Four Thought

Criminologist Dr Laura Bui wants us to ask the right questions when it comes to crime. The popular genre of ‘true crime’ may be popular but is it helping us better understand the origins of crime?

We turn to crime novels, film and documentaries to compare ourselves to both victims and perpetrators. How different are we?

But is the habit of asking ‘why’ a criminal committed a crime and not ‘how’ they got to the point of becoming a criminal flawed? We take one criminal out of the public only to have them replaced by another - Laura argues asking ‘how’ helps to finally break this cycle.

Presenter - Olly Mann

Dr Layla McCay asks us to think again about how our buildings and towns can both benefit and harm our mental health.

Looking at how plants and water can reduce the risk of psychosis and ‘bumping’ places, where people can casually meet to form connections and potentially ease depression.

Layla’s work as the Director of the NHS Confederation has convinced her of the importance of design and physical health but also how little attention has been paid to it’s impact on the mind.

She says the concept of ‘restorative cities’ - those that help heal or calm the mind are what we should be aiming for. Designing places that help counter loneliness, improve connections and keep depression at bay. Post Pandemic can we redesign our surroundings to support a happier and healthier life?

Watchmaker Rebecca Struthers shares her passion for the art and science of horology. She warns that this traditional skill and its allied trades to make and restore watches, are endangered in Britain unless we make it easier for the next generation to be trained in them.

"When well-made objects are cared for, it's a cycle of relationships that can span centuries. The oldest family watch I've worked on was five generations and 250 years old. When working on an object that symbolises the passing of time itself, I'm acutely aware of the fact that I've become a moment in the history of this watch, a moment in time for an object that was made centuries before my birth and will live on centuries after I'm gone."

Presenter: Olly Mann

James Helm gives a practical guide to dealing with grief and sudden single parenthood. Following the early death of his wife Charlotte, he found himself without the love of his life and single-handedly bringing up their three sons. He shares what he has learnt from personal experience - "what helps and what hurts".

Presenter: Olly Mann

Ai-jen Poo argues that we should all value caring, and carers.

Ai-jen, a MacArthur Fellow, is Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an advocacy organisation in the United States representing domestic workers, many of them carers. In this powerful, intimate talk, she tells the story of how two of her grandparents' very different experiences when they needed carer emphasised the importance of valuing caring.

Producer: Giles Edwards

Beth Stevens talks about the brain cells most people have never heard of, and suggests what they might have to teach us.

Beth is a neuroscientist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, who in 2015 was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship - the so-called 'genius grant' - for her work on microglial cells. In this talk she describes the connections between her research and her own family history, and explains why these cells - for so long overlooked in favour of neurons - may be the key to understanding much about the brain we don't yet know.

Producer: Giles Edwards

Tara Munroe reveals what she learned when she rescued some badly damaged paintings which were due to be thrown out.

Tara is an arts curator and researcher. Ten years ago she found a pile of paintings marked with the words 'for disposal'. She was immediately intrigued, and as she began to research them, she became more and more drawn into their story, and how it connected with her own history. Now, a decade on, she is hoping to return them to the gallery walls, where they belong.

Producer: Patrick Cowling.

Philippa Greer discusses the imprisonment of people convicted of genocide.

Philippa is a human rights lawyer who has worked around the world. In this powerful talk she tells the story of a visit to West Africa to prepare for the funeral of a man who had recently died in prison. This man had been convicted of genocide, but Philippa reveals that many such prisoners will eventually be released, and what that suggests to her about the use of prison as a response to the most serious crimes against humanity.

Producer: Patrick Cowling.

Nicola Reindorp, who once doubted her own abilities to be a CEO, says we should rehabilitate doubt as a strength rather than a weakness in leaders. "I'd seen my own doubts as negative, disqualifying me from leadership. I had seen others believe the same. But, I asked myself, aren't the best leaders not the ones that say they have all the answers, but those who know they don't? Not those who say they see it all, but those who ask whose perspective is missing? Rather than a deficiency to be hidden, maybe doubt should be seen as a power to be harnessed?"

Eva Hnizdo reflects on the impulses which drive people to emigrate - or not, drawing on her Czech Jewish family's experience of the Holocaust and her own as a political asylum seeker. "Whenever members of my family thought about emigrating but didn't actually leave, they made a mistake, sometimes paying for it with their lives. In my case, some might say I made a mistake not to stay. Was it worth the struggle?"

Eva Hnizdo is a former GP and author of "Why Didn't They Leave?"