Thinking Allowed

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Thinking Allowed: The Handshake - Social Interaction

The Handshake - Social Interaction

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, The Handshake - Social Interaction

The handshake & social interaction: Laurie Taylor explores the history & meaning of an everyday, friendly gesture & the impact of Covid on routine

The handshake & social interaction. Laurie Taylor explores the history and meaning of a commonplace ritual which has played a role in everything from meetings with uncontacted tribes to political assassinations. He's joined by the paleoanthropologist, Ella Al-Shamahi, who asks what this everyday, friendly gesture can  tell us about the enduring power of human contact. They're joined by Steven Shapin, Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, & author of a recent article which considers the way in which social distancing and self isolating have put us 'out of touch' with each other. As he says,  COVID is a social disease, a pathological experiment on the nature of our social relations. Will it irrevocably change the way we interact with other human beings?  Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

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

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Thinking Allowed

The Handshake - Social Interaction

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