BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

Hi, I'm Misha Gleney, the brand new host of In Our Time.

New episodes of the program are available now, a month earlier than anywhere else, first on BBC Sounds.

Hello, it's Melvin Brack here. On Christmas Eve, I had the pleasure of being guest editor

on the Today program on BBC Radio 4, and for this, I spoke to my successor on in our time,

Misha Gleney. We thought you might like to hear this, so here it is. Our discussion was led by the

today presenter, Justin Webb. Melvin, let's begin with the eternal appeal.

I mean, it's a kind of obvious place to begin,

but it is an important place to begin.

Why is it that this incredible thing, this cultural event,

and this hugely important event in so many people's lives,

not just in Britain and around the world, why?

What is it that took off?

I think what took off is curiosity.

I think one of the most striking characteristics that we have is curiosity.

That's one thing. People want to know stuff.

And when you're listening to pubs and that, people are talking about what they know to each other.

And secondly, I think that a lot of us, me included, had a very patchy education. And many things come up about, almost anything to do with science, I'm more interested than anything else because they didn't teach it at my school.

They skimmed through, you know.

So it's those two things.

And then because of the way we, I'm about to say constructed,

because of the way we put together,

...