Sideways

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BBC Radio 4 FM

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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 LW

Sideways: 36. All in a Name

36. All in a Name

BBC Radio 4 - Sideways, 36. All in a Name

Matthew Syed explores how finding the right words can help us tackle big wrongs.

Matthew Syed tells the story of a landmark sexual harassment case to discover how finding the right words can help us tackle big wrongs.

In the 1970s, Sandra Bundy was working hard at her job at the Department of Corrections in Washington DC. She loved her job, but just turning up to work was becoming unbearable.

Sandra’s male supervisors kept propositioning her for sex, asking her out on dates and making inappropriate comments. When she reported the problem to her boss’s boss, he tried to proposition her too. As the situation escalated, the language of sexual violence was used.

Sandra knew what she was experiencing was wrong, but she didn’t have the words to describe what she was going through, let alone try and seek justice.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed delves into the history of the anti-sexual harassment movement in the US in the 1970s to understand how finding the right words can help us tackle big wrongs.

He’ll discover how culture, politics and the law intersect to bring about new ideas, and how these ideas filter down into our everyday understanding of the world.

With Sandra Bundy, philosopher Miranda Fricker, social historian Linda Hirshman, lawyer Arthur Chotin and anthropologist Alex Bentley.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producers: Nadia Mehdi & Pippa Smith
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
Special thanks to: Luke Mullins and Ellen Rolfes 
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

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Sideways

36. All in a Name

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