Illuminated

Time is a journey - the future ahead of us, the past behind.
Our burdens are a weight that we carry, our problems are a puzzle that we solve.
Metaphor is at the heart of how we understand our existence. In a period of huge change and global uncertainty, are we outgrowing the metaphors we have lived by?
The poet Jack Underwood is offering his services as a metaphor consultant, for a very reasonable fee.
Featuring conversations with poet and psychoanalyst Nuar Alsadir; Dr Stephen Flusberg, the Director of the Framing, Reasoning And Metaphor (FRAME) Lab at Vassar College; computer scientist Melanie Mitchell; the philosopher Dr Julia Ng; and the linguist and author of Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff.
Location recording by Mitra Kaboli, Kristina Loring, Gustavo Martinez and Donelle Wedderburn
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

For decades, Nigerian hall parties have been the hub for communities in the UK, it was the place where they could bring a little bit of home and be transported through music, food and fashion. Full of extravagance, warmth and culture, the word Owambe, both noun and adjective, directly translates to ‘everything is there’. Now, first generation British Nigerians continue this tradition, their way.
Presenter Bisi Akins takes us on a journey through an Owambe, exploring what that “everything” really means. We dive into the key elements of a successful Nigerian hall party, immersed in the sounds, smells, music, and traditions that bring an Owambe to life. We’ll hear from those who lived it, loved it, and how the next generation are keeping the tradition alive.
Bring your big beats, bold outfits, and dancing shoes – Into the Owambe for BBC Radio 4.
A Hill 5.14 production for BBC Radio 4

Bass guitarist and record producer Jah Wobble has had a lifetime’s immersion at the low end of the musical spectrum. Over four decades, his hypnotic bass riffs have powered music from punk to reggae, fusion to world music.
He relates his first experiences as a teenager attending blues dances where Jamaican sound systems played cuts of reggae dub where the bass felt like a force like gravity, and seeing Bob Marley and the Wailers where he was captivated by the playing of bassist Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, and on to his own involvement with Public Image Limited, where he brought a dub sensibility into their post-punk music. He discusses his long years as a solo artist, and collaborations with musical legends from Can’s Holger Czukay to Sinead O’Connor, and Primal Scream to Pharoah Sanders.
During these years, Jah Wobble has also been interested in the Science of Bass. So, he meets up with Dr Duncan Edwards of Salford University, to ask him about the special, physical properties of Bass Notes. How do they reach our brains and, once there, what psychological, emotional effects can they have on us? To understand this, he submits to an experiment where his head is wired up, and the Wobble brain waves measured.
After years lost in drink and drugs Jah Wobble turned to Buddhism and became fascinated by alternative explanations of his bass playing that this could give him. He interviews eminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Jampa Thaye, to find further enlightenment. And in a south London Prayer room, he listens to the extraordinary low-pitched chanting of exiled Tibetan monks, where one mantra has the awesome power of a bass note.
Presenter: Jah Wobble
Producer: Alastair Laurence
Sound Design: Jake Wittlin
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

What does Christmas Day mean to you?
This raw, kaleidoscopic audio portrait, made up entirely from voice notes recordings, tracks the emotional contours of the day as it unfolds.
Through midnight churchgoing and moments of quiet reflection to frenetic gift-giving, culinary chaos and karaoke, the programme evokes and questions our own multifarious experiences of what Christmas Day ‘means’.
Variously boozy, silly, sad, excited, warm, lonely, deeply spiritual and endearingly humanistic – the contributions chart a cross section of modern Britain, encompassing heartfelt-stories, accidental field recordings, impromptu songs and audio diary entries.
With special thanks to all those who recorded their Christmas Day for us in 2024. Original music and sound design by James Bonney.
Producer: James Bonney
Mix: Mike Woolley
Executive Producer: Olivia Humphreys
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4

In 1939, Emma Freud's mother Jill was evacuated from London to the suburbs of Oxford. After staying with Lewis Carroll's friends the Butler sisters for a few years, she arrived at her next designated accommodation clutching a small suitcase and a copy of her favourite book, The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. It was just a few weeks later, after she spotted several copies of that book on a shelf, that she realised she was actually living with CS Lewis himself.
In this telling of Jill's fascinating story, Emma hears all about her mother's love for CS Lewis, known to her as Jack. How she cared for him, how he paid for her to go to drama school and how a big, old, wooden wardrobe became part of her story...
Illustrated with readings from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Emma captures these precious memories as she sits down with her mum to hear her magical story.
Readings of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by Olivia Williams.
Other readings by Richard Gibson.
Presenter: Emma Freud
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis © copyright 1950 CS Lewis Pte Ltd.
Lady Jill Freud, April 1927-November 2025.