Beyond Today

“He went out a boy and he came back a broken man”

Producer: Heidi Pett

“I remember hearing that bang, and thinking: this is it.”

Producer: Heidi Pett

“It’s the best part of your life and the worst part of your life all rolled into one.”

Producer: Heidi Pett

Vampire Weekend have won a Grammy, topped the charts and become one of the most important bands of their generation. Their singer, songwriter and creative force Ezra Koenig sat down with Beyond Today at Glastonbury a few hours before the band went on stage. Here he discusses the anxiety of life as a professional musician, how the internet shaped his songwriting, and whether rock bands should be more political.

Producer: Harriet Noble

It feels like Pride is more visible than ever before, with rainbows everywhere and even LGBT sandwiches on the shelves. But while it’s a measure of progress that communities are able to publicly celebrate their identity, is a party enough? Certainly not for gay women in one area of Chile, where three butch lesbians, known locally as “camionas”, have been murdered in the past decade. Megha Mohan, the BBC’s Gender and Identity Correspondent, shares the story of one of them - Nicole Saavedra. And Tabitha Benjamin, a British musician who runs the “Butch, Please” club night, tells us how she is targeted because of the way she looks.

Producer: Harriet Noble

Last December, the people of Sudan took to the streets to protest against high food prices and decades of hardship under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. Four months later momentum of the protests spread across the country, and led to the ousting of the president. But then things took a turn for the worse. On 3rd June, military forces opened fire on protesters in the capital, Khartoum. When Sudanese people shared news of the massacre on social media, the government shut down internet access across the country.

BBC Africa’s Mohanad Hashim tells us about what it’s been like in Sudan over the past few months, while London-based activist Negla Abdalla explains how international activism is making a difference.

Producers: Seren Jones, Philly Beaumont.

In 2018 Anna Campbell’s father Dirk received the news that his 26 year-old daughter had died fighting in Syria. Up until that moment he didn’t know what she was involved with. Depending on who you speak to she was idealistic, brave, naive, or foolish. In this episode we speak to Dirk Campbell and the BBC’s Marina Parker who have been piecing together her journey from defending bees in the playground to fighting on the front line. We explore why a young British woman would be prepared to die for the Kurdish cause and what her death symbolises for her supporters.

You can watch the full film Anna: The Woman Who Went to Fight ISIS here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006h6x

Producers: Lucy Hancock and Alicia Burrell

They have two of the most distinctive hairdos in the world and they used to trade insults. But now it appears that Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have become friends. Trump made an impromptu visit to the North Korean border at the weekend and became the first serving US president to set foot in the country. They are technically still at war. The BBC’s correspondent in Seoul Stephen McDonell watched it all happen and Jean Lee opened the first western news bureau in North Korea.

There are loads of music festivals these days. But the one that still stands out, that is special somehow, is Glastonbury. What started as a party on a farm for 1500 revellers nearly half a century ago has become the most iconic festival in the world, attended by 200 thousand people. How did that happen? And can the spirit of community and environmentalism the festival espouses teach us lessons for the modern world? BBC Entertainment Correspondent Colin Paterson and a host of voices from the festival join us.

And you can listen to Radio Glastonbury on the BBC Sounds app across the weekend.

Producers: Harriet Noble, Philly Beaumont and Seren Jones

Music Credit: Audio Network

The Saharan Bubble is blasting hot air across the European continent, breaking temperature records all over the place. But scientists are reluctant to link specific weather events to climate change, saying we can only be certain about long term trends. So when can we say for sure? We hear from Clare Nasir, a meteorologist with the Met Office, and Nick Cox, who's been measuring the Arctic climate since 1978.