Food special: The even greater British bake off

In this weeks issue…We start at the Rise bakery in London. A fantastic place, it is teaching homeless people baking skills and getting them ready for work and to step back into the world. It’s the really great british bake off.

On a similar food for good theme, Paul Brown details how yoghurt saved him. Once a drummer for Cliff Richard, he fell hard and lost his mind living on the streets for periods he can’t recall. A chance meeting with an old friend started him back on the road to recovery. And then he discovered a future in making yoghurt.

Vicky Carroll speaks to Adam Smith, chef and founder of The Real Junk Food Project about his latest scheme. After creating cafes that use food destined for the bin he’s now going into schools, teaching authorities how to use food that would otherwise be wasted to make cheap, good meals for pupils. He’s Jamie Oliver for waste.

Our Letter To My Younger Self is with Edwyn Collins. Much loved leader of Orange Juice, and co-founder of hugely influential Postcard Records, he had to learn how to do pretty much everything again after two massive strokes. Charming and funny about his early days, when he gets onto the redemptive power of music you’ll catch your breath and steady yourself.

On a similar theme, Paul McAlinden explains what lead him to take charge of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq – and what the positive effects it had.

“Brexit shouts at us as some deep cavernous suffering we’ve been papering over,” says John Bird this week in a tough and honest appraisal of the reality we’re in rather than the truths we tell ourselves.

Our featured vendor in My Pitch this week is Anthony Williams who sells in central Bath. A former tree surgeon until a knee injury stopped him, he slid into homelessness. After living in a tent, things are falling into place, he says.

Samira Ahmed takes a trip around the Ronald Regan memorial library, considers what Obama will have, what Trump would miss and why we don’t strike the right memorial note over here.

Sticking with Trump, Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul has quite a lot to say.

What does what we leave behind say about us? Several months ago Diana Garrisi decided to record the bookmarks and other ephemera that people leave in library books. It’s a curious, fascinating collection. Robbie Savage and cats feature.