What keeps you awake at night?

Wondering if I've turned the gas off.

Anxiety. Usually the best response is to think hard about things, work up some solutions and then go to sleep.

The toughest job I had as secretary was having to take the time, usually late at night, to write notes to the families of those who lost loved ones.

My daughter talking to her friends even though I thought I’d disabled her devices.

Our son. And ideas for Woman’s Hour, or businesses to start.

Guilt for not being productive enough – ridiculous.

Other people’s suffering.

I would say something earnest like stopping the far right, but the truth is nothing keeps me awake at night.

Now that’s what happens when people go crazy, where the only thing that matters is whose camp are you in, whose side are you on, what tribe do you belong to — where facts and discussions become irrelevant. And it made me wonder whether the way I was raised and all the listening and storytelling skills I learned as a boy would even be relevant today. They’d be good if you’re in. They’re still really important to getting anything done, but if you live in an environment where everything is a litmus test and everything is a-hundred-to-nothing, and the only thing that matters is feeding your resentment, and anger blinds you to answers, and being very sanctimonious somehow proves your sincerity and authenticity, it’s really hard to get anything done. It’s a whole new challenge now, and that’s why — and the Russians knew that. You know, that’s when they get in here and start fooling with all these politics. They realize you just sort of load it up because once people take sides based on what tribe they’re in then there’s no difference in facts and fiction. There’s no difference in truth and lies. It’s just, does this confirm what side you’re on? And you can’t run a democracy that way. It is utterly impossible to preserve democracy.