Why we lie, The Traitors star Amanda Lovett, Lies told by families, Lying to your partner

Why do we lie? And what is happening in our brain when we do it? Nuala asks psychologist Dr Sharon Leal, Senior Research Fellow and Member of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth and Professor Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab. a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, and the author of The Optimism Bias.

A 2019 study by Portsmouth University found that men were more than twice as likely to consider themselves expert liars who got away with it. But women can be just as good at lying. Nuala speaks to two women who are very good at it! Amanda Lovett, from the BAFTA award winning BBC gameshow The Traitors, won legions of fans for her steely ability to lie during the show, and Kirsty Mann is a writer and comedian - but she’s been keeping a very big secret from some of her comedy pals. She has a show about having a double life is called SKELETONS and is playing at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Some lies are bigger than other and can have a huge impact on your life. Nuala talks to writer Miranda Doyle about exposing her family's lies in her memoire Book of Untruths, and a listener we are calling Ravi, explains why she lied to her family about moving to the US for love.

Plus, you can’t read a tabloid newspaper without some form of cheating scandal filling the headlines. But what makes someone lie to the person they love? Nuala asks Natalie Lue, a boundaries and relationships coach, and author of The Joy of Saying No, and writer Rosie Green, author of How to Heal a Broken Heart and host of podcast Life’s Rosie about the big and little lies we tell in relationships.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Sophie Powling