Sideways

In 2020, a curious trend went viral on social media, especially among teenagers and young adults. As much of the world stayed at home to curb the spread of COVID-19, Reality Shifters began claiming they could move from one reality to another, referencing multiverse theory. Beyond the actual possibility of switching between realities, this craze raised intriguing questions about the fabric of the r...

Sideways returns with seven new stories of seeing the world differently and the ideas that shape our lives. Stories about everything from the ethics of using AI to simulate conversations with the dead to viewing decay as a vehicle for rebirth. Listen to the eleventh series of Sideways first on BBC Sounds. Presenter: Matthew Syed Producers: Julien Manuguerra-Patten, Vishva Samani and Caroline Thorn...

Geoffrey Hinton's work laid the foundation for today's artificial intelligence systems. His research on neural networks has paved the way for current AI systems like ChatGPT. In artificial intelligence, neural networks are systems that are similar to the human brain in the way they learn and process information. They enable artificial intelligence to learn from experience, as human beings would. B...

As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, Matthew Syed asks how technology has altered the way we approach dating, friendship and community. It’s not all technology, though. Key changes in social trends, medical innovations, demography and economic factors have also played a part in how people live. How have relationships changed in the past 25 years? Contributors Margaret MacMillan...

Is this the age of outsourcing? This is not a show about call centres in India. Rather, it's a look at a much deeper shift in who we are, how we think, and where value is created. In some ways, it's the most dizzying and philosophical shift of all. In this episode, we attempt to understand outsourcing at the macro level - how corporations have outsourced so much that they’ve become hollow. And we...

Have we lost faith in institutions, politicians - and even money? Some people say there is an onslaught of misinformation and a battle for truth. So who do we trust now? In this series, we’re remembering some of the big events of this century and asking how they’re shaping us. Matthew is joined by Margaret MacMillan a historian and author, Rachel Botsman the author of three books on trust and Hele...

In this series, we’re remembering some of the major events of this century and asking how they’re shaping us. This programme is all about war and conflict: from the events of September 11th 2001, to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. We're also looking at artificial intelligence on the battlefield. Where might that take us? Matthew is joined by historian and writer Margaret MacMillan, former Chief of th...

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this final episode, he considers where our media consumption might be headed. Many are concerned about smartphone addiction and a disintegration of public discourse, but others see a brighter future and our current times as a turning point to a world where the capacities of technology are used to benefit...

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode Matthew traces the inexorable rise of shortform video and investigates its success. He asks what the increasing popularity of this type of media might mean for our attention and finds out about the people using for purposes that may have surprised Neil Postman. Apps such as Tik Tok, Youtube a...

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode, Matthew analyses the medium through which we consume so much our media, the smartphone, and asks how whether it changes the nature of how we read, watch and interpret the world around us. Matthew looks into the culture of smartphone use around the world and finds out what we can interpret fr...

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode, Matthew looks into history to uncover different approaches to focus. He finds out where the idea of 'attention' came from, whether there has always been a fear that humanity's ability to focus was declining, and what the historical relationship of technology to distraction has been. He hears...

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this first episode, he seeks answers in the work of the media theorist and educator Neil Postman. Forty years ago Postman wrote 'Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'. Postman feared that the rise of television had created a world where the image became more important t...

We all know the power of a great love story. In films, literature, television - a “happy ending” is shorthand for the main characters coupling up at the end. But are these romantic aspirations really a key ingredient for a happy and fulfilled life? Matthew Syed explores the idea that you can be long term single, and happy. Social scientist Bella DePaulo always knew that marriage wasn’t for her. At...

In the 1960s and 70s, Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon were two black British children wrongly labelled as “educationally subnormal”. They were sent to schools where children were never taught to read or write. They’re just two examples of a scandal that affected hundreds of children in the UK, one that has never been officially acknowledged. As adults, Noel and Maisie made a surprising discovery -...

As a teenager, Raven Saunders dreamt of playing basketball, but their physique led them down a different path. Exceptional strength and size destined them for shot put, ultimately earning them a place on the US track and field team. In 2021, amid the pandemic, Raven became known for their choice of distinctive protective masks at competitions. But the day they chose to wear a mask of The Incredibl...

Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan have bonded over a mutual love for knitting for decades. In 2022, the pair of avid knitters decided to search for strangers to help finish an incomplete blanket their bereaved friend’s mother had started. It kickstarted a movement of ‘finishers’ - people around the world who complete the half-knitted works left behind by others. Their concept challenges the idea that w...

When astronauts journeyed to the moon in the early 1970s, few were paying attention to the psychological impact of the experience. Yet many among those who have left the Earth’s boundary say it is extraordinary and life-changing. They experience a cognitive shift known as the "overview effect". Matthew ponders the potential of staring down at Earth for our collective good and charts how, decades o...

Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini-series from Sideways examining the ethics of space exploration in a rapidly expanding era of travel and transformation. In this episode, he explores the role and ambitions of the new actors in space exploration. More people than ever before can now aspire to travel into space with private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. This democr...

Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini series exploring the ethics of space exploration, by returning to the origins of the space race, which saw America and the USSR battling for supremacy. He takes a hard look into the reasons why we go to space and whether it has really benefited all humankind. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July 1969, humanity as a whole felt like...

In this special series from Sideways, called A New Frontier, Matthew Syed explores the most out of this world ethical questions posed by the evolution of human space exploration. He takes us into the cosmos with stories from astronauts who’ve been there and those who can only dream of going, to explore the moral debates that have permeated space exploration since before the moon landings, and are...

Travel into the cosmos for a four-part series about the ethics of space exploration. Matthew Syed invites you to enter the vast wilderness of the galaxy to explore the moral dilemmas that sit at the heart of space exploration, and why they should matter to you. When the space race began in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated. Today, multiple commercial entities and many mor...

In 1984, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Joe Boylan gets lost in a blizzard on an Austrian mountainside. Joe will have to fight with everything he has to survive and be reunited with his family. How he does it reveals often typical patterns of behaviour exhibited by lost people in similar situations. Through the story of Joe’s extraordinary 48-hour battle against the wilderness, Matthew Syed ex...

In 1972, at the liberal Vassar College in New York, 18-year-old Rick Shenkman stood out for his unwavering support of Richard Nixon, especially as the Watergate scandal unfolded. His unconditional allegiance raises a perplexing question - why would a bright, well-educated student overlook the facts and maintain blind faith in the president? In this episode, Matthew Syed delves into one of the most...

As a child, Kate Ertmann starred in commercials, in soap operas and on Broadway. But acting wasn’t her first love - mathematics was. She considered it to be “a balm" for her brain. And yet societal and teenage pressures made her turn away from maths. Growing up in Sweden, Sebastian Nillson Qvist loathed maths and found it a real struggle. But he still challenged himself to study it as part of a Po...

What's your name? You might think you know, but in this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed discovers the answer could be more complicated than you first assume. That's what Hajar found out, after spending her whole life searching for a name to truly call her own. This is the story of our names, and the influence they have over who we are and who we choose to become. With Hajar Woodland, Eva Echo, E...