BBC Radio 4: Free Thinking

Personal Identity is at the heart of contemporary culture. Political philosophies are built around it and family history is a hobby undertaken by hundreds of thousands. Understanding where you came from is seen as central to understanding who you are. But what if the things that are uncovered are uncomfortable, upsetting or even life-changing?

Matthew Sweet is joined by three writers who have explored these questions – Joe Dunthorne, whose memoir Children of Radium and BBC Radio 4 series Half Life explore his great-grandfather's work with chemical weapons; Kavita Puri, whose series 3 Million told the story of the Bengal Famine, and of British culpability in it; and Jenny Kleeman, whose BBC Radio 4 podcast The Gift tells the stories of lives upended by DNA testing kits.