You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience, and maybe that's you.

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

Hello, in the 1960s, J.G. Ballard plotted a new course for science fiction, saying it was

inner space, not outer, that needed to be explored. Later on, we'll be looking at how he did that,

not just in his

fiction, but in his non-fiction too. Ballard also said that the only true alien planet is Earth,

and it really feels that way sometimes reading praiseworthy, the extraordinary new novel by

Alexis Wright, which reveals in Australia where myth and reality meet.

Wright is a member of the Wanyi Nation, an Aboriginal people whose homeland is in the Northern Territory of Australia.

In 2007, her second novel, Carpentaria, won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's Premier

Literary Prize.

She's also won praise and prizes for her non-fiction,

including Tracker, her unconventionally told biography of the Aboriginal politician and activist

Tracker Tilmouth. Her latest novel, Praiseworthy, is named for a fictional town in the north of Australia

that's beset by a mysterious haze. It's an expansive work 700 plus pages long

and features a huge cast of characters. Most prominent among them is the Steele family,

...