Seriously...

Experimental vocalist and movement artist Elaine Mitchener remembers the life and music of the brilliant New York composer-performer, Julius Eastman, whose work, she feels, has been wrongly overlooked. Born in 1940, Eastman was black and gay when there were few like him in the world of classical music. He crossed between the worlds of minimalism, disco and contemporary new music and, for Elaine as a young British-Caribbean student of classical singing, was a much-needed hero. Eastman studied composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before joining the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo, NY - a hotbed for experimental musical outlaws. Alongside composing, he was a pianist, a dancer and a singer and was nominated for a Grammy for his compelling vocal performance of Peter Maxwell Davies' "8 Songs for a Mad King" in 1973. In 1976, Eastman moved to New York City where he composed multi-piano works with controversial titles which put questions of racial and sexual identity on the table of contemporary new music. He moved between the uptown and downtown scenes, collaborating with the likes of Meredith Monk and Arthur Russell. Despite his great talents, Eastman's life began to unravel in the mid-1980s and he died in 1990. American composer Mary Jane Leach has brought together Eastman's scores, securing his important legacy. Elaine is joined for a rehearsal of Eastman's work by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze and pianist Rolf Hind. They discuss the intricacies of Eastman's scores, his impact, and the experience of performing his work today. Produced by Zakia Sewell A Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 4 Image credit: Donald Burkhardt

Guy Garvey spent a decade recording his dad’s stories and now he wants you to do the same. When Elbow singer Guy Garvey began to record his father Don's anecdotes, he already knew a lot of the stories he was capturing. What he didn't know was his father's childhood memories, his thoughts and feelings, the characters of long-gone family members, the stories which were much more touching and personal - or, as Guy describes it, 'the tales without a punchline'. Once he got his dad talking, a wealth of new stories emerged which helped Guy form a deeper bond with his dad and painted a vivid picture of a child in wartime Manchester. When Don died in March 2018, Guy realised how precious these recordings were - not just to him but also to his siblings and future generations of his family. Now he’s on a mission to encourage others to record their parents before it's too late. With contributions from Professor Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster, BBC Technical Producer Sue Stonestreet, Paddy O’Connell and, of course, Mr Donald Garvey and his son Guy. A Snoball production for BBC Radio 4

Forty years after the infamous 'would you go to bed with me?' experiment, what are the social repercussions of biological inequality if men have a higher sex drive than women?

Laurie Taylor investigates the people who hear the voices of the dead in recorded sounds - and uncovers the strange and haunting world of auditory illusion. Believers in EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena think they're hearing the voices of the beyond - messages captured in the throb and static of white noise. Laurie Taylor's a rationalist - he doesn't go in for this mumbo-jumbo. But whilst the peculiar world of EVP may not be evidence of the afterlife, it does show how we're susceptible - far more susceptible than we might have ever believed - to be deceived by our ears. Laurie takes us on an mind-bending journey through the world of aural hallucination and illusion - revealing how the ghosthunters of EVP actually are showing off something rather profound about the flaws in our auditory perception...and they way we scrabble for meaning in the booming, buzzing confusion of the world around us. Contributors include the acclaimed expert on auditory illusion Diana Deutsch, writer and sound artist Joe Banks, neurologist Sophie Scott and parapsychologist Ann Winsper. Producer: Steven Rajam for BBC Wales

On the fields of battle, and in conflict zones, women reporters are now commonplace but, in the past, the female perspective was much harder to find. War reporters spend their careers giving voice to the survivors of violence, but the reporter's own experience seldom makes the cut. In this Archive on 4 we hear strong personal accounts from the archives of early female war reporters such as Martha Gellhorn, Clare Hollingworth, Kate Webb, Gloria Emerson and Marie Colvin which show that the need to challenge conventional journalistic culture goes back many years. But what links these women to the reporters of today? The BBC's Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, is joined by Lindsey Hilsum, Rukmini Callamachi, Nima Elbagir, Leila Dundas Molana-Allen, Francesca Borri, and Rania Abouzeid to assess their role in the light of those eminent pioneers. Producer: Louisa Field and Leonie Thomas Exec Producer: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4