A Point of View

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Factual: Life Stories

BBC Radio 4 LW

A Point of View: Material World

07/05/2021

Material World

BBC Radio 4 - A Point of View, Material World

Zoe Strimpel discusses her new-found fascination with infrastructure.

Zoe Strimpel on why she's seeking out engineers, agriculturalists and silversmiths instead of journalists, sociologists and anthropologists.

Zoe Strimpel is turning her sights from artsy academic interests to much more concrete ones. 

Cultural warfare and events in the Middle East have left her feeling, she says, as if she's in a 'ceaselessly enraged world'. 

So instead of her usual contacts in sociology, anthropology and political science,  she's seeking out engineers, agriculturalists and silversmiths - 'people who actually know something about the everyday things we all depend on and how it all works.'    

'I find this far more dazzling these days than a new insight on cultural Marxism, and also less depressing,' Zoe writes, 'in a world that feels as if things are in freefall, and increasingly subject to entropic and evil forces.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman 
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

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

A Point of View

Material World

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4