A Point of View

"It isn't just because they have become platforms for propaganda and interpersonal odiousness that we should declare war on the social media", writes Howard Jacobson. "It is because they reduce all discourse to a shout". Howard appeals for a re-discovery of the subtlety of language and explains why he believes we should leave behind the "frozen wastes of Emojiland". "A thumb up or thumb down cultu...

Howard Jacobson on the art of the feuilleton....and the joy of the ordinary. He says the feuilletonists - those writers of short observational pieces - show "you don't have to be tendentious to be of consequence". He asks us to step back and seek what's important around us...and even question whether there's such a thing as importance at all. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

"Great television is taking over the space occupied by many novels", writes Zia Haider Rahman "and taking with it many excellent writers". He says that many novels have already moved in the direction of the televisual - written with an eye to a film or TV adaptation. "If novelists are relinquishing the very things that are exclusively the province of the novel", he writes, "then they are complicit...

"It's not merely facts that are under assault in the polarised politics of the UK, the US and other nations twisting in the winds of what some call populism" writes Zia Haider Rahman. "There's also a troubling assault on reason". He argues that authoritarian tendencies know that warping the facts is only a start. "Warping reason and logic and clarity of thought is the holy grail". Producer: Adele...

"On my computer", writes Zia Haider Rahman, "I have a folder of exchanges with organisations and corporations, a folder called 'Hope'". Zia describes the letters he's written to some of Britain's foremost institutions on their lack of diversity. He says empirical research of cognitive scientists points ever more clearly to the immense difficulty of changing minds. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Will Self reflects on the epidemic of sleeplessness. He explores the "heady cocktail" of modern life that's keeping us awake and argues that we all need the imaginative sustenance of dreams. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Will Self on how wearing glasses has become something that is entirely unremarkable. "Nowadays the acquisition of glasses", he writes, "is simply another opportunity for the conspicuous consumption we've all become so very expert at". But he says there are drawbacks to seeing too clearly. He suggests that a National No Glasses Day might be an idea "so we can all wander about the place in blurry bl...

"As the years have passed", writes Will Self, "so gnawing on a bloody piece of cow rump has come to seem, to me, more and more...well, vulgar". Via Leviticus and Arcimboldo, he charts his conversion to vegetarianism. And he explains why it's not just personal morals that are "propelling me headlong towards the horror of Quorn"! Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Will Self says we need creative solutions to end institutional misogyny and abuse. "Rather than addressing - as parliamentarians currently are - the business of shutting the stable door after the stallions have run amok", he writes, "we should be thinking about how to keep it closed in the first place". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Will Self on why he loves space.... From childhood dreams of being "strapped into the command module of a Saturn 5 rocket about to blast off from Cape Kennedy" to contemplating 1000-million-star mega-clusters in the sky today, Will describes why space is - for him - "both sublime and restful". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Mary Beard ponders why email is governed by so few rules and conventions. "Fifty years ago, when I was at high school", Mary writes, "we spent many hours learning how to write a letter". She wonders why no one today seems to be teaching the art of writing a persuasive email. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Andrew Sullivan says a type of "cultural Marxism" is sweeping through American universities. Conservative ideas, he says, are increasingly being banished from campuses and free speech is seen as a delusion. "It's an ideology that is fast resembling a new religion". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Andrew Sullivan says Donald Trump is teaching a generation that the key to advancement in society is to bully, lie, slander and cheat. He examines the long-term effects of the Trump Presidency. "It may be that in the future", Andrew writes, "his appalling conduct will mark a cautionary tale - and future candidates and presidents will learn not to follow in his steps". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Andrew Sullivan on how America has become "a truly tribal society". "I've lived here since the Reagan era", he writes, "and there have been plenty of divides. But none quite as tribal or as rooted in non-negotiable identity as this one". He warns of what the outcome might be and reminds the listener that a liberal democracy is always a precarious enterprise. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Monica Ali with a personal take on why she believes the history of the British Empire must be taught in our schools. She recalls a conversation with her father where he told her that at primary school he'd been taught about the Black Hole of Calcutta and how the British gave India railways. At secondary school - post Independence and Partition, her Dad's history curriculum changed dramatically...i...

Authenticity, writes Monica Ali, has become the yardstick by which we measure the value of much of our day-to-day lives. "In this hyper-mobile, hyper-connected world" she says, "the cult of authenticity is flourishing". But what does it mean to be "authentic"? Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Monica Ali describes her desire for vengeance after her son was robbed by two boys on mopeds. She reflects on the recent surge in moped crime and what can be done to stop it. She says the criminals involved in this new brand of crime are nearly all children and, whatever our desire for justice, "crackdowns on children can never provide the entire - the right - solution to the problem". Producer: A...

"European society", says Sir Roger Scruton, "is rapidly jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found nothing to put in its place save the religion of human rights". But, he argues, this new "religion" delivers one-sided solutions since rights favour the person who can claim them - whatever the moral reasons for opposing them. He says Europe needs to rediscover its Christian roots. Producer: Ad...

Roger Scruton asks: "What does the Tory Party really stand for?" He says the Conservative party at present is muddling along without a philosophy. But he argues that, far from being the 'nasty party', the most fundamental belief underpinning Conservative policies historically is the idea of responsibility towards others. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Roger Scruton looks at the impact of Harry Potter on our world view. "People are starting to live in a kind of cyber-Hogwarts", he says, "a fantasy world in which goods are simply obtained by needing them, and then asking some future Prime Minister to wave the magic wand". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Adam Gopnik muses on the art of parenting and the challenges of getting it right. "Too much praise... or too little?", he wonders. "You have to be hands off, smiling" but at the same time "engaged, unsparing in honesty". He concludes that raising children is an art, not a science or a craft. "They are the artists of their own lives but we can, we must, teach them the art of living". Producer: Adel...

Adam Gopnik reflects on why musical theatre makes its makers miserable. He should know - he's just finished an eight week run of a musical he wrote. He concludes that while films, for example, have a "natural author" in the shape of the director, a musical doesn't and "a seven-person creative team of equals", he says can never be harmonious. But there's a lot of fun to be had along the way.... Pro...

"I have lived long enough now", writes Adam Gopnik, "to see several absolutely horrific epochs come and go...looking much less absolutely horrific once they're gone." He reflects on how Donald Trump's presidency will affect our sense of what constitutes normality. "Are we every day normalizing behaviour", he asks, "that will bring an end to normalcy itself". Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Adam Gopnik reflects on why he turned to marijuana to relieve his pain during a recent bout of shingles. His 17 year old daughter was horrified. But Adam concludes that wise drug policy accepts the existence of intoxicants and says "this tale of unshaven debauchery" has made him realise, for the first time, how much his own "hyper disciplined, driven life" had taken out of him. Producer: Adele Arm...

"You can't call him crazy, because it isn't fair to crazy people", writes Adam Gopnik. "You can't compare him to a four-year-old because four-year-old children are not in fact tyrannical or egotistical". Six months into Donald Trump's presidency, Adam Gopnik searches - almost in vain - for a descriptive category to fit. Producer: Adele Armstrong.