Sideways

Matthew Syed asks what the world's greatest fighter pilot can tell us about decision making.

He discovers a theory that transformed warfare and might have played a key role in Brexit.

John Boyd was a rebel. The quintessential cigar-chomping fighter pilot. A legend within the US Air Force, he was known to be able to shoot down any opponent in a dogfight in under 40 seconds.

He developed a decision making tool that would take the military by storm – OODA - observe, orient, decide, act. Boyd explained that this process looped, with each action leading to a new opportunity to observe. To defeat an enemy all you had to do was disrupt their OODA loop.

Matthew reveals how Boyd devotee Dominic Cummings, deployed OODA during the Brexit campaign with great effect.

While the OODA loop is highly effecting in confrontational settings, Matthew asks whether this form of thinking works when co-operation, rather than domination, is the name of the game.

Producer: Robbie MacInnes

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2021.

Did a shift in our sexual behaviour 2000 years ago lead to the rise of the west as a globally dominant force?

Matthew Syed wants to put the western mind in the spotlight. There’s a good reason for doing this. It turns out that 96% of psychological experiments have been carried out on western students. Why is this? Because western students are easy to access for a psychologist working in a university.

This might sound convenient, but there’s a problem - it turns out that westerners think in a particular way. Easily reproducible experimental findings in the west don’t stack up when you use non-western subjects. Many of our classical assertions about the workings of the human mind are based entirely on the western human mind.

Matthew digs into the deep roots of the western mind and asks whether a ban on cousin marriage triggered a surge of innovation in the west as tribal boundaries broke down.

It’s an intriguing theory, but does it stack up? Matthew is determined to find out.

Producer: Robbie MacInnes

Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick

Series Editor: Russell Finch

Executive Producer: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2021.

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

In this episode, Matthew tells two stories, both of which raise profound questions about how we think.

A group of terrified teenagers discover a disturbing app on social media. A world renowned doctor sets out to uncover hidden crimes.

The tragic events Matthew examines lead to a mother getting jailed for killing her two children. The key piece of testimony in her trial hinges on a question of statistical probability.

But, as Matthew reveals, human beings are extremely poor at understanding the improbable.

Producer: Gemma Newby

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2021.

Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.

A criminal walks into a Swedish bank brandishing a machine gun. He takes a handful of bank workers hostage. The police lock the victims and their captors in the vault and then things start to get weird. Despite being held captive and threatened with violence, the hostages side with the criminals.

Stockholm Syndrome is born.

In this episode, Matthew Syed re-examines the birth of this peculiar psychiatric disorder and discovers that all is not what it seems.

Producer: Gemma Newby

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2021.

Join bestselling author Matthew Syed as he explores the ideas that shape our lives.

With sound design from Peabody Prize winner Benbrick, Sideways combines big ideas with narrative storytelling, offering a new perspective on the way we live.