Four Thought

Harriet Beveridge says we don't take humour seriously enough and thinks it's a "woefully misunderstood and underused tool". She extols its power in managing human relationships, dealing with adversity and overcoming prejudice.

Bex Burch, who plays and composes for the Ghanaian xylophone, explores the difference between 'doing' and 'being' as a source of creativity, and shows how it works in her music.

Presenter: Mark Coles

Kevin Carr charts the agony of the first-time house buyer: is it worth the pain to avoid a lifetime of paying rent? "As you know, a mortgage is a loan where property is used as collateral. The first part of the word 'mort' is French for death, so named because trying to understand the process of getting a mortgage makes you want to die".

Millennial Harleen Nottay says we should stop snooping and spying via social media on our partners, past and present, for the sake of our mental health.

R.M. Sánchez-Camus describes how art can be used as a language with which to communicate the fear of death and dying. Drawing on his experience as a Social Practice Artist working in a hospice, he reveals how art-making can create a space where individuals can mentally remove themselves from the state of dying, and produce a lasting testament to their lives. He believes death anxieties over global extinction can similarly be approached through making art. "It’s urgent to break the taboo of speaking about death. If we can hold this conversation within the community we can begin to support each other as citizens.

Author Zoë Strachan charts her journey of self-discovery through reading. She describes how fiction helped her to find her identity as a gay woman and explains why she believes that access to books is vital for human flourishing. "While I was reading Swallows and Amazons, booksellers were being arrested for making available the kind of texts that changed my life. When we start banning books or censoring them from school libraries, we deny people the chance to read themselves into being."

The Last Poets discuss why they're still performing after 50 years.

The Last Poets were borne out of the origins of the civil rights movement in the United States. They have been writing and performing together in various formations ever since the late 1960s. Abiodon Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan reveal the motivation behind the collective's work and why they feel they're message about black empowerment is as relevant today as it was in 1968.

Recorded at the Shambala Festival.

Producer: Peter Snowdon.

Sunday league football is played up and down the country. The writer Ewan Flynn says that forging a team spirit against the odds can bring out the best in people.

Recorded at the Shambala Festival.

Producer: Peter Snowdon

Julia Unwin asks whether we've lost the human touch in a world of automation and technology.

Touch screens, contactless cards and e-tickets are supposed to make our lives so much easier and more convenient. Julia Unwin, former chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, asks whether technology and automation and the loss of those everyday human connections are harming the way we interact with each other.

Producer: Peter Snowdon.

Ian Brennan is a Grammy award-winning music producer. He and his wife have travelled the world discovering music that most people have never heard.