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.

Today, Freud would be proud of us as we go in search of our authentic selves.

Two gay black men in modern day London struggle to express how they really feel.

A pioneering female

chemist chafes against the sexism of 1950s America, and we discussed the great Nikolai Gogol,

the Ukrainian writer who shaped Russian literature, and whose nationality has long been a source

of cultural friction. We start with a new novel from the author of the

Private Joys of Nena Maloney, which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. In his

second novel, Here Again Now, the writer Oketru Kunizelu turns his attention to fathers, sons,

and the distance between men who love each other. A Chiquet, an up-and-coming actor, has a lifelong friendship with Akené, which always seems on the brink of becoming more.

When Achiq's alcoholic father, Chabike, moves in, the three men are forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about each other.

Well, I'm very pleased to welcome Okachuku, who's made the

trip down from Manchester, especially, to the Open Book Studio. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

Can I begin at the end? Because your acknowledgements in here again now start with this sentence.

Somewhere in my emails, there is a draft message from me to my agent telling her I

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