5 Live News Specials

Presenter Laura Whitmore, like many Millennials, is beginning to question what she believes in. Is she still the Catholic she was brought up as? Over the course of this documentary she goes on a journey of discovery to find out if she is losing her religion, and if so, can she find what else is out there? Laura speaks to those with faith about their beliefs, and to young people who claim to have no religion to see how they are now finding their spirituality elsewhere.

At the beginning of 2018, BBC Radio 5 Live decided to be the station that shone a light on Spoken Word. To highlight the huge wealth of young talent currently in the UK - the experiences they go through every day and crafting that into beautifully, honest reflections of their world. We focused on some of big news stories and talking points ranging from poverty to mental health, knife crime to Brexit and the Royal Wedding to the FA Cup Final and asked some of the UK’s emerging and established artists to write about how they see these stories. To look back on our Year in Spoken Word, Afternoon Edition's Nihal Arthanayake invited poet and musician Hussain Manawer and author Chidera Eggerue to review our past 12 months.

Writer, performer and care leaver Lemn Sissay looks into attitudes to children in the care system.

The prime minister took calls from listeners in a special 5 Live programme presented by Emma Barnett. She was asked whether she had a plan B if MPs vote against her Brexit deal, the situation with Gibraltar and whether she'll be sending Jacob Rees-Mogg a Christmas card.

Anna Foster is joined in Sunderland by a host of celebs, experts and an audience - for the UK’s biggest conversation about the nation’s sex life.How to do it well, and how to talk about it healthily. From STIs and health, using porn to sex ed in schools, consent to cheating, good sex, bad sex and how we can all become a bit more open and confident when it comes to our sex lives.

In November 2017, former Sky Sports presenter Simon Thomas lost his wife Gemma, three days after she was diagnosed with cancer. A year on, Simon is in a new relationship. He says it’s not about replacing Gemma, but is "part of beginning to find life again".

5 Live’s Nihal Arthanayake meets six spies from the UK’s three main intelligence agencies, in the first ever joint interview with officers from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. They explain what it’s like inside their agencies in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack, how they decide which friends and family members to tell about their jobs and what they think of TV shows like Bodyguard and Killing Eve.

Phil Williams hosts a special tribute to Aretha Franklin. He’s joined by "Blue" Lou Marini - the sax player from the Blues Brothers Band, fellow gospel singer and childhood friend Candi Staton, Corrine Drewery from Swing Out Sister, and David Hood - founder member of the legendary "Swampers”, who was a session musician in most of Aretha Franklin’s major recordings.

We’re all spending more time tapping, swiping and staring at our smartphones. The Solutions Project finds out how we can stop being so obsessed with them.

Love Island star Camilla Thurlow, a bomb disposal expert, investigates online radicalisation - and whether enough is being done to stop it.

TV presenter Richard Bacon talks to Colin Paterson about the illness that saw him placed in a coma for 9 days.

Former Al Qaeda jihadi-turned-Mi6 spy Aimen Dean talks to Nihal Arthanayake about his time in Bosnia and Afghanistan, the moment he decided he had to bring the organisation down, and living a new life under the shadow of death threats. Nine Lives: My time as MI6's top spy inside Al-Qaeda by Aimen Dean with Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister is published by Oneworld.

One year on from the terrorist attack that claimed 22 lives, 5 live asks how life in Manchester has changed.Please note: this podcast contains some upsetting scenes.

Comedians Russell Kane and Sam Avery, co-founder of Dads Matter UK Mark Williams, parenting expert Jen Edmondson and single parent Kevin Makwilkila join Phil Williams for an honest discussion on fatherhood.

BBC Radio 5 live’s Anna Foster speaks to the female space scientists and engineers leading the way in space exploration.

Love Island winner Amber joins Nihal Arthanayake to explore young people’s changing attitudes to sex.

Gary Burgess, a TV journalist who has ME/CFS, takes over 5 live to talk to experts and patients about why so little is still known about a potentially devastating condition that affects tens of thousands of people in the UK, and millions more around the world.

Nihal Arthanayake speaks to pupils excluded from mainstream education and their teachers at Newhaven School in Greenwich.

Writer for Asian Mums Network, Aisha Ali-Khan, owner of Mums Advice, Gemma Potticary, Sophie McCartney, who runs Tired 'n Tested, and founder of The Motherload, Kate Dyson, are key online influencers from the world of motherhood. In this podcast, they share their ups, downs, plus the best and worst advice they've received.

Rory Carson follows the stories of the many victims and local residents as they try to rebuild their lives following the Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017. It contains content that some listeners may find distressing.