Does your skin colour define you?

What’s behaving ‘white’? What’s behaving ‘black’? You were asking this again and again yesterday and this being a programme where you guide the agenda, we’re going to discuss it today.

If you’re white, what does it mean to be white? If you’re black, what does it mean to be black? And if you’re anywhere in between, how does your skin colour affect how you define yourself, and others define you?

Is aspiration bringing us down?

There was an interesting report published last week by Pew Research. It’s about America, but I wonder if it might apply around the world. The gist of the findings were that fewer middle-class Americans feel their life is ‘moving forward’ than in the past 50 years. And one of the causes of this is that they cannot afford the lifestyle they would like to lead. Does that sound familiar?

Is it soon time for Hillary to quit?

With less than a week to go until the Pennsylvania primary, should Hillary Clinton be thinking about throwing the towel in some time soon in her race for the US presidency? Even if she wins Pennsylvania, she’ll still be behind Barack Obama in terms of popular vote, number of states won and crucially delegates.

Who are we?

We’ve been discussing how we could tell you a little more about ourselves. Not because we think you’ll be interested in what music we like or where we like to go on holiday, but because we’d like to be as open with you as possible about who we are and what we’re bringing to the programme.

Ros Atkins

Hi. I’ve been presenting WHYS since it started, first as a cover presenter and then as a fixture when Steve and then Anu moved on. Before joining WHYS full-time, I was also presenting The World Today and The Ticket on the BBC World Service and Up All Night on BBC Radio Five Live. That was always covering for colleagues though so it was a huge thrill when Mark offered me a regular gig.

The ones that got away

They loved us and left us. At least, most of them loved us. But they’ve all gone, and each one played a part in making WHYS what it is. So thank you all.

Talking Points 15 April

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party the MDC has called on workers in the country to strike, to stay away from work - in protest into the delayed announcement of the election results..This past weekend saw the meeting of Southern African leaders with South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki saying – ” There is no crisis in Zimbabwe”. Why will nobody stick up for Democracy in Zimbabwe?