The Forum

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum is a society podcast hosted by BBC World Service, with 399 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

BBC World Service hosts The Forum, a society show with 399 episodes published.

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  The Forum

  Robots and reality

  Oct 18, 202549 minS0

  <p>Are we entering an era when robots will finally liberate people, and particularly women, from the drudgery of housework? There is certainly a buzz around domestic robots right now and every month seems to bring us a new autonomous machine that can fold your clothes or stack your dirty dishes. But while impressive, these robots are still much slower and clumsier than any human, even a child. The foundations of modern robotics were laid back in the 1950s and yet progress since then has been slow and uneven. So what has been holding it back?</p><p>Iszi Lawrence...

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  The Forum

  Weddings: Romance and ritual

  Sep 20, 202549 minS0

  <p>One of the first recorded examples of a marriage ceremony is dated more than 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia. And it seems that through the ages, weddings have never lost their appeal. The global wedding industry is today worth billions of dollars, and it is one that keeps on growing.</p><p>While aspects of weddings differ across many cultures, they celebrate the coming together of two people in a form of contract which establishes rights within the couple. Historically, marriages were often economic, legal and social tools; the love aspect that some marriage ceremonies came to represent was developed...

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  The Forum

  The unfolding history of the magazine

  Aug 16, 202549 minS0

  <p>When magazines first emerged, they were the preserve of an elite who could afford to pay for them. But as time went on, the cost of paper fell, printing technology became more streamlined, literacy improved and would-be publishers spotted an opportunity to connect with audiences hungry for information and entertainment.</p><p>Magazines found a place to appeal to all types of interest, in the same way that the internet does today. In their heyday they attracted some of the best writers such as Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway, sometimes acting as a vehicle to establish literary careers. Later...

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  The Forum

  Movie theatre magic

  Jul 19, 202549 minS0

  <p>The speed with which cinema caught the public’s imagination is remarkable. The first film screenings took place in the 1890s and just two decades later, in the US alone there were thousands of nickelodeons and other spaces where you could watch a movie. Luxurious picture palaces followed soon after and not just in the West: some of India’s Art Deco cinemas are real feasts for the eyes. But the arrival of TV fundamentally changed our relationship with movie theatres and they have struggled to remain central to our film culture ever since.</p><p>Iszi Lawrence explores the...

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  The Forum

  Customer service: The rise of the doom loop

  Jun 21, 202549 minS0

  <p>The quality of customer service can make or break a company. That has always been true but the kind of customer experience we now expect when things go wrong with our purchases is vastly different from what we wanted half a century ago. 1960s answering services, the new organisations managing calls on behalf of businesses, relied on a single technology: the telephone. Now a firm needs to offer its customers multiple ways to contact it. But which one should a company prioritise, especially in these financially straitened times? The latest AI-enabled chatbots? Well-trained, empowered people in call centres? Or...

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