In 2014 Polly Weston's sister Lara died. She had just turned 22. Lara and her family had never discussed organ donation, and she wasn't on the register. But when the family were asked if they would consider donation, they said yes. Out of the tragedy of her death, medics managed to donate her organs to four women, while her eyes saved the sight of three men.
In February a bill passed its second reading in Parliament to say that England would seek to move to an organ donation opt-out system - meaning citizens would be presumed to consent to their organs being donated unless they actively withdrew from the system. It seemed like there was universal support for the announcement. Labour were behind it. Newspapers rejoiced.
But having been through the process, Polly's family were unsure about whether this policy change would bring about an improvement in donations.
Now she asks what does organ donation really mean to families - and will an opt out system really make a difference?
Produced and presented by Polly Weston.
The Turban Bus Dispute
Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his home town of Wolverhampton where a battle raged over the right to wear the turban on the buses in Enoch Powell's constituency at the time he made his Rivers of Blood speech.
In 1967 Sikh bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu returns from his holidays wearing a turban and a beard, both against the uniform regulations. The Wolverhampton Transport Committee insists rules are rules and there will be no exceptions, so Mr Sandhu enlists the help of a Punjabi political party, the Akali Dal, who employ radical tactics. They bus in Sikhs from around the UK for the biggest march in Wolverhampton since the war, and one of their leaders, Sohan Singh Jolly, announces that he will set himself on fire if their demands are not met.
Right in the middle of the dispute, Enoch Powell makes his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, specifically citing the Sikh campaign as a dangerous example of communalism, where religious or ethnic groups seek special rights that threaten the very fabric of society.
Sathnam Sanghera discovers the real story behind the dispute with surprising revelations that shed light on the history of race relations in the UK.
Meeting the Man I Killed
Jonathan Izard killed a man in a road traffic accident. It wasn't his fault. In an attempt to come to terms with what happened, he tries to get to know the man he killed, Michael Rawson.
Jonathan goes back to the place on the road where his car hit Michael, on New Year's Eve 2015. Michael was crossing the road on his crutches from the bus stop to his flat in sheltered accommodation. It was a winter's evening, pitch black. He didn't see Jonathan's car until it was too late. Jonathan saw Michael, very briefly, just before the impact - a face in the windscreen, a look of puzzled bewilderment, as if to say, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Ten months later, the inquest confirmed that there was nothing Jonathan could have done. It ruled that no blame should attach to the driver. But meanwhile, Jonathan retreats from the world, stops shaving, wears black. He doesn't tell his friends what's happened, overcome by trauma and grief.
After the inquest, he starts to make this programme. He visits the place Michael lived, and talks to his friends. He sees Michael Rawson's photograph for the first time and discovers that, strangely, they have things in common. He begins to build up a picture of a complex, highly intelligent scholar who had a passion for photography, travel and classical music.
And he talks to other people who have killed accidentally. Jonathan Bartley, now a politician, ran over a young man when he himself was only 17. Maryann Gray accidentally killed an 8-year-old child when she was still a student. In a profoundly moving interview, Maryann explains this meant she decided never to have children herself - she felt she didn't deserve them.
Together, Jonathan and Maryann discuss their deep regret, their secret sense of shame. As she says, "Terrible things happen to perfectly good people. The world can be so capricious, we know that. But it's helpful for just day-to-day functioning to forget that, and assume that we're in control. When these accidents happen, they are reminders that we are only in partial control."
Last year about five and half thousand pedestrians were killed or injured in traffic accidents on Britain's roads.
Produced by Kim Normanton and Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
The Art of Now - Guantanamo
Mansoor Adayfi spent 15 years detained without charge at the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay. Now released, he guides us vividly through an unlikely exhibit of artworks made by former and current Guantanamo war-on-terror detainees.
The exhibit, titled Ode to the Sea, was held at the John Jay College at the City of New York in the autumn of 2017. Shortly after its opening, it became the centre of a debate where issues of artistic expression, ownership, and civil liberties came into collision. In response to the show, the US Department of Defense declared art made by wartime captives to be government property - even threatening to burn Guantanamo cell-block art.
Mansoor takes us behind the headlines and tells the story of his years at Guantanamo through the lens of art - the insight it gives us into the detainees' lives and captivity and their imaginations.
With contributions from Erin Thompson (curator and professor), Alka Pradhan (human rights / national security lawyer), and Gail Rothschild (painter).
Produced by Sarah Geis
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Image: Titanic by Khalid Qasim. Courtesy of the artist and John Jay College, NYC).
The Vet with Two Brains
Adam Tjolle is a vet with two brains - who once starred on the BBC's Animal Hospital. His second brain - in reality a slow-growing tumour - was discovered by accident on a scan when he fell off his bike.
The presenter of the programme, his friend (and psychologist) Claudia Hammond is really interested in what's going on inside his head, so has kept a record - before and after the life-changing surgery.
Adam's biggest fear is losing his memories - so he asks friends and family to send patches of fabric to make a special hat - to remind him of them as well as keep his head warm in chilly Edinburgh.
The surgeon will operate while Adam is wide awake - being careful to cause the least damage possible to the area of his brain which controls spatial awareness, time perception and his decision-making skills, while also removing as much of the tumour as possible.
Producer: Paula McGrath
Presenter: Claudia Hammond.
BBC 4's Seriously... Podcast presents a rich selection of documentaries aimed at relentlessly curious minds. Presented by Ashley John-Baptiste, this twice weekly podcast replaces the Radio 4 Documentary of the Week.
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