How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians is a sobering history – with glimpses of romance

It was World Radio Day on Friday, which doesn’t mean much, though we can use it to point out that radio is still vastly more trusted than TV or print media, and reaches more people than audio streaming: about 90% of UK and US adults listen to the radio at least once a week. Aside from the stats, the happenstance of radio is its greatest strength – the fact that you don’t know what you’ll get when you switch on. A presenter reacts to live news and unites listeners as one; a DJ plays a track and you start crying while doing the washing up; the sports  commentator describes the winning move and you’re banging your steering wheel in delight.

Which brings me to the Winter Olympics. I wish – really wish –this was live on 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra, instead of the never-ending football and cricket, and we could enjoy commentators painting audio pictures of the luge or curling or figure skating: “He’s sporting burgundy tights, a dog collar and mesh arm warmers, and my goodness, that’s a quadruple twiddly-widdly landing on a single blade – not a hair out of place!” But, no, we just get the excellent Eleanor Oldroyd with a one-hour summary of the whole week’s events. Booooo.

Outside live radio, Radio 4 documentaries remain the backbone of the liberal, open-minded establishment – and we should stay grateful. Last week saw the start of a 10-part series, How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians, a history of Middle East conflict that began in the bronze age and runs right up to the terrible present day. A sober topic but not without some romance. Host Jonny Dymond, formerly BBC Middle East correspondent, described “a land of sparkling beauty”. “Here is Jerusalem,” he said. “What remains of the Jewish temple, the place where Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven, the last resting place of Jesus … three great faiths turn their gaze in wonder and in hope.”

In the first episode, the author Simon Sebag Montefiore and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, started with the Bible, describing it as “a historical library” rather than an accurate account, comparing it with archaeological discoveries and explaining how intermingled different believers and races were in the supposed promised land: “It was a far more mixed cultural society than the Bible would ever have us recognise.” Like an extended, less frenetic In Our Time, this series takes some of the intensity out of the appalling contemporary situation by examining what led up to it. If you can’t wait until this week, all the episodes are on BBC Sounds.

In The Hunger Game, going out every weekday in Radio 4’s 15-minute post-lunch slot, Cambridge University’s Prof Giles Yeo tackled the phenomenon of weight-loss jabs. Yeo’s medical specialism is the genetics of obesity, and he had, he revealed, a personal connection: his son had a tough lockdown and put on a lot of weight (hmm.) Yeo isn’t a bad presenter, though whenever he spoke to the lively, informed Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan, who wrote a book about Ozempic, Off the Scales, you found yourself wondering why she wasn’t the series host.

Yeo’s scientific background led to a few too many discussions about research funding and big pharma trials, counterbalanced by audio of him ordering loaded fries and extra mash. The best parts of the series were the discussion of how weight gain is regarded by our society as a moral question and how obesity should now be categorised as a disease. An expansion of those topics would have made The Hunger Game more palatable (sorry).

Another, very different Radio 4 documentary series: MF Doom: Long Island to Leeds. In it, BBC 6 Music’s Afrodeutsche and the journalist Adam Batty gave us the extraordinary story of MF Doom, a massively influential London-born, New York-raised hip-hop star who ended up moving to Leeds in 2010. He died there 10 years later after a reaction to prescription drugs. Doom, a mysterious figure, usually masked, rapped intricate verses about “comics, supreme mathematics and esoteric Islam” and the series celebrated his art while uncovering his final years. Though a little slow-moving – I always associate the dreamy Afrodeutsche with night-time listening – the story is fascinating. Doom’s music is amazing and there is a lively score by Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, pop fans.

Alan Davies has a new Radio 4 series, Life Without, which explores what may happen if something is removed. Last week, the moon; this week, rats; then worms … you get the idea. Sara Russell, a planetary science researcher, and Luke Jerram, the artist who made that enormous touring moon artwork, were both great audio companions, as was Davies. But the whole thing was over in 15 minutes! I’d love to hear the show in a half-hour format and, when it comes to the moon, I’d actually like a whole series. We’ve had umpteen shows about space exploration, the shuttle launch, the moon landings, but Life Without was a delightfully earthbound lunar exploration; an unpicking of the very idea of the moon and how we’ve worked it into our lives, as well as how it affects our planet.

Finally, as we’re talking radio, it seems apposite to mention Radio Atlas, which has its 10th anniversary this year. Atlas is actually a podcast feed of audio works not made in English, with careful and revealing subtitles, and I reviewed its wonderful Coming Out last year. Last week’s offering, which I highly recommend, was Old Lika Pathetic Symphony, a 1975 sound artwork. If you loved Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show, you will adore the wonderful Radio Atlas and its beautiful, absorbing reports from international cultures that celebrate both our differences and our connections.

Photography by Getty