Sideways

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

Radio 4,98 episodes

Episodes

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73. Reliving History
Matthew Syed explores the power and potential of re-enacting the past.
26 Feb 2025,29 mins
72. Limitless Love
Matthew Syed explores the human capacity for limitless love.
19 Feb 2025,28 mins
71. Tempting Fate
Matthew Syed questions the consequences of tempting fate.
12 Feb 2025,29 mins
70. Digital Ghosts
Matthew Syed explores the ethical boundaries around using AI to create digital ghosts.
05 Feb 2025,28 mins
69. Memento Mori
Matthew Syed confronts the passage of time and the inexorability of decay.
29 Jan 2025,29 mins
68. Bliss in Suffering
Matthew Syed ponders the possibility of experiencing bliss in the midst of suffering.
22 Jan 2025,29 mins
67. Reality Shifting
Matthew Syed explores the nature of reality and the possibility of its hidden layers.
15 Jan 2025,29 mins
25 Years of the 21st Century
25 Years of the 21st Century: 1. The Age of Digital Warfare
Matthew and his guests look back at some of the big events of the past 25 years.
06 Jan 2025,28 mins
25 Years of the 21st Century
25 Years of the 21st Century: 2. The Age of Mistrust
Have we lost faith in institutions, politicians - and even money?
07 Jan 2025,28 mins
25 Years of the 21st Century
25 Years of the 21st Century: 3. The Age of Outsourcing
Have we outsourced our memories to our phones?
08 Jan 2025,28 mins
25 Years of the 21st Century
25 Years of the 21st Century: 4. The Age of Changing Families
What is technology doing to something as human as forming relationships?
09 Jan 2025,28 mins
25 Years of the 21st Century
25 Years of the 21st Century: 5. The Age of Artificial Intelligence
Matthew interviews the 'Godfather of AI', Geoffrey Hinton.
10 Jan 2025,28 mins
Sideways: Series eleven - coming soon…
Sideways returns with seven new stories of seeing the world differently.
10 Jan 2025,2 mins
Appetite for Distraction
Appetite for Distraction: 1. Postman's Prophecy?
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
18 Nov 2024,15 mins
Appetite for Distraction
Appetite for Distraction: 2. Have We Always Been Distracted?
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
19 Nov 2024,14 mins
Appetite for Distraction
Appetite for Distraction: 3. Medium and Metaphor
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
20 Nov 2024,14 mins
Appetite for Distraction
Appetite for Distraction: 4. Attention Shortfall?
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
21 Nov 2024,14 mins
Appetite for Distraction
Appetite for Distraction: 5. The Future of Attention
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
22 Nov 2024,15 mins
66. One is a Whole
Matthew Syed explores whether you can find joy and fulfillment in the single life.
28 Aug 2024,28 mins
65. Divergent Histories
Two people, with a shared painful history, learn to understand themselves in a new light.
21 Aug 2024,28 mins
64. The Masks We Wear
Matthew Syed explores the revealing power of masks.
14 Aug 2024,29 mins
63. The Art of Unfinishing
Matthew Syed explores the hidden value in leaving things unfinished.
07 Aug 2024,28 mins
A New Frontier
A New Frontier: 4. With the Gods
Matthew Syed explores the transcendental possibilities of living in space.
31 Jul 2024,28 mins
A New Frontier
A New Frontier: 3. Life on Mars
How commercial companies in space are expanding the possibilities for colonisation.
24 Jul 2024,28 mins
A New Frontier
A New Frontier: 2. For All Humankind?
Matthew Syed goes back to the origins of the space race to question who benefited.
17 Jul 2024,29 mins
A New Frontier
A New Frontier: 1. A Message to Ourselves
Matthew Syed traces humanity’s first attempt to send a radio message to aliens.
10 Jul 2024,28 mins
A New Frontier
Introducing – A New Frontier
Travel into the cosmos for a four-part series about the ethics of space exploration.
03 Jul 2024,2 mins
62. Lost and Found
A 48-hour fight to survive, lost in a snowstorm. And the data that helps rescuers find us.
27 Mar 2024,28 mins
61. Brain Strain
Matthew Syed explores the uncomfortable psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance.
20 Mar 2024,29 mins
60. For the love of maths
Meet the former child star who considers mathematics to be 'a balm' for her brain.
13 Mar 2024,29 mins