DESERT ISLAND DISCS (Radio 4, Sunday) showcased the BBC’s chief North America correspondent, Gary O’Donoghue. One of broadcasting’s most recognisable figures, partly on account of his blindness, he shot to international fame in 2024 after conducting a gripping interview, minutes after the attempted assassination of President Trump, with an eyewitness who claimed that he had tried to warn the Secret Service about the gunman.

Mr O’Donoghue felt that blindness could be an advantage for a journalist, since it trained one from childhood to listen intently and to take other people’s radically different perspectives into account — and many people also found it harder to shut the door in the face of a blind reporter.

As the pace of events has become “mind-boggling and mind-blowing”, his most interesting observations were on how he managed information. Blind people cannot skim articles or timelines, but must absorb content in a “linear fashion”. He finds this process time-consuming; but I wonder whether it isn’t also a fireguard against the worst of the attention-sapping digital distraction that is so much a part of contemporary life.

I also learned that the Bible runs to 48 volumes in Braille. I’m not sure how that compares with Mr O’Donoghue’s chosen book: Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy.

This year’s A Celebration for Ascension Day (Radio 4, Thursday), from St Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by the Revd Dr Sam Wells, with the Archdeacon of Salford and Bolton, the Ven. Dr Rachel Mann, preaching, was an opportunity to broadcast unashamedly intelligent and highly cultured Anglican worship. The gospel singer Becca Folkes provided an interesting study in musical contrasts with the St Martin’s Singers, as did the spoken-word poet Storm Cecile.

John Donne’s “Ascension”, read by Baron Hastings of Scarisbrick, was the theological and emotional crux of the service. Dr Mann linked the theme of God’s “uprising” with her own dramatic conversion experience in the 1990s, from atheist philosopher to seeker after the Christ who offers an eruption of love into a world divided by hatreds and ravaged by unaccountable power. Stirring stuff.

A contrasting approach to presenting the faith is offered by street preachers. Christians are as likely to find them irritating as anyone else, and vox pops on Sunday (Radio 4) found a variety of views on the streets of London, with refreshingly strong support for freedom of expression in public — although the man told that his recently deceased parents were in hell was, unsurprisingly, less keen.

Members of the Ichthus Christian Fellowship, offering hot chocolate to students in Greenwich, said that they rarely engaged in preaching, as such, now, but preferred one-to-one conversations with people who approached their stalls for a chat. Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf, of Hope Together, reported increased interest among young people in engaging with forms of public witness, such as Bible tables. Who says nice guys finish last?