One To One

Isabel Hardman of The Spectator asks whether growing food can improve our mental health. John Kennington or 'JK', as he's known, is a recovering alcoholic. He shares his life story with Isabel at Feed Bristol, a project that reconnects city dwellers with nature, while she explains how she learned to manage her own from being outdoors and growing plants. Producer: Mark Smalley.

DJ and radio presenter Trevor Nelson grew up in London and came to find out he had half siblings on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. However, for Trevor and his three sisters who were raised by his parents in the UK, this was something that didn't really have an impact on his family life until much later when Trevor finally met his half siblings.It's something that has fascinated Trevor all his life, and now in this series of One to One, he meets people to uncover what it's like to have, or to find out you have, half siblings.In this programme, Trevor meets Adrienne who has eight half siblings but no full brothers and sisters. She tells Trevor that that there is no jealousy and rivalry and that they really are one big happy family. Really?The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

Mark Steel is obsessed with sport. Obsessed! And he's certain there's a strong link between sport and stand-up comedy - risk taking, dealing with a hostile crowd, performance anxiety. In this programme he muses on his theory with the snooker player known as 'The Entertainer', John Parrott. For this series of three programmes, he also meets sports psychologist and former figure skater, Dr. Faye Didymus; and also the former Premiership and England footballer Graeme Le Saux. You can hear extra bits from both interviews on the podcasts, just go to the Radio 4 website.Produced in Bristol by Karen Gregor.

Mark Steel's guest this week is impressed by his flow-state, but would like him to reduce his dependence on ironing. She is sports psychologist, Dr. Faye Didymus, from Leeds Beckett University. Mark believes that his two addictions have much in common - they are stand-up comedy (his job) and sport (watching, playing, talking about it). He's sure that there is a link between the way comedians and sporting types deal with performance anxiety, crowd hostility, risk taking and more. Dr. Didymus, who works with sports stars at the highest level, casts light upon this theory. In this series, Mark speaks to the former Premiership and England footballer, Graeme Le Saux. And he meets former World Champion snooker player, John Parrott. All three programmes are available as podcasts, and the Parrott & Le Saux podcasts have extra bits.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Mark Steel has two addictions: stand-up comedy (his job) and sport (watching, playing, talking about it). He's certain that the two have much in common - risk taking, performance anxiety, dealing with crowd hostility and more. His guest this week is former Premiership and England footballer, Graeme Le Saux, whose strategies for coping with playing at the highest level are more similar than you might think to Mark's own experiences - especially when it comes to dealing with crowds who don't really like you.In this series, he meets Dr. Faye Didymus, a sports psychologist at Leeds Beckett University (who was impressed by his flow-state, but would like him to reduce his dependence on ironing). And Mark also meets former World Champion snooker player, John Parrott. All three programmes are available as podcasts after broadcast. And there are extra, un-broadcast, bits in the John Parrott & Graeme Le Saux podcasts.Producer in Bristol: Karen Gregor.

Single mum, Miranda Rae meets father of three, Andy Hill, to explore the challenges of being a single dad. Producer Sarah Blunt.

Miranda Rae meets Gill Sargent to explore the challenges of being a single mum with a child of dual heritage - something they both have in common. Life for any single parent is far from easy, but whilst trying to raise her son, Gill has also had to endure prejudice and racism in addition to exhaustion, isolation and homelessness. Producer Sarah Blunt.

Miranda Rae is a single mum with a young son who is 9 years old. Life is far from easy for any single parent, but in this programme Miranda meets mother-of-three, Josephine Pepper, who found herself on her own with 3 children under the age of three, when her husband died of cancer. Despite her grief at the death of her husband, Josephine's story is one of remarkable courage, resilience and joy in her children and in life itself. Producer Sarah Blunt.

Lucy Mangan avoids responsibility wherever possible. She's got cats instead of dogs because she can't face a needy pet; she only has one child 'and that's more than enough.' But she's always been fascinated by those who run towards responsibility rather than away from it. Today she talks to Reverend Claire Herbert about a life dedicated to helping others. One of the first women priests to be ordained, Claire was working as a rector at St Anne's church in Soho when the Admiral Duncan bomb exploded. But she admits that being there for others has not been an easy road - in her 30s she took some time out from full-time church work to become a social worker and learn to be young 'perhaps for the first time'; she has realized that she needs to learn to play, and now gives herself permission sometimes to be 'naughty and horrible.'.

Lucy Mangan feels she avoids responsibility whenever possible. She has cats instead of dogs because she can't face a needy pet; she only has one child which is 'more than enough'. But she's always been fascinated by those who run towards responsibility rather than away from it. She talks to Bea Harvie, a post-graduate student, whose father got ill when she was thirteen. Bea chose to take on a lot of caring duties towards her younger siblings while her Mother was busy caring for her Father. She describes the experience as something she just got on with, and reveals that it also was a useful distraction from dealing with her own feelings about her Dad's illness. Until one day when she was sixteen and it all caught up with her. She says its like shaking up a bottle of fizzy pop: ' it's got to come out some way.'.

Novelist Nikesh Shukla started to learn to box after a racist incident on a train left him feeling vulnerable and needing to learn how protect himself. In the last of his three interviews exploring the sport - and getting personal advice - he speaks to criminologist Dr Deborah Jump. She left her desk at Manchester Metropolitan University to do an ethnographic study - immersing herself into the world of boxing to research it from the inside. She wanted to investigate whether boxing gyms help reduce offending among young people. Her research made her fitter but gave her some food for thought.

Nikesh Shukla continues his series of interviews on boxing. The level of violence and serious injury has always called the sport into question. Just last year it saw the tragic death of Mike Towell after a fatal head injury and Nick Blackwell retired after a bleed on the brain. These stories are familiar to Kieran Farrell, who discovered a love of boxing aged just 7, and who had 26 fights in a row unbeaten - 14 as a professional. But then he collapsed from a bleed on the brain after a fight against Anthony Crolla. Despite 30% brain damage he was desperate to fight again, but was forced to retire aged 22. Four years on he runs a gym and acts as coach and promoter. He tells Nikesh what attracts a child to the sport, what that night took from him and why he's still happy to encourage children and adults to put on the gloves.Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Novelist Nikesh Shukla is learning how to box. It's gone from memories of Rocky movies and watching the big match with family as a child to being a skill he wants for himself. When he voiced his thoughts on Twitter, journalist Hayley Campbell gave him 3 key pieces of advice. She took up kickboxing three years ago and shares how the sport and the partnership with her trainer changed her physically and mentally, but also how the boxing world became a source of fascination leading her to meet and interview some of the most powerful fighters. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

Julia Bradbury talks to Laura Rutherford, a volunteer with the Samaritans, about the challenges of her work as a listener. How does she cope with the emotional demands and the need to 'step back' after challenging calls? Producer Sarah Blunt.

Julia Bradbury talks to Dr Rory Conn, a Specialist Registrar in Psychiatry. Rory works in a Mental Health In-Patient Unit for adolescents, and he discusses the challenges of regularly dealing with intense mental and emotional situations as part of your working life, and how you switch off at the end of the day.

Julia Bradbury talks to Dr Martin McKechnie, a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Vice President of The Royal College of Emergency Medicine, about the challenges of working in an Emergency Department. Every day he is faced with intense mental and emotional situations as part of his working life. So how he does he switch off at the end of the day? Producer Sarah Blunt.

Television executive Peter Bazalgette talks to Jane Davis, founder of The Reader Organisation, about the power of shared reading in developing empathy, and how books can transform lives. Jane and her volunteers run small groups in which people meet to read books and poems aloud and talk about them. They meet in care homes, libraries, hostels, mental health centres, schools and prisons. Reading helped Jane to make sense of her own life and she wants to share that. She says: "You’ve already got your feelings, sometimes you just haven’t got any language for them. Something happens to you in shared reading, a sudden moment - a feeling of recognition, of seeing written down something you’ve had as nameless (and therefore in a sense unknown), taking some form in the visible world, so you can begin to know it. And there’s something so important about that – it’s a form of consciousness". Producer Beth O'Dea

Television executive Peter Bazalgette examines empathy in doctors with Denis Pereira Gray, and the difference it makes for their patients. Professor Sir Denis Pereira Gray was a GP for 38 years and is now Patron of the National Association for Patient Participation. He believes that humanity and empathy in medicine contributes to a better outcome for all concerned, and research evidence is piling up in support of that view. Empathy in clinical practice can be fostered through training, narrative medicine and continuity of care. Producer Beth O'Dea

Television executive Peter Bazalgette examines empathy. He talks to primatologist Frans de Waal, whose pioneering work with chimpanzees has helped to illuminate how our own evolutionary history suggests a deep-rooted propensity, both emotional and cognitive, for feeling the emotions of others.

In this series of One to One, Sir Trevor McDonald explores the idea of redemption, talking to two very different people with very different ideas on what it means. This week he meets Madeleine Black who was violently attacked and raped when she was just 13, yet has found redemption through forgiving the men who did this to her. Producer: Maggie Ayre.