Hannah Walker Is A Sensitive Person

Sensitivity is overlooked. Dismissed.

In this BBC Radio 4 piece, Hannah Jane Walker argues that sensitivity is overlooked, dismissed and under-utilised, and argues that our society would be much better off if we embraced it instead.

Following on from a BBC Radio 4 Four Thought talk about sensitivity, Hannah received hundreds of emails from strangers, reaching out to tell her the same things: that sensitivity in our society isn’t considered useful, and that, well, ‘that’s just the system that we live in, isn’t it?’

This piece was used to readdress the imbalance that Hannah saw, and felt slightly ashamed at having started such a powerful conversation without offering a solution. And so in this commissioned programme she sets out to do just that. She’ll be talking to several of her correspondents, as well as a psychologist, a neuroscientist, an economist and even a newly-minted activist for the highly sensitive.

The programme focuses on highly sensitive people, but sensitivity is a spectrum and as Hannah hears more about it, she also finds out more about the benefits all of us can take from being in closer touch with our sensitive sides.

Produced by: Giles Edwards. Commissioned by BBC Radio 4.

Listen here