ‘In our Time’ website so thought I would have a quick glance. Well done for taking the trouble. To me, the programme is an oasis. I am in full agreement with everything that has already been so eloquently written so won’t repeat it but as a woman who presently climbs the walls of motherhood I would add (or should that be ‘confess’?) that I feel a sort of tacit camaraderie with the other loyal listeners. This programme represents real integrity - kept warmly human by the ‘bright as buttons’ Melvyn. Like others, I feel a heartfelt gratitude to Melvyn, James Cooke and the team. IOT is the only programme I know I can depend on enjoying (apart from some of the 6.30 comedy slots but even then I don’t remember to listen).Thanks again for being enterprising enough to create this website. Best wishes to all Jane
Pauline Wooding Says:
16 November 2008 at 4:10 pm.
I wholeheartedly concur with the efusive praise of others above. I’ve been an avid listenier of IOT for longer than I can remember. It’s invariably of some interest, whether it’s a subject I know anything about or not. I feel it incumbent on myself to try to get an inkling of things I don’t understand and feel privileged to be able to hear these experts in their field sharing their passions and knowledge in this informal setting. It’s particularly important to treasure items of this quality in our age of media dumbing down.
With reference to the person above, who says her hard drive is full… what did we do before podcasts? Well, what I did was record every episode on audio cassette. I’m at work during the morning edition and have always resented missing 15 minutes during the evening edition - so used to set my cassette recorder. I now have several shelves full of tapes.
Joanna Jay Says:
27 November 2008 at 3:17 pm.
Doing this makes me feel exactly like I’ve always imagined anyone desperately stuffing a note down the neck of a bottle must feel, just before applying a cork and tossing the lot into the sea. In other words, I do not, for one moment, believe that it will be read by a single member of either the “IOT” or “AOT” teams; - nor, for that matter, by any senior representative of the BBC itself…!!!
Why not…? Because - excellent though “IOT” most certainly is - and whatever one may have felt spurred by that programme to write - this “AOT” site exudes nothing so much as the cold futility of stony ground, and certainly not the slightest glimmer of genuine two-way intercommunication between listeners and the listened-to.
Which, in short, is very, very BBC…!!!
John Williams Says:
18 December 2008 at 10:30 am.
Today’s edition on Time intrigues me because I have formulated a new explanation of time which simplifies the whole concept.
Time does not exist - Time is a human working concept. It is better understood as change in the spatial arrangement of matter (CISPAM). Humans have invented the concept of time due to their ability to remember the past and to predict the future; there is only now and position. Sounds difficult but check out this Google Knol which explains it clearly.
http://knol.google.com/k/dr-john-williams/time/2vj0cjsvbccel/3#
Neil Foxlee Says:
22 December 2008 at 1:19 pm.
I just wanted to say thank you for providing this excellent resource, and to point readers towards another: an archive of videoed interviews with leading thinkers (including Quentin Skinner and George Steiner, to name but two) set up by the social anthropologist Professor Alan Macfarlane of Cambridge University. See
http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/audiovisual.html
Ian Glendinning Says:
4 January 2009 at 4:51 pm.
Hi Joanna, this is my first peek at AOT, and whilst I’m a long term ongoing fan of IOT I too found it immediately depressing how inactive this site is after being disappointed how hard it was to get future programme suggestions into IOT through any official channel.
Come on Melvyn and the BBC IOT production team, look like you would welcome input. IOT is a great bridgehead for intelligent programming. Let’s build on it.
Isaac Michael Says:
21 January 2009 at 9:55 pm.
I just came across “feedback for the first.My first impression is very postive, but I will look at it more shorttly.What is imporeatant for me and I am sure many listnners is the whole series of” In Our Time”. Since I discovered these wonderful programs on all kind of knowledge i.e: History, Science. Culture etc., and there is no day passes without referring to it, especially in the evenings and choose one, two or even three programms and listen and enjoy what is been disscused in the most stimulating and gratifying disscusions. Well done “In our Time” team and in paricular its Mistro, Mervyn.
Ike.
Richard D'Arcy-Evans Says:
9 April 2009 at 10:20 am.
Melvyn Bragg engaged with the excellent consideration of Aldous Huxleys’s Brave New World a totally superb example of how Radio Four can be. If it would only allow itself to be liberated from the anodyne & stultifying adherence to PC more frequently .
John Dillon (Feedback 21 June 2008 at 4:06 pm) articulated my thoughts most exactly when commenting:
‘I feel privileged to be listening, almost as if I were overhearing an Oxbridge senior common room discussion.’
One craves this sort of intellectual stimulation & discussion not found elsewhere including; paradoxically, in the most contemporary Universities.
Most interestingly of all, perhaps, the discussion identified the modern pace of life as prohibitive to proper consideration of full enjoyment let alone any imagined happiness.
An outstanding range of speakers; skilfully chaired by Melvyn Bragg the epitome of exemplary radio.
Thank you.
Jacob Says:
26 April 2009 at 6:33 am.
Dear Melvyn,
I cannot always get onto the site to download each program every week. The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) offers its past programs as an mp3 download. Will you please encourage the BBC to follow suit? I don’t have time to sit at my computer and listen to your programs on it, I need them on the run!
Best wishes,
- Jacob.
Lee Borrell Says:
24 September 2009 at 1:05 pm.
I thought you may like to know that members.fortunecity.com/templarseries/iotm.html and templarseries.atspace.com/iotm.html feature In Our Time transcripts and other R4 programmes - some on audio download - I have now linked to your site.
Paul T. Says:
17 February 2010 at 7:01 pm.
You should check out a page on my blog, where I’m almost done compiling all the episodes ever broadcast and making them available for download either individually or as yearly archives.
http://fyours.wordpress.com/in-our-time/
Enjoy, and please spread the word to any other IOT fans!