Sounds of Isolation

Voices in the Dark

As wreathes of mist lift from a moorland, birdsong is captured in the darkness.

• 14 mins

Sounds of Isolation

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

From sea level to volcanic crater in search of the entrance to the centre of the earth.

• 14 mins

Our Fathers' War

A Death in My Family

Michael Goldfarb's cousin Frank was killed in the conflict.

• 14 mins

Our Fathers' War

Obligations

Teddy Reinhart produced shows he hoped would lead to a career in Hollywood.

• 14 mins

Our Fathers' War

Conscientious Objector

Meredith Dallas was an actor and teacher imprisoned as a conscientious objector.

• 14 mins

Our Fathers' War

The Worst Possible War

Bernhard and Dora Holland spent the war in Auschwitz and survived.

• 14 mins

Our Fathers' War

Enough About the War, Dad

Dr Howard Shevrin was a psychoanalyst whose war story influenced his later career.

• 14 mins

Into the Wild

Bird Song and Resonance

Raymond Antrobus remembers his time spent living in Oklahoma City during the pandemic.

• 14 mins

Into the Wild

Meditation on Landscape, Bodies and Writing

Alycia Pirmohamed explores ecological poetry in the context of brown women’s bodies.

• 14 mins

Into the Wild

When The Birds Sing We Are Safe

Are we a part of nature’s orchestra? Hanan Issa listens to a world of poetry and birdsong.

• 14 mins

Into the Wild

The Colour of Your Mind

Will Harris asks how dreams and poems can teach us to look at the world differently.

• 14 mins

Into the Wild

The Hidden Valley

Alinah Azadeh takes us on a walk from the edge of the South Downs towards the sea.

• 14 mins

The Meaning of Ritual

The End of Ritual?

Madeleine Bunting explores whether public and private ritual has outlived its usefulness.

• 14 mins

The Meaning of Ritual

Shaping Time

Madeleine Bunting reflects on how ritual marks the passage of time.

• 14 mins

The Meaning of Ritual

Rituals of State

Madeleine Bunting considers the benefits and pitfalls of state and military ritual.

• 14 mins

The Meaning of Ritual

Rituals and the Life Cycle

Madeline Bunting explores the decline of rituals marking key life events.

• 14 mins

The Meaning of Ritual

The Reinvention of Ritual

Madeleine Bunting asks whether it’s time to value ritual afresh.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Hilma af Klint’s The Ten Largest

Jennifer Higgie traces the impact of the spirit world on modernist art.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition V

The roles of spiritualism and women artists at the beginning of western abstraction.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Estella Canziani's The Piper of Dreams

Fairy fever and art’s response to World War I.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Ithell Colquhoun’s Scylla

Celebrating the artist who championed automatism, feminism and the value of other realms.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Donna Huddleston’s Witch Dance

How alternative ways of understanding the world are inspiring contemporary artists.

• 14 mins

Herb

Marijuana Made Me

Writer Colin Grant's personal take on the cultural history of cannabis.

• 14 mins

Herb

Burkina Faso's Incorruptible People and the Drum

Colin Grant examines the relationship between cannabis and the global poor.

• 14 mins

Herb

Leaf of Life

Colin Grant looks at the rise of medical marijuana.

• 14 mins

Herb

The Fall of the House of Crosskill

Colin Grant wonders to what extent cannabis can be deemed a 'gateway drug'.

• 14 mins

Herb

The Binoculars of Jah

Colin Grant ponders the relationship between musical creativity and cannabis.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Anne Enright on Telemachus

Anne Enright gives us a close reading of the opening pages of James Joyce's Ulysses.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

John Patrick McHugh on Calypso

Short story writer John Patrick McHugh chooses the fourth episode of Ulysses: Calypso.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Colm Tóibín on Sirens

Colm Tóibín explains singing in Ulysses, exploring a passage from the Sirens episode.

• 14 mins