←back to thread

Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

(www.bbc.co.uk)
290 points aways | 2 comments | 04 Sep 25 06:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.409s | source
Show context
avian ◴[04 Sep 25 06:59 UTC] No.45124373[source]▶
In Our Time has been my favorite podcast to listen. It made me appreciate how well moderated a discussion among experts can be and how poorly most moderators on other radio programs or conference panels do their jobs.

My complaint with In Our Time is that BBC started inserting the "this program is supported by ads outside of the U.K." ads in the middle of the discussions. The ads start and end with an extremely annoying loud chime that just blows out the speakers if I have the volume turned up to understand a guest that's speaking in a more soft voice.

replies(7): >>45124471 #>>45125048 #>>45125095 #>>45127060 #>>45127716 #>>45132250 #>>45132277 #
1. OskarS ◴[04 Sep 25 08:46 UTC] No.45125095[source]▶
The thing that makes it work (aside from Melvyn's excellent hosting) is that they have an unspoken but fundamental assumption about the audience, which is that the listeners are intelligent. Like, it's ok to have nuance, to dig deep into topics, it's even ok for listeners not to follow every point precisely. But the listeners are smart people that appreciate hearing from people who know what they're talking about.

That's a very rare assumption in modern media, when most mainstream things seemed to be aimed at some sort of lowest common denominator.

replies(1): >>45131187 #
2. remus ◴[04 Sep 25 19:20 UTC] No.45131187[source]▶
Imo this works well, especially in the podcast format, because it doesn't feel like they're trying to make every episode for every listener. You dip in on the espisodes that catch your curiosity so if you're listening there's a decent chance you're interested in the topic and are paying attention.