Consciousness and Identity
Michael Pollan, Fay Bound-Alberti and Mary Costello explore consciousness, the face as identity, and a woman’s reckoning with her past, in conversation with Tom Sutcliffe.
What makes us who we are? In Radio 4's discussion programme to start off the week, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore consciousness and identity, and whether the face reveals our inner thoughts and character.
American science writer Michael Pollan is celebrated for his work on food and psychedelic drugs. His new book A World Appears, is a sweeping investigation into consciousness - examining where our sense of self comes from, how it is experienced across species, and what new theories from neuroscience, philosophy and plant biology reveal about awareness.
Cultural historian Fay Bound-Alberti traces the long, complex history of the human face, showing how it has been used to define identity, moral character and social status, and how new technologies – from photography to facial recognition – shape our understanding of selfhood in the modern world.
Mary Costello’s latest novel A Beautiful Loan, focuses on the life of Anna Hughes, a woman looking back across decades of love, loss and betrayal as she tries to understand the choices that shaped her and the deeper self she learns, slowly, to claim.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez
On radio
Broadcasts
- Mon 16 Mar 202609:00BBC Radio 4
- Mon 16 Mar 202621:00BBC Radio 4
Podcast
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Start the Week
Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday
