LAST week, I set my alarm for 12.45 a.m. to watch the re-entry into the atmosphere, and splashdown, of the crew of Integrity (Comment, 10 April). The podcast 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II (World Service) provides expert commentary from pre-launch to the day it returned. In episode 3, “Man Around the Moon”, we discover the immense scale of the endeavour: multinational alliances and thousands of people were needed for this historic feat. Given the very real possibility of death, we gain keen insight into how the astronauts prepare themselves and their families for the possibility that they will not return. Tim Peake is one of the hosts. I find him a bit overly technical, and yet his sheer passion for space travel helps one to overlook that trait.
With and For, Hosted by Dr Pam King, features the episode “How Words Can Heal with Pádraig Ó Tuama” (Feature, 28 March 2025), which blends themes of theology, therapy, poetry, and sexuality. We learn about Ó Tuama’s journey into Charismatic Roman Catholicism. He describes a sense of belonging — although, as a gay man, he was not allowed to belong fully to himself. He reveals the power that flows from a renewed understanding of vulnerability, and he does not shy away from responding to the vulnerabilities that he finds in others.
Ó Tuama recounts an incident in which he saw a boy at his school who was badly beaten. He not only stepped in to remove the boy from harm’s way, but he also invited him into friendship. Throughout the episode, we learn how Ó Tuama must also learn to remove himself from harm’s way in traumatic contexts. He must learn to befriend himself and his deep desires, evolving beyond the boxes that others try to seal him in. Drawing from two wells, language and his work in meditation and community-building, Ó Tuama exudes a deep wisdom that points to a reality beyond words.
Good People, on BBC Sounds, is an excellent audio drama. “The Great Reset” is the first episode, about a group of graduates who want to change the world. Their mixed motives, however, threaten to undermine their ideals. These young people seek to make a difference in a fictional town set in the milieu of real British politics featuring household names. Whenever they begin to doubt, a radical philanthropist, named, ironically, Faith, appears, catalysing them to devise a Project Hope. They resemble missionaries of old, parachuting in to create trust; but are they using local impoverished people as a means to an end? The story oscillates cleverly between past and present, is action-packed, and is very thought-provoking.
The Rest is Politics: Leading (Goalhanger), in an episode from last year, “Ed Miliband: Blair, Brown, and battling his brother (Part 1)”, offers a lively behind-the-scenes look into historical British politics. The former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who is now the Energy Secretary, is taken to task by the hosts, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell. He holds his own in a robust discussion that lurches from the personal to the political, exploring how he rode the prevailing winds of change between two very different leaders, and how sibling rivalry has not been so fierce since Cain and Abel.
