BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Simon, welcome.

Well, no, you welcome.

Tell everybody who you are.

So, my name is Misha Gleney, and I am the new presenter of In Our Time.

I have to say, I have to pinch myself sometimes when I tell people that I'm the new presenter in our time

because certainly from my perspective, this is the best job in radio. There's nothing to compare with it.

And you know where you're sitting, don't you? I do. I'm sitting in the studio where Melvin Bragg

himself broadcast almost all of the over 1,000 episodes of

this program hitherto. I'm very grateful to Melvin's support, by the way. I've talked to him since

I was appointed. He was incredibly supportive and he gave me his blessing when it was announced that I was taking on this job.

So I'm very grateful to him.

Okay. I'm going to ask, why do you think you're the right person for this role?

Well, you'll have to ask other people for that, but it may be to do with my background.

I have a humanities degree in drama. I was a BBC

foreign correspondent for many years covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and then

the fall of Yugoslavia. And after that, I wrote a variety variety of books including a big history of the modern Balkans.

I wrote a book about the favelas of Brazil and more recently I've been looking a lot at technology

and science. I wrote a book on hacking. So I've been following scientific innovation developments in technology in

particular very closely. So I think it might have to do with that cross-disciplinary

interest and ability that I may have, I can only presume. It sounds like you're very busy

already. So why do you want this role?

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