With more and more people spending time on their mobile phones and computers, listening to uninterrupted radio is becoming a quieter, more meditative pursuit. With this in mind, there is much food for the soul in this week's programme line-up.
There is no better man than priest and philosopher John O'Donohue to draw us closer to our core beings. He will read excerpts from his best selling books, Anan Cara and Eternal Echoes in the quiet quarter of Lyric Notes (Monday-Friday, 10.35 p.m. Lyric FM).
Another philosopher, Bryan Magee, currently visiting professor at London University will be Andy O'Mahony's first guest in the new series of Dialogue (Thursday, 7.05 p.m., RTE Radio 1). This, the first of two programmes featuring Magee, will discuss The Story of Philosophy, the interviewee's guide to western philosophy from the Greeks through Christianity to the advent of modern science right up to the present day. Other forthcoming studio guests in the series include novelist and critic, Marina Warner and former Washington correspondent of the Guardian, Jonathan Freedland.
The third programme this week with a keen eye on things spiritual is Soul Survival (Thursday, 9.02 p.m. RTE Radio 1). Billed as a programme "for and about the care of the human soul", this, the first in the new nine-part series features Brendan Kennelly. Staying with the theme, Next to Godliness (Monday, 3.30 p.m. BBC Radio 4) explores the place of purification rituals in Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths.
Travel author Bill Bryson captures both the quirky and the distinctive characteristics of the people and places he visits. In the run-up to American Independence Day, The Book on One (Monday-Friday, 2.45 p.m. RTE Radio 1) heads to New Hampshire. Fellow American, Roger Gregg will read from Bryson's Notes from a Big Country.
Finally novelist, Deirdre Purcell returns to one of her earlier careers when she begins presenting RTE Radio One's summer morning show, Deirdre Purcell (Monday - Friday, 9.04 a.m. RTE Radio 1). Moving from quiet days writing at home back into the bustle of RTE, one eagerly awaits Purcell's spin on life and lifestyles at the end of the 20th century.
