Sideways

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Podcasts

Factual

Factual: Life Stories

Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives, making us see the world differently.

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 FM

Sideways: 3. The West and the Rest

3. The West and the Rest

BBC Radio 4 - Sideways, 3. The West and the Rest

Matthew Syed asks whether an ancient shift in our sexual behaviour transformed the west.

4 Extra Debut. Many of our classical assertions on the workings of the human mind are based entirely on the western mind.  With Matthew Syed.

Did a shift in our sexual behaviour 2000 years ago lead to the rise of the west as a globally dominant force?

Matthew Syed wants to put the western mind in the spotlight. There’s a good reason for doing this. It turns out that 96% of psychological experiments have been carried out on western students. Why is this? Because western students are easy to access for a psychologist working in a university.

This might sound convenient, but there’s a problem - it turns out that westerners think in a particular way. Easily reproducible experimental findings in the west don’t stack up when you use non-western subjects. Many of our classical assertions about the workings of the human mind are based entirely on the western human mind.

Matthew digs into the deep roots of the western mind and asks whether a ban on cousin marriage triggered a surge of innovation in the west as tribal boundaries broke down.

It’s an intriguing theory, but does it stack up? Matthew is determined to find out.

Producer: Robbie MacInnes

Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick

Series Editor: Russell Finch

Executive Producer: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2021.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sideways

3. The West and the Rest

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4