Podcast Review: In Our Time, BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

With over two million listeners per episode, perhaps I don't need to be praising the weekly BBC podcast In Our Time — the numbers certainly speak for themselves. Yet, I find it is worthwhile to revisit popular podcasts, especially when that popularity aligns with its quality.

Every week, I settle in to listen to British parliamentarian and author Melvyn Bragg interview a panel of three academics on specialized subjects. The topics range broadly, from famous literary works to historical events or complex scientific ideas. Most recently, Melvyn and his guests have covered the life and works of European playwright Bertolt Brecht, Napoleon's return to power in France known as the "Hundred Days," and Aristophanes' fourth-century comedy Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens secured peace by waging a sex strike.

Pitched as a discussion about the "ideas, people and events that have shaped our world," In Our Time offers an entry point into subject matter too often confined within academic circles.

Mediated through the questioning of Melvyn — often as simple as "So who was Napoleon?" — the podcast is accessible for all listeners through compact hour-long episodes. Covering a single topic per episode, this format is especially appealing to podcast listeners who find themselves unable to commit to ten-part deep dives into one subject. However, for those especially interested in the subject, each episode also contains an extensive reading list to go with it as well as the names of the interviewed academics for easy Googling.

For me, the brilliance of In Our Time lies in both its broad applications, such as better understanding the state of the world as it is today, but also its personal uses, like making me a well-rounded conversationalist, an excellent trivia team member, and an ever-improving Jeopardy! player. For example, the very first episode that I encountered was on Thorstein Veblen's foundational work The Theory of the Leisure Class, published in 1899. Though I had never even heard of Veblen, the episode instantly hooked me because of its engaging and accessible discussion of capitalism and consumerism. While providing me with the language to crush a trivia question about economic history — I'm still waiting to break out "conspicuous consumption" at the dinner table — I also saw the ways in which Veblen's theory echoed into our modern era, such as providing context about the construction of Gilded-Age mansions in Erie's now-historic districts.

With over 1,000 episodes available wherever you listen to your podcasts, In Our Time offers listeners rich educational content in an approachable and concise format. Whether you simply want to know more about the world around you, fill out the gaps in your historical knowledge, or bolster your trivia skills, In Our Time has something for everyone.