Professor Alice Roberts, scientist and broadcaster

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Alice Roberts is one of the most popular science communicators in Britain today. As the presenter of the BBC archaeology programme Digging for Britain, she reveals the underground mysteries of our collective past to millions of viewers.

Alice was born in Bristol and developed an interest in science from an early age – examining insects under her microscope in order to draw them and digging up bits of pottery in her parents’ vegetable patch. At the age of eight she was entranced as she watched a live feed which showed researchers at Bristol University unwrapping an Egyptian Mummy.

Alice studied medicine in Cardiff and worked as a house officer doing paediatric surgery and then taught anatomy to students at Bristol University. She followed this up with a PhD in paleopathology, the study of disease in old bones, which led to her first television appearance as a bone expert on the Channel 4 series Time Team.

Alice has written several books that explore human evolution and history and in 2012 she was appointed the first Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

DISC ONE: Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies DISC TWO: Temple of Love - Sisters of Mercy DISC THREE: Apotheosis - Austin Wintory DISC FOUR: Cherub Rock (2011 Remaster) - The Smashing Pumpkins DISC FIVE: Times Like These (BBC Radio 1 Stay Home Live Lounge) - Live Lounge Allstars DISC SIX: Sugar - System Of A Down DISC SEVEN: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Composed by Ryuichi Sakomoto and performed by Phoebe Stevens DISC EIGHT: Coins for the Eyes - Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane

BOOK CHOICE: Middlemarch by George Eliot LUXURY ITEM: A kayak CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Composed by Ryuichi Sakomoto and performed by Phoebe Stevens

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.6	Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Disks podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guest to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they
0:14.3	were cast away to a desert island. And for rights reasons the music is shorter than
0:19.7	the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening. Oh, My castaway this week is Professor Alice Roberts. She's one of the most popular science
0:50.0	communicators in Britain today. Her BBC programme, Digging for Britain,
0:53.8	attracts millions of viewers and she has 11 series under her archaeological tool belt.
0:59.3	In her role as Professor of Public Engagement in Science at Birmingham University, she views sharing
1:05.4	science with everyone as her moral responsibility.
1:09.5	Her work as a scientist and writer brings together established and emerging disciplines
1:14.3	from anatomy archaeology and anthropology to paleopathology the study of ancient
1:19.3	diseases and archaeogenomics the fusion of Archaeology and Genetics.
1:24.0	She uses her discoveries to shine a light on our collective past,
1:28.0	offering new answers to questions including
1:30.0	whether humans and Neanderthals into bread, that would be a yes, to when
1:34.2	plague arrived in Europe. That would be a lot earlier than we'd imagined. As for
1:39.0	her own story, she trained as a doctor before her obsession with bones took her into academia and then into
1:45.2	television as a specialist on time team.
1:48.3	She says, ultimately, I'm interested in how science and technology can be used with a strong dose of wisdom
1:54.7	to make the world a better place.
1:56.8	Professor Alice Roberts, welcome to Desert Island Disks.
1:59.9	Thank you very much.
	...

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