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.

Hello, today's book suggestions include a guide to the galaxy, don't panic, and two very different love stories.

Here to introduce them are first the musician Joe Talbot,

frontman of rock band Idels,

whose latest album, Tank, is released this week

and who are just starting a world tour.

With Joe is Nancy Medina, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic.

Her personal credits as director include Trouble in Mind for the National Theatre, and most recently for the Bristol Old Vic. Her personal credits as director include Trouble in Mind for the National Theatre

and most recently for the Bristol Old Vic choir boy. Nancy Medina, your choice of a good read.

What is it? The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wow by General Diaz. He won the Pulitzer

for this book in 2008.

The reason why I chose this book as one of my favorite books is I read it when it came out. And for the first time, I felt a huge resonance in the characters and the story in a way I had never felt before as far as representation and identity because I'm from the

Dominican Republic and the book is set in the Dominican Republic and in New Jersey I grew up in

New York City. It's an intergenerational story. It's very, very epic, but the central characters

are two siblings, Oscar and Lola and their mom, Belly, and grandmother Lainka.

...