Today, trauma permeates media, from music and television to films and books. While the increasing openness is welcome, Darren has observed that the webs of digital networks surrounding us and which commodify our most vulnerable experiences often harm us more than help us heal. How did we get here? What role does social media play in commodifying our experiences? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves liberating us or keeping us trapped?

In conversation with Nicola Sturgeon, Darren explores the intersections of trauma, identity, social media, and society, revealing how we can fight back against the larger corporations that are turning our real and vulnerable stories into digital commodities, and truly advocate for marginalised voices.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In his four Time Travellers Guides to England, historian Ian Mortimer has taken us from the Medieval period all the way to the Regency, revelling not in the business of courts and princes but the minutae of daily life for ordinary men and women. In this podcast, he shares his insights into how the English people have changed over time - and how they have stayed the same. Touching upon liberty and leadership, xenophobia and violence, this whistlestop tour of a thousand years of English life is an unmissable treat for history lovers of all stripes. Who was the worst monarch? Why should you preserve your urine? And do the French really deserve all the credit for inventing champagne? Discover the answers to all of these questions and many more with one of our most beloved national historians.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two decades ago, Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and transformed the world’s access to knowledge. Today, people view Wikipedia 11 billion times every month in the English language alone. Yet in an age of ‘alternative facts’, conspiracies and disinformation, the foundations of Wikipedia are increasingly under threat. The concept at the heart of it all extends to the whole of society: trust Like water and electricity, our society can’t function without it. Without it, we have no knowledge, and without knowledge, we can’t fight back. Derived from decades of observation, participation and discussion with leaders across the world, Jimmy and Nish share clear, actionable rules for building trust in business, leadership and life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jens Stoltenberg was Prime Minister of Norway from 2005-2013, and when he took office as Secretary General of NATO in 2014, the world was already changing. What followed was a decade marked by war, diplomatic crises, and decisions that helped shape our shared security. Now he joins Adam Boulton to go behind closed doors and offer a rare insight into how the world’s most powerful military alliance handles crises and to share why after all this time, NATO still matters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marie Kondo’s unique approach to organising our lives and our homes has transformed the relationship we have with the objects around us, helping us all to seek out the joy in our daily lives. In the eleven years since The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up made her famous across the globe, journalists, readers and fans have asked her one question more than any other: what role did Japanese philosophy and culture play in shaping her life and thought? Here, Marie shares her principles for living, and reveal how the traditions of her homeland can help all of us to spark joy. She shares personal insights into her upbringing, family and career, and explores how Japanese people often combine an ultramodern lifestyle with deep respect for ancient customs and traditions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A pioneering voice in Arab cinema, Annemarie Jacir has written, directed, and produced over sixteen films, with premieres at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Toronto. In 2007, she made history by shooting the first feature film by a Palestinian female director. All four of her feature films have been chosen as Palestine’s Oscar submissions.

Set in 1936 during the Arab Revolt in British-ruled Palestine, Palestine 36 chronicles the intertwined lives of farmers, revolutionaries, and business owners resisting colonial rule. It’s a stirring portrait of resilience, featuring a stellar cast including Hiam Abbass, Jeremy Irons, and Saleh Bakri.

In this episode, Annemarie shares the ten-year journey behind the making of Palestine 36, the challenges of filming on location under threat, and the vital role Palestinian cinema plays in preserving histories too often left untold.

Palestine 36 wil be released nationwide in Cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 31st October.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Philippa Gregory takes us behind the myths to reveal how Jane Boleyn became a scapegoat of Henry VIII’s tyranny and the historians who defended it. Drawing on the silences of the record and the resilience of women navigating a perilous court, Gregory explores how fiction can reveal the internal lives of historical characters who we think we know so well. In Boleyn Traitor, Jane emerges not as a schemer but as a survivor: navigating a world ruled by fear, spectacle and the whims of a king who bent the law to his will. What lessons does the Tudor court hold for our politics today? Gregory impresses on us the importance of opposing modern strong-men and resisting tyranny in our contemporary times.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Returning to the podcast following episodes around his prize-winning debut The Mountain Under the Sea and his acclaimed novella The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler joins us to explore the rise in authoritarian systems of control and celebrate the power of human agency to drive meaningful social change. These are the themes of his new novel Where the Axe is Buried: a dystopian fable set in a near-future Russia where Artificial Intelligences, technocrats, and a Putinesque dictator come into an unforgettable conflict.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr Kerry Burnight reveals a transformative new approach to aging—one that goes beyond lifespan and healthspan to embrace joyspan: the ability to experience joy from within. Dr Burnight reveals how joy differs from happiness, the damaging effects of internalised ageism, and the surprising abilities—such as judgment, emotional regulation, and humour—that often improve with age. Dr Burnight also shares the four essential practices necessary to expanding our joyspan as we age. With her guidance and practical tips, this is a playbook on how small, intentional habits can transform the experience of aging into one of vitality, purpose, and, most importantly, joy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From our new technological era ushered in by AI, to the fall of democracies across the globe, the world today appears fraught with uncertainty, poised between repeating errors from the past and entering a new age of the unknown. What lies behind tribalistic claims of patriotism, and on what does democracy truly depend? How might technology shape the narrative to come, and what remains in our control? Bestselling author of Sapiens and Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to help us better comprehend the perils we face, and what remains within our power to change.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices