Hear historian of emotions Thomas Dixon describe and define joy, before listening to comedian Daliso Chaponda and developmental psychologist Caspar Addyman talk with Bidisha. They remind us to let our inner jester and inner laughing baby come out and play. 

Musician Sola shares her track ‘All Mine’ and talks about the pleasures of making music. Whilst enjoying ice cream, performance artist Travis Alabanza speaks with Bidisha about identity and defiance and the sheer delight they experience when they can be themselves on and off stage.  

How can joy be a collective experience? Bidisha finds out through speaking with Kemi Akinola, the founder of Be Enriched, a community kitchen in South London bringing people together over food and creating a place of comfort and joy for 4000 diners a year.

Presented by Bidisha
Produced by Debbie Kilbride
Sound design by Micky Curling
Music by Sola
Executive producer Emily Wiles

Hello Happiness: Episode 4, Joy

PSYCHIC DRIVING
TEST #1
MUSEUM OF THE NORMAL
BART'S PATHOLOGY MUSEUM, LONDON
24.11.16

*Contains some strong language*

TAPE #1

Sarah Chaney talks about the history of assumptions made about nursing, gender, and the emotions of care.

This is one of a series of short podcasts exploring what we do at the Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions.

Compassion

Do we live in an age of rage? And if so, what can we learn about our furious feelings, and how to control them, from the experiences and ideas of great thinkers in the past?  Those are the questions explored in a pair of thought-provoking and darkly funny new audio dramas by playwright Craig Baxter, commissioned by the Living With Feeling project at Queen Mary University of London’s Centre for the History of the Emotions, and directed and produced by Natalie Steed.  

SENECA ANNOYED is a philosophical tragicomedy about emotions and ideas set in ancient Rome. When the order comes to him from Emperor Nero that he kill himself, the Stoic philosopher Seneca determines to dispatch himself in a calm and dignified manner. He hasn’t counted, though, on the frailty of his own body, the incompetence of his friends, or the blind fury of his wife, Paulina.

CAST: Seneca is played by Adam Kotz, Paulina by Jasmine Hyde, and Fabius by Geoffrey Streatfeild. The centurion is Michael Bertenshaw.

Produced and directed by Natalie Steed.
Recorded by David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown.

The Sound of Anger. DRAMA. Seneca Annoyed

Historian of emotions Thomas Dixon completes his personal odyssey through the history, feelings, and meanings of angry emotions. In this episode, he asks whether domestic, everyday anger is the same thing as political anger, and wonders about the relationship between angry dads, angry protesters, and emotional health. 

Thomas hates his own anger and dreams of a world with no anger, but learns reasons that others see it as politically essential. Backstage at the 2019 Free Thinking Festival in Sage Gateshead, Thomas talks to Matthew Dodd of BBC Radio 3 about being an angry dad, and hears from Professor Kehinde Andrews about the importance of anger for Malcolm X.  In a conversation about male privilege, sexual violence, and political anger, Thomas is guided by Dr Fern Riddell towards evidence of the fury and violence of suffragettes in the 1910s. 

Neuroscientist Sarah Garfinkel talks about the possibility of protesting without angry emotions, and Thomas ends up pondering whether disagreements about the necessity and value of political anger reveal underlying differences of both class and philosophy. And finally, what can a Stoic philosopher such as Seneca teach us about anger and emotional health?

Contributors:  Matthew Dodd, Fern Riddell, Kehinde Andrews, Charlotte Rose Millar, Sarah Garfinkel.

The voice of Christabel Pankhurst: Karina Fernandez

Presenter: Thomas Dixon
Producer: Natalie Steed

The Sound of Anger: 3. What is it good for?

An autobiographical essay on solitude, walking, the natural world, and emotions by the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison.

Melissa reflects on what solitude has meant to her - and to others - from her childhood and early adult years to the recent period of lockdown in the summer of 2020. Recorded outside in the Suffolk countryside, this essay explores Melissa's feelings about living on her own and how she finds her most honest self through solitude in nature. She also reflects on what is has meant for women to be on their own in the past and the present. 

This essay was originally written in connection with the BBC Radio 4 series, 'A Short History of Solitude': https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m57m 

Find Melissa's podcast 'The Stubborn Light of Things' here: https://melissaharrison.co.uk/podcast/

This episode is presented by Thomas Dixon and produced by Natalie Steed, as part of the 'Living With Feeling' project at Queen Mary University of London, supported by the Wellcome Trust: https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/livingwithfeeling/

Melissa Harrison on Solitude

Uplifting interview with Bethany about how singing saved her life. “What was once just a band aid, I just need to get better so I can sing, kinda thing, actually has been an underlying sustaining force the whole time.”
Bethany moved to London from the US almost 4 years ago and has loved building community here through singing. Currently, she teaches a community singing group for seniors at Coin Street Community Builders as well as a group at Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest for people building resilience and overcoming mental health problems. Bethany knows first-hand the healing power of singing and loves being able to share that power with others. When she is not teaching, she enjoys going for long walks around the city and hanging out with her rescue cat Arwen.

Singing Saved My Life: Bethany

This is a podcast from the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. 'The Sound of Anger' won two gold British Podcast Awards in 2020.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/living-with-feeling/id1186251350?mt=2

The Sound of Anger: 3. What is it good for?

Centre for the History of the Emotions

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