Short Cuts

What can we learn from the humanity of others? From seeing ourselves reflected in someone else? Josie Long presents stories of role models.

"You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There's this idea that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. And what I've always thought isn't that monsters don't have reflections in a mirror. It's that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves... Part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it." - Junot Diaz

Water Fleas

Mirrors

Nadia

Intolerants Not Welcome

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

Secret languages, loving acts of translation and musical instruments with an unrecognised power - Josie Long presents new documentaries about translation.

From the man who introduced a poet to Iran through a tender act of love for his father, to a debate about breaching the peace.

The Stash

Be Myself

Days of Razors, Nights Full of Rats

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

Escape artists, losing control of your body and losing yourself in water - Josie Long takes a twilight stroll across Hampstead Heath while she presents stories of movement.

Pond

Movement

Lake

Einstein

Sea

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

A disembodied voice, digital ghosts and the contraptions we build that alter our humanity - Josie Long presents new short documentaries about machines.

We hear from the voice of Siri in the UK about losing control of what you say. Also - the story of a digital version of yourself outliving you and our relationship to the tools we build and the scars they leave.

Daniel

Replika

15 Years

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2017.

Josie Long hears stories of heartbreak. Difficult love, women encoded in music and rebuilding yourself after you've been broken.

Laura Barton offers a tender exploration of complex, enduring love, Natalie Kestecher rebuilds herself after a sudden shock and we dive into the sound of heartache.

Tough Love

Twenty-Three

Kintsugi Dog

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

Josie Long hears stories of duets, the perfect conversational dance and gatecrashing honeymoons. She also talks to the other half of her long-running comedy partnership - Robin Ince.

The poet John Osborne delves into late night radio phone in conversations, the artist Duncan Speakman invites the listener to engage in a duet and Phil Smith intrudes on a romantic moment.

Towards

A Duet for Here and There

Late Night Radio Phone In

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2017.

A memory caught in a childhood drawing and a repeat encounter which offers hope at a point of despair - Josie Long explores the afterimage left by moments that touch us.

We hear from Sion Jair who climbs mountains as a way to cope with disappearing memories. Sophie Townsend finds an image from her daughter's childhood, which captures a difficult moment from their past. And Dylan Park, five years after his first deployment to Iraq, finds an unexpected reminder of his first tour in Arizona.

Brahim

Mr Fix-It

Mountains

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2017.

Josie Long hears stories of bearing witness - from glimpsing the moment a parent changes to escaping a violent storm.

Witness

Tornado

Scaffold

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2017.

Josie Long hears stories of our desire to pause - from dismantling a house which seems stopped in time to the difficulties of watching your child grow up.

The House by the Creek

Pony

Private Black Motherhood and Public White Protest

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2017.

Defiantly staring down neo-Nazis, unwanted family portraits and a photographer searching for his subject years later - Josie Long presents new short documentaries inspired by images.

Woman in the Photo

Resistance

Family Portrait

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2017.

(Photo credit: Nathan Edwards/News Corp Australia)