Discovering Waithood

What does the term Waithood mean to you? The phrase is coined by an American sociologist to define the waiting period that young adolescents go through on their journey to adulthood. And now – this period is said to be getting longer as young people struggle to secure their first job, house and get married. The new World Service series presented by Jake-Wallis Simons investigates how this phenomenon is developing across the world. And for many young listeners at home – the series is a welcome reflection of their own lives. But as the series compares the idea of Waithood across global continents – listeners in Africa ask how their experience can be compared with young people in Europe. Senior commissioning editor of World Service programmes Tony Phillips answers their questions.

And, can the art of poetry offer greater empathy and insight into war zones than news broadcasts? That is what some of you felt after listening to the recent documentary Poems from Syria – in which writers recorded their everyday experience of civil war conflict through the written word.