logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2023
43m 40s

Breaking my addiction to war

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Fergal Keane's work as a war correspondent was destroying him, but he couldn't stop.

It was his job as a BBC journalist to help the audience make sense of the madness of war, but he knew there was another more troubling reason he was drawn to these violent situations. They gave him something he couldn't get anywhere else in the same way. A massive rush of adrenaline and a huge dose of validation. Fergal knew this compulsive tendency wasn't healthy, but he couldn't stay away from the frontlines.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: May Cameron and Harry Graham Sound Design: Joel Cox Editor: Munazza Khan

Up next
Oct 6
Enter the new dragon: the Bruce Lee of Afghanistan
Abbas Alizada was nine when he first saw a Bruce Lee film. He fell in love with kung-fu, copying his hero’s moves and his look before an online post shot him to overnight fame.Abbas was born in Kabul in 1993, the youngest of nine siblings. His family are Hazara, an ethnic minorit ... Show More
28m 44s
Oct 2
Jane Goodall: In her own words
This extra edition of Lives Less Ordinary is to remember the remarkable conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall, who has died at 91. The life she lived alongside great apes revolutionised the way we see them – and ourselves. It was 65 years ago that a young Jane left Engla ... Show More
24m 12s
Sep 29
Sweet surprise: I found my birth mother in my local bakery
Vamarr Hunter always felt a special bond with the owner of his favourite local bakery — but never imagined she could be his long-lost birth mother. Vamarr loved to visit the bakery in his home neighbourhood in Chicago, enjoying the cakes, pies and cookies, but also the warm compa ... Show More
40m 3s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
Angry Man with a Camera
Nicky talks to Giles Duley, a conflict photographer, chef and founder of the Legacy of War Foundation. Giles lost three limbs when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan, where he was embedded with US troops and reporting on the conflict. He tells Nicky about overcoming his inju ... Show More
43m 2s
Jul 2018
War's Fatal Attraction
Historian Margaret MacMillan looks at representations of war: can we really create beauty from horror and death? Speaking at the Canadian War Museum, she discusses the paradox of commemoration. She questions attempts to capture the essence and meaning of war through art. The prog ... Show More
42m 17s
Dec 2022
Fergal Keane and PTSD
Fergal Keane describes living with PTSD. For thirty years, Fergal covered some of the most brutal wars for the BBC, including Rwanda, Iraq and Ukraine.Despite having PTSD, he kept going, taking more and more risks until witnessing a massacre in Sudan, he realised he couldn't do i ... Show More
31m 52s
Nov 2021
Regarding the pain of others
BBC special correspondent Allan Little addresses the gulf between the reality of war and our ability to comprehend it from afar. His mission as a reporter has been to convey the experiences of people in the midst of war, to draw attention to injustices; to celebrate acts of heroi ... Show More
50m 31s
Jul 2018
Fearing and Loving: Making Sense of the Warrior
Historian Margaret MacMillan asks why both men and women go to war. "We are both fascinated and repulsed by war and those who fight," she says. In this lecture, recorded at York University, she explores looks at the role of the warrior in history and culture and analyses how warr ... Show More
57m 27s
May 2023
'If I panic I die'
One Monday morning, Stephen is meeting with his boss in a crowded coffee shop. Minutes later he is at the centre of a horrific and brutal crime scene — his life hanging in the balance. The events leave him deeply scarred, both mentally and physically, but it prompts Stephen to pr ... Show More
28m 20s
Aug 2020
Hugh Sykes: Reporting from the frontlines
Hugh Sykes has reported for the BBC since the 1970s and has travelled far and wide to witness some of the most significant events of our age. Here, in conversation with Owen Bennett-Jones, he discusses what some of those stories mean to him, and explains the journalistic values h ... Show More
26m 28s
Jun 2022
Ethiopia’s Disinformation War
When President Abiy Ahmed came to power in Ethiopia he was seen as a reformer who was heralding a new era of hope. In 2019 he was even awarded the Nobel Peace prize. But less than a year later he ordered a military offensive against regional forces in Tigray in the north of the c ... Show More
26m 28s
Feb 2021
Suicidal Drug Addict To Elite Military Commando with Ben Williams
From an early age Ben was subjected to a violent parent relationship which saw his family break apart, with only his mother to defend both himself and his brother. Through severe bullying and family upheaval, he moved home six times and went to six different schools within ten ye ... Show More
2h 2m