Time is a journey - the future ahead of us, the past behind.

Our burdens are a weight that we carry, our problems are a puzzle that we solve.

Metaphor is at the heart of how we understand our existence. In a period of huge change and global uncertainty, are we outgrowing the metaphors we have lived by?

The poet Jack Underwood is offering his services as a metaphor consultant, for a very reasonable fee.

Featuring conversations with poet and psychoanalyst Nuar Alsadir; Dr Stephen Flusberg, the Director of the Framing, Reasoning And Metaphor (FRAME) Lab at Vassar College; computer scientist Melanie Mitchell; the philosopher Dr Julia Ng; and the linguist and author of Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff.

Location recording by Mitra Kaboli, Kristina Loring, Gustavo Martinez and Donelle Wedderburn

Produced by Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4