One of the key aims for Radio 4 has always been to try to make sense of the world for our audience – seeking out evidence, facts and contrasting perspectives to work towards truth as best we can.
Some of the programmes I have been proudest of commissioning are the ones that have not been binary, eschewing simple oppositions to explore the grey zone between different positions, looking for answers along the way.
In today’s climate of division, uncertainty and concerns for the future, I think tackling issues with a desire to look for solutions we can agree upon that will make a positive difference – as well as being able to diagnose the many problems and challenges we face – is essential.
Radio 4 has long been a place for civilised discussion as well as a home for rigorous analysis and exploration of exciting new ideas. The need for that now is more important than ever before.
And in 2020, and beyond, Radio 4 will do more to focus on what is being done in the UK and around the world to try to find answers to some of today’s problems.
I will make this a key pillar of Radio 4 across our programming.
In a world that can seem dominated by “shouty” and sometimes “tribal” debate, and while some might seek to exploit divisions in society and promote confrontation, I think our job at Radio 4 is to try to bring people together.
That does not mean expecting everyone to agree, nor presuming homogeneity.
Rather, it means providing a space to open up discussions, for people to listen, disagree, and discover common ground as they go about exploring the challenges that lie before us as a society.
In short, civilised discourse with, hopefully, a positive outcome. We move the boulder not in one gargantuan effort, but patiently, pebble by pebble.
I think of the station as a public space where the nation can come together. We know that our digital and political world can be very divided – social media often amplifying the fragmentation – so the case for that notion of a common culture has never been more necessary.
I think the value of people having a shared experience is incredibly important, whether collectively standing by the radio in their kitchens or walking to work with their headphones on, laughing, crying, empathising with a new perspective or accepting a simple truth together.
This does not mean we will retreat in any way from our mission to interrogate, hold to account, scrutinise and analyse. We need those things more than ever, too.
We will continue to attempt to sort out truths from lies and call out poorly evidenced claims when they are made.
But we think we can also a put a little bit of positivity into the schedule with a slate of new factual programmes that look to the future as we go in to the new year.
In Positive Thinking, journalists including Fi Glover, Jo Fidgen, Farrah Jarral and Sangita Myska look at issues and possible solutions to problems as varied as supermarket food wastage, housing for the younger generations, and loneliness.
In a three-week series, Green Originals, we hear about the pioneering scientists, campaigners and others who have swum against the tide to influence our understanding of what has been happening to the environment.
The Listening Project will have a new focus. It will go to communities where opinions and cultures have diverged and encourage conversation between people who live cheek by jowl, but who may not usually encounter one another in a meaningful way.
Fraser Nelson speaks with Matt Haig and Anna Rosling Rönnlund – both bestselling writers on human happiness – in A Small Matter of Hope to ask why people don’t believe the statistics that prove the average human is healthier and better-educated than ever before.
In Disagreeing Better, Douglas Alexander talks to a relationship counsellor, a peace broker and an ex-soldier to find out how to do disagreement well.
In The Fix, which returns for a third series on January 15, some of the country’s brightest young minds come together to find a solution to Britain’s debt crisis. With 15% of the UK population having no savings at all, the teams have their work cut out to find the ultimate fix to this complex problem.
Finally, five leading writers – Howard Jacobson, Lionel Shriver, Jan Carson, James Meek and Nadifa Mohammed – have all written essays for State of the Nation exploring where they believe Britain stands in January 2020.
All of these programmes broadcast going into the new year and in the first few weeks of 2020.
They’re just the start of a sharper focus on solutions, positivity and civilised debate. Where better for that than the public space that is Radio 4?
That’s our 2020 vision. I think it’s needed now more than ever.
Mohit Bakaya is controller of BBC Radio 4.
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