#bbcradio4 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bbcradio4, aggregated by home.social.
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Oh, well, since YOU put it like THAT, this guy sounds COMPLETELY REASONABLE! 👍
interview 2026-09-07 1310ish
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(well, this was shit. will listen to the repeat later and decide if my assessment was fair.)
#BBCRadio4 #BBCStartTheWeek
#FrancisFukiyama #GordonBrown #BronwenMaddox -
Writing Our Mothers
Archive on 4‘Mothers have such a weight of idealisation and expectation landed upon their bodies and their minds and what women writers can do is to take that apart and explore
its underbelly,’ says feminist writer Jacqueline Rose.Whether worshipped or vilified, treated as lifetime confidantes or rarely trusted, the mothers we meet when we write them are re-inventions. Some may be closer to the
truth than others. Many of them will have roots in the life experiences of the daughter-writer. Virginia Woolf, who lost her mother at the age of 13, said she was obsessed with writing her mother. Eventually she also argued that it was ‘the occupation of the woman writer to kill’ what she called ‘The Angel in the House’ – the perfect, self-sacrificing mother – who may well have been her own maternal influence.Drawing on interviews with Maya Angelou, we hear how for her to write her mother was to ‘write about a hurricane in its perfect power’. She describes how the influence of a mother who ‘abandoned’ her as a child forced her most urgent examinations of class, race and, importantly love. In another frank interview with Marguerite Duras from 1968, she describes writing as a search for connection with her raging and ‘mad’ mother. For Sylvia Plath, the process of writing about becoming a mother herself in the 1950s produced work of a psychic intensity rarely seen before.
What the archive ultimately reveals is that a mother, whether present or absent, loving or cruel, might be as formative an influence on a writer’s work, as in life. ‘When I read about motherhood, I want to be shaken loose from whatever limitations I have when I think about what that means,’ says the writer Siri Hustvedt.
With contributions from Susie Orbach, Jacqueline Rose, Kit de Waal and Siri Hustvedt, and narration from Amaka Okafor.
Produced by Sarah Cuddon
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4Archive sources:
Desert Island Discs with Arundhati Roy (2017)
A Chance to Meet ... Edna O'Brien (1971)
Sylvia Plath, Peter Orr interview (1962)
Audre Lorde, Pacifica Radio Archives and Academy of American Poets www.poets.org
Maya Angelou, BBC News (1985)
Jeannette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (BBC, 1990) and Face To Face (BBC, 1994)
Marguerite Duras, Worn Out With Desire To Write (1985)
Toni Morrison, Brief Encounters (BBC, 2001)
Jackie Kay, Book of the Week (The Waters Company for BBC R4, 2015)
Elena Ferrante, Lying Lives of Adults (BBC, 2020)
Available now57 minutes
#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante -
Brendan Behan #BrendanBehan
It Must Be Wonderful to Be Free
Archive on 4Irish novelist Megan Nolan presents an intimate study of the late playwright, singer and novelist, Brendan Behan. She reveals a poetic socialist, a fiercely anti-establishment artist concerned with class solidarity, outcasts, liberation, self-revelation and empathy. And she trashes the trivial, stereotyped memory of Behan, as Ireland’s most famous drunk.
She tells his story through the lens of his most prolific years, 1954 - 1958. It was a time of explosive creativity for Behan, which saw the release of three of his most remarkable works - his plays The Quare Fellow and The Hostage, and his work of auto-fiction Borstal Boy. She hears about his determination in these years to recruit language rather than the militarised violence of his youth as a means to valorise life, dignity, humour and queer love, and to advance his vision for his country, forged in his working class roots.
His words paint a picture of a complex character. An intelligent, anti-establishment writer, an Irish beatnik whose talents “would make Jack Kerouac weep with terror” and who even Bob Dylan couldn’t find the courage to “touch the hem of his garment”. A man who met a tragic end, addicted to alcohol and wielding his fame and power in cruel ways.
Marking the 60th anniversary of his death, Megan hears from historians, writers and members of Behan’s family, as well as from the rich archive of the man himself.
Producer: Cat Gough
Executive Producer: Robert NicholsonA Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
With thanks to Iris Klein and Semiotexte for providing archival interview recordings with Brendan Behan made by journalist Sylvere Lotringer in Paris in 1961
Show less
Available now57 minutes
On air
Today
22:00
BBC Radio 4 -
(people suffering as a result of taking Parkinson's prescription drug Aripiprazole)
6. Chasing Losses
Shadow World
Impulsive Episode 6 of 11Lucy’s on her lunchbreak when she tries her first scratchcard - soon, she’s hooked. She’s never been interested in gambling before, but after a few months the glove compartment of her car is full of scratchcards. And then she starts gambling online…
Lucy’s taking a medication called Aripiprazole for her mental health condition. It’s a partial dopamine agonist - a different mechanism to the dopamine agonist drugs used for Parkinson’s and Restless Legs Syndrome that we’ve heard about in previous episodes.
But it’s got similar side effects. For Lucy, this means compulsive eating, hypersexuality - and a gambling problem that’s spiralling out of control.
Details of organisations offering help and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
If you have any concerns about medication you’re taking, speak to your doctor.
Presenter: Noel Titheradge
Producer: Lucy Burns
Editor: Matt Willis
A BBC News Long Form Audio production(the fifteen minute episodes are downloadable)
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Asylum hotels and mental health
All in the MindMore than 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in hotels in the UK, the latest figures show.
There's been intense political debate in recent weeks focused on the cost – both financially for the government and for local communities.
But what about the cost to the mental health of those living in the hotels?
Today we’re going to hear from an asylum seeker who spent more than a year in a hotel in London, and we’ll examine the evidence for the impact on people’s mental health.
Dr Peter Olusoga, senior lecturer in psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, joins us in the studio with the latest research, including a study that raises the prospect of using a common acne drug to cut risk of schizophrenia and new evidence on the psychology of losing.
And what if we could mentally reframe winter to make it more enjoyable? We get some tips from clinical psychologist Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Gerry Holt
Content editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Jana Holesworth
Studio engineer: Tim HefferDetails of organisations offering support with mental health, or feelings of despair, are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
28 minutes -
Economic Growth—can we ever have enough? | BBC Radio 4 Analysis with @ProfTimJackson, Jayati Ghosh, Danny Dorling, Benjamin Friedman, Motohiro Sato and Diane Coyle. Listen via → https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dwv0
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#BBCRadio4 cc #ProsperityWithoutGrowth #PostGrowth #Postwachstum #PostCroissance #PostCrecimiento #LifeAfterCapitalism #Degrowth #Decroissance #Decrecimiento #BeyondGDP #BeyondGrowth #GrowthDependency #WellbeingEconomy #Economics #SecularStagnation