today’s radio

A SMALL MATTER OF HOPE

11AM, RADIO 4 HHH

The human brain appears to have a negative bias, perhaps because worriers have a better chance of surviving to pass on their DNA than cockeyed optimists. Fraser Nelson talks to Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker, among others, about our necessary gloom.

WITNESS

1.15PM, RADIO 4 HHH

When American troops left these shores after the Second World War, they left a lot of children and pregnant women behind them. Many of those children, particularly if they were of African-american fathers, had a tough time of things. Farhana Haider hears some of their stories in this moving documentary.

VIRTUES OF VULNERABILITY

8PM, RADIO 4 HHHH

Every year, on October 22, Ed

Balls wears a green ribbon to mark International Stammering Awareness Day, and he wears it with pride. Ed, like his father, the zoologist Michael Balls, suffers from an ‘interiorised’ stammer. This means that, though the words are formed in the mind, getting them out is a struggle. Here, Ed explains why he decided to talk in public about his stammer, and hears from others who’ve chosen not to hide their vulnerability.

GARY BARLOW – WE WRITE THE SONGS

9PM, RADIO 2 HHHH

Gary Barlow begins a new, four-part series on the art of the songwriter. In this first show, he features the work of the Swedish singer and songwriter Max Martin, who, in terms of numbers of charttopping hits, stands just behind John Lennon and Paul Mccartney. Max has written winners for a long list of artistes including Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift and Celine Dion. Gary plays just some of Max’s many hits tonight. SUSAN JEFFREYS

Ed Balls (8pm, Radio 4)