3. Freedom from Want

The Reith Lectures

BBC

Society & Culture, Science, Government, Technology

4.2 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2022

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Author and musician Darren McGarvey gives the third of four BBC Reith Lectures on the theme of liberty, addressing "Freedom from Want." McGarvey argues that the present system isn't working for many but that it is incumbent on citizens to confront that and rise to the challenge of what inequality means. Individuals, he says, need to take personal responsibility and reject the apathy which many working-class communities experience.

The lecture and question-and-answer session is recorded in Glasgow in front of an audience. The presenter is Anita Anand.

The year's series was inspired by President Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms speech of 1941 and asks what this terrain means now. It features four different lecturers: Freedom of Speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Freedom to Worship by Rowan Williams Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill

Producer: Jim Frank Sound Engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown Editor: Hugh Levinson

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.2	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.2	Welcome to Glasgow for the third of the BBC Reith lectures in a series inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedom Speech of 1941.
0:51.7	So far, we've heard from the author Chimamanda Noghese Aditye
0:55.6	on freedom of speech, the former Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:58.6	Rowan Williams, on freedom of worship.
1:00.8	But now we turn to freedom from want.
1:04.4	For many people, this is a desperately urgent issue.
1:08.5	This year, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation
1:10.4	estimates that seven million households in the
1:13.5	UK are currently going without absolute basics, things like heating or food. To think about this
1:20.4	a bit more deeply, we've come to the City of Glasgow College in Scotland. It is the largest technical
1:26.6	and professional skills college here,
1:29.1	providing nearly half of the UK's merchant navy officers. It offers vocational training
1:33.9	for up to 40,000 young people, some of whom are here today. Now, we're all here to listen
1:40.3	to a local writer whose books, poverty safari, and the social distance between us have
	...

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