TODAY’S RADIO

POSITIVE THINKING

9AM, RADIO 4 ★★★

Is there a mathematical formula for happiness? Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google X, has spent years on researching happiness and has created an algorithm that, he says, leads to a state of uninterrupted content. Mo, who has known terrible grief because of the death of his son, claims to have engineered a path to joy. Sangita Myska hears about Mo’s mathematical yellow brick road.

LENT TALKS

8.45PM, RADIO 4 ★★★★ ‘Hope was standing beside each patient’s bed.’ Mark Tan is an intensive care doctor who has spent most of the past year on the pandemic front line. He has written this account about what he and his colleagues have endured during this terrible time. It’s a powerful, moving account that deserves your attention.

THE FOLK SHOW

9PM, RADIO 2 ★★★★ Kathryn Tickell first heard old songs from the shepherds of Northumbria when she was growing up, and her music is steeped in the traditions of the northeast of England. She comes from a musical family, learnt the Northumbrian smallpipes and, by the age of 13, was a regular on the folk festival circuit. Tonight, she’s in her home studio for a live session, plus folk and acoustic music from Britain and beyond.

THE POWER OF NIGHT

9PM, RADIO 4 ★★★

Aye-ayes have teeth that never stop growing, a long middle finger for hooking grubs out of trees, and thick, wild fur that gives them a slightly deranged look. They live in Madagascar and, at 3ft, they are the world’s largest nocturnal primates.

Lucy Cooke looks at the habits of the aye-aye in this programme on nocturnal creatures. SJ

Kathryn Tickell (9pm, Radio 2)