Inside the Freemasons HQ
A few weeks ago, I got an unexpected invitation. I was talking on my Times Radio show about Freemasons – one of the oldest fraternal organisations in the world. Membership is secretive, but high profile Masons have included members of the Royal Family, Prime Ministers, business leaders and least fourteen Presidents. The Freemasons have often […]
We Are Not a Conspiracy School – BBC Radio 4
Deep in the English countryside, at the end of a winding country late… a sign: NO TRESPASS. STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sounds of children playing, carried along by the breeze. Just beyond the hostile sign, there is a place – built around barns, marquees and organic allotments […]
God Next Door – BBC Radio 4
A few years ago, my friend Sophie told me about the strangest evening of her life. She had always been sober, her friends drank, they had drifted apart and she was looking to meet new people. It was a friend of her Mum who had suggested the group. “She told me it was all about […]
Searching for Nicola: TikTok Sleuths and ‘Grief Junkies’
The disappearance of Nicola Bulley has attracted an industry of TikTok sleuths and amateur detectives – some sharing theories online, others visiting the scene to make content. They have been condemned by Lancashire Police, with some accused of harassing villagers, upsetting the family and hampering the police search. I went to meet them, to ask: […]
Dark Patterns – Out Now on BBC Sounds
Have you ever tried to cancel an online subscription? On some websites, it can be a painful maze of fruitless searches and false hopes. In fact, for one famous example, it was found to be nine clicks away from the home page, through a network of seemingly unrelated destinations that you’d have no reason to […]