Information Crisis: Why Social Media Bans Aren't The Answer (Naomi Alderman)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when a new technology transforms how we communicate ideas and information? Best-selling science fiction writer Naomi Alderman joins Amol to explain why she thinks the digital age has pushed us into a “third information crisis”, which is as profound as the invention of writing or the printing press.
Drawing on those past revolutions, Naomi offers some solutions to help us navigate the era we're living through. She suggests new laws to regulate the online world and potentially even a “checked internet” like Wikipedia, which is home to verified facts rather than misinformation.
But at the heart of her argument is the need to prioritise real world, human connection and resist the urge to move everything online.
Naomi also tells Amol how therapy has helped her and why she’s written her first non-fiction book after a series of successful novels.
(00:03:23) What is the third information crisis?
(00:08:01) Why the invention of the printing press caused the Reformation
(00:10:40) Challenges of an information crisis
(00:12:40) The transition to literature
(00:16:30) The pros and cons of smartphones
(00:20:30) The origins of writing and how that changed human connection
(00:24:10) Collective thinking and decision making
(00:26:30) What is social media doing to our minds?
(00:29:06) Naomi’s radical ideas
(00:39:28) Hope for the future
(00:42:30) Scepticism about AI
(00:49:40) Digital ID
(00:51:29) Is this making it better or worse to be human?
(00:55:10) The importance of therapy and becoming reconciled with the events of her life
(01:00:00) What’s next for Naomi Alderman?
(01:02:09) Amol’s reflections
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by James Piper. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Now then, our little radical experiment with your questions is going rather well. |
| 0:10.5 | Remember, these are the Monday episodes. |
| 0:12.3 | We're calling them your radical questions. |
| 0:14.7 | And basically, we invite you to get a little bit closer and really connect with our magnificent guests by sending in your questions. |
| 0:21.7 | And our forthcoming guests, and we want your questions, and we want them ASAP, by the way, |
| 0:25.9 | because we know we're going to be inundated. |
| 0:28.1 | And we're not going to do it on a first come, first serve basis, but, you know, there's a bit of that in there. |
| 0:32.2 | Our next guest that we want questions for is the historian, the podcaster, the writer, the international phenomenon |
| 0:39.3 | that is Tom Holland. Not Tom Holland, the actor, Tom Holland, the historian. You know, |
| 0:43.9 | the guy from the rest of history writes books about the Roman Empire and much else besides, |
| 0:48.7 | and also once upon a time play cricket in the same team as me. He is a huge international phenomenon, as I say, because he's a historian, he's an author and he's a podcaster. And we want your questions for him. It could be about his life. It could be about specific bits of history. It could be about the power of podcasting. Whatever it may be, get your questions in. The number for a voice note on WhatsApp is 033330-1239480, or you can email Radical at BBC.com. |
| 1:21.9 | And just to explain, you may know if you listen to the Today Program that Tom is one of our very distinguished guest editors this year. |
| 1:28.4 | He's very interested in the power of AI, what it's doing to human knowledge, the future of libraries, |
| 1:32.6 | issues like that. But I'm going to be talking to him about some broader issues as well, |
| 1:36.3 | like the history of radical ideas, the power of revolution, and what defines the zeitguise |
| 1:41.7 | that we're living through. But really, we want your questions for him. |
| 1:44.3 | So questions for historian Tom Holland via WhatsApp or email. |
| 1:47.8 | Get them in and do it soon. |
| 1:57.5 | Hello, it's Amal here and welcome to Radical. |
| 2:01.1 | Conversations about the deep global trends changing our world and offering you some radical ideas for the future. |
| 2:07.6 | You know, according to the bestselling author Naomi Alderman, we are living through the third information crisis that we humans have had to contend with. |
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