Main content

Regaining Nuance

Episode 5 of 5

In this series, Oliver Burkeman has discovered the reasons why nuance is declining in the modern age. For the New Year, he wants to find out how we could restore it.

In this series, Oliver Burkeman has discovered the reasons why nuance is declining in the modern age. For the New Year, he wants to find out how we could restore it.

He speaks to Naomi Baron about how we can use language to know ourselves better, and so protect ourselves against forces that would simplify our views of the world.

And he continues his conversation with Susan Nieman, about the need to break away from simple views of the world, in order to face the horrors humans can do to one another, rather than dismissing them.

And he sits down with Richard Holloway, writer and former Bishop of Edinburgh, to find out about how groups of people can evolve their thinking as the world changes, and discovers that even Jesus teaches to break away from beliefs that make us hostile to fellow human beings, even if that means breaking from codes laid down by God.

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Wed 9 Feb 2022 09:30
BBC Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Across the Divide

Next

You are at the last episode

See all episodes from The Death of Nuance

Professor Susan Neiman

Professor Susan Neiman is the director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the author of numerous books including Why Grow Up?, Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin, Evil in Modern Thought, and Moral Clarity.

Professor Naomi Baron

Naomi S. Baron is an expert on language and technology, the written word, the history and structure of English, language and society, reading and technology, and higher education. A Guggenheim Fellow and Fulbright Fellow, she has published eight books, including '

Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World' and the upcoming ' How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio'

Richard Holloway

Richard Holloway is a Scottish writer, broadcaster and cleric. He was the Bishop of Edinburgh from 1986 to 2000 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church from 1992 to 2000.

 

Some of his books include, Beyond Belief, Looking in the Distance: The Human Search for Meaning, and most recently Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe.

Broadcasts

  • New Year's Day 2021 13:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Sat 5 Feb 2022 05:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Wed 9 Feb 2022 09:30
    BBC Radio 4

Related Links