Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's

out of ice cream.

Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

As the notes of the first half of this evening's prom fade,

I'd like you to stop for a moment to consider how the music made you feel.

Excited? Content? Euphoric. Why is that?

Tonight we're talking about music and well-being and how academics and medical professionals are thinking about creativity and participation as tools for a healthier body and mind. I'm Naomi Paxton and here with me is Dr. Daisy Fancourt, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at University College London and Dr Simon Ofer, a GP from Gloucestershire.

So Daisy, to come to you first, you've been researching the effects of music on different groups.

Why does music make us feel, and how do those feelings affect our minds and bodies?

Well, music is an incredibly complex activity. So if we consider just the sound of music itself,

there are aspects of musical composition that can affect us. So for example, the speed,

the temper of the music, that can affect our arousal levels, like our blood pressure, our heart rate,

our stress hormones. We also find that the structure and harmonies and music can induce emotions in us.

So, for example, if it's a very happy piece of music, we might find ourselves just feeling happy from listening to it.

Or it can evoke emotions, for example, by reminding us of events in our lives and therefore leading to a memory of those particular emotions.

And all of this is linked in with reward circuits in the brain, so the release of pleasure

hormones such as dopamine. But that's just listening to music. And of course, many musical

activities involve more than that. So if we consider, for example, singing and a choir, this also

involves us having social interactions, building our social support networks, reducing loneliness.

It also involves us perhaps leaving our houses,

therefore reducing sedentary behaviours involving gentle physical activity.

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