What if, one day, something essential to our world suddenly vanished? No warning. No explanation. Just gone. What happens next?

Life Without is a roundtable-style podcast that explores this fascinating and thought-provoking question with insight, evidence-based assumptions and a range of perspectives. Hosted by Alan Davies, each episode brings together 2 guests, scientists, psychologists, economists, sociologists and journalists to discuss the unexpected consequences of losing something vital to our world.

Each episode starts with a bold, imaginative question: What would happen if something fundamental—like the moon, salt, sleep, or even something as random as rats—suddenly disappeared from the world? What’s the immediate fallout? How does society cope? And how long would it take before things started unravelling?

What would happen to the world if the USA disappears? In this episode of Life Without, Alan Davies explores a planet earth without the land mass of North America. How would opening up the Atlantic impact us in the UK and what would the disappearance of North American produce and people mean for the rest of the world?

This episode features Dr. Anjana Khatwa an award winning Earth Scientist and author, and Tori Tsui, a climate justice activist, author, and mental health advocate.

An ITN production for BBC Radio 4

Spring Forward, Fall Back or what if we just didn’t? In this episode of Life Without, Alan Davies looks at how our circadian rhythms would be impacted if we simply stopped changing the clocks.

Some scientists have argued to do away with the twice-yearly clock change in order to see some beneficial impacts on our health. So why have some parts of the world adopted this system while places like Russia and Mexico don’t use it at all?

This episode features Aarti Jagannath, a leading chronobiologist and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, and Dr Rebecca Struthers who is a watchmaker, author, historian and Honorary Research Fellow at University of Birmingham.

An ITN production for BBC Radio 4