A Point of View

For many, three or four years away from home at a residential university is "a kind of rite of passage into adulthood", says David Goodhart. But - given most other countries seem to do fine without it - is it time to think again about this very British tradition? Producer: Adele Armstrong

"It is the most extraordinary thing about humans", writes Sarah Dunant, "that along with our - albeit limited - ability to prepare for an unknown future, we find it very hard to accept the unassailable fact of our own end". Sarah describes her experience talking with a group of strangers one evening at a Death Cafe.Producer: Adele Armstrong

David Goodhart discusses the rise of new "tribes" in British political life."The old tribes were scarcely visible because they had become so familiar", he writes. "The new ones seem noisy and jarring and all too visible". He calls this new anti-left/right package the "hidden majority" package. Producer: Adele Armstrong

Margaret Heffernan argues that, in the world of technology, there's nothing inevitable about the future. "I'm not saying that automation isn't a big trend or that driverless cars aren't a possibility", she writes, "but there is nothing about them that is inevitable". She believes all these assertions of inevitability have agendas. "If we let Silicon Valley hijack our future", she says, "we gain the comfort of certainty, but lose our freedom". Producer: Adele Armstrong

"Childhood really should be the happiest days of our children's lives," writes Michael Morpurgo. "But for so many of them today it is not".Michael Morpurgo reflects on the damage being caused to increasing numbers of children by stress and anxiety.He makes an impassioned plea to schools to do much more to alleviate stress. Producer: Adele Armstrong

Michael Morpurgo reflects on growing old."You find you are now amongst the last old trees in the park", he writes, "wary of wild winds of fortune that might weaken you or uproot you". But he finds his mentors - the young and the very old. Producer: Adele Armstrong

"Let me tell you about dwarfs and being stared at". With a hint of stand up comedy, Tom Shakespeare writes poignantly about what it feels like to be stared at. "The English," he says, "who were once known everywhere for their politeness and decorum, no longer hold back...we do what we want because we consider we have a right". Tom appeals for a rediscovery of "the chain of mutual dependency in which we are still all linked together."Producer: Adele Armstrong

The economist, John Maynard Keynes once said to someone, "When my information changes, I change my mind. What do you do?" Tom Shakespeare argues that we need to reconsider our view that changing your mind is a weakness."Sticking to your guns", he says, is of little benefit in today's complicated, fast-changing world. Producer: Adele Armstrong

For the September blues, writes Sarah Dunant, "usually time is the healer...you buckle down and get on with it...and by the end of October, things are on track for winter". But not, she thinks, this year. Sarah describes why she feels this year's September malaise has a different quality to it. Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Rebecca Stott is fascinated with abandoned or ruined cities. She knows she's in good company - along with the millions of people who've been drawn to the recent mini-series, Chernobyl... or the video game, Metro Exodus. She believes that, in these precarious times, they give us what H.G. Wells once called 'a sense of dethronement'. Producer: Adele Armstrong