This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the boardroom, the newsroom and the trading floor. That's longer than most podcast hosts have been alive. But even though I've got questions, join me, Merrin's Upset Web, every week for my show, Merrin Talks Money from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists and experts about how markets really work. And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions and how to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Simon, welcome. Well, no, you welcome. Tell everybody who you are. So my name is Misha Glennie, and I am the new presenter of In Our Time. I have to say, I have to pinch myself sometimes when I tell people that I'm the new presenter of in our time because certainly from my perspective, this is the best job in radio. There's nothing to compare with it. And you know where you're sitting, don't you? I do. I'm sitting in the studio where Melvin Bragg himself broadcast almost all of the over 1,000 episodes of this programme hitherto. I'm very grateful to Melvin's support, by the way. I talked to him since I was appointed he was incredibly supportive and he gave me his blessing when it was announced that I was taking on this job So I very grateful to him OK I going to ask why do you think you the right person for this role Well, you'll have to ask other people for that, but it may be to do with my background. I have a humanities degree in drama. I was a BBC foreign correspondent for many years covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and then the fall of Yugoslavia. And after that, I wrote a variety of books, including a big history of the modern Balkans. I wrote a book about the favelas of Brazil. And more recently, I've been looking a lot at technology and science. I wrote a book on hacking. So I've been following scientific innovation developments in technology in particular very closely. So I think it might have to do with that cross-disciplinary interest and ability that I may have, I can only presume. It sounds like you're very busy already. So why do you want this role? I'm dropping things in order to take this role on because there is nothing better. Look, every week I come into the studio and it'll be a different subject. It could be plate tectonics. It could be the rise of Adolf Hitler. It could be dragons. It could be anything under the sun, really. And over the space of a week, I do a deep dive into that subject. And then I am privileged to quiz three great experts, academics, who always really know their stuff on this. so that the key points of a subject are highlighted but put together in a form which makes them comprehensible because one thing we never want to do on In Our Time is dumb down At the end of the programme after 48 or 50 minutes whatever it is I am much the wiser and I hope that I will be able to bring the listeners along with me so they too will be much the wiser because I see myself as being the voice of the listener in the studio surrounded by this extraordinary body of knowledge. I've got my own answer to this but I wonder Why does it matter to win our time that it's not simply you talking, doing your research, but you've got three really great people in the room with you? Well, because there's not much I can learn in a week compared to a lifetime of the three guests around me. And what's interesting for me is when those guests who are all steeped in a subject actually disagree about something. And with that, we can have a creative, civilized conversation, dispute, argument, so that we come out all the wiser. And in fact, interestingly, that relates to the first topic that I'll be dealing with in our time, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill. because John Stuart Mill argues early on that there is no monopoly on truth and you always get closer to the truth if you listen to different opinions. So we'll be listening to different opinions, but ones which are expressed in a civilised and constructive fashion, I hope. What else is coming up after that? Well, after John Stuart Mill, we've got the Mariana Trench, which is, of course, the deepest point of the ocean, two kilometers deeper than Mount Everest is high. Then of course, we've got the Roman arena, which is great fun because it's all about lions and gladiators and Russell Crowe. Well, actually we don't mention Russell Crowe, but it really fascinating to hear actually what Hollywood got right and what Hollywood got wrong about the Roman arena But the thing that really struck me about that subject is these games lasted for over 500 years That's half of a millennium of people beating the hell out of each other and being devoured by lions or killing leopards and baboons. So when can people listen? So people can start listening to the new series of In Our Time, first on BBC Sounds, with our first episode available on Thursday the 15th of January. Please join me then. Very good. Do you want a tea or coffee? It'll be a tea for me, thank you, Simon. Just put your headphones on and immerse yourself in a gripping thriller. A guy you've never seen before offers you £10,000 to look after an envelope. and you take it? Are you crazy? A chilling mystery. Young lady! There! Can't you see her? A heart-stopping adventure. I'm going to kiss you now. I'm Kim Cattrall and you can hear me in Limelight from BBC Radio 4, where drama serials take centre stage. I know that it wasn't an accident. They were murdered, weren't they? Search for Limelight on BBC Sounds. Are you scared? This is not the future we were promised. Like, how about that for a tagline for the show? From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life. And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
