Doctors' Notes: Light
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris and Xand continue their conversation about the sun's effect on our happiness with Professor Hester Parr, human geography and research lead of Living with Seasonal Affective Disorder.
The doctors want to know how low light affects those with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), how the disorder is viewed and what research is being done to help treat those with it, including that being conducted by Professor Parr.
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Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Professor Hester Parr Producer: Claire Justin Visual Producer: Leon Gower Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree Editor: Claire Justin Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Their company's success helped build a nation. |
| 0:10.9 | The company is such a big part of Korea's economy. |
| 0:13.5 | But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants? |
| 0:17.2 | They often say, look, we built the nation. |
| 0:19.2 | And without us, South Korea as it exists today, |
| 0:22.6 | would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family |
| 0:28.3 | and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.5 | Hello, welcome to Doctor's Notes. |
| 0:39.2 | I'm Dr. Chris Van Tiliken. |
| 0:40.7 | I'm Dr. Zand. |
| 0:42.0 | He's my identical twin brother. |
| 0:43.5 | We've just finished recording an interview, haven't we, Zandi, with Professor Hester Parr. |
| 0:48.7 | She is a professor of human geography, and her interest is sunlight and mental health. She runs a research group |
| 0:56.0 | about living with seasonal affective disorder at the University of Glasgow. |
| 1:00.9 | Now this is a great topic for this time of year, isn't it, Chris? Because people have endured |
| 1:07.0 | a long, grim winter. And I think there will be people who are already dreading the next one. |
| 1:12.7 | In the main episode, I really liked her phrase, your attitude to your latitude. |
| 1:18.0 | That's the, I mean, that is that, it was so good. |
| 1:20.9 | Your latitude is how far you are away from the equator toward the North Pole or the South Pole. |
| 1:26.2 | And you could live at the same latitude, and yet you could have very, very different experiences of light, of weather, of mood. |
| 1:34.4 | In Doctor's notes, we're taking a deeper dive into seasonal, effective disorder, and I think |
... |
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