Chapter 1: What is the concept behind 'Life Without'?
I've been given a delete button for the universe. I press it, and one thing in our lives disappears. No warning, no workarounds. Just me, you, and life without. And each episode, I take something away from the sum of our existence, a constant in our equation, with the snap of my fingers, just gone. For BBC Radio 4, this is Life Without with me, Alan Davis.
My choice can fall on anything, from the moon right down to earthworms. I venture into life without bees, salt and even rats.
People have trained rats to drive little cars and they've shown that they don't just drive to get to the destination, they drive for pleasure. They love doing it. They love playing hide and seek. and they don't just do it for treats, but they will go and scamper off and come back, and the reward is that they're tickled.
I don't know about you, but I might prefer a world with rats driving cars. Nothing's off limits. I can take it all away. Sex, sleep, North America. But I don't always have the knowledge. So I'm joined by academics, writers, scientists. When you take a handful of salt in your hand, you can see something that is just so elemental to our lives.
And even an artist. Fly me to the moon. We won't be singing that in quite the same way once the moon's gone.
And enthusiasts, sometimes alarmingly so.
I love our moon more than any other moon.
Yes, I'm reaching for the moon and it gets emotional.
A little girl came up to me and she said, will you put the moon back afterwards?
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Chapter 2: How does removing bees impact our ecosystem?
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