In 2014 Angela Maxwell was feeling stuck. She wanted something fresh, something exciting. After a chance encounter she landed upon her goal - she was going to set off on one of the largest adventures imaginable: a walk around the world. She didn't know exactly how the journey would play out, but that was part of the appeal - the whole planet was waiting for her to just take the first step.

In this episode, Matthew Syed hears from Angela about her 6 year walk around the world, from the misery of freezing cold nights, to finding beauty in solitary nights sleeping under the stars. And Angela explores her ideas about courage - after she was raped during her expedition, she chose to continue her journey around the world. Over the six years she walked, she would find deep connection to herself and to others, making lifelong friends and sinking into the places, slowly, just placing one foot in front of the other.

We hear from Susan Houge Mackenzie, a professor of psychology at the University of Otago, about the benefits of adventure to our mindset, even 'micro adventures' which take place much nearer to home, and from naturalist and conservationist Nadia Shaikh, who is a land justice activist working with the Right to Roam campaign, who makes a case that we need far greater access to nature to be able to undertake micro adventures in our local area.

Matthew considers how adventures big and small can clarify our goals for our lives, and asks us to consider whether we ought to all be heading out on adventures a little more often.

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Presenter: Matthew Syed

Every Sunday afternoon for over 30 years now, Marjorie Eliot has played a jazz concert in her Harlem apartment for anyone who comes. It all began on a Sunday morning back in 1992, after she was faced with an unimaginable loss.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores how music has allowed Marjorie Eliot to look for joy within the deepest of losses. And through the history of jazz itself, he tries to understand how music can become such a powerful, even transcendental force.

With actress, playwright and musician Marjorie Eliot; singer, composer, actor - and Marjorie’s son - Rudel Drears; and Dr Tammy Kernodle, musicologist and Professor of Music at Miami University in Ohio.

Presenter: Matthew Syed

Three different women, who lead three very different lives, but all became villains...or did they?

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores what happens when we indulge in the darker, supposedly more "villainous" parts of ourselves. He looks at the TikTok trend for embracing your so-called villain era and what might happen when we shake off expectations and niceties.

With comedian Chelsea Birkby, musician Mala Waldron, Amanda Lovett who became part of the hit TV show Traitors, Dr Margrethe Brun Vaage, and author and executive coach Rachel Simmons.

Presenter: Matthew Syed

In the final episode of this mini series from Sideways, former professional ping pong player, Matthew Syed, tells the story of how ping pong fared in a more open China.

After Chairman Mao's death in 1976, his successor Deng Xiaoping introduced privatisation, contracting out, and a host of reforms that freed key parts of the economy from central control. At the same time, China's table tennis team were starting to lose their primacy in the game, with challenging new styles of play emerging from Sweden in particular. But alongside more economic freedom and openness, came a relaxation and innovation in Chinese ping pong style which ushered in a glittering new era of Olympic glory for the Chinese national team.

From a sport that brought Mao's China such national pride in the early decades of the PRC, and then laid the groundwork for the rapprochement with the United States, ping pong today is no longer the popular sport of young people in China, and the Communist Party has its sights on prestige in other sporting arenas too. As the series draws to a close, Matthew explores the changing nature of Chinese sporting diplomacy and how sport, and table tennis, are still deeply entwined with the country’s wider ambitions.

Presented by Matthew Syed

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Former England international table tennis player, Matthew Syed, continues this three-part mini series from Sideways, with a moment that changed the course of China-US relations - when the hippie American player Glen Cowan met the world's greatest table tennis star Zhuang Zedong.

This event would usher in rapprochement between the two nations and lay the groundwork for both Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon's landmark visits to the once isolated China.

In China's Ping Pong Power, Matthew explores the vital role played by the little game of ping pong in the rise of this great power, taking us from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, to the thawing of US-China relations during the Cold War, to Olympic glory and the sporting ambitions of the country today.

Presented by Matthew Syed

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Matthew Syed is a former Olympic table tennis player for Great Britain. As Matthew travelled in China, competing against some of the world’s greatest players, he realised that ping pong is a game that has played a huge and fascinating role in the rise of a great power, taking us from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to the sporting ambitions of the country today.

Matthew begins this three-part mini series from Sideways, with the story of the rise and tragic death of Rong Guotuan - an extraordinary player and China's first world champion in any sport.

Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai were keen ping pong players, and in the early years of the PRC the sport was a way of cementing national pride. And where better to showcase a new China and its sporting prowess than at the 1961 Beijing World Table Tennis Championships? But hidden behind the veneer of a newly built stadium and comforts for the visiting teams from all over the world, was a much darker experience for the people of China - an avoidable famine that's estimated by 1961 to have killed at least 36 million.

Presented by Matthew Syed

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

Matthew Syed is a former Olympic table tennis player for Great Britain. As Matthew travelled in China, competing against some of the world’s greatest players, he realised that ping pong is a game that has played a huge and fascinating role in the rise of a great power.

In this three-part mini series from Sideways, Matthew tells the stranger-than-fiction story of how this little sport transformed China’s international standing.

Available from Wednesday 5 July 2023.

There’s a story Matthew Syed likes to tell. And he’s told it a lot. It’s about a turning point in his life. It’s about learning from a failure and working hard to overcome his shortfalls and come back stronger.

Except - he’s realised he’s been getting the story wrong.

A key detail in the timeline is off. The turning point he thought was so important, might not be quite as significant after all. And the story just isn’t as neat…

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew’s exploring how we use stories to make sense of our lives, and why that means they might not always be completely accurate.

With Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor of Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics at King's College London; Robyn Fivush, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Emory University; and bestselling ghostwriter Shannon Kyle.

Presenter: Matthew Syed

Julie Matthias is in the middle of a regular shift at her hairdressing salon when she begins to feel really strange.

Julie is taken to hospital with the symptoms of a stroke, but doctors can find no evidence she has had one. Initially, Julie is unable to speak properly at all. But when her voice returns, friends start to notice something strange. Julie’s standard Southern British accent, typical for the Medway area of Kent where she lives, has disappeared. In its place is a new voice, a new accent, which leads strangers to think she's from another country entirely.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed wants to understand how our accents evolve, and what happens when they change.

Charting Julie’s journey to understand the condition she has developed, and why her accent has disappeared, Matthew uncovers the intricacies of our accents and how they form a part of our identity.

Delving into our obsession with accents, and the stereotypes we associate with them, Matthew discovers how our accents change throughout our lives, and how this can impact the way we are treated. As it turns out, the accent is not just in the voice of the speaker, but crucially, in the ear of the listener too.

With Jane Setter, Professor of Phonetics at the University of Reading; Nick Miller, Emeritus Professor of Motor Speech Disorders at Newcastle University; and Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer in Language, Linguistics and Communication at the University of Manchester.

Presenter: Matthew Syed

When Kevin Burkart dove into a murky lake to find a lost wedding ring, he did it for nothing. But did he really gain something much more?

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores our preoccupation with rewards and their impacts.

With author and lecturer Alfie Kohn, Headteacher of Barrowford Primary Rachel Tomlinson, Felicia Schaefer and Kevin Burkart.

Presenter: Matthew Syed