Sarah Montague and Professor Michael Sandel discuss the inaugural Reith lectures by philosopher Bertrand Russell, on the topic of “Authority and the Individual”. As part of the celebrations of 50 years of Radio 4, the network assesses the contributions of great minds of the past to public debate, in a dialogue across the decades with contemporary thinkers. In 1948, households across Britain gathered before the wireless as the pre-eminent public intellectual of the age, the philosopher Bertrand Russell, delivered a set of lectures in honour of the BBC’s founder, Lord Reith. Since then, the Reith Lectures on the Home Service and subsequently Radio 4 have become a major national occasion for intellectual debate. This series revisits five of the speakers from the first ten years of the Reith Lectures. Sarah Montague discusses Russell’s lectures with Sandel, who is known to Radio 4 listeners as The Public Philosopher and more recently The Global Philosopher.

Producer: Neil Koenig
Researcher: Josephine Casserley Show less