The Compass

Latest Episodes:

The senses: Synaesthesia: When senses merge Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

Neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner explores the extraordinary sensory experiences of individuals with synaesthesia - a mash-up of senses where one sense automatically triggers another. Some synaesthetes hear colours, others feel sound.

We meet James who perceives the world differently from most people, due to his brain’s unusual wiring. Whenever he hears a word he immediately gets a taste and texture in his mouth. As a child, he’d go by train to school with his mum, reading out loud the stations they passed through. His favourite was Tottenham Court Road because the word sounds taste of sausage, crispy fried egg and toast. Whilst James tastes words, 23 year-old synaesthete Valeria sees colours and feels textures when she hears music. She assumes everyone has that sensory experience until, at aged 14, she sees her dad’s astonished reaction! For Valeria, some music is so utterly exquisite it causes her intense, physical pain.

Such variations in perception can also affect our internal world as Sheri, a painter from Canada, illustrates. After a stroke in her twenties she can no longer picture images in her mind. The condition, aphantasia (meaning ‘without a mind’s eye’) is so devastating Sheri calls it “internal blindness”.

Our understanding of reality comes from how we perceive the world around us. But as we discover in this programme and throughout this series, each of us experiences a unique reality constructed by our brain and our sensory system. Leading us to question what is real and what is an illusion.

(Valeria in the garden.Image taken by her brother Simone Perboni) .

The senses: Smell and taste Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

Imagine spraying yourself with a flowery fragrance but all you can smell is rotting flesh? Our senses can be surprisingly strange, especially when they malfunction due to injury, disease or genetic abnormalities. In this episode, neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner, explores two senses, smell and taste - separate yet inextricably linked.

We meet Joanne, whose sense of smell is so distorted after a heavy cold, even freshly-cut grass smells repulsive. We also hear from Walter who loves to cook and eat German cuisine but finds that pleasure is ruined when everything, even fine wine, tastes of metal.

By contrast, 15 year-old Abi’s sense of taste is working properly. She can tell if her food is sweet or salty. But Abi was born without a sense of smell (anosmia), which also means anything she eats has no flavour – because that’s created by smell and taste working together.

Loss of smell, an early symptom of coronavirus, has raised awareness of this important, yet neglected sense, often only appreciated when it’s gone. Yet so vital it’s wired directly to parts of the brain responsible for memories and emotion.

Produced by Sally Abrahams for the BBC World Service.

Photo: Abi in a field of yellow flowers. Credit BBC

The senses: Hearing Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

From a whisper to the roar of thunder, every sound creates vibrations in our ears which the brain decodes, to tell us what we’re hearing. But as neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner explains, when disruptions occur along the way, extraordinary things can happen, changing how we perceive the world. We meet Mark, who can’t hear his friends in a noisy pub but can hear the sound of every bodily function amplified in his head.

Kelly gets spinning attacks that send her falling to the floor. The sensation lasts for hours and with every attack she loses hearing. She’s been told it’s Ménière's disease - an inner ear disorder that affects balance.

Keen bird-watcher Bill recognises his hearing loss when he can no longer pick out the call of the smallest birds, but can hear elaborate musical tunes when there’s nothing playing.

These astonishing cases show how tiny changes in our bodies can turn our understanding of the world upside down, leading us to question our own version of reality.

Produced by Sally Abrahams for the BBC World Service.

Photo: Kelly, who has been diagnosed with Ménière's disease Credit: BBC

The senses: Vision Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Vision is a complex process involving light rays, special nerve cells and electrical signals sent to the brain, which processes the information and tells us what we’re seeing. But even tiny disruptions to any part of this system can result in remarkable visual problems. Neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner, meets 25-year-old filmmaker Oli, who’s only recently discovered something alarming: he’s missing half his vision in one eye - probably caused by a stroke he never knew he had.

We hear from Dawn, whose eyes are working properly and yet she’s almost completely blind. Her visual problems are caused by damage to a vital nerve connecting her eyeballs and her brain.

Susan describes how her epilepsy is causing visual distortions that mean she can see through a person as if they were transparent.

And we meet Nina who’s been robbed of her sight after two separate accidents. And yet, she sees colours and terrifying images of zombie faces. She discovers she has Charles Bonnet Syndrome – visual hallucinations caused by loss of sight

Through the extraordinary experiences of these individuals, we learn how vision is not like a video camera, a straightforward process of turning light into a picture.

Produced by Sally Abrahams for the BBC World Service.

Photo: Dawn with her dog in the garden.Credit: BBC

The senses: Touch Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

Our skin contains millions of nerve endings and touch sensors that collect information about different sensations like temperature, pressure, vibration, pain and send it to the brain for processing and reaction. But it’s when our sensory system goes wrong that we learn most about how our senses help us understand the world around us. Neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner talks to Alison, whose delicious seafood dinner sends her nervous system haywire. Poisoned by fish contaminated with ciguatera toxin, her sense of temperature is turned upside down – so hot feels cold and the cold floor tiles burn the soles of her feet.

We hear from Dawn, whose damaged nerve triggers excruciating pain down the side of her face – illustrating how our senses can trick us about the source of our agony. We meet Paul, who has broken every bone in his body, yet never feels a jot of pain. His rare genetic condition, congenital insensitivity to pain, means his brain never receives signals warning of damage to his flesh and bones. And whilst a pain-free life might sound appealing, we find out it has serious physical and psychological consequences. And through Rahel we learn about a lesser-known touch sensation, called proprioception. When it is not working, it affects our co-ordination. And for Rahel, that means she struggles to stay upright when it is dark.

Produced by Sally Abrahams for the BBC World Service.

Photo: Vicki and Paul Waters Courtesy of the Waters family

Rethinking: The pandemic that changed the world Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

What will the world look like post-Covid? In an age of increasingly inward focus can a spirit of multilateralism prevail to meet the challenges posed by the reconstruction of national economies as well as the needs of poorer countries and the international organisations? And does the post-Coronavirus moment provide an opportunity to think differently about other global challenges, the foremost being climate change? Will we be able to “build back better”? Ian Goldin, Oxford University’s professor of globalisation and development draws on his experience as economic advisor to Nelson Mandela and vice president at the World Bank to argue that the gravest threat to humanity in a generation could be turned into an opportunity. But the challenges are many. He discusses them with - among others - pandemic expert Larry Brilliant; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; the editor of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes; and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance.

Remedies: The pandemic that changed the world Jul 16, 2020

Show notes

How should governments respond to the pandemic? The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc both to health systems and economies. Above all it has served to expose inequalities both within nations and between them. Hardest hit are countries in the developing world, where government finances do not permit the level of support to citizens or the private sector that has been provided by richer governments. Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, sees the crisis as marking a turning point in relations between the state and the private sector. Even so, he asks whether governments are doing enough to address the economic impact of the pandemic and the resulting inequalities. He hears powerful testimony from his guests who include the economist Joseph Stiglitz, novelist and activist Arundhati Roy, Achim Steiner, the head of the United Nations Development Programme, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance. Producer: Tim Mansel

Reasons: The pandemic that changed the world Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Why did coronavirus strike so fast and so hard? There was plenty of warning that a pandemic was inevitable, but when a new virus emerged in a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world proved powerless to prevent it spreading. The finger has been pointed in various directions: a failure by the Chinese authorities to communicate, a sluggish response from the World Health Organisation, an ignorance of history, and what Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, has termed the ‘Butterfly Defect’ of globalisation. In this episode, Professor Goldin explores what he sees as the complacency of governments and a declining commitment to multilateralism as reasons for the new pandemic and its unprecedented economic consequences. He hears from, among others, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva; the man who identified the Ebola virus, Peter Piot; and the historian Margaret MacMillan. Producer: Tim Mansel

Window on the universe Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

The Hubble space telescope has transformed our view of the universe and put our lives on Earth into a truly cosmic perspective. As we celebrate thirty years of Hubble’s achievements, we look to the future of the space telescope and the potential of its ambitious successor. Hubble has produced a multitude of scientific discoveries, but it has also influenced our culture, art and music. It’s easy to forget that following its April 1990 launch, the space telescope was derided as NASA’s greatest failure. A faulty mirror meant it only produced blurred images and a daring Space Shuttle mission had to be scrambled to fix it. Hubble’s successor, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), has had a similarly troubled start. Due for launch next year, the JWST has come close to being cancelled several times. Its budget has rocketed from $1 billion and it’s faced a succession of delays. With a final location 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, fixing any mistakes won’t be an option. But if it succeeds, the JWST will be powerful enough to look back to the very dawn of time. With mirrors so precise they can capture single photons, the telescope has the potential to reveal new planets in distant star systems and even whether they might be habitable. In The Compass: Window on the Universe, space journalist and author Sue Nelson examines the achievements of Hubble and what it has taught us. She talks to Hubble’s chief scientist about the space telescope’s future, as well as researchers and engineers working on the JWST. What difference will this new telescope make to humanity and our perspective on the universe?

Image: A model of the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (Credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Tech companies and free speech Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

Tech companies now find themselves in the firing line of free speech debate. To what extent can they duck the issue given their global coverage? Is it up to them to police what people say from the dangerous privacy of their own keyboards? And with truth and fake news being trumpeted by the highest powers in many lands can they be held responsible for drawing the lines in debates about what should or shouldn’t be said, posted or tweeted?

And at the heart of the series is a desire to test the absolute conviction of those who would espouse free speech and see it as a basic human right?

(Photo: Social media apps on a phone. Credit: Getty Images)

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