Lights Out

"I noticed that language seems to fail us. How do you write about the foundations of our existence? That is how mythology enters very naturally into the story, because history is about ideas, religions, empires, wars and culture. Mythology is about the fundaments. Sun, moon, wind, oceans, great floods and tragic gods... We are living in mythological times, where we are shaking the fundaments." - Andri Snær MagnasonDrawing on ideas in his book, On Time and Water, the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson explore how our imagination can help us hold the moment we live in. From handfuls of dust to watching geological time mark the landscape, this documentary flows from the night skies into the deepest known point in our oceans.Archive recording from Raddir - Voices: Recordings of Folk Songs courtesy of the Árni Magnússon Institute 'Vatnajökull (the sound of)' recording courtesy of Katie PatersonRecording of the journey to Okjökull by Guðni Tómasson Music composed and performed by Phil Smith and Zac GviProduced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.For generations, queer people have moved to London from more conservative parts of the UK, in search of community and to live as their authentic selves. Now, with housing so unstable, queer people are among the marginalised communities for which homelessness is on the rise. They continue to come to London now to find their place, but the trade off is extreme financial insecurity. Can you really feel at home when the four walls around you are unstable? Jesse Lawson talks to Karen Fisch, Topher Campbell, Carla Ecola and Reggie Lennox about what it means to have to choose between one form of home over another.Music by Femi Oriogun-Williams Produced by Jesse Lawson A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.Sahid has spent years on a relentless journey. Crossing international borders, he has confronted the harrowing realities of human trafficking, slavery, and rafting across the Mediterranean Sea. But his journey isn't over yet - Sahid is at risk of being sent back to the first European Union country he arrived in, a country where he was unlawfully imprisoned and tortured. This is the story of one man's search for safety, from Sierra Leone to Strasbourg.Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Documentary adventures that invite a closer listen.Infamous during the Greenham Common protests of the 1980s for the recklessness of her activism and her multiple prison sentences (as heard in Lights Out: Greenham Convictions), Lyn Barlow now lives quietly in Somerset. She spends her time making textile art, huge tapestries that document the turbulence of her childhood in care and the struggles of her adulthood - both with the State and herself. Now that her work is on display in Watchet's East Quay gallery, in an exhibition shared with Grayson Perry called Common Thread, Lyn reflects on the textures, the threads and the imagery of her life.Produced by Alan Hall (with music by Alabaster DePlume, licensed courtesy of Domino Publishing Company Limited.) A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

“I was well aware of this synchronicity: that Cornwall was going onto lithium, or what I prefer to call ‘lithifying’, just as I was ‘delithifying’, or coming off it. This wasn’t an accidentally aligned pairing of incidents. I’d planned it that way.”In 2022, Laura Grace Simpkins made two big life changes. She decided to stop taking lithium (a medication she was prescribed for her mental health) just as she moved to Cornwall—the only place where lithium is being mined in the UK. In 'Lithified', Laura gets ready for her future without the silvery-white metal, while exploring the landscape it will soon be coming from.Featuring the voices of: Marcia Bjornerud, Professor of Geology and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University Jeremy Wrathall, Founder and CEO of Cornish Lithium Dr Beth Simons, Cornish geologist and author of ‘Variscan Coast’ Written and narrated by Laura Grace Simpkins Music and sound by Alice Boyd Produced by Alice Boyd and Laura Grace Simpkins A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

“Should we delete the sex tape?” Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind?"Exploring an archive of home videos, photographs, memories and news reports, Talia Augustidis reflects on how we choose to remember someone. Told through five chapters, each part focuses on a single image of her mum, who died when Talia was three. Dead Ends is an exploration of what privacy and control is afforded to people who sit at the heart of our news stories, as accidental absences and fragments of memory piece together these self-contained narratives of loss.Talia collected the tape for Dead Ends over several years. In 2022 she received a Content is Queen micro-grant, which allowed her to begin piecing these stories together.Original music composed by Jeremy WarmsleyProduced by Talia Augustidis A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

“Somewhere between the narrow entry of Who I am and What I seem to be, lies a vast and nameless place.”In this transmission, Axel Kacoutié discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies, concepts and realities of queer and indigenous folks. What are the links between gender expression and our relationship with the Earth? How does it destabilise colonial and capitalist imaginations of what we’re told a gender binary is meant to be?Featuring the voices of: Opaskwayak Cree Nation Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr Alex Wilson Artist Buitumelo Kotekwa Afro-Taino Two-Spirit change-maker Cleopatra Tatabele Scholar and Research Assistant, Karyn De Freitas Transmasculine, non-binary scholar and Founder of the Free Black University, Melz Owusu. Development Producer: Eleanor McDowall Assistant Producer: CA Davis Additional Recording: Heidi Chang and Israel Ramjohn Sound Design, Music and Mixing Production: Axel Kacoutié Produced by Axel Kacoutié A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Four people recount their involvement with “county lines” - gangs that exploit children and vulnerable adults to sell drugs around the UK. Underneath their stories lies a series of unspoken, unanswered questions. Who gets to decide the boundary between criminal and victim? Why do we view 'county lines' through the lens of crime and punishment? And how well does the system support individuals and families devastated by the impact of 'county lines'?With thanks to St Giles Trust SOS Project, Not In Our Community, Escape Line and Eski Media Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four

Having devoted decades of their lives to fighting for a better world, three activists in their 70s reflect on keeping going, hope and despair as the year turns - while a retired clergyman and his wife explore what’s drawn them to activism in their 60s.Featuring Leila Hassan Howe, Angie Zelter, Linda Clair and Bill and Rosemary White, alongside radio clips from BBC news programmes, Outlook and Mattie's Broadcast (produced by Veronica Simmonds).With music by Lucinda ChuaFeaturing the tracks Semitones (written and engineered by Lucinda Chua, produced by Lucinda Chua and Adam Wiltzie, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy) and An Avalanche (written, engineered and produced by Lucinda Chua, mixed by Adam Wiltzie and Francesco Donadello and mastered by Nathan Boddy)Development producer: Michael Segalov Additional recording: Andrea RangecroftProduced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

A man, a Mouse and a morse key: the story of a radio amateur in Kyiv as the Russian invasion unfolds. When his wife and two children flee Kyiv to escape the war, Volodymyr Gurtovy (call sign US7IGN) stays behind in their apartment with only his radios and the family hamster, Mouse, for company. Before the war, he used to go deep into the pine forests, spinning intricate webs of treetop antennas using a fishing rod, catching signals from radio amateurs in distant countries. Prohibited by martial law from sending messages, he becomes a listener, intercepting conversations of Russian pilots and warning his neighbours to hide in shelters well before the sirens sound. After three months of silence, he begins transmitting again. Switching his lawyer’s suit for a soldering iron, he runs a radio surgery for his friends and neighbours, dusting off old shortwave receivers and bringing them back to life. During air raids, he hides behind the thickest wall in his apartment, close to his radios, their flickering amber lights opening a window to another world. A story of sending and receiving signals from within the darkness of the Kyiv blackout. Music: Ollie Chubb (8ctavius) Producer: Cicely Fell A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4