Alice Moloney discusses how best to express negative emotions in the digital realm. When Alice's father was diagnosed with cancer, she found herself at a loss as to how to communicate with him digitally. One solution was sending more personal objects. But Alice works in digital communication, and in this talk at the Shambala Festival she describes her journey to improve the tools available to communicate grief and sadness. Producer: Giles Edwards

Four Thought

Digital Sadness

Andrew Hankinson tells the story of a boy who died, and his parents, who wanted him alive. Recorded at the Shambala Festival in 2019, this is also an extraordinary story about Andrew's quest to understand the family's story, his feelings of discomfort, and his reasons for wanting to tell it in the first place. Producer: Giles Edwards

A Boy Who Died

Anna Della Subin takes a journey with a man once worshipped as a living god. Anna Della has been writing a book about people inadvertently turned into gods, and in this bewitching talk she describes a journey across Morocco with one of them. She discusses what prompts people to regard others as gods, and what it might tell us about our society. Producer: Giles Edwards

Living With Gods

Sarah Gristwood is worried that the vogue for tidying will make history harder to uncover. Sarah is an historian herself, and in writing her books has relied heavily on documents which might easily have been discarded. But that's not all: she wonders, too, how her successors will access our digital clutter in 500 years' time. Producer: Giles Edwards

Tidying Up

Ashley Hickson-Lovence says his powerful mother and his love of reading kept him out of gangs while growing up on an estate in East London. As a former English teacher and now a debut novelist, he believes black boys, in particular, need books to read that engage them by reflecting their own lives. "Not everyone can have a mother like mine, but everyone deserves the key to the world of books which could change their lives." Recorded at Primadonna literary and arts festival. Presenter: Farrah Jarral Producer: Sheila Cook

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

Monisha Rajesh says the romance of train travel is not dead. After exploring the railways of India, she travelled across continents to research her book "Around the World in 80 Trains", discovering that the romance, " Wasn't dead, just reincarnated, living on in the passengers who would always tell their story to strangers, offer advice, share their food, and give up their seats." Recorded at Primadonna literature and arts festival. Presenter: Farrah Jarral Producer: Sheila Cook

The Romance of Train Travel

Winnie M Li talks about her traumatic experience as a survivor of sexual violence, describing its lasting impact. She also charts her recovery through writing and activism.

Recovery After Rape

Louise Doughty, whose novels include Apple Tree Yard, explains why Peterborough railway station, the setting of her latest novel, has particular significance in her life as a place of transit. As she journeys back into her past, she discovers her own personal history sheds light on the experience of others. Recorded at Primadonna literature and arts festival in Suffolk. Presenter: Farrah Jarral Producer: Sheila Cook

Life In Transit

Lora Stimson uses sky and starscape to navigate her grief. In this beautiful and emotional talk, recorded at the Green Man Festival in mid-Wales, appropriately enough an internationally-certified Dark Sky Reserve, Lora draws connections between the sky and her grief after her father's death. Producer: Giles Edwards.

Grief, and Starscape

Rabab Ghazoul makes the case for Wales as a place of post-colonial possibility. Rabab has been living in Wales for more than thirty years, and in this talk reflects on Wales's position as a nation which, as she puts it, "was colonised by the English, yes - but has also been complicit in the British imperial enterprise, and been a recipient of the wider European colonial project." As she does, she talks about the benefits of settling down, digging deep, and finding ourselves in the places that we choose to stay in. Producer: Giles Edwards.

Digging Deep

Rachael Gibbons discusses class, social mobility and Imposter Syndrome. In a talk recorded at the Green Man Festival in mid-Wales, Rachael discusses her experiences as a working-class woman. She asks what social mobility means when you find it difficult to fit in at grammar school or university, while at home your friends do different things and you're no longer part of their circle. She tells stories about her imposter syndrome, and how she overcame it. But at the heart of her talk is another syndrome - the so-called 'Jonah Complex', where you're afraid of your own success. Rachael recognises this not just in herself, but in many of her working class friends, she reveals: a fear that success will alienate you from what and who you know and love. Producer: Giles Edwards

Working Class Women

Penny Andrews argues that thinking of political supporters as fans helps explain the current state of politics. Penny is an academic and a serial fan - covering everything from David Bowie to Ed Balls. And in this energetic and witty talk Penny argues that many of the characteristics of fandom elsewhere - a rich interest, a wish to protect the sanctity of the fandom, and a refusal to tolerate criticism - also mark politics and political fans, whatever side they're on. And that understanding politics in this way may help us understand it better. Producer: Giles Edwards

Politics Fans

Emmanuel Ordóñez-Angulo asks whether Virtual Reality (VR) could be an 'empathy machine', and whether that would be a good thing. Emmanuel is a former film-maker, and current philosopher, and in this rich talk, recorded at the Larmer Tree Festival, he uses both traditions to probe the reaches of human empathy. Can VR fulfil the promise, long-held by some filmmakers, to allow us to walk in the shoes of others, increasing empathy and demanding wide-ranging social change? Or is the very notion of walking in another's shoes flawed? Producer: Giles Edwards

An Empathy Machine

Richard Lynch-Smith argues that social workers need to be more open in acknowledging the role that poverty plays in the lives of the families with which they work. Introducing us to several of his families, social worker Richard details the many ways, large and small, in which poverty affects their life experience. But he also reveals how these experiences are understood, and interpreted, by the state. Richard also describes the movement amongst social workers to acknowledge the role that poverty plays and explains what impact that might have. Producer: Giles Edwards

The P Word

Helen Cullen makes the case for the art of letter writing. In this talk, recorded at the Larmer Tree Festival, Helen reveals how writing letters has been a constant throughout her life and discusses its importance in deepening her relationships with her friends, family and partner. Helen, a novelist whose first book revolved around letters, argues that those of us who have fallen out of the habit of writing letters, or never acquired it in the first place, should take up our pens. And she makes a bold promise to anyone who writes to her. Producer: Giles Edwards

Life in Letters

Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society through their own thinking, experience and stories. Recorded in front of audiences at events around the UK.

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