Summary
From taking the middle ground to the mid-life crisis, Middle England to middle managers, to being a middle child - is occupying a position in the middle out of fashion?
Anne McElvoy hosts Radio 4's ideas discussion programme and her guests this week for a middling conversation are:
Journalist Catherine Carr. Her new book Who's the Favourite?: The Loving, Messy Realities of Sibling Relationships explores being a middle child and the relevance of birth order
Writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson, who has written novels set in middle England
Symeon Brown, home affairs correspondent at Channel 4 news, whose forthcoming book is The Good, the Black and the Boujee: The Story of Britain's New Black Middle Class
Adrian Wooldridge, journalist, author and Global Business Columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. His recent book is entitled Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism.
and
Claire Ainsley, former adviser to Keir Starmer, now at the Progressive Policy Institute.
Producer: Eliane Glaser
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Shall we get cracking? |
| 0:08.7 | You've got a BBC podcast coming up. |
| 0:10.8 | These were immensely popular. |
| 0:13.0 | But if you also like looking back, |
| 0:14.7 | then the BBC has loads of history podcasts to offer. |
| 0:17.6 | Proof that being a historian is a very exciting job. |
| 0:19.7 | Covering everything. |
| 0:20.7 | From epic events. |
| 0:21.8 | It was the year 1666. |
| 0:23.8 | Two personal stories. |
| 0:25.0 | It was an anxiety that people felt even in the ancient world. |
| 0:27.9 | So in future, for more history podcasts. |
| 0:30.4 | Free people making a free choice about what they wanted. |
| 0:34.3 | Search History on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.7 | Hello and welcome to the Arts and Ideas podcast with me and Mick Elvoy. |
| 0:44.3 | As the hangover from our local and regional election results kicks in |
| 0:48.8 | and we look to a weekend of wild jubilation or elaborate excuses for getting a pasting at the ballot box, we might |
| 0:55.9 | wonder what happened to the stolid British political middle, the place it was so often said |
| 1:01.7 | where elections were won from. Well, tell that to Nigel Farage or Zach Polanski, tearing up |
| 1:08.4 | the old party system and very much not in the murky middle of politics. |
| 1:14.1 | Centrist dad and mum are still hardy perennials, though. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 2 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.