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Hannah Jane Walker argues that sensitivity is overlooked, dismissed and under-utilised

A few years ago, Hannah gave a talk on Radio 4, which I produced, about sensitivity. She had the most extraordinary response, with hundreds of people getting in touch to tell her how moved they had been. The result was a stage show about sensitivity, and this documentary. In it, she set out to meet some of those who got in touch with her, as well as some experts, to find out what the latest research says about sensitivity, and whether we might be able to enter the age of the sensitive person.

Lindsay Johns asks why so few black Britons give blood and examines why it matters.

This programme arose out of an observation from Lindsay Johns, the presenter. Having given platelets (a part of the blood) every couple of weeks for several years, he’d never seen another person of colour doing so. What’s going on? Far from being some stray observation, it turns out this is a major concern for NHS Blood and Transplant, with major clinical implications. But why do so few people of colour give blood, and what might be done about it?

Jay wants to leave behind a life in gangs, but who is there to help?

There’s a moment in the middle of this documentary which is amongst the best I’ve had the pleasure to record, when Jay - the subject and narrator of this programme - speaks to Callum, who I’d first met making ‘The Glasgow Boys’ a couple of years previously. It’s not the only great moment: ‘Jay’ (not his real name) is a natural presenter, and I think most listeners will learn a lot from hearing him tell his own story, in his own words.

Mona Chalabi asks why female facial hair still seems to be a source of such shame.

I’ve wanted to work with Mona Chalabi for years. She’s a brilliant, intelligent and engaging journalist, constantly thinking about how to convey data and ideas in a way which people can best understand. And in this programme, about female facial hair, you can all that at work - even without her trademark data visualisations. She takes this formerly taboo subject and finds loads that’s new and fascinating to say about it, drawing together data, science and lived experience to present a rich and nuanced picture.

Professor Matthew Flinders examines the legacy of the MPs' expenses scandal ten years on.

Ten years on from the MPs’ expenses scandal, Matt wanted to explore the fallout. Some are relatively well-known, but others - including the major reforms to the parliamentary select committee system and the influx of new MPs, many with little background in politics and who are less committed to party discipline - are not.

Byron Vincent raises some practical, and moral, questions about social mobility.

I really like working with Byron Vincent, and this was our fourth time making a programme together. This documentary was an opportunity to question the popular narrative about social mobility: that it’s an unambiguously good thing, which public policy should support. Byron’s experience, and the experience of many of the other people in this programme, complicated that narrative. By raising questions about what working class people had to give up in order to be socially mobile, and about the people left behind, Byron criticised the very notion of social mobility as a golden ticket for the select few. It prompted very strong feedback, and Byron was invited to speak to the Social Mobility Commission about it.

Sayeeda Warsi explores how to be a Muslim woman in 21st-century Britain.

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in a British cabinet, was interested in expanding the discussion about what it means to be a Muslim woman, in Britain, in 2019. And this documentary, and the accompanying podcast we made together, was the result. A series of deep and in some cases intimate conversations ensued. Sayeeda wasn’t interested in answering the question with a single answer; instead she wanted to show some of the many answers already present in Britain’s Muslim communities. In the end, one of the key questions she addressed with all her interviewees was whether, and how, compatible Islam is with feminism.

Could voting laws and partisan district maps swing November’s US mid-term elections?

Just before the 2018 US mid-term elections I returned to North Carolina, and caught up again with many of the people I’d met when working with Rajini on the earlier documentary about voting rights. I was interested in what had changed - how had the story moved in the state which has probably seen the biggest change in electoral laws since 2013. But I was also interested to hear about partisan gerrymandering - an issue we had not included in the earlier documentary. I arrived just days after a significant hurricane, so I wasn’t able to visit the southern part of the state which was still closed, but I did catch up with several familiar faces.

James Naughtie examines the crucial politics of the US Supreme Court

Two years on from my last examination of the politics surrounding the US Supreme Court, I journeyed to the United States with the great James Naughtie to investigate how profoundly the Court was shaping American public life. Jim knows US politics better than anyone I know, and it was a pleasure to work with him as we worked our way south from Boston, Massachusetts. By the time we arrived in Washington, DC, Justice Anthony Kennedy had announced his intention to retire and Judge (now Justice) Brett Kavanaugh had been nominated, but it was before the rancorous hearings. We deliberately steered clear of the politics around abortion, to discuss some of the many other ways in which activists were looking to the court to upend decades-long assumptions, from gun rights to equal marriage, and the environment to immigration.

Lindsay Johns argues that novelist Alex La Guma is an overlooked literary colossus.

Journalist Lindsay Johns has a passion for the South African novelist Alex La Guma, and in this programme we travelled together to La Guma’s home city of Cape Town to discover why. Presenting pictures of La Guma, of Cape Town, of the city’s coloured community and of post-apartheid South Africa through the lens of perhaps the city’s greatest writer, Lindsay argued that it’s time La Guma was given the credit he deserves.

Could abortion be banned in the USA?

Last year Philippa Thomas and I travelled to Texas and Kentucky to report on a story which, at the time, had been something of a marginal issue in day-to-day US politics - abortion. Spending time with activists on both sides of the aisle, we discovered a lot more complexity and nuance in the debate than is sometimes shown. The question Philippa asked was whether abortion could be banned in the United States, and with a change in the composition of the US Supreme Court the series of 3 programmes is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when we produced it.

What are the challenges of translating foreign language books into the English language?

I absolutely loved making this programme with translator Daniel Hahn. We journeyed to Rome to meet super-translator Ann Goldstein, and spent several wonderful hours in her company, as Daniel and she chatted all things translation. For anyone interested in translating, I think it’s a great insight into how to do the job; but I also think at the end of the programme, and the very end of our time with her, that Ann revealed something very beautiful which gets to the heart of why she translates, and what it means to her.

Comedian David Baddiel invites listeners behind the scenes of his new show.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with David Baddiel for several years now, first producing Four Thought, which he presented, and then as we worked together on David Baddiel Tries to Understand, both on Radio 4. And I knew he’d been working on a new stage show, about online trolls. BBC World Service have a terrific strand called ‘In The Studio’, where the world’s most creative people open the doors to their creative process to the listener. I think it’s a wonderful idea, so I was delighted that when I asked David if I could make a documentary about how he was making what became ‘Trolls: Not The Dolls’, he agreed.

Mark O'Connell makes the case for ambivalence.

Several years ago, I worked with the brilliant writer Mark O’Connell on a talk for Radio 4 about ambivalence. I loved it - I think it’s one of the best episodes of Four Thought I’ve produced - but I also found Mark’s argument fascinating. And I think that since that talk was broadcast, in 2013, the question of whether a person can hold conflicting views on the same subject at the same time, and how, has only become more interesting - and urgent. So it was a real pleasure to revisit these questions with Mark again, in this documentary. Mark’s script is beautifully written, of course, but I think his thoughtful approach bears rich rewards in his conversations with a group of smart and interesting people.

Mary Ann Sieghart examines Michael Gove's distinctive approach to being a minister.

One of the challenges of our age is resisting the idea that people and ideas can be only one thing. This programme, presented by Mary Ann Sieghart, took that perspective to a study of government. How is, we asked, that Michael Gove can be so well-regarded in Westminster yet simultaneously so disliked by the public at large. The answer is in large part because of his effectiveness as a minister in getting things done. If that’s true, then what is he doing? I have to say our approach - setting aside the question of whether or not the policies were good ones, the right ones, to ask instead about the how - did not go down well with everyone who heard it. We had a lot of criticism for the approach, usually from people who made it very clear that they thought Michael Gove was a terrible minister. But I think it’s a worthwhile endeavour. If he has been successful in government, surely any future minister, of any political colour, could learn from his approach?

Byron Vincent joins a scheme turning young men away from violence.

I think this programme is one of the best I’ve made. In it, you’ll hear Byron Vincent spending time with the Violence Reduction Unit, part of Police Scotland. What began as an attempt to find a new way to deal with endemic violence in Glasgow a decade or so ago is now seen as a model. For this programme Byron, who has had a very tough life himself, spent time with the mentors, the police officers and the young men whose lives are being affected by two of the VRU’s programmes. It’s unusual to hear such candid conversations about fear and loss - and it prompts a lot of awkward questions about what society owes young men who want to leave a chaotic life behind, but don’t have the tools to do so on their own.

Katy Long explores the extraordinary history of the passport.

Sometimes, a programme which has been in the works for a while appears at just the right time. This programme, presented by migration and identity expert Katy Long, was one of them. Katy wanted to delve into a little of the fascinating history of the passport, and in particular to a moment around the First World War when it looked as though they might become a historical remnant. But they didn’t, and in this programme she shows how.

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