Alex Massie delves into Hogmanays past and present.  'The traditional 'first footing' gifts of the New Year - a lump of coal and a black bun - linger on,' Alex writes, 'though with diminished take-up and not just because few houses are coal-heated now and few people truly appreciate the black bun.'  Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher 
Production coordinator: Janet Staples 
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

A Lump of Coal and a Black Bun

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Patients care apps - which give patients unprecedented access to their health records - are being rolled out by NHS trusts across the country.  You might imagine, says Will Self, that 'this previously unimaginable access to such a wealth of medical data should empower me, make me feel I have a choice, and enable me to assist those treating me by being what every conscientious statistic wants to become: a good patient.'  Will argues that, on the contrary, this 'revolution in healthcare' only makes us more impotent, reduces patients to the status of customers and undermines the authority and expertise of medical professionals.   Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher 
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey 
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Me and my medical data

Caleb Azumah Nelson on why anger is no longer a stranger to him, but a friend. He talks of a childhood in which he tried to navigate a world which was 'already coding a young black man as dangerous, threatening. Angry.'  'As I've grown older,' writes Caleb, 'the question is not whether I should be angry, but do I love myself enough to be angry, to object when I feel wronged or faced with injustice.' Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher: 
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman 
Editor:  Richard Fenton-Smith

On Anger

Sara Wheeler reflects on the experience of being a sibling to her brother who has a lifelong disability.  "Posting on social media on National Siblings Day, which fell on a Wednesday this year, brothers and sisters like me express pride. 'You love them more, not less' is a common thread. Because what all this is really about is the sibling's acute awareness of the lack of empathy routinely shown to the disabled - after all, childhood gives us, the siblings, a unique perspective. It's 'Does he take sugar?' times ten - ignoring the point of view of the disabled person and not even trying to stand in her shoes. Ask us. We know."    Producer: Sheila Cook
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Penny Murphy

It's all right for you

Zoe Strimpel reflects on the extraordinary experience of ‘crossing the rubicon separating non-motherhood from matrescence’.   ‘I had never quite put aside an abiding ambivalence about having a baby, even during pregnancy,’ writes Zoe.  But in the space of thirty minutes - and the delivery of a baby girl by C-section - Zoe says, ‘my hop over the long-tended, long-contemplated border with motherland rapidly resolved as her tiny features came into focus and a sense of interestingness became a sense of desperate affection and even of familiarity.’ Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Motherland

A L Kennedy argues that, as a country with low productivity, we must urgently address our unhealthy relationship with work.   But creating more workaholics like herself, she says, is the last thing we should be doing.   'Toxic work doesn't just blight our business hours - it wearies our affection, steals our time for each other,' Alison writes.  'We rely on free moments and free energy to invent, to recharge, to create. An exhausted, stressed population is docile, but doesn't solve problems well.' Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

A Lump of Coal and a Black Bun

Download our free app to listen on your phone