Bonus Beasts: Iorek Byrnison, from the His Dark Materials trilogy.

This episode isn’t just about polar bears. It’s about what happens when you’re stripped of your purpose — and how, for some people, recovery means forging a new kind of armour. To explore that, I’m joined by psychiatrist and trauma specialist Dr Mathew Hoskins — who’s worked on cutting-edge therapies for PTSD, including MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

Today we’re asking: what can a fictional bear teach us about real psychological healing?