Tempest Productions

An Interaction of Particles

A couple in bed. She's listening to the radio. He's reading a book. But it's Christmas Eve and something special - and a little weird - happens to them every Christmas Eve. Get ready for the journey of a bedtime!

Our Christmas Special this year is a celebration of forbidden love, beautiful science and good old-fashioned broadcasting. Written by Bibi Berki, performed by Mark Lingwood and Bibi Berki, with a guest appearance by Roger Sawyer, it's our seasonal gift to you, our listeners. Happy Christmas 2022!

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The Neuromantics

Season 2

Episode 5

The Neuromantics – writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott – return to the theme of ageing brains, this time exploring research into why some people remain cognitively intact well into their 90s and beyond. Is it simply a case of keeping our brains busy by learning new languages and musical instruments, or is there something more lobal going on? Or even social? They discover advice on ageing – and just about everything else – in the essays of 16th Century philosopher Michel de Montaigne and reflect on the challenges and even opportunities of Tier 4 lockdown.

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics

Season 2

Episode 4

The grooming episode.

Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves talk social bonds, hierarchies and connectedness. Focusing on a paper about baboon groups in Africa, they untangle the reasons why primates thrive as social animals and come a cropper when left alone. (That's where the grooming comes in.) What can these tight baboon hierarchies usefully tell us about our own social structures and interactions? Can group activities really bring people with opposing views together? Join the Neuromantics to discuss alpha males, rogue males, child escapees (courtesy of the writer M. John Harrison) and nail bars.

Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics

Season 2

Episode 3

This atmospheric episode of The Neuromantics is brought to you from London Zoo. Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves – once they’ve stopped to admire the grooming macaques – discuss the plasticity of the human brain, in particular when it comes to the ageing process. Given that we're all born with the brain cells we’ll need for the rest of our lives – 85bn of them to be precise – how do these cells change and grow as we move from childhood, through the challenges of adolescence, and into the altered landscape of old age? Basing their discussion on a scientific paper on the ageing brain, and moving on to Alice Munro's short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, they stop to consider risk-taking teenagers, dementia, the nature of romantic love and why going out into the world is the best exercise for your brain.

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics

Season 2

Episode 2

The Neuromantics - writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott - take their usual inspired and multi-disciplined approach and apply it to the theme of journeys. Helping us unravel issues of movement and travel is an enlightening scientific paper on bird navigation and two moving short stories. With plenty of ground to cover, they discover why pigeons bob their heads, why two foveas are better than one, and how the most fascinating journey we'll ever make is our own physical and mental development.

Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

The Neuromantics

Season 2

Episode 1

In this constantly shifting world, with its endless novel experiences and influences, one thing we can be sure of is that we're not the same person as we were at birth. Welcome to the first episode of the second season of the Neuromantics, in which writer Will Eaves and neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott juggle ideas of human response to a changing environment. Some exquisite examples of 9th and 10th century Arabic poetry suggest that early writers were trying to pin down or preserve the world around them. Meanwhile, an academic paper on mental rotation explores the relationship between physical movement and mental perception. All this flux - how fitting for an episode recorded during the Covid lockdown.

Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

Unbound

17 The Seesaw of Isolation

Trapped in his house by rising flood water, an old man's life depends on outside help. The sense of menace grows along with the encroaching water in this tense tale of old-age vulnerability. Written by Dianne Bown-Wilson and read by Steven Blake. Studio production by Mark Lingwood.

Unbound is Tempest's audio bookshelf, packed with original stories of every genre. Find your next literary listen here: https://soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/unbound

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Set in frozen, war-torn Leningrad, After Silence follows the story of the musicians of all backgrounds and circumstances who come together to perform Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in 1941. Described as "absorbing" and "richly sensuous," this ambitious novel by Jessica Gregson is due to be published by Deixis Press in August 2022.

https://deixis.press/books/p/after-silence

Trailer read by Rebecca Charles and made by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net

The Neuromantics

Season 1

Episode 10

The Neuromantics go out on a good laugh. For their season-ending episode, neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and writer Will Eaves explore the social function of laughter and discover that it’s a surprisingly more complex facet of human behaviour than you might think. There’s plenty of ground to cover: why do jokes seem funnier when other people are laughing at them? What’s behind the often shocking humour among colleagues in stressful jobs? And who else here remembers Ripping Yarns?

Brought to you by Tempest Productions www.tempestproductions.net

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Podcast copyright Will Eaves & Sophie Scott; articles and texts discussed copyright authors

Apex

"If this is the last time, make it count."

A lone driver walks the track early one morning before a major race. Written off and dogged by bad luck, he knows that what lies ahead has to be the defining moment of his career - one way or another.

Lose yourself in the explosive noise and adrenaline of this high-octane drama, full of the chaos and intensity of a Formula 1 event. Both a narrative and a sensory experience, Apex will take you on the listening ride of your life.

Apex is written by Alex Dawes and read by Mark Lingwood.

Sound production by Mark Lingwood.

Part of Tempest's Singular series of stand-alone dramas and stories by award-winning contemporary authors. Find the whole series here: https://soundcloud.com/user-986948053/sets/singular-original-stand-alone