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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Shopping News

The Essay: The Shopping News: Episode 3: Berlin

Factual: Consumer

The Shopping News: Berlin

Episode 3

Episode 3: Berlin

The Shopping News

Berlin

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Shopping News, BerlinClose menu

How shopping for toys in Berlin reveals an attitude to childhood that is unique to Germany

Joanna Robertson explores how shopping for toys in Berlin reveals an attitude to childhood and innocence that is unique to Germany.

Joanna Robertson is a journalist and mother who has lived in five foreign countries, where she has observed that local shopping habits tell you a lot about the place. In these Essays, she argues that when people go shopping, they don't just purchase goods, they also buy into something else. Joanna Robertson takes us shopping with the locals and explores these ulterior motives and what they reveal about the residents of five cities: Rome, New York, Berlin, Tirana and Joanna's current home, Paris.

In this edition, she finds that shopping for toys in Berlin reveals an attitude to childhood and nature that's unique to Germany. Germany's concept of nature is deeply rooted in the concepts of nineteenth-century German Romanticism, which in turn is reflected in German toys, and childhood. The child is the Wanderer, journeying through the boundless realms of creativity and dreams, close to the beauty, teachings and wonders of Nature. It's a childhood of great freedom, and responsibility. 

Producer: Arlene Gregorius.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Joanna Robertson gives discussions about shopping in various cities across the world

Joanna Robertson gives a series of discussions about shopping in various cities across the world

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Episode 3: Berlin

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