Aditya Chakrabortty investigates five words that made the modern world.

These are the strange, sometimes amusing but true tales by which the reigning ideas of our time came to be the words you hear on the Today programme, on other news programmes and late-night current affairs discussions. What do words like 'narrative' and 'transparency', bandied around by politicians and experts, actually mean?

In this series, find out where these terms came from, how have they changed and how are they shaping our world in this unexpected journey from a simple word to an expose of modern life.

Today - when and why did 'narrative' become so important? On hand to find out how telling stories beyond the world of fiction became so important are former New Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, story guru Robert McKee, cognitive linguist George Lakoff, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy at Manchester Business School Karel Williams, and Clifford Soffield from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Produced by Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4. Show less