Seriously... BBC Radio 4
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- Society & Culture
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Seriously is home to the world’s best audio documentaries and podcast recommendations, and host Vanessa Kisuule brings you two fascinating new episodes every week.
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The War the World Forgot
Since it gained Independence in 1956 Sudan has had at least 2 major civil wars. The last one resulted in Southern Sudan becoming an Independent state in 2011. The latest civil war broke out last April between two rival factions of the military government, the Sudanese Army Force (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF. Thousands have been killed and the country is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. Why aren't we hearing more about it? James Copnall, former BBC Sudan Correspondent finds out what exactly is going on from historians, personal testimony, government and humanitarian aid agencies.
Presenter: James Copnall
Producer: Julie Ball
Editor: Tara McDermott -
A Reckoning with Drugs in Oregon
Four years ago, one of America’s most progressive states passed the country’s boldest approach to drug policy reform yet. Measure 110 came after a spirited campaign targeting the country’s failed war on drugs.
The new law decriminalised possession of all illicit substances, including heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine . The reformers accurately predicted that the new law would result in fewer people of colour being locked up, but it also coincided with the new spread of the deadly drug fentanyl, and a tidal wave of homelessness.
Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and is far more deadly. Social workers and police now regularly carry the opioid-blocking drug Narcan to treat people overdosing on the streets. Homelessness also continues to rise alongside the drug’s rampage, creating an epidemic on multiple fronts.
In A Reckoning with Drugs in Oregon, local journalist Winston Ross explores the complex issues behind Portland’s fentanyl crisis and lawmakers’ recent decision to roll back Measure 110, speaking across the political divide and to many of those in the eye of the storm.
Presented by Winston Ross
Produced by James Tindale
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 -
Incandescent: The Phoebus Cartel
A century ago, businessmen from around the world gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, to form a shadowy international organisation called the Phoebus Cartel. Their purpose? To control the production and distribution of lightbulbs across the world - and also, it's alleged, to deliberately shorten their lifespans to make them burn out quicker in order to sell more.
It's a manufacturing tactic called planned obsolescence and it's claimed the Phoebus Cartel invented it.
In this documentary, Shaun Keaveny goes in search of the mysterious Phoebus Cartel, a journey which takes him from the Industrial Midlands to Switzerland, a testing laboratory in Belgium, and the bizarre story of an immortal light bulb called Byron. Shaun investigates the rise of today's throwaway culture and looks at its enormous environmental impact, with millions of low-cost, poorly-made products ending up in landfill within a year of being bought.
Is this a legacy of the Phoebus Cartel? Where does the conspiracy theory end and reality begin?
Shaun also hears from the repairers, the activists, the campaigners and the designers who are fighting back against today's culture of accelerating obsolescence.
Featuring contributions from: Chris Setz and the team at Haringey Fixers, Helen Peavitt (Science Museum), Catherine Shanahan (Rugby Art Museum), Markus Krajewski (University of Basel), James Hooker (Head of Laboratories for international lighting company), Scott Butler (Material Focus), Jack Holloway (Product Designer), Tim Cooper (Nottingham University), Kate Raworth (Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University)
Readings... Joseph Millson
Presenter... Shaun Keaveny
Producer... Andrew Smith
Executive Producer... Kris Dyer
A Rakkit production for BBC Radio 4 -
Farmers and Furious
Following wide ranging farmers' protests across Europe, now British farmers are starting to show their discontent with thousands of farmers meeting in Wales, as well as protests taking place in England.
BBC Radio 4 Farming Today's Charlotte Smith joins farmers as they are protesting and asks if the industry is now at breaking point.
Will the new promise by the prime minister to ensure food production is supported, and not just environmental work, be enough to appease English farmers? And has the Welsh First Minister's comments that farmers can not simply decide themselves what to do with millions in subsidies, just inflamed the situation further?
With so many demands on our land, from capturing carbon to reversing the biodiversity loss, is there still space for farmers to produce food profitably in the UK?
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton. -
Decolonising Russia
All along Russia’s border, in former Soviet republics, the Ukrainian war has prompted a new, more assertive sense of national identity. They’re asking whether – despite independence – they’ve really overcome the legacy of 'Russian colonialism.'
Meanwhile activists from the many ethnic minorities inside Russia are increasingly describing themselves as victims of colonialism too - and demanding self-determination. The debate about the 'imperial' nature of Russia has now also been taken up by strategists, politicians and scholars in the West. Many are questioning their own previous 'Russocentric' assumptions, and asking whether 'decolonising' Russia is the only way to stop the country threatening its neighbours - and world peace.
But some also wonder whether the term 'decolonisation' is really relevant to Russia – and what it means. Is it about challenging the '0imperial mindset' of its rulers – and perhaps of every ordinary Russian? Or perhaps it means dismembering the country itself? Or, as some claim, is the very idea of 'decolonising Russia' just part of an attempt by the West to extend its own neo-colonialist influence?
Tim Whewell dissects a new and vital controversy with the help of historians, thinkers and activists from Russia and its neighbours, the West and the Global South.
Sound mixing by Hal Haines
Production coordinators: Sabine Schereck, Maria Ogundele, Katie Morrison
Editor: Richard Fenton Smith
Extract from "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A A Milne, read by Alan Bennett -
How to Build an Oil Field
In September 2023 permission was given to develop Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oil field. Located west of Shetland, the UK government says it will provide energy security in the UK for a whole generation, at a time where we have never felt more insecure about the source of our energy and the cost. But will it?
A feat of modern engineering, with the latest technology used to create it. Once operational, where is all this money, and oil, going to flow? And how does this fit into a commitment to transition from a dependency on fossil fuels to greener alternatives?
There’s a lot at stake with this new oil field: jobs, investment, income, and oil, of course.
There are so many questions about how oil and gas works in terms of its relationship to the UK, yet surprisingly few clear answers. This programme will help fill in the blanks.
Customer Reviews
Intrigue series
Fascinating stories. So much research has gone into them by people that know: Philippe Sands on The Ratline and Carrie Gracie on Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel. I binge-listen in the cat, while sewing or knitting!! Much better than binge-watching tv series.