The Tipping Point

Short Cuts

BBC

Personal Journals, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 788 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A small boy accidentally creates a vast new lizard population in his hometown, a sonic storm gathers and a writer takes his family on a precarious family boat trip. Josie Long presents short documentaries about situations tumbling out of control.

Eight Go To Treasure Island Written and read by Joe Dunthorne

A Mirror Featuring Steve Urquhart Produced by Eleanor McDowall Featuring cellos by incidentalnoise With thanks to Rosalind Jana for pointing out the poetry of the Beaufort Scale

Lazarus Lizards Narrated by Addie Produced by Jennifer McCord and Carrie Ann Welsh

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.6	Hello, welcome to the podcast of Shortcuts. I'm Jocely Long. I hope you're well. I hope this find you well. I hope you are well to find this.
0:17.6	This is Shortcuts, Brief Encounters, True Stories, Radio Adventures, and Found Sound.
0:26.5	It was now I felt the tone of the day turning.
0:29.4	Today.
0:30.2	Watching you wade into the channel, the current visibly pulling.
0:34.1	The tipping point.
0:35.6	If they wiggled around, great, I alive you know like lazarus rising from the dead
0:40.7	it was also quite safe because anyone trying to get through would have to make his way across the nettles
0:47.4	today's episode is about the moments when things take a turn when they start to snowball and spiral out of your control.
1:00.0	Imagine, if you will, that you're in a park with your dear child and she is going down a hill on a scooter.
1:09.0	And you're so proud of her.
1:12.7	You can hear her in the distance going,
1:13.2	wee-he.
1:19.2	And as you watch her, you realise that suddenly, somehow,
1:24.6	she's going much faster than her scooting ability permits.
1:27.1	And you can't reach her in time with running. So all you can do is watch,
1:29.7	holding your breath, hoping that this ends in her thrilled at the adventure and not you
1:39.2	running down the hill, desperately scooping up your child with a grey's knee,
1:44.9	screaming, looking at you with accusatory eyes.
1:48.4	How could you let this happen to me?
1:53.0	I have come to realise that the difference between a successful family picnic
	...

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