Illuminated

The young British poet Saili Katebe was born in landlocked Zambia, and grew up with an imagined beach in his mind. Palm trees would grow in the golden sands. The sun would shine all day, and naturally there’d be romance.

Moving to the UK as a teenager, Saili visited a real beach for the first time. He was underwhelmed by the hazy sun and soft ice cream, and the sea at low tide was so far away he could hardly see it, let alone swim in its weedy shallows.

Over the years though, Saili has come to appreciate the quiet charms of the beaches around him as places rich in stories. In Voices from the Beach he listens to lives shaped by the beach in unexpected ways. There’s the ice cream seller, who once fled her own landlocked country. Now her Mr Whippy Van now brings joy along the south coast.

‘It’s an honour to keep the tradition alive,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t live without the sea now.’ Then there’s the fisherman ‘born on the beach’ who tried to move away but couldn’t get his bearings without the sea.

Voices from the Beach features chance encounters and casual conversations with many other people out on the beaches at Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Dover, Lyme Regis, Brighton and Weston Super Mare.

Music Jon Nicholls

Photograph: Troon beach by Monica Whitlock

A Storyscape production for BBC Radio 4

When Laura's sister could no longer care for her daughter, Laura had a few hours to decide. If she said yes, she would become a parent again overnight, no training, no paid leave, no warning. If she said no, the little girl would go into care.

She said yes. Most families do.

My Sister's Daughter weaves Laura's story, told through the small, exhausting, tender details of a life rearranged, with the voice of Jo, now in her forties, looking back at her own childhood in kinship care. When Jo's mother died, a quiet constellation of adults closed around her: a stepfather, grandparents, aunts. Nobody called it kinship care, it didn’t have a name then. They just stepped in, and stayed.

Together, Laura and Jo illuminate a world that is largely invisible, not because it is rare, but because it is so deeply woven into how families survive. There are over 130,000 children in kinship care in England and Wales right now. Most are there because someone said yes in a moment of crisis, with no time to think and very little support to follow.

This is a programme about what that decision really means for the children who receive it, and for the adults who give it.

It’s also about what it leaves behind, for the people who care, and for the children who grow up inside it.

Produced and presented by Jo Meek

“Each one of us, we’re a constant radio station communicating and receiving. It’s just that we’re not taught how to read, how to interpret the energies and intuitions we pick up. The tarot card is a really important component in this… " Ben Okri

Tarot cards are rich in visual symbolism and the stories they tell help people make sense of the ups and downs of human experience. They’ve been around for hundreds of years - from simple card games to fortune-telling, divination tools, the occult and intuitive storytelling.

In this episode of Illuminated, we join four artists at their private readings to hear how tarot is part of their creative practice.

The Queen of Wands: Comedian and writer Jessica Knappett drives to Harrogate to meet Carla Greenwood who has news of an ominous block in her work.

Madame Sosostris: Writer Ben Okri has borrowed ‘the wisest women in Europe’ as a character for his latest novel. Where did she come from?

Five of Coins: Musician, writer and actress Lola Kirke is about to go on stage in Manchester. Jen Cownie asks her if the Five of Coins card tells a story about feeling like an outsider.

Pentacles: Poet and generative intelligence designer Adam Martin is embarking on a new project. Is he on the right path?

With Ben Okri, Jessica Knappett, Adam Martin, Lola Kirke, Jen Cownie, Carla Greenwood and Diane Whiteley.

Editor.............................. Ross Burman

A Rakkit production for BBC Radio 4

World champion Strongwomen Lucy Underdown, Rebecca Roberts and Donna Moore redefine what it means to be strong. They reveal what we can all learn from these record-breaking athletes, while also challenging what it really means to be powerful woman.

Contributors: Rebecca Roberts, Lucy Underdown and Donna Moore

Produced by Justine Potter

Executive Producer: Geoff Bird

A Savvy production for BBC Radio 4

MRI machines are a miracle of modern medicine. A long white tube that can scan inside our bodies, detecting all manner of illnesses. Getting into one though can leave many people anxious. Something called 'scanxiety'.

When it's his turn to lie down and be rolled inside, presenter Ciaran Tracey must confront his claustrophobia and submit to the machine that can see what's inside his body.

His scan becomes a journey through quantum physics, electromagnetism and - most surprisingly - a space age machine that can talk back. This MRI is a little different - even a little sarcastic. Not least when it comes to telling him whats actually going on inside his own body.

Writer & Presenter: Ciaran Tracey

MRI sample sounds by Pond 5

With thanks to the Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Samuel Curley, Steven Jackson, Victoria Donahue, Amelia Cargo); University Of Manchester Preclinical & Clinical Imaging (Denise Ogden); and Daniel Sodickson (NYU, Function Health).

A Big City Nights production for BBC Radio 4

Andy Mycock has one of the world’s worst surnames. Despite being a renowned political scientist, his life has been punctuated by friends and strangers making fun of his name.

Daily acts like meeting new people or being called in to see the doctor can be both hilarious and fraught. His surname has impacted on his professional life, meeting a partner, and forming meaningful relationships. But there are positives too - it’s almost impossible to forget Dr Mycock.

As Andy learns to turn a lifetime of difficult first reactions into an opportunity to connect, he discovers he has a superpower and maybe a community too. Join him as he goes on a personal journey to find peace with Mycock.

Presenter: Andy Mycock

A farmer, a cheesemaker, a philosopher and a scientist take us on a guided tour through a cow.

Told in five acts, this programme weaves together the voices of our four guides - artist-philosopher Samar Nasrullah Khan, cheesemaker Peter Dixon, farmer Nikki Yoxall and Professor of Animal Science and Microbiology Sharon Huws.

They take us on a journey from deep in the soil, through a plant, into a cow’s mouth, through her four stomach compartments – home to vast civilisations of bacteria, protozoa and fungi – and, of course, out the other end. Finally, the cow is milked and her dung is devoured by microorganisms, who turn it back into soil – starting the cycle again.

Part documentary, part creative interpretation, the programme uses field recordings to immerse us in the multi-species communities we encounter along the way. These mingle with the voice of the cow herself, and those of our human guides, who explain and reflect on the interactions and transformations occurring at each stage.

Humans and cattle have co-evolved. Over thousands of years, we have harnessed, exploited and relied on their ability to transform protein-poor plants into milk and dung, providing nourishment for people and soil. But still, what actually goes on inside a cow – and between a cow and its environment – to make these transformations possible remains a source of wonder.

Featuring Nikki Yoxall, Samar Nasrullah Khan, Professor Sharon Huws and Peter Dixon

Producer and narrator: Katie Revell

Executive producer: Carys Wall

Sound design, music and mix: Ev Buckley

Additional recordings by Gastric Mill

A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

John Betjeman wrote that it was 'worth cycling forty miles in a head wind to visit St Wendreda's church in March, Cambridgeshire, because of the 118 angels in the roof.

Robert climbs to the ringing chamber to get close to the harrier angels with Ruth Clay, vicar of St Wendreda's, Edward Wilson-Lee, author of The Grammar of Angels, and Ajay Tegala, ranger at Wicken Fen. They discuss their meaning, in the C16th when they were carved, and today. The persecution and survival of the angel carvings corresponds to that of the birds. At Easter this is a resonant story.

During the Reformation iconoclasts destroyed 'idolatrous' church decorations, including carvings. Michael Rimmer, author of The Angel Roofs of East Anglia, tells of their destruction. At the same time the Tudor Vermin Acts led to a frenzy of killing of birds of prey such as harriers.

When Henry VIII's agents came to March to destroy the carvings, the people of March plied them with drink and food. They left with the church silver, but the harrier angels stayed intact.

In William Barsley’s workshop the wood carver speaks about the art of the carvers who were known as 'imaginators'.

And musician Martin Simpson has made a special recording of his song Skydancers, about harriers, their predicament, recovery, and our role in this.

Presenter: Robert Macfarlane

In 2018, the writer and actor Harriet Madeley found out that she was going to die.

In the midst of a confrontation with looming death, Harriet’s closest relationship began disintegrating.

This is the story of how Harriet used her creativity to come to terms with a life-changing diagnosis, and how it helped her to rebuild her relationships and decide how to face the future.

The play featured (slightly) fictionalised versions of the people closest to her. The script was a monologue, in which her own flaws and those of her loved-ones are magnified for the paying audience.

But how will those loved-ones respond? Will they be horrified? Or will the play force a meaningful conversation at last?

Writer: Harriet Madeley

A PRA production for BBC Radio 4

‘Do nothing’.

So exhorts Jimmy as he overhauls the strokes, kicks and breathing of his adult swim learners at Cardiff International Pool.

They plunge, roll, extend. As they learn to let go and glide, they’re overcome with a sense of joy, freedom and bodily ease.

For journalist Selma Chalabi, Jimmy’s classes have been a lifeline. She joined the class to improve her swimming technique, but what she found was something so much more profound. Jimmy’s unique and philosophical style of teaching taught her not only how to move at one with the water, but also how to live her life - when to move and when to rest and how to breathe.

It’s in the pool that Selma meets a community of learners - all ages, shapes and cultures - who are doing so much more than learning to swim. There’s Maggs, who is determined to face her worst fear and overcome a deep childhood trauma, and working mum Doris, whose moment of peace is when she submerges into the water. As for Darius, he has transformed from absolute beginner to potential competitor.

This is a world you might find in any leisure centre around the country. A place so familiar to us, and yet in its depths and shallows, in its pools of chlorine and azure light, are stories of courage, determination, bliss and finding new meaning in the water.

Producer and presenter: Selma Chalabi

With deepest gratitude to Jimmy, his students, and the staff at Cardiff International Pool.

An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4