NEW in Understand – Seven Ages of Man with Michael Rosen
What does being a ‘man’ really mean in each decade of life? From Michael Palin in his 80s to comedian Vittorio Angelone, just turned 30, seven men share their personal experiences.
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NEW in Understand – Seven Ages of Man with Michael Rosen
What does being a ‘man’ really mean in each decade of life? From Michael Palin in his 80s to comedian Vittorio Angelone, just turned 30, seven men share their personal experiences.
Copyright: © (C) BBC 2023
Ros Atkins thinks technology is dramatically shifting what we value in the worlds of friendship, culture, finance and work.
In this episode, he sets out to test whether that shift amounts to a crisis - or something else.
He examines how technology has made our relationships more frictionless, and perhaps thinner as a result; whether an algorithm can tell the difference between what's good and what merely holds our attention; how in the world of finance, price has come loose from worth altogether; and how in the world of work, some of us are wondering how long our value will hold.
Featuring contributions from philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, sociologist Sherry Turkle, journalist and broadcaster Zing Tsjeng, the New Yorker's Kyle Chayka, writer John Lanchester, Financial Times columnist Jemima Kelly, translator Ruth Martin, software engineer Andrew Hamilton and economist Daniel Susskind.
A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
Technology is changing our lives at breakneck speed. But what is it doing to what we value?
From friendship and culture to finance and work, Ros Atkins explores how technology is reshaping our ideas of worth. Has making our relationships more frictionless also made them thinner? Can an algorithm tell the difference between what's good and what simply holds our attention? What happens when price comes unstuck from value, or when the technology that makes us more productive also makes our own skills redundant?
Ros looks to previous technological revolutions for clues, from the arrival of the printing press and the Luddite rebellion to the invention of photography and the dot-com crash. And as AI promises to transform everything from creativity and intimacy to science and work, he asks whether this really amounts to a crisis, and whether AI will resolve it, or make it worse.
Producer: Nadia Mehdi
A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4
Across three episodes, author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.
Episode three turns to adulthood, asking what it means to receive a diagnosis of autism or ADHD later in life, and why increasing numbers of people are now seeking assessment. Nathan hears from clinicians managing huge waiting lists, alongside adults reflecting on how a diagnosis has shaped their understanding of themselves and their lives.
Through lived experience and expert insight, the programme asks what it would take for more neurodivergent adults to be better understood, better supported and better able to flourish.
Featuring contributions from Pete Wharmby, occuptional therapist Charlie Hobbs, Ian Ensum and Sarah Zohadi from the Bristol Autism Spectrum Service, peer mentor Ben, neurodiversity coach Emma Wee, Matthew Punter; founder of Eden, and Annie and Patricia from Project Art Works in Hastings.
Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
Across three episodes, author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.
Episode two asks what it means to grow up neurodivergent in a school system under strain. For some children, school can be a place of learning, friendship and support. For others, it can become overwhelming: a world of sensory overload, social confusion, anxiety, burnout and absence.
Through the experiences of children, parents, educators and clinicians, the programme considers what happens when a child is labelled difficult, disruptive or unable to cope – and what changes when adults begin to see distress differently.
From autism and ADHD to school avoidance, SEND provision, sensory integration and the pressure on families and teachers, it asks how education might better meet children where they are.
Featuring contributions from Matthew Punter, Labeebah Islaam, SENDcos Georgina Smith and Stewart Dudgeon, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Occupational Therapist Charlie Hobbs.
Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
Author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.
Episode one begins with the language of difference: as terms like neurodivergent and neurotypical have moved from activist and specialist spaces into everyday life, they have brought comfort, identity and community, but also confusion.
Through lived experience and expert insight, the programme travels from autism and ADHD to self-diagnosis, TikTok, rejection sensitivity and the limits of labels.
It asks not only what we call one another, but how we listen, understand and care.
Featuring contributions from Labeebah Islaam, academic psychologist Lucy Foulkes, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Alex Partridge, author of Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Living and Loving with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria.
Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer Producer: Eliza Lomas Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Chris Ledgard Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski
Nathan Filer explores the complex and shifting terrain of neurodiversity, and what it means to be different. From neurodivergence in childhood, to navigating adulthood.
Facing climate fatigue and denial, a backlash against green policy, and increasingly urgent warnings from scientists, the green movement is shifting into a new era.
Two environmentally-minded politicians spell out their opposing visions for where the movement should go next.
Zack Polanski is the leader of the Green Party, preaching a message of ‘eco-populism’. John Gummer is a Conservative Lord and former head of the Climate Change Committee; he thinks the most powerful tool to make change is the free market.
What is the future of the green movement?
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive: Doechii at Glastonbury, Glastonbury and Doechii filmed by BBC, 28/6/2025 Green Party Hustings at Glastonbury Speakers Forum, The Green Gathering, filmed by Zoe Broughton, 8/7/2025 Margaret Thatcher speech to the United Nations General Assembly, C-SPAN, 8/11/1989
Just Stop Oil is “hanging up the hi vis” after three years of throwing soup at paintings, interrupting theatre performances, and blocking roads. It’s 2025. They’ve been racking up arrests - and opponents - and now, the UK government has passed a string of new laws cracking down on disruptive protest.
They say they’ve achieved their aims - a ban on new oil and gas licenses - but were they policed to extinction? With their hardcore campaigning for the climate, did these activists prompt a change in law that made all green activism harder?
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Producer: Alix Pickles Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive: ‘Just Stop Oil is Hanging up the Hi Vis’, Just Stop Oil, 27/3/2025 Just Stop Oil Louise M25 protest, Just Stop Oil, 7/11/2022 Lord Deben on Just Stop Oil, ITV Robert Peston, 5/7/2023 Rupert Read talking about The Climate Majority Project, Some Dare Call It Conspiracy podcast, 24/4/2024
There are competing protests on either side of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. It’s 2023, on the eve of the final shutdown of the country's last three remaining nuclear power plants.
On one side, anti-nuclear campaigners and politicians celebrate their victory. This is a new, clean, dawn for the German power grid, they say.
On the other side of the gate, a small but vocal group of pro-nuclear greens condemn what they believe is a grave mistake. And as other countries pledge to increase their nuclear energy capacities, this group is playing the long game. They believe they may have lost the battle here in Germany, but they will win the war.
How did the green-on-green struggle over the German energy system go nuclear?
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Producer: Rachel Naylor Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive: Saubere Energien kämpfen gegen schmutzige, Nuklearia, 13/5/2023 Footage of Fridays For Future protest in Berlin, @digitalwerber and Nuklearia, 24/9/2021
Mountain gorillas are thriving in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The formerly ‘critically endangered’ population has blossomed, hailed around the world as a conservation success story.
But to save the gorillas, humans were shut out of the forest. An indigenous community who for centuries called this area their ancestral homeland was evicted - they say, illegally. And now they are fighting to go back.
This struggle over land, resources, and who has a voice in conservation will go all the way to Uganda's highest court.
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Series Producer: Ellie House Editor: Matt Willis Sound Design and Mix: James Beard Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke