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Episode details

Radio 4,14 Sep 2026,42 mins

SeriesThe Value Crisis

1. Crisis, What Crisis?

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Ros Atkins thinks technology is dramatically shifting what we value in the worlds of friendship, culture, finance and work. In this episode, he sets out to test whether that shift amounts to a crisis - or something else. He examines how technology has made our relationships more frictionless, and perhaps thinner as a result; whether an algorithm can tell the difference between what's good and what merely holds our attention; how in the world of finance, price has come loose from worth altogether; and how in the world of work, some of us are wondering how long our value will hold. Featuring contributions from philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, sociologist Sherry Turkle, journalist and broadcaster Zing Tsjeng, the New Yorker's Kyle Chayka, writer John Lanchester, Financial Times columnist Jemima Kelly, translator Ruth Martin, software engineer Andrew Hamilton and economist Daniel Susskind. A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4

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