Beyond Today

A recent government survey found that 5% of gay people in the UK had been offered conversion therapy in order to “cure” them, and that 2% had undergone it. It’s a small percentage, but it’s still pretty shocking that the practice happens here at all.

For a documentary for Radio 1 and 1Xtra, James Barr and Dan Hudson from the “A Gay and A NonGay” podcast travelled to Northern Ireland to find out more about life for LGBTQ+ people there. As part of the trip James had a taster of what it’s like to have gay conversion therapy, and they and producer Phoebe Keane sit down with Beyond Today to explore what it’s like, the devestating impact it can have, and why it’s still happening.

Their documentary series “From Gay to Non Gay?” is available now on BBC Sounds.

Producer: Harriet Noble

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisers have a plan for staying in power and getting us out of the EU. They are picking their way through it and today they held a special cabinet meeting to discuss calling an election. Tomorrow, MPs are back in parliament with a chance to stop them taking us out of the EU without any deal. While the politicians figure out their next moves the anger is growing on both sides and, whatever happens over the next two months, there seems no prospect of this abating. We speak to Sky’s political correspondent Lewis Goodall, who has watched the talk of coups and treason building at political rallies. We also hear from Jan Hofmeyr from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa about how a country can reconcile its differences.

Producers: Philly Beaumont, Lucy Hancock and Seren Jones

Sara Pascoe’s first book explored the anatomy of the female body. Now the comedian has turned her attention to masculinity. Sara came to the Beyond Today studio to talk about her new book, what RuPaul’s Drag Race can teach us about gender roles, whether sex workers should be prescribed on the NHS and why men shouldn’t have to pay the bill on a first date.

Producers: Alicia Burrell and Philly Beaumont

The prime minister's decision to suspend parliament prompted an angry backlash from MPs and opponents of a no-deal Brexit. It sparked protests across the country, a legal challenge and a petition with – at the time of writing - around one and a half million signatures. The government claims the five-week suspension in September and October will still allow time for MPs to debate Brexit.

It’s another of those moments in the Brexit saga, and there seem to have been loads of them, that leaves people feeling pretty confused. When the news broke the Beyond Today team started getting messages from friends and family asking what on earth is going on?! People think that as we work at the BBC and it’s our job to follow Brexit, we have the answers. But it’s all become so complicated that honestly, we’re not sure anymore. So we compiled the questions we were sent, added some of our own, and put them to Chris Morris from the BBC’s Reality Check team.

Producer: Duncan Barber

Wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are burning at a record rate. It’s caused global anger and anxiety with more than three million people sharing the hashtag #PrayforAmazonia. Criticism has been directed at the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for failing to protect the rainforest and rejecting $22 million of aid money.

In this episode we look at who has ownership over the Amazon and other places of environmental importance like the Arctic. We speak to Jon Lee Anderson, a journalist at the New Yorker Magazine who has been visiting indigenous people in Brazil for years. We also hear from BBC journalist Camilla Veras Mota who last week travelled to see the fires in Porto Velho. And Juliana Gragnani from the BBC’s Brazilian service tells us what Brazilians make of all the outside attention and who they blame for the fires.

Producer: Duncan Barber.

One year ago, a 15-year-old girl from Sweden started protesting outside the Swedish parliament, urging the government to pay attention to the world’s climate crisis. Now Greta Thunberg has become the face of environmental activism. Two weeks ago, when Greta set sail to America on a zero carbon boat, the internet exploded with some fairly vicious commentary. She was called a ‘pig-tailed school drop-out’ and climate change advocates rushed to, sometimes just as viciously, defend her. This week her boat is due to arrive in New York, hometown of fossil fuel champion, US president Donald Trump, what will happen next nobody yet knows.

In this episode, we hear from Justin Rowlatt who met her when she was last on dry land in Plymouth and Swedish journalist who knows all about her family background. We’ll also hear from writer Julian Baggini, who is worried about Greta’s role in the culture wars. How could pinning too much on one teen activist be oversimplifying the climate problem?

Producers: Seren Jones, Lucy Hancock

In this re-release of one of our favourite recent episodes, Tina speaks to filmmaker Louis Theroux. Back in July he came in to tell us about his documentary Surviving America’s Most Hated Family and why, 13 years on, he’s still interested in the Westboro Baptist Church. We also talk to him about nudity, why he’s not into hallucinogenic drug rituals, the problem with no-platforming and how he became the most widely meme-d journalist in Britain.

Tina Daheley speaks with Mobeen Azhar, a journalist and filmmaker for the BBC who travelled to Portland, Oregon to make a film about the death of a 19-year-old African American. The footage of Larnell Bruce running for his life went viral at the time, raising alarm about white supremacy. But in Oregon, Mobeen uncovered a story far more complex than he’d ever anticipated.

Produced by Jessica Beck

This week, Manchester United footballer, Paul Pogba received racial abuse online from anonymous accounts after he missed a penalty. He’s the third player in a week to be racially abused on social media following a penalty miss. In response, teammate Harry Maguire tweeted that social media users should have to verify their identity before opening an account.

Kerry Allen is a media analyst covering China for BBC Monitoring. She explains how social media works in a country where ID checks are enforced on social media. Bernie Hogan from the Oxford Internet Institute focuses on the role of design in social media. He tells us how the format of a social media platform can affect how we nice are to each other.

Producer: Duncan Barber

Last week around a hundred people in Iceland walked up the side of a windswept rocky mountain to attend the funeral… of a glacier. Okjokull’s death was a result of climate change, and scientists predict that within 200 years all of Iceland’s glaciers will go the same way.

So, what does the death of Okjokull mean for a country whose national identity is woven into its frozen landscape? And, why is ice melting in the subarctic a warning to the rest of the world?

We speak to the author Andri Snaer Magnusson about how you write a eulogy to a glacier, and what Okjokull’s death means to Iceland and its future. We also talk to climate scientist Ruth Mottram from the Danish Meteorological Institute about the science behind melting ice sheets and why the death of Ok should matter to us all.

Producers: Alicia Burrell and Jessica Beck