The Moon Under Water, Audio Always
Comedians John Robins (winner of the 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award) and Robin Allender ruminate on the dream of the British pub. Guests such as Nish Kumar and Jodie Kidd are invited to discuss what they think would make the pub of their dreams: which drinks would be on tap, which tunes would be on the jukebox, and which wrong’uns would be barred by the landlord. Robins is an English graduate with a love of poetry and literature, so his study of the pub is romantic, impressionistic and literary rather than laddish.
Getting Emotional, Bex Lindsay
Presenter Bex Lindsay explores obscure, difficult-to-describe emotions that are often experienced, but rarely named. However, even if there’s no word for them in English, other languages and other people may have found ways to name them and, in turn, can help us to understand familiar but complicated feelings more completely when they arise. Each short episode considers a different emotion: presque vu (being on the brink of an epiphany), mudita (vicarious joy), limerence (extreme and obsessive romantic infatuation), and more.
Life Changing, BBC Radio 4
Jane Garvey, formerly the presenter of Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, hosts a mesmerising series. A highly skilled interviewer, Garvey speaks to ordinary people who have been through something astonishing that changed their life forever. There’s a Welsh man who was adopted as a baby; when tracing his birth parents, he discovered that his father was a Malaysian prince. Another guest developed a gambling addiction that culminated in him stealing over £1m from his work and going on the run.
