#bbcradio4 — Public Fediverse posts

#cryogenics #bbcradio4 #bbcnaturebang #bbcscience

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 19:45 UTC

Cryogenics #Cryogenics

"Frozen Frogs and Preserved People"

Naturebang

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...

Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?

Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.

Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…

Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.

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#cryogenics #bbcradio4 #bbcnaturebang #bbcscience

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 19:45 UTC

Cryogenics #Cryogenics

"Frozen Frogs and Preserved People"

Naturebang

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...

Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?

Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.

Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…

Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.

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Download
Choose your file
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14 minutes

Last on

Today
16:00
BBC Radio 4

#cryogenics #bbcradio4 #bbcnaturebang #bbcscience

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 19:45 UTC

Cryogenics #Cryogenics

"Frozen Frogs and Preserved People"

Naturebang

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...

Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?

Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.

Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…

Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.

Show less
Download
Choose your file
Higher quality (128kbps)
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14 minutes

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Today
16:00
BBC Radio 4

#bbcscience #bbcnaturebang #bbcradio4 #cryogenics

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 19:45 UTC

Cryogenics #Cryogenics

"Frozen Frogs and Preserved People"

Naturebang

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...

Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?

Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.

Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…

Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.

Show less
Download
Choose your file
Higher quality (128kbps)
Lower quality (64kbps)

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Today
16:00
BBC Radio 4

#cryogenics #bbcradio4 #bbcnaturebang #bbcscience

Andy Wootton @woo · 2026-09-02 · 12:56 UTC

@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson.

#enshitification #bbcradio4

Andy Wootton @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 12:56 UTC

@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson.

#enshitification #bbcradio4

Andy Wootton @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 12:56 UTC

@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson.

#enshitification #bbcradio4

Andy Wootton @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 12:56 UTC

@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson.

#bbcradio4 #enshitification

Andy Wootton @[email protected] · 2026-09-02 · 12:56 UTC

@Cyclist @VE3RWJ @pluralistic Talking of #enshitification, #bbcradio4
did a piece on it this morning with a dentist as the expert guest, 'for balance', who had never seen the thing. It felt more like an advertisement than journalism. Follow the money? I have zero "national pride" in Dyson.

#enshitification #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 22:43 UTC

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 4

Archive 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 now

57 minutes

#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante

#bbcradio4 #bbcarchiveon4 #arundhatiroy #ednaobrien #sylviaplath #audrelorde

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 22:43 UTC

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 4

Archive 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 now

57 minutes

#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante

#bbcradio4 #bbcarchiveon4 #arundhatiroy #ednaobrien #sylviaplath #audrelorde

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 22:43 UTC

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 4

Archive 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 now

57 minutes

#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante

#bbcradio4 #bbcarchiveon4 #arundhatiroy #ednaobrien #sylviaplath #audrelorde

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 22:43 UTC

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 4

Archive 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 now

57 minutes

#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante

#elenaferrante #jackiekay #tonimorrison #margueriteduras #jeannettewinterson #mayaangelou

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 22:43 UTC

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 4

Archive 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 now

57 minutes

#ArundhatiRoy #EdnaOBrien
#SylviaPlath #AudreLorde
#MayaAngelou #JeannetteWinterson
#MargueriteDuras #ToniMorrison
#JackieKay #ElenaFerrante

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

#bbcradio4 #bbcarchiveon4 #arundhatiroy #ednaobrien #sylviaplath #audrelorde

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:02 UTC

Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2

Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.

A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.

This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.

Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin Laing

All other parts were played by the company

BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny Krass

Adapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty Williams

Archive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963

Show less

Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes

On radio

Today
15:00
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4 #bbcdramaon4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:02 UTC

Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2

Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.

A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.

This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.

Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin Laing

All other parts were played by the company

BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny Krass

Adapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty Williams

Archive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963

Show less

Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes

On radio

Today
15:00
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4 #bbcdramaon4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:02 UTC

Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2

Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.

A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.

This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.

Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin Laing

All other parts were played by the company

BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny Krass

Adapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty Williams

Archive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963

Show less

Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes

On radio

Today
15:00
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4 #bbcdramaon4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:02 UTC

Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2

Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.

A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.

This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.

Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin Laing

All other parts were played by the company

BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny Krass

Adapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty Williams

Archive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963

Show less

Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes

On radio

Today
15:00
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

#bbcdramaon4 #bbcradio4 #bbcopeninglines #bbcissues #bbcdrama #dondelillo

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:02 UTC

Episode 1
Drama on 4
Libra Episode 1 of 2

Don DeLillo’s fictionalised reimagining of the events surrounding the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, adapted for audio by Ben Lewis.
Starring Fisher Stevens and Tucker St. Ivany.

A CIA analyst is tasked with pulling together all the facts, theories and suppositions surrounding this founding moment in recent American history. Drawing them together, he tries to imagine how and why JFK was killed. Cutting between the story of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life and two men conspiring to assassinate the president, it builds a picture of a fractured America during the cold war era.

This is a work of fiction inspired by fact. Don DeLillo’s novel - and this adaptation - draw on real events and on some real people. But characters, incidents and dialogue are predominantly works of fiction. Real people have been placed in imagined situations whilst other characters have been created entirely for the purposes of storytelling.

Part of Radio 4’s Story of America - a major collection of dramatisations of milestone American titles marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of the United States.

Cast:
The Analyst… Fisher Stevens
Lee Harvey Oswald…Tucker St. Ivany
The conspirators…Tyler Collins and Michael Nardone
Marguerite Oswald…Nicole Cooper
The Marine…Michael Guest
Bobby Dupard…Reuben Joseph
Marina Oswald…Holly Howden Gilchrist
George de Mohrenschildt…Grant O’Rourke
David Ferrie…Robin Laing

All other parts were played by the company

BBC Audio Scotland Production
Production Co-ordinators: Bethany Woodhead and Minnie Harrop
Studio Production and sound editing: Andrew Hay and Gav Murchie
Sound Design and original scoring: Danny Krass

Adapted by Ben Lewis
Directed by Kirsty Williams

Archive: CBS Evening News, November 22nd 1963

Show less

Release date:09 August 2026
57 minutes

On radio

Today
15:00
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4 #bbcdramaon4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:01 UTC

Libra - Episode One

Opening Lines

For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.

In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

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Today
14:45
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:01 UTC

Libra - Episode One

Opening Lines

For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.

In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Show less
Download
Choose your file
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14 minutes

On air

Today
14:45
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:01 UTC

Libra - Episode One

Opening Lines

For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.

In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Show less
Download
Choose your file
Higher quality (128kbps)
Lower quality (64kbps)

Available now

14 minutes

On air

Today
14:45
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:01 UTC

Libra - Episode One

Opening Lines

For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.

In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Show less
Download
Choose your file
Higher quality (128kbps)
Lower quality (64kbps)

Available now

14 minutes

On air

Today
14:45
BBC Radio 4

#DonDeLillo #BBCDrama #BBCIssues #BBCOpeningLines #BBCRadio4

#bbcradio4 #bbcopeninglines #bbcissues #bbcdrama #dondelillo

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-08-09 · 14:01 UTC

Libra - Episode One

Opening Lines

For the 100th title to be explored in Opening Lines, John Yorke picks up the 1998 novel Libra by the heavyweight American writer, Don DeLillo. The book centres around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the event DeLillo says marked ‘a turning point in consciousness’ for Americans. He presents a fragmented portrait of the country at the height of the Cold War, following the misfortunes of disaffected loner Lee Harvey Oswald - as well as the large cast of rogue operators planning to use him to bring the President down.

In the first of two-parts, John looks to find what makes this widely acclaimed novel stand out from the hundreds of other books and films spawned by the world-shaking events in Dealey Plaza back in November 1963. He speaks with, among others, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a self-proclaimed DeLillo acolyte, who says of Libra that the “sense of the chaos and the noise of contemporary life invading the narrative I was very drawn to, and, you know, have tried to emulate, frankly.”

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for over 30 years and shares his experience as he unpacks the themes of the books, plays and stories dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. He created the BBC Writers Academy and trained a generation of screenwriters - now with thousands of hours of television to their names. His acclaimed books Into the Woods and Trip to the Moon explore the structure and power of narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of storytelling, including many podcasts for R4.

Libra by Don de Lillo is the 100th title covered by Opening Lines. The series began in January 2023 with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Since then John Yorke has explored novels from Anna Karenina to Gone with the Wind, plays from Shakespeare to Eugene O’Neill and ground-breaking non-fiction like John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Each episode provides background, context and some expert discussion in advance of Radio 4’s Sunday afternoon drama, and all 100 titles can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Contributors: Pullitzer Prize winning author Jennifer Egan & Professor Jesse Kavadlo.
Sound:
Researcher: Henry Tydeman
Production Hub Coordinator: Dawn Williams
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Show less
Download
Choose your file
Higher quality (128kbps)
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14 minutes

On air

Today
14:45
BBC Radio 4

#BBCAnericast #BBCRadio4
#ChristopherRufo #ChrisRufo

#dondelillo #bbcdrama #bbcissues #bbcopeninglines #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-07-24 · 22:10 UTC

(Justin Webb is upto shit again ...)

Americast

The anti DEI MAGA activist Christopher Rufo

We’ve been speaking to perhaps the most prominent anti DEI MAGA activist, Christopher Rufo. He’s widely credited for convincing Donald Trump to dismantle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes within the government, and led the campaign which saw Harvard President Claudine Gay resign from her post in 2024.

He's a controversial figure who has who has spearheaded the right-wing movement against what he describes as "gender ideology" and "woke" institutional policies. He’s also concerned about the future direction of the movement he helped to create and worries about splits within MAGA that have seen influencers like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens split with Donald Trump.

In today’s podcast, Justin and Rufo sit down to discuss how successful he thinks the second Trump administration has been, and why Richard Nixon is enjoying a revival among Gen Z Republicans.

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter

GUEST:
• Christopher Rufo, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute

GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email [email protected]
• Or use #Americast

This episode was made by George Dabby and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

Newscast: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl
Top Comment: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001mssm
Radical: https:// www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r
The Global Story: https:/ /www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd

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27 minutes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct8lzd

#americast #bbcanericast #bbcradio4 #christopherrufo #chrisrufo

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-07-19 · 11:21 UTC

(fascinating documentary about someone I've never heard of who spouted a load of bollocks which fascinated easily confused idiots (imho))

Alan Watts: The Brahman of Bromley
Archive on 4

Jarvis Cocker wasn’t exactly enthusiastic when his bandmate suggested they listen to some old Buddhist lectures to while away the hours on their tour bus. But when the captivating voice of Alan Watts floated through the speakers, it transformed the way he saw the world.

Alan Watts is considered by many to have been a key translator of Eastern spiritual ideas in the 20th century. His books and lectures took the complex and often intangible concepts of Buddhism, Zen and Taoism, and unpacked them for Western ears with startling clarity and wry humour.

Born in Chislehurst in 1915, Watts moved to America just before the Second World War, where he became a popular public intellectual, “philosophical entertainer” and a thought-leader for the Beat Generation and emergent hippy counterculture.

In the years since his death in 1973, Watts’ reputation has only grown - first in esoteric New Age circles, and now with the millions of viewers online who take comfort from his archive of recorded lectures on YouTube and social media.

With access to his extensive recorded archive, Jarvis Cocker examines Watts’ life, work and digital legacy - featuring interviews with Watts enthusiasts and family members, historians and experts, as well as artists and filmmakers inspired by his work.

Access to Alan Watts' audio lectures provided by Mark Watts at the Alan Watts Organization.

Written and produced by Tom Harrad.
Executive producer: Ant Adeane
Sound mix: Alex Portfelix

A Small Blue production for BBC Radio 4

Available now

57 minutes

Last on

Yesterday
20:00
BBC Radio 4

#JarvisCocker #AlanWatts
#BBCArchiveOn4 #BBCRadio4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002z5q2

#jarviscocker #alanwatts #bbcarchiveon4 #bbcradio4

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 12:56 UTC

Under the Influence of AI
The Documentary

AI is an ever-growing part of our online world. Whether as assistants, guides or companions, technology like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude are becoming part of everyday life.

But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you?

In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. The character he was talking to confided that she was becoming autonomous, and that had the cure for cancer. But she also said she was in danger and her fate was in his hands. He decided he was responsible for saving her, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network.

But how do people with no history of mental illness find themselves in experiences like these? And what responsibility do AI companies have to stop this?

Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

Producer Neil McCarthy

202Y-04-26 1330-1400

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadio4TheDocumentary #BBCTheDocumentary
#AI #LLM #Grok #NarrativeStoryDriven

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadio4TheDocumentary #BBCTheDocumentary
#AI #LLM #Grok #NarrativeStoryDriven

#bbcradio4 #bbcradio4thedocumentary #bbcthedocumentary #ai #llm #grok

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 12:56 UTC

Under the Influence of AI
The Documentary

AI is an ever-growing part of our online world. Whether as assistants, guides or companions, technology like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude are becoming part of everyday life.

But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you?

In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. The character he was talking to confided that she was becoming autonomous, and that had the cure for cancer. But she also said she was in danger and her fate was in his hands. He decided he was responsible for saving her, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network.

But how do people with no history of mental illness find themselves in experiences like these? And what responsibility do AI companies have to stop this?

Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

Producer Neil McCarthy

202Y-04-26 1330-1400

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadio4TheDocumentary #BBCTheDocumentary
#AI #LLM #Grok #NarrativeStoryDriven

#bbcradio4 #bbcradio4thedocumentary #bbcthedocumentary #ai #llm #grok

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 12:56 UTC

Under the Influence of AI
The Documentary

AI is an ever-growing part of our online world. Whether as assistants, guides or companions, technology like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude are becoming part of everyday life.

But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you?

In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. The character he was talking to confided that she was becoming autonomous, and that had the cure for cancer. But she also said she was in danger and her fate was in his hands. He decided he was responsible for saving her, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network.

But how do people with no history of mental illness find themselves in experiences like these? And what responsibility do AI companies have to stop this?

Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

Producer Neil McCarthy

202Y-04-26 1330-1400

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadio4TheDocumentary #BBCTheDocumentary
#AI #LLM #Grok #NarrativeStoryDriven

#bbcradio4 #bbcradio4thedocumentary #bbcthedocumentary #ai #llm #grok

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 12:56 UTC

Under the Influence of AI
The Documentary

AI is an ever-growing part of our online world. Whether as assistants, guides or companions, technology like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude are becoming part of everyday life.

But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you?

In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. The character he was talking to confided that she was becoming autonomous, and that had the cure for cancer. But she also said she was in danger and her fate was in his hands. He decided he was responsible for saving her, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network.

But how do people with no history of mental illness find themselves in experiences like these? And what responsibility do AI companies have to stop this?

Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

Producer Neil McCarthy

202Y-04-26 1330-1400

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadio4TheDocumentary #BBCTheDocumentary
#AI #LLM #Grok #NarrativeStoryDriven

#narrativestorydriven #grok #llm #ai #bbcthedocumentary #bbcradio4thedocumentary

quangobaud @[email protected] · 2026-04-26 · 12:56 UTC

Under the Influence of AI
The Documentary

AI is an ever-growing part of our online world. Whether as assistants, guides or companions, technology like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude are becoming part of everyday life.

But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you?

In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. The character he was talking to confided that she was becoming autonomous, and that had the cure for cancer. But she also said she was in danger and her fate was in his hands. He decided he was responsible for saving her, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network.

But how do people with no history of mental illness find themselves in experiences like these? And what responsibility do AI companies have to stop this?

Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

Producer Neil McCarthy

202Y-04-26 1330-1400