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The Digital Human

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world

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Digital Human: Series 6

The Digital Human: Series 6: Episode 4: Nostalgia

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Factual: Science & Nature

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Episode 4

Episode 4: Nostalgia

Series 6

Nostalgia

BBC Radio 4 - The Digital Human, Series 6, Nostalgia

Aleks Krotoski explores if the internet is a nostalgia machine.

We live in a world where the nostalgia for the past now permeates our present.

With online trends like 'Throw Back Thursdays', apps like Timehop and platforms which gives you the tools to make your digital image look like it was taken with an analogue camera, the internet has never seemed so backwards-facing.

In this week's episode of The Digital Human, Aleks Krotoski visits imagined worlds and eras long past to explore whether the web is a nostalgia machine.

We speak with Professor of Svetlana Boym to trace the origins of the word back to homesick Swiss mercenaries in the 17th century, visit a water park in New Jersey which was reborn through the collective power of online nostalgia and take tea with a vintage enthusiast, who divides his time between working as an air host in a high-flying company, with living in the 1940s.

Producer: Caitlin Smith.

The Digital Human: Series 6

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Aleks Krotoski explores what technology tells us about ourselves and the age we live in

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The Digital Human

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Episode 4: Nostalgia

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