The Reading Recession: Are We Making Ourselves Less Intelligent? (James Marriott)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the columnist and writer James Marriott argues that reading is essential to the rise and fall of liberal democracy. He proposes that reading helps the spread of information, encourages critical thinking, and forces people to structure their ideas logically.
But he’s concerned the shift from deep reading to digital skim-reading - driven largely by screens - is weakening our ability to think in complex, reflective ways. He suggests the decline has political consequences - that a less literate, more screen-dependent public may be more vulnerable to misinformation and less capable of meaningful democratic participation.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday. Your Radical Questions is released every Monday. Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, and he’s the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers and Rufus Gray with Anna Budd, Cordelia Hemming and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Johnny Hall. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm sure there used to be quiet news days. |
| 0:10.0 | Not anymore. These days the news never stops and nor do we. |
| 0:14.0 | That's why there are new episodes of newscast seven days a week. |
| 0:17.0 | And sometimes even that isn't enough. |
| 0:19.0 | Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:22.7 | Hello, it's a mole. Before we get into this episode, can I just remind you that if you subscribe to this |
| 0:27.8 | podcast on BBC Sounds, you won't miss future episodes, including the bonus episode that we do on |
| 0:33.5 | Mondays. It's called Your Radical Questions. And it's really a fantastic chance for you to get |
| 0:37.6 | much closer to and engage with the brilliant, brilliant minds that we have come on this podcast. |
| 0:43.3 | And I need your questions for someone who has, what's really a rallying cry against the prevailing |
| 0:48.0 | political trends of today towards polarization, perhaps towards extremism, towards national |
| 0:53.7 | populism, because he wants the |
| 0:55.6 | centrists of the world to unite. Centrist of the world unite is the title of a new book by |
| 1:02.0 | Adrian Waldridge. He's a columnist for Bloomberg. He used to be a columnist at The Economist, |
| 1:07.2 | where he wrote the very influential Badgett column. And in this age of political extremes and polarization, he is making the case for the political centre and for liberalism. |
| 1:17.1 | In fact, he believes that the real future for our politics lies and a good future lies in what he would call the radical centre. |
| 1:24.7 | If you agree, maybe you disagree. We want to hear from you. |
| 1:27.8 | I'd love to get your questions for Adrian. Please send them on WhatsApp to 03330-123-944 or email Radical at BBC.com. |
| 1:37.4 | Thank you. Hello and welcome to Radical. |
| 1:49.3 | These are conversations about the big, deep global trends, the forces changing our world |
| 1:54.1 | and offering a safe space for some radical ideas for the future. |
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