The Impossibility of Controlling for Age in Our Own Family

Most of us would like something about ourselves or our lives to be different, but how easy is it to actually change?

Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken are looking at whether people can change and how they do it. Exactly how much of any aspect of personality is genetic destiny and how much are we shaped by the world around us?

Chris wants to be a better doctor, friend, husband and father. But most urgently he wants to be a better brother, and is determined to improve his relationship with Xand. They’re best friends and talk to each other every day, but they are also business partners who find it very hard to work together without having a visceral row.

Chris wants to change how he relates to his brother and believes it is possible, but Xand is less convinced that we can or that he needs to change. In this series, Chris confronts that pessimism.

In episode 2 - Does Our Birth Order Affect Our Personality? - the twins find out whether the order in which we’re born has any bearing on our personality. They call their little brother J who lives in New York and reminisce about their childhood. Chris’ wife Dinah and her older sisters debate whether showing off is the reserve of the youngest sibling. And psychologist Laura Botzet shares her findings from studies on the effect of birth order on personality. Does it have any credibility?

Presented by Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Produced by Hester Cant and Alexandra Quinn Series Editor: Jo Rowntree A Loftus Media and van Tulleken Brothers Ltd production for BBC Radio 4