Howard Jacobson reflects on the radio essay, after almost two decades of A Point of View.With nods to Clive James, body-pierced baritones and with a plentiful supply of svelte notebooks, Howard explains why he believes the radio essay is 'more than words on paper'...why it captures the 'frolicsome spirit of truth'. And, Howard writes, 'at a time when we no longer have the concentration to read entire books, and what we do read leads us into the arms of madmen, we should love the shards of scepticism with which the best essays dazzle us.' Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Penny Murphy

Howard Jacobson presents the final edition of A Point of View.

Our Revels Now Are Ended

The celebrated American theorist, Francis Fukuyama, in his book 'The End of History and the Last Man' argued that US-style liberalism was the ultimate destination for all mankind, 'the final form of human government'.John Gray explains why he believes his prophecy has been turned on its head. 'As in the past, many human beings will live under tyrannies, theocracies, and empires of various kinds,' John writes. 'Failed states and zones of anarchy will be common. Democratic nations are likely to be rare, and often short-lived.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Penny Murphy

John Gray argues that truly democratic nations are, in the future, likely to be rare.

How History Begins Again

After Donald Trump proposed that Canada could be consumed as America's 51st State, Adam Gopnik reflects on his homeland's history with the United States and Canada's new-found patriotic toughness - and how it differs from nationalism. 'It’s is only a little startling, though very Canadian, to find the new motto 'elbows up' radiating everywhere in Canada,' Adam writes, referring to a defensive position found in the country's premier passion, ice hockey. 'It is a classic patriotic stance - not throwing a punch, but letting the other side know that there are angles in your physique and resistance,' he writes.'The picture now is one of an entire country, elbows proudly up'.Producer: Sheila Cook Sound: Peter Bosher Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Adam Gopnik on Canada's newfound patriotic toughness in light of Donald Trump's tariffs.

Elbows Up: Canada v Trump

Zoe Strimpel explains why she's decided to lean in to social media, and not worry about how much time she spends scrolling.Despite ongoing concerns about its impact on our brains, Zoe says she's personally found the algorithm benign, offering her endless information about food and cooking."I have come to the conclusion that for a grown woman with many cares, it's mostly beneficial, interesting, soothing and yes, also sometimes even useful"Producer: Sheila Cook Sound: Peter Bosher Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Zoe Strimpel explains why she's leaning in to social media.

Leaning In to Social Media

As farmers prepare for another march at Whitehall in protest at the government's inheritance tax plans, Michael Morpurgo discusses the growing divide between city and countryside. 'The family farm, still at the heart of rural England,' writes Michael, 'is under threat, more than ever'. Michael reflects on how, during World War Two, we needed to produce all the food we could in order to survive. He argues that, as an island nation, taking food security for granted, even today, is risky. And he says there is a real sense these days that our pastoral roots are being 'reshaped irrevocably...by those who don't know or love the countryside.' Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Michael Morpurgo on why the family farm remains vital to our lives in Britain today.

Tractors in Whitehall

Tom Shakespeare explores the pitfalls of dramatised history and its influence on real life - but confesses to his own minor role in rewriting the past. "We turn to stories when the reality we desire fails us," he writes, "but if the legend is not based in fact, then history is in deep trouble, and so are we all." Producer: Sheila Cook Sound: Peter Bosher Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Tom Shakespeare explores the pitfalls of dramatised history and its influence on real life

Print the Legend

From sacks of correspondence belonging to a well known author to archives from the Battle of Waterloo (and the odd wooden leg), Sara Wheeler reflects on the joys of Britain's personal archives. 'I have loved almost every day I have ever spent in an archive,' Sara writes, 'and not just because dead people are so easy to get along with.' But she fears that idiosyncratic borough and country archives will suffer because of budget cuts. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Bridget Harney

Sara Wheeler argues that budget cuts risk savaging the archival heritage of the nation.

The Joy of Archives

Walking along the muddy tracks of the River Ouse near her home a few days ago, Rebecca Stott reflects on migration. She contemplates the lives of the Canada geese that frequently fly over her home, as well as Aristotle's own studies of bird migration - and his extraordinary life as a migrant - while considering the historic links between the migration of people and human progress. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Rebecca Stott ponders the theme of migration, with help from Aristotle.

Geese, Aristotle and Migration

The 'overwhelm' - noun, not verb - has been around 'since at least 1596', AL Kennedy discovers.She looks at the reasons why the word is making a comeback - and she has some advice for those who also feel lost in 'the overwhelm.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

AL Kennedy reflects on chaos, noise and 'the overwhelm'.

The Overwhelm

Remember the days, Howard Jacobson implores us, when we got on fine with 'very'? Today, Howard argues, 'very’ is not ‘very’ enough for the times we live in.' In its place, 'incredible' and other supersized words, spreading 'verbal chaos.' Howard reflects on the dangers of over-inflated language, 'where words prance about without their clothes, shouting obscenities.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Howard Jacobson talks linguistics and reflects on why language has turned extreme.

On Hyperbole

As Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, Mark Damazer reflects on America's leadership in the world. Eavesdropping on a focus group recently, Mark tells us that the country's leadership was seen as 'a burden and a luxury - and a luxury they wanted to do without.' 'There was a time when large chunks of the world were grateful for American involvement...but gratitude is now more thinly expressed', he says. 'And Donald Trump well understands that.'In this new world order, Mark argues, 'we have our work cut out to find a response.' Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Mark Damazer argues that America's leadership in the world is about to be redefined.

Trump, Washington and America First

In deepest, darkest January, Adam Gopnik muses on light and dark. Adam reminds us that - from the natural world of the ghost moth to the politics of today's America - although we live in a 'gloomy moment' we can 'adjust our eyes to the gloom.''Every little bit of light we make,' writes Adam, 'in every decent thing we do and every indecency we refuse to accept, illuminates some small corner of our universe. Even at night, after all, we still see light. The stars shine, too.' Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Adam Gopnik reflects on light and dark in deepest January.

On a Gloomy Moment

Sara Wheeler explains why every week for several decades - despite knowing nothing about art - she has called in to London’s National Gallery to look at the same two paintings. 'This habit of mine,' writes Sara, 'started by accident when I moved to London forty years ago' when she first set eyes on Botticelli's 'Portrait of a Young Man' and van Eyck's 'Portrait of a Man.' 'I have come to realise,' says Sara, the extraordinary power of 'familiarity, close contact and regular attention'. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Sara Wheeler on her enduring relationship with a pair of portraits from the 15th Century.

The Best I Can Do

Megan Nolan rediscovers a childhood diary with her first New Year's Resolutions. She was fascinated and appalled, she says, by what she read:. The final resolution, underlined, read simply 'be a better person!'These days, Megan looks on self-improvement in a rather different way - less an attempt at perfection and more 'an attempt to courageously embrace living in all its chaos.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Megan Nolan reflects on New Year's Resolutions, after rediscovering a childhood diary.

On Resolutions

Mary Beards reflects on what really lies behind our attachment to Christmas ritual and tradition. In a special edition of A Point of View, recorded in Mary's kitchen as she prepares her Christmas puddings, she ponders 'why those of us who aren't particularly wedded to the idea of tradition for the rest of the year, fall hook, line and sinker for it at this time.' 'My hunch,' Mary says, 'is that our fixed traditions are about constructing a family identity for ourselves, about displaying to ourselves as a family - changing, expanding and contracting as families always are - what makes us 'us.''Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound design: Peregrine Andrews Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Reading of Dickens/Herodotus: Simon Slater Reading of Mrs Beeton: Ruth Everett ARCHIVE1. Extracts of Keith Floyd from A Farewell to Floyd, produced by Cactus TV. 2. The ancient recipe for Herodotus pudding is from Herodotus, Histories 2. 40.

Mary Beard reflects on why so many families have their own unique Christmas traditions.

A Jolly Good Pud

With water companies reeling from criticism over sewage discharge and rising bills, Stephen Smith squelches through London's watery underworld. 'Descending into London's Victorian sewers', Stephen says, 'is like spelunking through the layers of the city's history, and reminds you that problems over water and sanitation have been the norm rather than an aberration' for centuries. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Stephen Smith goes on a subterranean excursion to ponder the state of water companies.

Monster Soup

Zoe Strimpel on the joys of seeing the world through the eyes of her 9 month old daughter. 'Where previously I would barely have noticed them,' Zoe writes, 'I now size up trees from below in terms of buds, leaves, colour, height - and how all of these may look to my little lady viewed from her pram or carrier in which her neck swivels constantly like a periscope, or an owl.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Zoe Strimpel on the joys of seeing the world through the eyes of a nine-month-old.

A baby's-eye view of the world

Rebecca Stott ponders the task of clearing her Mum's house, and the enormous difficulty of dismantling the things her mother loved and that Rebecca remembers her buying from bric-a-brac and antique shops. 'The beauty of the objects in my mother's house exists in her artistry,' writes Rebecca, 'the way she had placed some of them so that the evening light falls on them, the way that the kooky little Italian lamp sits next to the framed print of the Venetian canal... the way that everything is in the place that she had chosen for it.' It gets her wondering about how many other people are doing the same with their parents' homes, in towns and cities across the country. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Liam Morrey Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Rebecca Stott reflects on the sadness and wonder of clearing her mother's house.

House Clearing

John Gray believes the British state is broken, and that we urgently need a new centre ground in British politics. 'Outside the echo chamber of metropolitan opinion', John writes, 'there is a restive electorate perplexed and discomforted by the country the UK has become'. He says our politicians seem bent on continuing the status quo, seemingly unable to comprehend a surge in support for populist politics.But he wonders if the election of Kemi Badenoch could be a first step towards creating something radical in a new centre ground. Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

John Gray argues that we urgently need a new centre ground in British politics.

The New Centre Ground

From the escape of Cholmondley the chimp from London Zoo in 1848, to Chichi from the Kharkiv Zoo in 2022, to a group of 43 macaque monkeys from a research facility in South Carolina last week, Megan Nolan reflects on the great annals of animal escapes and why they hold an almost mystical appeal to humans. She believes the reason they are so potent is that they contain the 'dazzling knowledge that things which ARE so, need not REMAIN so'. 'In a week where it felt especially apparent that we have no meaningful ability to shape the world in which we live', writes Megan, the realisation that we can defy inevitability is intoxicating.' Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

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