with Tony Kearney

Available for 29 days

Tony’s This Spiritual Life guest this week is Scottish acting royalty – the comedian and actor Elaine C Smith. She shares her upbringing and her family’s difficult relationship with faith. The writer and journalist John Kampfner offers Tony some optimism in the form of his latest book: Braver New Worlds – travelling to countries who have found solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. It’s 40 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – Tony talks to Jordan Dunbar – a BBC World Service journalist who travelled to the city built for the workers at the reactor – to understand the vibrancy of life there on the day of the disaster, and how the event ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR. And Tony’s faith forum panel this week explore some of the ethics and morals behind some of the week’s news. They are Rupa Mooker, a lawyer and member of the Sikh community in Scotland, Luke Devlin, a member of the Catholic Worker’s movement, and Rabbi Pete Tobias of the Glasgow Reform Synagogue. This week, they discuss blame and counter blame as sacked civil servant Sir Olly Robbins gave his version of events over the Peter Mandelson vetting row – so how do we manage accountability in public life and in our own lives, and should we be making more space for forgiveness? They’re also looking at a spate of tragic events targeting Jewish places of work, study and worship, which has prompted the BBC Panorama team to make a documentary about the rise of antisemitism in the UK. Rabbi Pete Tobias shares what he’s been hearing from his community here in Scotland. 50% of the bereaved population report looking for or even seeing a ‘sign’ from a loved one beyond the grave – Tony finds out why it’s a lot more common than you might think.