Today’s radio

THE TOUCH TEST

9AM, 9.30PM, RADIO 4 HHH Every day, we touch and are touched, but there is still quite a lot that we don’t know about this common sensory experience. This morning, Claudia Hammond launches a major new study on the impact of touch on our lives.

WORD OF MOUTH

4PM, RADIO 4 HHH

Eye and body movements can show that someone is lying. There are also, as Michael Rosen hears this afternoon, clues in the way a liar talks. Professor Dawn Archer is a linguistics expert who has made a study of the language and speech patterns of criminals, including Harold Shipman. She will talk about her analysis of interviews and press conferences that have revealed some of the hidden clues behind the protestations of innocence and the pleas for information made by the guilty.

GREAT LIVES

4.30PM, RADIO 4 HHHH

Toni Morrison, the daughter of a steelworker, grew up knowing real hardship. A determined girl who fell in love with the writings of Austen and Tolstoy, she pulled herself up through the ranks of publishing to become an editor, a Nobel Prize-winning author and a college professor. Andi Oliver, the chef and broadcaster, tells Matthew Parris why she finds Toni Morrison an inspiring figure.

THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE

11PM, RADIO 4 HHHH

The Flat Earth Society began in the UK in the 1950s, then went into a bit of a decline. Now, with mad conspiracy theories springing up everywhere, the Flat Earthers have grown in number. Tonight, Brian Cox and guests discuss how Flat Earthers and others of that ilk are able to turn a blind eye to the facts and voyage to the far shores of nonsense. SJ

Toni Morrison (4.30pm, Radio 4)