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Sweden's Green Power Struggle

In Sweden’s far north, indigenous Sami people say their culture is threatened by carbon-cutting industries. Listen at BBC Sounds.

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Bill Walton's The Grateful Team

The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story. Bill Walton tells the story of Sarunas Marciulionis’ journey from the USSR to the NBA. Along the way, there’s also a Grateful Dead concert…

Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe.

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Unreliable Narrator

How do you tell the story of your life when you have no memory of the events that shaped you?

At 15, Stephen McAll was a promising musician with a head full of songs. He was booked into a studio to record an album. Then, one night walking home from his girlfriend’s house in East Kilbride, he was attacked and beaten. The assault left him with serious head injuries and diagnoses of psychosis, excruciating cluster headaches, and PTSD.

It also erased almost all of his memories. He says he could recognise faces and names of loved ones, but had lost every experience, event, or occasion in his life up to that point. He couldn't lay down new memories or hold onto information. He could read words on a page, but could not retain their meaning.

Now in his early 40s, Stephen McAll is a successful music artist, and founder of critically-acclaimed folk band Constant Follower. This episode of Illuminated charts Stephen's decades-long journey from devastating injury and memory loss, back to hope and happiness.

Producers: Katie Revell and Dave Howard
Sound design: Jonathan Webb
Executive producer: Dave Howard
Music: Stephen McAll
Excerpt of 'The Root of It' by Norman MacCaig, taken from album The Way I Say It, copyright Claddagh Records
Excerpt of 'Tourist and Landlord' by Norman MacCaig, from a film made for the Scottish Poetry Library called 'Norman MacCaig reads 2 Poems'
Thanks to Shaun Milne

A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

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Journey Through a Cow

A farmer, a cheesemaker, a philosopher and a scientist take us on a guided tour through a cow.

Told in five acts, this programme weaves together the voices of our four guides - artist-philosopher Samar Nasrullah Khan, cheesemaker Peter Dixon, farmer Nikki Yoxall and Professor of Animal Science and Microbiology Sharon Huws.

They take us on a journey from deep in the soil, through a plant, into a cow’s mouth, through her four stomach compartments – home to vast civilisations of bacteria, protozoa and fungi – and, of course, out the other end.

Part documentary, part creative interpretation, the programme uses field recordings to immerse us in the multi-species communities we encounter along the way.

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The Children's Hospital in Entebbe

A free, state-of-the-art children’s hospital is transforming paediatric care in Uganda. But is one hospital enough to reset the future for Uganda's children?

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