Neil: I'm Neil.
Sam: And I'm Sam.
In this programme,
we'll be hearing about the extraordinary life of a well-known BBC journalist, Fergal Keane.
As a BBC war correspondent,
Fergal witnessed some of the most violent events in recent history.
Fergal's reporting helped his television audiences make sense of the horrors of war,
but underneath there were more personal reasons attracting him to the frontline.
Neil: Despite the danger,
Fergal found himself going back again and again to report from war zones.
It gave him something he couldn't get anywhere else – a massive rush of adrenaline,
and Fergal started to worry that he was becoming addicted to war.
Sam: In his new book, 'The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear and PTSD',
Fergal discusses living with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder,
a type of psychological suffering that results from witnessing extreme violence.
We'll hear about some key events in Fergal's life,
and, as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
Neil: But first, I have a question for you, Sam.
The term, PTSD, is quite new,
but descriptions of the mental suffering of war go back to ancient times.