Sandra Jean Pierre - Labady

Matthew Syed follows the story of Bernice Bennett, a woman driven to uncover the truth behind a treasured family portrait.

When Bernice was growing up, she was always told how much she looked like her grandmother, Mattie Kemp Alexander. Looking at her grandmother’s portrait, she saw her own eyes looking back. This woman’s face was familiar, and yet Bernice knew so little about her. Feeling the call to know more, Bernice set out on a journey to uncover the stories of her family tree.

Through the course of her investigations, Bernice uncovers the traumas etched into her family’s past and is drawn into America's legacy of slavery. Her discoveries are painful, but they also lead to some surprisingly joyous new relationships and renewed understanding of her own identity.

So why do we search for the secrets of the past, when we know how much the truth may hurt?

Genetic Counsellor Brianne Kirkpatrick talks about how people might prepare themselves for what they could find in their family histories, and genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith explores how the traumas experienced by our ancestors can ripple through to the present day.

Contributors: Brianne Kirkpatrick - Genetic Counsellor Nicka Sewell-Smith - Genealogist Bernice Alexander Bennett - Genealogist

Presenter: Matthew Syed Producer: Sandra Labady Executive Producer: Claire Crofton Researcher: Nadia Mehdi Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

What do we ask for, and what do we receive from the built environment?

Engineer Roma Agrawal explores how the visions and dreams of architects and designers are experienced, co-created and changed by the people who live in their buildings.

In this episode, Roma considers our need to partner with nature in architecture, delving back into Ian McHarg’s landscape architecture manifesto Design with Nature. McHarg was a 70s Scottish architect who developed a method to study the landscape before building. Professor Richard J Weller (co-executive director of The Ian L. McHarg Center) examines what McHarg's work meant at the time and what it means now.

We visit the NHS Forth Valley Royal Hospital and Larbert Woods in Larbert, a project which won the 2020 Building with Nature award. One of the landscape architects, Sheena Rayburn, explains the unusual ways in which the NHS partnered with specialists in the landscape, while oncology nurse Linnet McGeever explains how the hospital and woods have changed the experience for patients and workers.

Palawa Architect Sarah Lynn Rees explores indigenous perspectives on partnering with nature in architecture, and London based architect Micheal Pawlyn reveals his nature-inspired architectural solutions.

Presenter: Roma Agrawal Producer: Sandra Labady

Executive Producer: Katherine Godfrey Researcher: Nadia Mehdi Music and sound design by Phil Smith Mix by Graham Puddifoot A Novel production for BBC Radio 4

On a January night in Manhattan, a team of lawyers is working to crack open an organised crime case. And at the centre of it all, is Eunice Carter - the first black woman to graduate from Fordham Law and the first African-American woman to pass the New York state bar.

Matthew Syed tells the story of how Carter’s brilliance and meticulous attention to detail blew open a case that would bring down the most notorious mobster - Lucky Luciano - and he explores the experience, the pressure and the role of being "a first".

With Yun Li and Marilyn Greenwald, authors of the biography Eunice Hunton Carter: A Lifelong Fight for Social Justice; Dr. Tsedale M Melaku, sociologist and author of You Don't Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism; and Claude M Steele Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

Presenter: Matthew Syed Producer: Sandra Labady Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey Researcher: Nadia Mehdi Music, sound design and mix: Rob Speight Additional mixing: Alex Portfelix A Novel production for BBC Radio 4