From business to sport, politics to the writing of Samuel Beckett: how do we view failure
Published on Friday, 13th June 2025.
Matthew Sweet discusses difficult histories with 3 BBC podcast hosts at the Hay Festival
Published on Friday, 6th June 2025.
Ann Widdecombe, Rachael Wiseman, Sarah Jilani and Tiffany Watt Smith with Matthew Sweet
Published on Wednesday, 4th June 2025.
From the Hay Festival, Matthew Sweet discusses the many forms of political power
How wolves shape our modern world.
Published on Friday, 23rd May 2025.
Anne McElvoy sets off in search of the sunlit uplands
Published on Friday, 16th May 2025.
In the week of VE Day, Matthew Sweet discusses what peace has meant since 1945
Published on Friday, 9th May 2025.
Post local elections and pre VE day events, Shahidha Bari explores ideas about community
Published on Friday, 2nd May 2025.
Matthew Sweet assesses the state of contemporary culture
Published on Friday, 25th April 2025.
Muriel Zagha, Prof. Sam Friedman, Lord Willetts, Lisa Holdsworth & Prof. Melinda Mills
Published on Friday, 28th March 2025.
Matthew Sweet explores ideas about being on your own
Published on Friday, 21st March 2025.
Lord Sumption, Danny Robins, Dr Sarah Dillon Dr Jonathan Egid and Dr Anthony Milligan
Published on Friday, 14th March 2025.
Chris Lintott, Margaret Heffernan, Liam Halligan, Tim Garton Ash, Victoria Donovan
Published on Friday, 7th March 2025.
A key preservative, the subject of taxes, a danger to plant-life - how much salt is good?
Published on Friday, 28th February 2025.
Timandra Harkness, Ekow Eshun, Sophie Grace Chappell, Richard Bett and Stephen Bush
Published on Friday, 21st February 2025.
Susie Orbach, Armand D'Angour, Vittoria Fallanca, Mary Harrod and Catherine Wheatley.
Published on Friday, 14th February 2025.
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss routine, repetition and our sense of time
Published on Friday, 7th February 2025.
From think tanks & tallies to tarot, what tools do we use to help us choose our actions?
Published on Friday, 31st January 2025.
Michael Crick, Irving Finkel, Sophie Coulombeau and Oliver Burkeman join Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 24th January 2025.
From art to activism, campaigning to cabaret, Shahidha Bari asks when is enough enough?
Published on Friday, 10th January 2025.
Tim Martin, Natalie Whittle, Prof Philip Howell, Dr Marianne Hem Eriksen, Ben Wright.
Published on Friday, 20th December 2024.
Dr Christian Busch, Bobby Seagull, Sharron Davies, Dr Kate Tomas and Timandra Harkness.
Published on Friday, 13th December 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests pick up from this year's Reith lectures and look at ideas of evil
Published on Friday, 6th December 2024.
Following Thanksgiving, and as Christmas approaches, Shahidha Bari on giving and receiving
Published on Friday, 29th November 2024.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald,Clare Jackson, Holly Furneaux and Bronwen Maddox discuss diplomacy
Published on Friday, 22nd November 2024.
Alexander McCall Smith, Susannah Clapp, Tom Shakespeare, Deborah Sugg Ryan & Hugo Drochon
Published on Friday, 15th November 2024.
It's 350 years since the death of Milton - we discuss ideas of Puritanism and divorce
Published on Friday, 8th November 2024.
Shahidha Bari with Irving Finkel, Simon Critchley, Chris Harding & Hetta Howes
Published on Friday, 1st November 2024.
3Short Freddy Gray, Dr Katie McGettigan, Amanda Taub, Kit Davis, Rana Mitter
Published on Friday, 25th October 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the secret languages of the internet and beyond
Published on Friday, 18th October 2024.
Katherine Rundell, Emily Baughan, Grace Lockrobin, Miriam Cates, Andrew Cooper
Published on Friday, 11th October 2024.
With Shahidha Bari and guests
Published on Friday, 4th October 2024.
Michael Crick, Helen Castor, David Edmonds, Kate Maltby and Roger Luckhurst
Published on Friday, 27th September 2024.
Do we live in a time of crisis? Matthew Sweet gets to grips with the present moment
Published on Friday, 20th September 2024.
Anne McElvoy with guests including David Runciman and Gisela Stuart
Published on Friday, 13th September 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests question whether you can ever really escape
Published on Friday, 28th June 2024.
Mark Miodownik, Emily Herring, Rob Newman & Fay Dowker consider Time with Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 21st June 2024.
Peter Frankopan, Alison Light, Bronwen Maddox & Zeinab Badawi join Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 14th June 2024.
Eliza Filby, Rana Mitter, Jo Hamya, Tom Simpson, plus Gaby Hinsliff
Published on Friday, 7th June 2024.
Stephen Bush, Dr Sarah Jilani , Kate Maltby and Keith Shiri join Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 31st May 2024.
Margaret MacMillan, David Aaronovitch, Phillip Blond and Gisela Stuart join Matthew Sweet
Published on Saturday, 25th May 2024.
Sir Richard Evans, Margaret Heffernan, Isabel Oakeshott, Quassim Cassam join Anne McElvoy
Published on Tuesday, 21st May 2024.
Introducing ten academics who’ll be sharing their research as part of a BBC/AHRC scheme
Published on Thursday, 16th May 2024.
Matthew Sweet with David Willetts, Elizabeth Oldfield, Will Davies, Tiffany Watt Smith
Published on Friday, 10th May 2024.
Winning and losing with Lea Ypi, Peter Hitchens, Michael Mansfield KC and Cath Bishop.
Published on Saturday, 4th May 2024.
Girl power past and present, the wisdom of goats and seagulls and Kant's ideas on reason
Published on Friday, 26th April 2024.
New research into local politics, newspapers and the history of the post office
Mary Beard, Konnie Huq, Helen Carr and Tom Peck join Shahidha Bari
Published on Friday, 19th April 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests look at ideas about change: political, climate, personal
Published on Friday, 12th April 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests look back at the week exploring the ideas shaping our lives today
Published on Friday, 5th April 2024.
Isabella Rosner explains why needlework challenges our idea of Quaker simplicity
Published on Friday, 29th March 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests assess the value of pranks and what purpose they may serve.
Ana Baeza Ruiz shares reflections from artists in the '70s women's liberation movement
Published on Thursday, 28th March 2024.
Darkness and how it affects those with dementia, to light in modernist literature
Archaeologists Marianne Hem Eriksen, Pauline Harding: historians Cat Byers, Harriet Soper
Published on Wednesday, 27th March 2024.
A war captive turned musician in the Ottoman court and Islamic influences in Rubens' art
Gemma Tidman describes a game created by a Jesuit missionary seeking Mohawk converts.
Sylvia Townsend Warner's move to Dorset, Heidegger's Heimat and the Arun river in Sussex.
Dan Taylor considers the way communities along the A13 are looking to the future
Published on Tuesday, 26th March 2024.
From the aqueducts of ancient Rome to 19th century river Nile and today's running water
Published on Friday, 22nd March 2024.
Louise Brangan reflects on the uncovering of the secret lives lived in Irish laundries
Sam Johnson-Schlee draws links between Dr Feelgood, Canvey Island and energy policies
Marianne Hem Eriksen on the meaning of a skull bone carved with "pain" thrown onto a tip
Published on Thursday, 21st March 2024.
Kerry McInerney explores the promise of the ‘sustainable AI’ movement and how AI develops
Andrew Cooper on the school teacher who tried to ignite a feminist revolution in Germany
Published on Wednesday, 20th March 2024.
Medieval myth-making, the kings of Scotland and the Stone of Destiny
The writings of Chinese women, from Ding Ling to coming of age in the 1990s
Published on Tuesday, 19th March 2024.
How the shape of words for mother helps babies eat their food. Rebecca Woods explains
Published on Monday, 18th March 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the playwright Edward Bond (18 July 1934 – 3 March 2024)
Published on Friday, 15th March 2024.
Laurence Scott talks to researchers exploring how we sleep and the idea of sleep justice
Published on Wednesday, 13th March 2024.
Poetry by Hafez, Nowruz (New Year) and the Haft Sin table, the Mongol invasion, music
Published on Tuesday, 12th March 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the 1974 Gene Hackman film about surveillance and murder
Published on Thursday, 7th March 2024.
From Pre-Raphaelite models to the daughter of Maud Gonne: Naomi Paxton with new research
Published on Wednesday, 6th March 2024.
Ahead of International Women's Day Shahidha Bari hears stories linking women with war
Published on Tuesday, 5th March 2024.
John Gallagher hears about new research into Anglo-Dutch trade and early publishing
Published on Thursday, 29th February 2024.
Matthew Sweet considers examples from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to a system of Polish tokens
Published on Wednesday, 28th February 2024.
Shahidha Bari visits a textile art show + research on embroidery, stage outfits, vintage
Published on Tuesday, 27th February 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests take a deep dive into the influential German group's 1973 album.
Published on Thursday, 22nd February 2024.
Anna McKay, Lloyd Belton and Oliver Finnegan delve in the deep for seafaring histories
Published on Tuesday, 20th February 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests talk about sexual health, VD clinics, sex work and condoms
Published on Thursday, 15th February 2024.
Shahidha Bari discusses the confection that has conquered the world
Published on Wednesday, 14th February 2024.
Published on Friday, 9th February 2024.
The attempt by an anarchist to blow up the Royal Observatory in 1894 and its consequences
From Picnic at Hanging Rock to an Iron Curtain Pan European picnic
Published on Wednesday, 7th February 2024.
Matthew Sweet and guests on Iris Murdoch's thought and writing (15 July 1919-8 Feb 1999)
Published on Monday, 5th February 2024.
Take a mind-bending trip to a distant planet with Andrzej Zulawski's cult 1987 SF film
Published on Friday, 2nd February 2024.
Authors Rowan Williams & Christopher Harding and artist Gayle Chong Kwan join Rana Mitter
Published on Wednesday, 31st January 2024.
Clair Wills, Martin Doyle, Scott McKendry & Louise Brangan discuss secrets and conflict
Published on Tuesday, 30th January 2024.
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan 27) Anne McElvoy hears testimony and new research
Published on Friday, 26th January 2024.
Chris Harding investigates the flourishing of Japanese philosophy in the 1930s and beyond
Published on Wednesday, 24th January 2024.
Matthew Sweet discusses the influential German philosopher's relationship with Nazism
Published on Tuesday, 23rd January 2024.
Sarah Chaney, Louise Creechan and Robert Chapman on neurodiversity, with Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 19th January 2024.
The women who crop up in Shakespeare's life, his plays and who helped conserve his legacy
Published on Wednesday, 17th January 2024.
From mould to desertification Naomi Paxton and guests on the impact of dirt,heat and damp
Published on Tuesday, 16th January 2024.
A novel from 1979 which uses time travel to explore race, slavery and trauma
Published on Thursday, 11th January 2024.
From Montaigne to modern Scottish writing - Rana Mitter discusses what makes a good Essay
Published on Wednesday, 10th January 2024.
From preventing strangulation on the railways to guide maps and the art of travel posters
Published on Wednesday, 3rd January 2024.
Matthew Sweet looks at copyright rules for Mickey Mouse & Dickens in C19th America
Published on Thursday, 21st December 2023.
English Nuns abroad, and are carols just for Christmas?
Published on Wednesday, 20th December 2023.
From classic myths rewritten by Natalie Haynes to the art of John Craxton in Crete
Nandini Das, Tania Branigan, Halik Kochanski, Ed Yong, John Vallaint talk to Rana Mitter
Published on Tuesday, 19th December 2023.
The long career of the American singer, film star & activist with Matthew Sweet & guests
Published on Friday, 15th December 2023.
Nandini Das and guests discuss the Duchess of Newcastle - philosopher, poet and scientist
Published on Wednesday, 13th December 2023.
Exploring the literary and theological terrain of C.S. Lewis's Narnia
Published on Wednesday, 6th December 2023.
For World Soil Day, a celebration of art, research and ideas to revive the earth
Published on Tuesday, 5th December 2023.
Dr Louise Creechan and guests discuss adaptive music technology & musical theatre roles
Published on Friday, 1st December 2023.
Bureaucracies of the soul satirised in novels. Matthew Sweet's guests include Lea Ypi.
From Alexandria to Mid Wales, Laurence Scott and guests look at library history.
Published on Wednesday, 29th November 2023.
As the National Theatre stages The House of Bernarda Alba, Rana Mitter discusses Lorca
Published on Tuesday, 28th November 2023.
AS Byatt discussed her writing life with Matthew Sweet as she published a novel in 2009
Published on Friday, 24th November 2023.
Forging the modern German nation from the moral and material ruins of WW2
Published on Wednesday, 22nd November 2023.
Selvon's evocative 1956 novel discussed at the British Library by Shahidha Bari & guests.
Published on Tuesday, 21st November 2023.
Kathleen Collins’ film scripts and women sculptors working in wax
Published on Friday, 17th November 2023.
Naomi Alderman, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and others discuss the politics of this 1973 fable
Published on Thursday, 16th November 2023.
Naomi Paxton and guests on exhibitions at Tate Britain, the Barbican and Modern Art Oxford
Published on Wednesday, 15th November 2023.
From Bollywood films and Pre-Raphaelite art to productions of Shakespeare in places at war
Published on Wednesday, 8th November 2023.
From digging for bones to the connection between bear baiting and Elizabethan theatre
John Gallagher hears about tongue shapes, accent prejudice and the importance of gossip
As the IWM unveils its new art galleries, Anne McElvoy & guests discuss photographing war
Published on Tuesday, 7th November 2023.
What spectacles did Elizabethan playhouses stage other than plays? Is opera really posh?
Published on Monday, 6th November 2023.
Lisa Mullen hears about new research into eating habits and ideas about hospitality
Published on Sunday, 5th November 2023.
The lives of Bengalis in Pakistan/a novel about a Lebanese boy wanting to be an astronaut
Published on Thursday, 2nd November 2023.
Teju Cole, Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tate curator Osei Bonsu talk to Laurence Scott.
For Halloween, Matthew Sweet & guests discuss supernatural fiction, bad teeth & canals
Matthew Sweet hears about research into the singer & friend of JS Mill feat. live songs!
Published on Friday, 27th October 2023.
John Gallagher gets sleeping tips from research pioneers and early modern history
Published on Tuesday, 24th October 2023.
Curator Ekow Eshun, academic Sarah Jilani, sculptor Zak Ové with Shahihda Bari
Published on Monday, 23rd October 2023.
A weirdly autobiographical science fiction novel from 1981 inspired by hallucinations.
Published on Friday, 20th October 2023.
From mitochondrial medicine to 17th century cancer treatments, via Bach's Cantatas
Published on Wednesday, 18th October 2023.
Nandini Das visits Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean in Oxford and talks to a jeweller
Published on Tuesday, 17th October 2023.
From Luddite protests in 1811 in textile mills to school strikes in 1911
Published on Friday, 13th October 2023.
Matthew Sweet discusses the genealogy of blondeness
Published on Thursday, 12th October 2023.
The art museum as community space, immersive art experiences & other hot topics.
Published on Wednesday, 11th October 2023.
Artist Mat Collishaw, composer Jimmy López Bellido, academics Vid Simoniti & Sarah Casey
Published on Tuesday, 10th October 2023.
Nathan Waddell and Laura Ryan talk to Jade Munslow Ong about writers depicting precarity
Published on Monday, 9th October 2023.
Philosophers Daniel Dennett, Philip Goff, podcaster Liz Oldfield & a faith museum curator
Published on Thursday, 5th October 2023.
Poets Momtaza Mehri, Julianknxx and historian Jesús Sanjurjo join Matthew Sweet
Published on Wednesday, 4th October 2023.
Matthew Sweet looks at the origins of creatures like Baba Yaga, Banniks and Rusalkas.
Published on Tuesday, 3rd October 2023.
John Gray on why re-reading Hobbes can help us understand contemporary politics
Published on Thursday, 28th September 2023.
Testament, Hannah Silva, historian Jessica Cox and Thackray museum curator Laura Sellers
Published on Tuesday, 26th September 2023.
Howard Jacobson, Lara Feigel and Lisa Mullen with Matthew Sweet
Authors Jonathan Coe, Roland Allen, Lesley Smith and art book maker Gill Partington
Published on Thursday, 21st September 2023.
Christopher Harding investigates the history, culture and science of space exploration
Published on Wednesday, 20th September 2023.
Artist Jaqueline Bishop and curator of an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge
Published on Tuesday, 19th September 2023.
Ahead of a BFI festival, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Powell and Pressburger's film
Published on Thursday, 14th September 2023.
Diarmuid Hester & Dodie Bellamy on a '70s US writing group. Lauren Elkin on art monsters
Published on Wednesday, 13th September 2023.
Rana Mitter talks to the six authors shortlisted for the UK's main history writing prize
Published on Tuesday, 5th September 2023.
Amanda Thomson and Merryn Glover talk to Kate Molleson about Scots nature writing
Published on Monday, 4th September 2023.
Wyl Menmuir and Natasha Carthew talk to Joan Passey
Published on Sunday, 27th August 2023.
Matthew Sweet and guests with an audience at the 2022 Contains Strong Language Festival
Published on Friday, 25th August 2023.
Historical accounts and fictional depictions of the women who ran boarding houses.
Published on Wednesday, 23rd August 2023.
Russell T Davies, Jill Nalder, Sabina Dosani and Matthew Sweet recorded with an audience
Dame Sheila Hancock , viola player Rachel Stott and writer Geoff Dyer discuss endings
Published on Tuesday, 22nd August 2023.
A poet, crime writer, theologian, marine biologist and Matthew Sweet explore darkness
Published on Monday, 21st August 2023.
Anne McElvoy and guests look at the writing of the German Romantic writer and musician
Published on Friday, 4th August 2023.
Japanese ideas about childhood innocence and the influence of a 1988 Studio Ghibli film.
Published on Thursday, 3rd August 2023.
Matthew Sweet & Daniel Postgate, musicians Sandra Kerr & Neil Brand, critic Samira Ahmed
Published on Wednesday, 2nd August 2023.
Shahidha Bari is joined by Professor Marion Turner, poet Patience Agbabi and Hetta Howes
Published on Tuesday, 1st August 2023.
Matthew Sweet & guests including Glenda Jackson on John Schlesinger's love triangle film
Published on Monday, 31st July 2023.
Zoë Skoulding and Tom Bullough talk to Joan Passey about Wales in their writing
Published on Sunday, 30th July 2023.
Jessica Andrews and Jake Morris-Campbell compare notes with Ian McMillan
Published on Saturday, 22nd July 2023.
Colin Bateman and Michelle Gallen talk about their writing to Shahidha Bari
Published on Monday, 17th July 2023.
The groundbreaking 1970s TV drama reassessed with guests including actor Rula Lenska.
Published on Friday, 14th July 2023.
The influence of J.L. Austin, Gilbert Ryle, Elizabeth Anscombe and later Derek Parfit
Published on Wednesday, 12th July 2023.
The V&A has re-opened its museum of childhood as Young V&A plus how kids learn to speak
Published on Tuesday, 11th July 2023.
Historians Joya Chatterji and Tripurdaman Singh, plus the novels of Kamala Markandaya
Published on Thursday, 6th July 2023.
Newspaper reports of the Lionesses analysed + early reports of women in American football
Catherine Fletcher and 3 Biennial artists. Vid Simoniti visits Economics the Blockbuster
Published on Tuesday, 4th July 2023.
From needlework to marriage portraits to depicting music on the page
New research on the stories held in the NHS archives and the voices that are missing
What can we learn from children's experiences in the Pandemic at home and at school?
Published on Monday, 3rd July 2023.
Health projects using Caribbean folk traditions, wild swimming, museums and the blues
Published on Sunday, 2nd July 2023.
From sleeve design to stroke patient recovery and solving malnutrition
Published on Saturday, 1st July 2023.
Dr Kim Moore and Dr Kim Wiltshire on how hospital staff have been helped by writing
Published on Friday, 30th June 2023.
As Kay Dick's They opens at MIF, Matthew Sweet and guests trace the history of dystopias.
We examine Rome's last pagan ruler via Ibsen's drama to apostasy in contemporary politics
Published on Wednesday, 28th June 2023.
Chris Harding with Luke Turner, Jeffrey Boakye and Lisa Sugiura discuss growing up now
Published on Monday, 26th June 2023.
From gut feelings in your stomach to the language of disgust: Matthew Sweet hosts
Published on Friday, 23rd June 2023.
As the V&A opens an exhibition about performers, Naomi Paxton discusses what makes a diva
Published on Wednesday, 21st June 2023.
The book of the Sturm und Drang generation: Anne McElvoy explores the ideas behind it
Published on Tuesday, 20th June 2023.
Sarah Kent, Marianne Hem Eriksen, Melanie Williams and Angela Hui join Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 16th June 2023.
With the death of Glenda Jackson announced here's a conversation she recorded last year
Published on Thursday, 15th June 2023.
As the NPG re-opens we look at portraiture in art, photography, documentary & oral history
Published on Wednesday, 14th June 2023.
Gavin Francis on Thomas Browne, Polly Morland on John Berger, Matt Smith on mental health
Published on Tuesday, 13th June 2023.
From the East India Company to Silicon Valley: the big ideas in his tercentennial year
Published on Thursday, 8th June 2023.
Novelist R F Kuang, Dr Kerry McInerney, Ghislaine Boddington and MIT's Daron Acemoglu
Published on Wednesday, 7th June 2023.
Matthew Sweet on the French actor who worked with Buñuel, Varda, Ferreri and Godard.
Published on Tuesday, 6th June 2023.
Rana Mitter looks at fens, flatlands, wild swimming and a little-changed Bulgarian valley
Published on Wednesday, 31st May 2023.
Ece Temelkuran, Ben Judah, Misha Glenny and Timothy Garton Ash with Rana Mitter at Hay
As an Imperial War Museum show opens, Anne McElvoy and guests discuss art and the Troubles
Published on Friday, 26th May 2023.
From Montaigne on sneezing to losing the sense of smell & historians using their noses.
Julia Pascal, Rachel Lichtenstein, Linda Grant and curator Alex Cropper + John Gallagher
Published on Thursday, 25th May 2023.
Shahidha Bari looks at sea creatures and a Caribbean re-telling of The Little Mermaid.
Published on Wednesday, 24th May 2023.
Looking beyond the stereotypes of the county that's often described as 'much maligned'.
Published on Friday, 19th May 2023.
Shahidha Bari is joined by Louise Creechan, Joan Passey and Paul Baker
Published on Wednesday, 17th May 2023.
NoViolet Bulwayo's We Need New Names on stage plus "enfant terrible" Dambudzo Marechera
Published on Tuesday, 16th May 2023.
More than just a fear of going out - the history & lived experience of a phobia explored.
Published on Friday, 12th May 2023.
Rachel Hewitt has been researching the pioneering Irish climber Mrs Aubrey Le Blond.
Published on Wednesday, 10th May 2023.
Shahidha Bari hears about two inspirational medieval women mystics who wrote about faith
Published on Monday, 8th May 2023.
Anne McElvoy looks at royalty, pomp and glory in opera, ancient Persia and Tudor England.
Published on Friday, 5th May 2023.
Matthew Sweet and guests consider the career of the Bahamian-American actor (1927-2022)
Published on Thursday, 4th May 2023.
Matthew Sweet finds out how extreme temperatures changed Erland Cooper's music
Published on Tuesday, 2nd May 2023.
Rana Mitter talks to the author about her life & the art of writing historical biography.
Published on Thursday, 27th April 2023.
Shahidha Bari and guests on a Royal Collection exhibition and the new Bridgerton spin off
Published on Tuesday, 25th April 2023.
From outfits which double as tents to material and algae: Lucy Orta and Monica Buchan-Ng
Published on Thursday, 20th April 2023.
The spiritual paintings of the Swedish artist are discussed by Matthew Sweet and guests
Tartan at V&A Dundee, RL Stevenson's Kidnapped on stage, the Highland Book prize 2022
Published on Wednesday, 19th April 2023.
Trans narratives in pre-Shakespearian drama plus Twelfth Night and the First Folio.
Published on Tuesday, 18th April 2023.
Exploring the flow of cultural influences in both directions across the Atlantic.
Published on Thursday, 13th April 2023.
Jim Scown on the links between Goethe, George Eliot and the storming of the US Capitol
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star's dancing, comic timing and "sass".
Published on Wednesday, 12th April 2023.
Sabina Dosani looks at the ritual of Mizuko Kuyo and modern ceremonies marking miscarriage
Published on Tuesday, 11th April 2023.
From Treasure Island to Kynance Cove, Anne Bonney to Captain Pugwash: Anne McElvoy hosts
Clare Siviter looks at attempts to liberate and then censor expression in 1790s France.
Published on Friday, 7th April 2023.
Oskar Jensen tells the tall tale of a court case inspired by a best-selling novel
Published on Thursday, 6th April 2023.
Is the idea that religion and science are at odds a myth?
Emma Whipday explores the demonisation of single mothers in English witch trials.
Published on Wednesday, 5th April 2023.
Diarmuid Hester hears about Operation Tiger & early 1900s queer life writing
Matthew Sweet and guests visit a Tate Britain show and look at Pater's Renaissance ideas
Chris Harding meets the 10 academics who will make programmes from their research in 2023
Published on Tuesday, 4th April 2023.
The father of modern computing thought the sea could communicate. Joan Passey explains.
Composer Alex Ho, novelist Xiaolu Guo, curator George Young and director Anthony Lau
Published on Tuesday, 28th March 2023.
Katja Hoyer on East Germany, behind the Berlin Wall and the Cold War caricature
Matthew Sweet is joined by Lea Ypi, Adela Demetja, Ani Kokobobo and Aurel Qirjo
Published on Thursday, 23rd March 2023.
Kerry McInerney, Eleanor Drage and Kendra Briken share their research with Laurence Scott
The early 19th century street performer Billy Waters, Streetwise Opera and street ballads
Published on Tuesday, 21st March 2023.
Ahead of Mother's Day Matthew Sweet and guests discuss new ways of looking at stepmothers
Published on Thursday, 16th March 2023.
New research into ideas about decadence and connections with France, England and Iran.
Published on Wednesday, 15th March 2023.
As Budget day approaches, Anne McElvoy looks at debt from the South Sea Bubble to Sunak
Published on Tuesday, 14th March 2023.
Kate Rowley and Gerardo Ortega talk about new research into British Sign Language
Published on Monday, 13th March 2023.
Shahidha Bari is joined by Dina Nayeri, Kirsty Sedgman, Michelle Assay and Alberta Whittle
Published on Wednesday, 8th March 2023.
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the ideas of American anthropologist (1961-2020).
Published on Tuesday, 7th March 2023.
Matthew Sweet and guests on the career of the C20th concrete poet and Catholic mystic
Published on Thursday, 2nd March 2023.
Anne McElvoy looks at Russian punk protest + a version of US TV's Big Bird, Bert and Ernie
New research into the history of stainless steel cutlery, tinned food and sewing machines
Published on Tuesday, 28th February 2023.
New writing by Colin Grant and Kevin Jared Hosein; art by Mary Evans and Michael Elliott
Published on Friday, 24th February 2023.
The long history of climate change and empire: historians Nandini Das and Peter Frankopan
Published on Thursday, 23rd February 2023.
Knossos - birthplace of myths and tragedies - explored by Rana Mitter and Natalie Haynes
Published on Tuesday, 21st February 2023.
The work of the Burkinabé filmmaker explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
Published on Thursday, 16th February 2023.
Romeo and Juliet reworked, Proust and Rita Mae Brown's coming of age tale Rubyfruit Jungle
Published on Tuesday, 14th February 2023.
From Aesop and the bible to the film EO which looks at a donkey born in a Polish circus.
Published on Thursday, 9th February 2023.
Clare Walker-Gore revisits Charlotte M. Yonge's best-selling novel from 1853.
From Kurosawa and Shostakovich to Zinnie Harris. New takes on the Scottish play.
Published on Wednesday, 8th February 2023.
Sarah Jilani on Latife Tekin’s magical realist novel about 1960’s Istanbul shanty towns.
Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of the Pulitzer prize winning American poet 1917-2000
Published on Tuesday, 7th February 2023.
The fish-tailed woman of medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
Published on Friday, 3rd February 2023.
Russell T Davies and Paula Milne on the power of soap operas
Published on Thursday, 2nd February 2023.
Rana Mitter talks about politics, religion and divisions in 17th-century England.
Published on Tuesday, 31st January 2023.
Matthew Sweet looks at the experiences of Portuguese Jewish and Roma communities.
Published on Thursday, 26th January 2023.
Rana Mitter considers the life and legacy of the first person to survey Stonehenge
Published on Wednesday, 25th January 2023.
Matthew Sweet marks the 30th anniversary of the death of this icon of film and fashion.
Published on Thursday, 19th January 2023.
Anne McElvoy hosts a conversation about higher education and the history of its expansion
Published on Wednesday, 18th January 2023.
Marion Turner talks to Shahidha Bari about different versions of Chaucer's heroine
Published on Tuesday, 17th January 2023.
John Gallagher is joined by Gwenno, who writes and sings in Cornish, and others
Published on Friday, 13th January 2023.
Matthew Sweet reads Ice and other works of this experimental writer who died in 1968
Published on Wednesday, 11th January 2023.
The enslaved African American woman, Phillis Wheatley who became a celebrated poet.
Claire Harman, Kirsty Gunn, Laurence Scott and Shahidha Bari discuss short story writing
Published on Friday, 6th January 2023.
Rana Mitter and guests discuss the pan-Africanist poet and anti-colonial leader.
How the Victorian author’s own pain and drug dependency fed into his sensational novels.
Published on Thursday, 5th January 2023.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough finds out about the All England Club's move to a new home
Published on Thursday, 22nd December 2022.
From Agatha Christie surfing to weight-lifting '20s style. John Gallagher looks at sports
From a series of starlit concerts in the 20s to America's principle outdoor concert venue
John Gallagher talks to Annie Gray and Elsa Richardson about iguana soup and protein bars
The "agreggator" of stories - we look at how it launched and revolutionised reading
Published on Friday, 16th December 2022.
Shahidha Bari investigates the human invention of animals
Published on Wednesday, 14th December 2022.
Are lists a good way of organising chaos? Lisa Mullen and guests discuss
Published on Tuesday, 13th December 2022.
Published on Thursday, 8th December 2022.
Shahidha Bari hears about the aerialists Lillian Leitzel and Pablo Fanque.
Published on Wednesday, 7th December 2022.
From Lancashire dialect protest poetry to Hardy's Dorset vowels. John Gallagher hosts.
Published on Tuesday, 6th December 2022.
Catherine Fletcher with Vid Simoniti; Cleo Hanaway-Oakley; Lamin Fofana and Sally Booth
Published on Wednesday, 30th November 2022.
Ahead of world soil day, Anne McElvoy looks at changes to both rural and urban farming.
Published on Tuesday, 29th November 2022.
Matthew Sweet with George Takei, Naomi Alderman, Una McCormack and José-Antonio Orosco
Published on Friday, 25th November 2022.
Stephen Frears, Matthew Reisz & Lucy Bolton join Matthew Sweet to look at this 1966 film.
Published on Thursday, 24th November 2022.
From the Arabian nights to refugee stories - female voices fictional and real
Published on Wednesday, 23rd November 2022.
Sarah Peverley talks to Carolyne Larrington and Danielle Park about tv and history
Sarah Peverley talks to Carolyne Larrington and Danielle Park about tv depicting history
Rana Mitter discusses three major theorists of religion and self-development
Published on Tuesday, 22nd November 2022.
Shahidha Bari and guests discuss caves: from Nottingham to Borneo, in art and stories.
Shahidha Bari, Matthew Herbert, the Goldsmith Prize winners and poet Stephen Sexton
Benjamin Franklin in the Lakes, the former slave who invented light bulbs, ganzflicker
How can local communities play a role in cutting carbon emissions?
Published on Friday, 18th November 2022.
Jane Smiley, Christopher Prendergast, Jayne Haynes, Marie Darrieussecq with Matthew Sweet
Anne McElvoy and guests look at the arguments explored in the plays of Shaw (1856-1950)
Published on Wednesday, 16th November 2022.
The extraordinary uses of two contrasting materials.
Published on Wednesday, 9th November 2022.
How video games interpret stories about war and conflict and help to train troops.
Published on Tuesday, 8th November 2022.
A life of great drama and religious controversy explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
Published on Thursday, 3rd November 2022.
Andrea Wulf, author of a new group biography set in 1790s Jena joins Anne McElvoy
Published on Wednesday, 2nd November 2022.
Military leader, city founder, underwater explorer?! Rana Mitter on images of Alexander
Published on Tuesday, 1st November 2022.
Short: How studying grammar and computer games can explain Old English poetry
Published on Friday, 28th October 2022.
Matthew Sweet on the 1992 TV horror
Published on Thursday, 27th October 2022.
The Nobel Prize winning novelist is joined by academics Michael Talbot and Keya Anjaria
Published on Wednesday, 26th October 2022.
John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of Ancient Pompeii
Matthew Sweet and guests on the creator of children's TV classics including The Clangers.
Published on Friday, 21st October 2022.
Rana Mitter meets six authors shortlisted for the prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
Published on Tuesday, 18th October 2022.
Coleridge, Fuseli and Emily Bronte under the spotlight as a new film and exhibition open
Published on Thursday, 13th October 2022.
Anne McElvoy is joined by the directors of three institutions from around the world.
Published on Wednesday, 12th October 2022.
From variations of Mancunian to descriptions of the Geordie voice
Matthew Sweet and guests explore this genre-stretching album released on 11th Oct 1972
Published on Tuesday, 11th October 2022.
Our surprisingly complex and mysterious relationship with text explored by Matthew Sweet.
Published on Friday, 7th October 2022.
Anne McElvoy talks to novelist Kamila Shamsie and playwright Rona Munro
Published on Wednesday, 5th October 2022.
Christopher Harding looks at the background and influence of Studio Ghibli's 1988 film
Published on Tuesday, 4th October 2022.
John Gray, Iain Sinclair, Margaret Drabble and Kevan Manwaring on 'the Dorset Proust'
Published on Thursday, 29th September 2022.
Authors Nadifa Mohamed, Johny Pitts and Pearl Cleage join Shahidha Bari.
Published on Wednesday, 28th September 2022.
New interpretations of the Norwegian dramatist's plays from Lucinda Coxon & Steve Waters.
Published on Monday, 26th September 2022.
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "the Black Country" region
Published on Friday, 23rd September 2022.
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "The Black Country" region
Published on Thursday, 22nd September 2022.
Rana Mitter and guests look at Norman history, misconceptions and echoes heard today
Published on Wednesday, 21st September 2022.
Novelist Ian McEwan and researchers into early warning system archives join Anne McElvoy
Published on Tuesday, 20th September 2022.
Matthew Sweet & guests explore ideas about never ending life in literature, film and myth
Published on Friday, 16th September 2022.
An archaeologist, a historian and a poet join Shahidha Bari as the gospels return North.
Published on Wednesday, 14th September 2022.
John Gallagher and guests explore language in the 15th century age of exploration
Published on Tuesday, 13th September 2022.
From a season of starlit concerts in 1922 to the USA’s principal outdoor concert venue
Published on Tuesday, 6th September 2022.
Why was Lincoln the president the nation chose to commemorate in 1922?
Published on Friday, 2nd September 2022.
New Generation Thinker Jeffery Howard asks if it is ever ok to escape from prison
Published on Friday, 26th August 2022.
Dina Rezk explores the power of humour and protest
Published on Thursday, 25th August 2022.
Brendan McGeever looks at anti-Semitism from Russian history to the present day
Published on Wednesday, 24th August 2022.
From duelling injuries to eye patches - Emily Cock asks how we respond to people's faces
Published on Tuesday, 23rd August 2022.
How do large dam projects gain widespread support despite past examples asks Majed Akhter
Published on Monday, 22nd August 2022.
John Gallagher investigates the Allotments Act of 1922
Published on Thursday, 18th August 2022.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough looks at this ground-breaking documentary about Arctic life.
Published on Wednesday, 17th August 2022.
From surfing to weight lifting, 20s style
John Gallagher explores eating fads in the 1920s with Annie Gray and Elsa Richardson
Published on Tuesday, 16th August 2022.
How does sewing a dress add to Jade Halbert's understanding of disappearing skills?
Published on Friday, 12th August 2022.
The link between VR dinosaurs and a Tudor wall painting of the Judgment of Solomon
Published on Thursday, 11th August 2022.
Ella Parry-Davies draws on experiences of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon and the UK
Published on Wednesday, 10th August 2022.
Susan Greaney asks whether Neolithic attitudes to the earth could shape our thinking
Published on Tuesday, 9th August 2022.
Tom Smith's essay on early pioneers of Berlin's music scene and arguments about whiteness
Zoe Norridge describes translating the testimony of a Rwandan survivor of the civil war.
Published on Friday, 5th August 2022.
The Scottish writers whose comic heroine Miss Marjoribanks bucks 19th century conventions
Published on Wednesday, 3rd August 2022.
The English Renaissance poet whose reputation at court was ruined by her writing
Published on Tuesday, 2nd August 2022.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough finds out about the All England Club's move to a new home.
The Romantic poet who inspired Wordsworth is profiled by Sophie Coulombeau
Published on Monday, 1st August 2022.
The "agreggator" of trending stories of its day - how a magazine revolutionised reading.
The Journey of the Hyena mixes West African oral tradition with New Wave and Soviet style
Published on Tuesday, 26th July 2022.
Glenda Jackson talks to Matthew Sweet about John Schlesinger's 1971 love triangle drama
Published on Monday, 25th July 2022.
What Birmingham can learn from Scotland + commonwealth commercial connections in the past
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the manifesto celebrating youth, technology and violence
Published on Friday, 22nd July 2022.
Rana Mitter looks at Bauhaus in Delhi, Japanese and South African novels and Mexican art
Published on Thursday, 21st July 2022.
Dr William Butler and Jenny Bunn from the National Archives discuss record keeping.
Matthew Sweet's guests include the voice of the Daleks, and the Doctor's granddaughter
Published on Thursday, 14th July 2022.
Tariq Ali, Sarah Jilani, Sangeeta Datta, Chandak Sengoopta discuss Ray with Rana Mitter
An outdoor history of France and a look inside popular French theatre's view on Britain
Published on Wednesday, 13th July 2022.
Shobana Jeyasingh, Cat Jarman and Janina Ramirez with Shahidha Bari
How the speculative and the mythical have shaped and continue to shape Black art.
Published on Thursday, 7th July 2022.
Orwell Prize finalist Kojo Koram plus poetry interested in economics
Published on Wednesday, 6th July 2022.
Dr Naomi Paxton explores archives for stories of Indian culture and history.
Matthew Sweet, Joan Passey, Roger Luckhurst and Sam George look at Varney the Vampire
Published on Thursday, 30th June 2022.
Two leading thinkers investigating the nature of mind and its place in the world
Published on Wednesday, 29th June 2022.
Rana Mitter discusses religion, evolution, neuroscience and history
Published on Tuesday, 28th June 2022.
Geoff Dyer and Dame Sheila Hancock discuss endings and lateness with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 23rd June 2022.
Anne McElvoy and guests look at the life of the German Romantic who died 25 June 1822.
Published on Wednesday, 22nd June 2022.
What does it mean to wait and how has that changed over time?
New words, music and film from the "City of Steel", presented by John Gallagher.
Published on Tuesday, 21st June 2022.
Matthew Sweet discusses environmental thinking and a film made about rice over 18 years
Published on Thursday, 16th June 2022.
Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of Woolf and Joyce and what was really popular in 1922
Published on Wednesday, 15th June 2022.
Damon Galgut discusses his Booker winning novel, The Promise, with Anne McElvoy
Published on Tuesday, 14th June 2022.
Anne McElvoy revisits the 1973 play The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
Published on Friday, 10th June 2022.
Is that strong inescapable image of 19th century city streets in our heads the right one?
Published on Thursday, 9th June 2022.
Rana Mitter interviews the shortlisted authors for this prize for history writing.
Published on Tuesday, 7th June 2022.
Hidden LGBTQ+ histories in Northern Ireland and queer cinema in contemporary China
Digging beneath the surface of the classic Brit noir film with director Mike Hodges.
Published on Thursday, 2nd June 2022.
The Right to Sex is the title of Amia Srinivasan's new book. Christopher Harding hosts.
Published on Wednesday, 1st June 2022.
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Emily Shuckburgh and Joan Passey join Rana Mitter at Hay Festival
Mirela Ivanova on the countries claiming to be the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet
Published on Friday, 27th May 2022.
Vid Simoniti considers eco-art, from Olafur Eliasson to videos by Bo Zheng
Lauren Working on what fashion reveals about C16th English settlers in America
Tangled bloodlines, executions and a big, gold inflatable thing belonging to Henry VIII
Published on Thursday, 26th May 2022.
Donne, Hamlet, 16th century psychology and mathematics, Tudor portraits
Published on Wednesday, 25th May 2022.
Shahidha Bari traces the move from markings on convicts and aristos to today's body art.
Published on Thursday, 19th May 2022.
Christopher Harding explores the feminine divine with Ronald Hutton and others
Published on Wednesday, 18th May 2022.
Rana Mitter looks at a new play at the National Theatre about the man who murdered Gandhi
John Gallagher and guests dig deep into the significance of soil
Published on Tuesday, 17th May 2022.
Catherine Fletcher with Richard King, Caryl Lewis, Elen Ifan and Seiriol Davies
Published on Monday, 16th May 2022.
Can old field names and labelling energy sources help us cope better with climate change?
130 acres of central London synonymous with sex and shadiness immortalised in film
Published on Friday, 13th May 2022.
Anne McElvoy looks at ASMR, clean air, loneliness and a memoir exploring mental health.
Published on Friday, 6th May 2022.
Matthew Sweet explores the work of Soviet Ukrainian writer Isaac Babel
Published on Thursday, 5th May 2022.
From the bracket & exclamation mark to emojis - Florence Hazrat's history of punctuation
Ways of seeing the trade triangle from Confessions of an Opium Eater to modern novels.
Julia Hartley asks why we call Alexander "the Great".
Published on Wednesday, 4th May 2022.
From Rear Window to stained glass, TB to paintings at Dulwich: Shahidha Bari hosts.
Japanese cultural experimentation: painter, Kyōsai 1831-1889 & writer, Mishima 1925-1970
Published on Tuesday, 3rd May 2022.
Adjoa Osei celebrates Elsie Houston, who mixed Afro-Brazilian folk with European opera.
Published on Monday, 2nd May 2022.
Jake Subryan Richards reads the letter sent by a captured man who arrived in Cuba in 1854
Published on Friday, 29th April 2022.
Matthew Sweet and guests explore ideas about community, collective action and May revels.
Sarah Jilani on the lessons about power in films by Ousmane Sembene and Souleymane Cissé
Published on Wednesday, 27th April 2022.
Anne McElvoy looks at the life and legacy of the intriguing poet
Jake Morris-Campbell carries the ashes of the poet Bill Martin from Sunderland to Durham.
Published on Monday, 25th April 2022.
Novelist Julian Barnes, historian Daisy Hay and New Generation Thinker Louise Creechan.
Published on Thursday, 21st April 2022.
Shahidha Bari on a new staging of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Why is Warwick a key figure?
Published on Wednesday, 20th April 2022.
From knitting patterns to greetings cards: Naomi Paxton looks at a series of UK archives
Published on Tuesday, 19th April 2022.
Gender, class & domestic tasks-Matthew Sweet pulls on his rubber gloves and gets stuck in
Published on Friday, 15th April 2022.
Artist Hew Locke plus historians Sarah Caputo, Jake Subryan Richards, and Tom Nancollas
Published on Wednesday, 13th April 2022.
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the role of ritual, laments and how we express grief.
Published on Friday, 8th April 2022.
Kevin Rudd talks about avoiding catastrophic conflict between China and the USA
Published on Wednesday, 6th April 2022.
Shahidha Bari with Ian Kelly, Sophie Coulombeau, Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, Hannah Greig
Laurence Scott introduces the ten academics chosen to share their research on radio
Published on Thursday, 31st March 2022.
Confronting the man who jilted you is the plot of this 1960s Argentine expressionist film
Published on Wednesday, 30th March 2022.
Matthew Sweet watches the 1973 film that made Bruce Lee an international star
Published on Tuesday, 29th March 2022.
A poet, crime writer, theologian & marine biologist join Matthew Sweet to explore darkness
Published on Friday, 25th March 2022.
Matthew Sweet looks for meaning in the moment when the length of day and night is equal.
From HM Treasury to Versailles and Bloomsbury: a look at the life and legacy of JM Keynes
Published on Tuesday, 22nd March 2022.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to scholars with new insights on the Viking period
Published on Thursday, 17th March 2022.
How an East German creative writing class fought the cold war: was their poetry any good?
Published on Wednesday, 16th March 2022.
Lauren Working explores the Cavalier look from Charles I to Harry Styles
Published on Monday, 14th March 2022.
Tom Smith links school blazers and clothes worn by East German soldiers to clubbing
Jade Halbert looks at the designs inspired by English history created by Angela Holmes
Shahidha Bari looks at what the contents of a handbag can tell us
Sophie Oliver looks at a Mina Loy corselet and the history of reshaping bodies
Mark Ravenhill talks about staging the play on which Hitchcock based his film
Published on Thursday, 10th March 2022.
The Clean Break theatre company, sex strikes, East European feminism: Naomi Paxton hosts
Published on Wednesday, 9th March 2022.
Published on Tuesday, 8th March 2022.
The Unthank sisters, Sally Alexander, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Lucy Holland and Shahidha Bari
Published on Sunday, 6th March 2022.
Writer Howard Jacobson, photographer Ruth Sutoyé talk family histories with Matthew Sweet
Published on Thursday, 3rd March 2022.
Leading artists, writers, thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd March 2022.
Eugenics to cyborgs: Adam Rutherford, Clare Chambers, Harry Parker & Xine Yao discuss
Published on Thursday, 24th February 2022.
A computer game for cystic fibrosis patients to improve breathing
Pankaj Mishra discusses his new novel about friends in an age of upheaval
Egon Schiele's women, Whistler's woman in white, new radio ballads : Shahidha Bari hosts.
Published on Wednesday, 23rd February 2022.
Matthew Sweet and guests consider hitchiking in culture and around the globe.
Published on Thursday, 17th February 2022.
From AI & fan fiction to 1930s replica antiquities: new ways of thinking about China.
Published on Wednesday, 16th February 2022.
Anne McElvoy is joined by Neil Wilkin, Mike Pitts, Susan Greaney and Seren Griffiths
Published on Tuesday, 15th February 2022.
Planning and creating in the shadow of the doomsday clock with Shahidha Bari and guests
Published on Thursday, 10th February 2022.
Rana Mitter dives into the world of whales and examines our relationship to marine life.
Published on Wednesday, 9th February 2022.
Philip Hoare, Rachel Murray, Peter Riley and Edward Sugden explore marine life.
Christienna Fryar speaks to four researchers whose work is expanding the musical canon
Published on Tuesday, 8th February 2022.
Matthew Sweet explores into the movement that celebrated technology, vitality, violence
Published on Thursday, 3rd February 2022.
The Bauhaus in Deli, Japanese and South African novels, and poetry and art in Mexico
Published on Wednesday, 2nd February 2022.
From the Chinese Han Dynasty in 105 AD to the 20th-century workplace, art and rubbish.
Will Self, Alexandra Harris, Kevin LeGendre & Owen Hatherley build up a Manifesto
Published on Tuesday, 1st February 2022.
Matthew Sweet on the life of Danish film star Asta Nielsen, one of cinema's first icons.
Published on Thursday, 27th January 2022.
Anne McElvoy talks to Israeli novelist Yishai Sarid & hears about new historical research
Published on Wednesday, 26th January 2022.
Digging into the music of composers Joseph Bologne, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry.
Published on Monday, 24th January 2022.
A close look at Djibril Diop Mambéty's classic 1973 film with Matthew Sweet and guests
Published on Friday, 21st January 2022.
How can young people regulate their emotions and can gaming help adolescent mental health
Published on Tuesday, 18th January 2022.
Shahidha Bari is joined by three writers to discuss love and the contemporary novel.
Matthew Sweet and guests knock on the doors of perception
Published on Thursday, 13th January 2022.
The mermaid-like figure from medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
Published on Wednesday, 12th January 2022.
Liz Lochead is one of Anne McElvoy's guests discussing how to update the French dramatist
Published on Tuesday, 11th January 2022.
How does Neville Chamberlain's capitulation to Hitler in 1938 affect politics in 2022?
Published on Thursday, 6th January 2022.
From python skin to digital worlds, PPE to vegan materials: how gloves are evolving.
Published on Wednesday, 5th January 2022.
The French film star who burst onto the scene in 1960 in Godard's Breathless
Published on Tuesday, 4th January 2022.
Are fungi out to get us or here to help? A look at mushrooms in art, food and psychology.
Published on Thursday, 16th December 2021.
Is it a good thing to stand out? Anne McElvoy and guests explore the virtue of being dull
Published on Wednesday, 15th December 2021.
Two Buddhist scholars and the socialist feminist historian join Rana Mitter
Published on Tuesday, 14th December 2021.
Matthew Sweet and guests look at The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921) and witches now
Published on Thursday, 9th December 2021.
Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr, Germaine Greer v Norman Mailer: Have debates changed?
Published on Wednesday, 8th December 2021.
Prize winning films about migration, autism, Colombians, farming and children born of war
Rana Mitter talks to historians making waves with the books they have published.
Published on Tuesday, 7th December 2021.
The end of the world as we know it. Matthew Sweet and guests re-read John Wyndham's novel
Published on Thursday, 2nd December 2021.
As a Tate Britain show opens, Shahidha Bari looks at Caribbean post war writing and art
Published on Wednesday, 1st December 2021.
Writer Philip Hoare, curator Robert Wenley, historian Helen Cowie talk celebrity animals.
Published on Tuesday, 30th November 2021.
How toys are shaped by politics and why they have a spooky side.
Published on Friday, 26th November 2021.
Shahidha Bari and guests read this version of Homer's Illiad and look at Logue's language
Published on Wednesday, 24th November 2021.
Novelists Mircea Cărtărescu, Georgina Harding & Philippe Sands join Anne McElvoy
Published on Tuesday, 23rd November 2021.
From World War One soldiers in Belfast to the LGBTQ+ monument in Amsterdam.
Published on Friday, 19th November 2021.
From fake flowers carved by Grinling Gibbons to modern craft and internet images.
Ahead of a performance at the London Jazz Festival, what history underpins the album?
Published on Wednesday, 17th November 2021.
One of the key French Existentialists of the 1950s, how does de Beauvoir read today?
Published on Tuesday, 16th November 2021.
Research into covid comics, codes in Dickens, projecting books onto hospital ceilings.
Published on Thursday, 11th November 2021.
What we learn from involving communities experiencing the sharp end of climate change.
Published on Wednesday, 10th November 2021.
How do we define a war? Anne McElvoy and guests look at how language changes attitudes.
Published on Tuesday, 9th November 2021.
Around 60% of UK waste comes from the construction sector. How can we tackle this?
Published on Monday, 8th November 2021.
Matthew Sweet is joined by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Mark Vernon and Hetta Howes
Published on Friday, 5th November 2021.
Glasgow and Birmingham projects to help young people express their experiences.
What use can we find for old power stations?
Published on Thursday, 4th November 2021.
Rana Mitter talks to Professor Mary Beard, artist Ali Cherri and looks at Hogarth's art.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd November 2021.
From coral reef sculptures to creation sagas of Australia and attitudes to land and sea.
Published on Tuesday, 2nd November 2021.
Are court cases an effective way of meeting climate aims?
Published on Monday, 1st November 2021.
As the clocks go back, Matthew Sweet and guests host a party for time travellers
Published on Friday, 29th October 2021.
Do photos of polar bears or recycling bins make us care more about the climate emergency?
Published on Thursday, 28th October 2021.
Digging into the music of composers Joseph Boulogne, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry
Is a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winner on to a new sustainable energy source?
Published on Tuesday, 26th October 2021.
Poet Pascale Petit, photographer Jasper Goodall, Alexandra Harris, composer Sally Beamish
How can mangos, cocoa husks and rice be turned into fuel and impact climate change?
Published on Monday, 25th October 2021.
Shahidha Bari leads a discussion of Nigerian-born novelist Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017).
Published on Saturday, 23rd October 2021.
Rebecca Solnit's book Orwell's Roses explores his interest in gardening
Published on Thursday, 21st October 2021.
How could meetings like COP and the targets they set be organised differently ?
Steven Pinker on Rationality and Tim Stanley on Tradition - Anne McElvoy hosts
Published on Wednesday, 20th October 2021.
How can understanding the history of landscape help planners, policies and people?
From a Black Juliet in the 18th century to Ira Aldridge’s daughter Amanda + Rita Montaner
Published on Tuesday, 19th October 2021.
How can we give nature a louder voice in climate change discussions?
Published on Friday, 15th October 2021.
Matthew Sweet examines how sugar built the modern world
Published on Thursday, 14th October 2021.
Laurence Scott and guests on the history and meaning of colour
Published on Wednesday, 13th October 2021.
Anne McElvoy talks to the directors at London's National Gallery, Yale and New York's Met
Published on Tuesday, 12th October 2021.
How can we deal with the health challenges presented by the climate crisis?
Published on Friday, 8th October 2021.
Do poets choose their words or are they predetermined?
Published on Thursday, 7th October 2021.
From a Black Juliet in the 18th century to Ira Aldridge’s daughter Amanda.
Published on Wednesday, 6th October 2021.
New ways of thinking about global problems - Rana Mitter reads this year's shortlist.
Literally "breaking the fast" - Matthew Sweet moves from the Full English to Tiffany's.
Published on Tuesday, 5th October 2021.
The impact of walking to school, the energy use of electric cars and should we fly less?
Published on Friday, 1st October 2021.
Clutter, indexes, and jazz improvisation. Ruth Ozeki and others join Shahidha Bari
Published on Thursday, 30th September 2021.
Novelist Colm Toibin joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the German author's life and struggles
Published on Wednesday, 29th September 2021.
Producer Kat Feavers & house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen on preparing the TV show
Published on Tuesday, 28th September 2021.
Philippa Gregory tells Matthew Sweet why the Tudors are still so hot.
Shahidha Bari digs into the filth and the fury to see what resonates today
Published on Thursday, 23rd September 2021.
Do we need to change the way we think about soil to make it sustainable?
Why do Hannah Arendt's ideas continue to fire the imaginations of artists and thinkers?
Published on Tuesday, 21st September 2021.
A teacher's view, a Frankenstein-inspired ballet, outside status and circus paintings
Published on Thursday, 16th September 2021.
What will we wear if our clothing is to become sustainable?
Novelist Tom McCarthy joins Matthew Sweet to explore glitches and what they tell us
Published on Wednesday, 15th September 2021.
Art historian Martin Kemp, painter Emma Safe, parallels with Proust and a Dante website
Published on Tuesday, 14th September 2021.
Kate Kennedy, Tim Stanley, Catherine Pepinster, Dafydd Mills Daniel on Newman's thought
Published on Thursday, 29th July 2021.
From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos, Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade
Published on Wednesday, 28th July 2021.
Sonia Boyce, Harold Offeh, Isaac Julien and Eddie Chambers talk to Anne McElvoy
Published on Tuesday, 27th July 2021.
The weird world of teenage girls seeking fame, plus the city in fiction and photography.
Published on Friday, 23rd July 2021.
David Peace, Natasha Pulley, Jasper Sharp & Yuna Tasaka on the film + the book behind it
Published on Thursday, 22nd July 2021.
How can we make food and farming more sustainable?
Published on Tuesday, 20th July 2021.
As the BFI prepares a season of films, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star
Music from thunder, art inspired by a dog walk,essays about a rural wood and a city field
Published on Monday, 19th July 2021.
Tom McCarthy and others join Matthew Sweet to discuss the French 'new novel'
Published on Wednesday, 14th July 2021.
What can we learn from how people responded to extreme weather events in the past?
Soweto Kinch, James Nestor, and Imani Jacqueline Brown of Forensic Architecture
Published on Tuesday, 13th July 2021.
Des Fitzgerald hears how festivals can reduce their ecological footprint
Published on Friday, 9th July 2021.
Matthew Sweet excavates the culture and arts of mining
Published on Thursday, 8th July 2021.
Matthew Sweet looks at the connections between mining, the arts, and culture
Rana Mitter and guests explore the art and culture of Iran + why people abandon cities.
Why does the grand country house party hold such power over the English imagination?
Published on Tuesday, 6th July 2021.
Published on Thursday, 1st July 2021.
Sandeep Parmar talks to poets Kayo Chingonyi, Paisley Rekdal and Nasser Hussain
Published on Wednesday, 30th June 2021.
Earthscrapers and subterranean transport - do greener cities need to go underground?
Published on Tuesday, 29th June 2021.
Laurence Scott investigates what's lurking in the rock pools
How do we stop climate change destroying historic landmarks or is it time to say goodbye?
Published on Friday, 25th June 2021.
Visions of the future shaped by empire, politics and unfaltering faith in progress
Published on Thursday, 24th June 2021.
What can creative writing add to the conversation about climate change?
Shahidha Bari look at labour saving devices and ideas of home
Published on Wednesday, 23rd June 2021.
Eric Parry & Alison Brooks; writers Fiona Mozley & SI Martin; pianist Belle Chen
Published on Tuesday, 22nd June 2021.
The role of masks in African traditions, Greek tragedy and Covid conspiracies
Published on Thursday, 17th June 2021.
Edmund de Waal and Frances Stonor Saunders discuss uncovering Jewish family stories.
Published on Wednesday, 16th June 2021.
The work of Turner Prize nominees, a Tiger Bay murder story, Under Milk Wood on stage
Published on Tuesday, 15th June 2021.
Is climate change really causing people to flee their homes?
Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.
Published on Friday, 11th June 2021.
Bitcoin, investment bonds and how to make finance greener.
Published on Thursday, 10th June 2021.
Matthew Sweet meets the Sherlock producer and ex agent of Tony Hancock who has turned 90
Published on Wednesday, 9th June 2021.
Jennifer Higgie, Adjoa Osei, Veronica Ryan, and Lydia Yee talk to Shahidha Bari
Published on Tuesday, 8th June 2021.
How will Climate Change impact the ocean and our relationship with it?
Is global warming increasingly to blame for conflict and disputes over land and resources?
Published on Saturday, 5th June 2021.
The future of work in a post-Covid-19 world and the implications for our environment.
Published on Friday, 4th June 2021.
From ice photos by Wayne Binitie to 140 ideas from artists collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Published on Thursday, 3rd June 2021.
Alice is asked in Wonderland, Why is a raven like a writing desk? Salman Rushdie explains
Published on Wednesday, 2nd June 2021.
From still life paintings to Kew Gardens, a new history of horticulture is being written
Published on Tuesday, 1st June 2021.
Can one book solve all the problems of philosophy?
Published on Thursday, 27th May 2021.
Olivia Laing, Charlie Porter, and Ekow Eshun join Shahidha Bari
Published on Wednesday, 26th May 2021.
Was Nero really a victim of plots? Bulgaria's hidden past. Plus a novel about startups.
Published on Tuesday, 25th May 2021.
Matthew Sweet questions the critic's role while Vid Simoniti looks at algorithms and art.
Published on Thursday, 20th May 2021.
Breaking the silence: filmmakers, a novelist and historian on the recent Spanish past.
Published on Wednesday, 19th May 2021.
Rana Mitter meets the six authors shortlisted for the UK's most prestigious history prize
Published on Tuesday, 18th May 2021.
Anne McElvoy explores the past and present of the transcontinental nation of Egypt
Published on Thursday, 13th May 2021.
Lisa Mullen explores the way data can change our view of history & looks at conservation.
Published on Wednesday, 12th May 2021.
The two weavers of fantastical fiction sift through myths with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Tuesday, 11th May 2021.
American graphic novelist Alison Bechdel talks mushrooms, therapy and Adrienne Rich
Published on Thursday, 6th May 2021.
Ruth Scurr, Emma Rothschild and Natasha Pulley look at French history with Rana Mitter
Published on Wednesday, 5th May 2021.
Patience Agbabi's novel time travels back to eighteenth century London - so do we
Published on Tuesday, 4th May 2021.
Anne McElvoy marks the 1921 creation of Northern Ireland with historians and writers
Published on Thursday, 29th April 2021.
Lucy Weir learns dark lessons from newspaper coverage of Black Metal and satanic rituals
Darragh McGee considers the history of gambling from 18th century card games to apps
Published on Wednesday, 28th April 2021.
Rector Giles Fraser tells Matthew Sweet how a crisis led to discovering his Jewish roots
Shahidha Bari investigates how theory of knowledge can address real world problems
Published on Tuesday, 27th April 2021.
Alexandra Reza's Essay considers the Gilet Noirs, Ousmane Sembène, and Nathalie Quintane
Seren Griffiths tells the story of the soldier turned archaeologist Francis Buckley.
Published on Monday, 26th April 2021.
Xine Yao suggests that a poker Chinese face can be a good way of fighting back
Published on Sunday, 25th April 2021.
Diarmuid Hester muses on the thin line between inspiration and a compulsive disorder.
Published on Friday, 23rd April 2021.
Malcolm Gladwell, Satyajit Ray's film Jalsaghar, Jessie Greengrass. Rana Mitter hosts.
Published on Thursday, 22nd April 2021.
Tom Scott-Smith uses four recipes to track social reforms and changes in what we value.
Published on Wednesday, 21st April 2021.
Scholars Emma Smith, Patrick Gray, and Emma Whipday find examples in different dramas
Sophie Oliver on motherhood, a old dress and rereading Wide Sargasso Sea
Published on Tuesday, 20th April 2021.
Shahida Bari reads I Tituba, the story of the West Indian slave accused in Salem.
Christienna Fryar looks at Caribbean fires and earthquakes and lessons for rebuilding now
Published on Monday, 19th April 2021.
Matthew Sweet with Outlander creator Diana Gabaldon, historian Tom Devine and John Cook
Published on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
Matthew Sweet, Adam Scovell, Muriel Zagha and Phuong Le on the 1971 French comedy.
Published on Wednesday, 14th April 2021.
A novel from 1979 that uses time travel to explore race, slavery and trauma
Published on Tuesday, 13th April 2021.
Matthew Sweet re-reads a classic of French postmodern theory
Published on Thursday, 8th April 2021.
How do we look at blindness in poetic writing, classics, in Milton's and Handel's life?
Rana Mitter looks at how politics, blindness and the Bible fed into this dramatic poem
Published on Wednesday, 7th April 2021.
How to reflect Liverpool's history in new artworks: Anne McElvoy hosts a discussion.
Published on Tuesday, 6th April 2021.
From a secret Iraqi spy cell to new revelations of cold war exploits. Rana Mitter hosts.
Published on Thursday, 1st April 2021.
From the theatre stage to the Superbowl, in praise of Black performance
Published on Wednesday, 31st March 2021.
Stand-up Frank Skinner and novelists Jeet Thayil and Yaa Gyasi talk to Laurence Scott
Published on Tuesday, 30th March 2021.
Anne McElvoy and guests on attitudes to the politician, his rhetoric and foreign policies
Published on Thursday, 25th March 2021.
Cooking, nature, music, colour - what's your lockdown pleasure?
Published on Wednesday, 24th March 2021.
Re-reading the major 20th century theorist of decolonisation
Published on Tuesday, 23rd March 2021.
Lisa Mullen looks at depictions of war-time factory workers in this novel by Inez Holden
Published on Friday, 19th March 2021.
New Generation Thinker Diarmuid Hester on the transgressive writing of Dennis Cooper
Published on Thursday, 18th March 2021.
An architect who lived in Homs during the war, a translator of Adonis and a media analyst
Ten researchers look at colonial history, alphabets, punctuation, poetry, art terminology
Published on Wednesday, 17th March 2021.
Preti Taneja on the writing and politics of Bengali author and activist Mahasweta Devi
2/5 Clare Walker Gore explores how Dinah Mulock Craik subverted Victorian expectations
Published on Tuesday, 16th March 2021.
John Gallagher talks to four researchers uncovering lives from past census records
New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding reads the Japanese equivalent of Conan Doyle
Published on Monday, 15th March 2021.
Rana Mitter reads the first biography of the Palestinian academic, pianist and negotiator
Published on Friday, 12th March 2021.
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, film critic Phuong Le and Peter Salmon join Matthew Sweet
Published on Thursday, 11th March 2021.
Seb Falk talks to researchers about our attitude to Mars,seeing colour and Skylab's crash
Published on Tuesday, 9th March 2021.
Lynda Clark, Allison Koenecke and Sadie Ryan discuss their research with Matthew Sweet
Published on Thursday, 4th March 2021.
Horatio Clare talks to Laurence Scott about mania and healing + Stevie's Smith's writing
Published on Wednesday, 3rd March 2021.
New research into ideas about girlhood and growing up - in film, fiction, art and society
Published on Tuesday, 2nd March 2021.
Newman's thought: Kate Kennedy, Tim Stanley, Catherine Pepinster and Dafydd Mills Daniel
Published on Monday, 1st March 2021.
Shahidha Bari reads Robert Hurley's new English translation
Published on Thursday, 25th February 2021.
Matthew Sweet in conversation with two radical thinkers: Joanna Bourke and Anna Tsing
Published on Wednesday, 24th February 2021.
Fiona Sampson, Peggy Reynolds and Anne McElvoy talk poetry and writing personal stories
Published on Friday, 19th February 2021.
Having survived a plane crash, the Turkish Prime Minister 1950-60 died in an execution
Published on Wednesday, 17th February 2021.
Samira Shackle , Ejaz Haider and Majed Akhter talk about Karachi, power, crime and energy
Published on Tuesday, 16th February 2021.
In February 1971 the UK went decimal. Anne McElvoy and guests look at money old and new.
Published on Friday, 12th February 2021.
Matthew Sweet and guests assess Darwin's arguments about the human species, sex, and race
Published on Wednesday, 10th February 2021.
Shahidha Bari & V&A fashion curator Claire Wilcox on costumes, couture, and wardrobes
Published on Tuesday, 9th February 2021.
Selina Todd, David Goodhart, Timandra Harkness and Sadie Ryan talk with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 4th February 2021.
Two American authors talk to Laurence Scott about their sense of time, place and self
Published on Wednesday, 3rd February 2021.
Exploring the points where literature and ecological thinking meet
Published on Tuesday, 2nd February 2021.
From Aristotle to TED talks: Mary Beard, Homi Bhabha and Seán Williams with Shahidha Bari
Published on Saturday, 30th January 2021.
Michael Rosen and Martin Puchner talk to Matthew Sweet about a lost language of the road
Published on Wednesday, 27th January 2021.
How food impacts on the environment; Richard Flanagan on his novel about a dying planet
Published on Tuesday, 26th January 2021.
The lasting impact of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice on philosophy and politics.
Published on Thursday, 21st January 2021.
Rana Mitter & guests re-read James Baldwin's writing as a new US President is inaugurated
Published on Wednesday, 20th January 2021.
History & Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold & Moira Buffini on the C18th sex worker TV drama
Published on Tuesday, 19th January 2021.
Conjuring fear, discussed by historians and by novelists Jenni Fagan and Salena Godden
Published on Thursday, 14th January 2021.
Research on women owners, women on plantations, and the daughter of a slave trader
Published on Wednesday, 13th January 2021.
From Rain Man to Atypical - Matthew Sweet looks at autism on screen and in everyday life
Published on Tuesday, 12th January 2021.
John Gallagher's guests decode changes in Behn's loyalties from her plays and dedications
Published on Friday, 8th January 2021.
Rana Mitter explores Dostoevsky as a thriller writer and comedian
Published on Wednesday, 6th January 2021.
James M Cain's classic novel and its film adaptation discussed by Matthew Sweet & guests
Published on Tuesday, 5th January 2021.
Tracing the sensual and radical Marlene Dietrich from Europe to Hollywood.
Published on Thursday, 17th December 2020.
From paintings and folk tales to Brian Cox on the stars & Susan Greaney on Stonehenge.
Published on Wednesday, 16th December 2020.
Anne McElvoy listens for echoes of Beethoven in Hegel
Published on Tuesday, 15th December 2020.
From medieval science to the ingenuity of Arctic peoples & the resilience of island life
Published on Thursday, 10th December 2020.
Magic in medicine, surgery & business; panto cross-dressing; and panto & magic history
Published on Wednesday, 9th December 2020.
The winners of the AHRC and Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities Awards 2020
Matthew Sweet on Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Benjamin, Carnap and other philosophical greats
Published on Tuesday, 8th December 2020.
Can the Industrial Revolution and the end of the Aztecs help us shape a post COVID world
Published on Thursday, 3rd December 2020.
Max Porter, Chloe Aridjis, Will Harris and Xine Yao on writing the breaks the mould
Published on Tuesday, 1st December 2020.
Shakespeare from 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop songs.
Published on Friday, 27th November 2020.
From Tudor courts to plantations to the Arab Spring: a Bristol Festival of Ideas Debate.
Published on Thursday, 26th November 2020.
Writing the Life of Arthur Kavanagh
Is man the only political beast?
Published on Wednesday, 25th November 2020.
How have our bedrooms changed from sleeping space to work space?
Published on Tuesday, 24th November 2020.
Would Byron have embraced Twitter?
The perils of writing biographies of scientist JS Haldane & Indian mystic Mother Meera
Published on Monday, 23rd November 2020.
Democracy and dissent in Hong Kong & USA. Is confrontational politics is here to stay?
Published on Thursday, 19th November 2020.
Helen Mort and Blake Morrison talk mentoring. Oulipo: rules for writing in 1960s Paris.
Published on Wednesday, 18th November 2020.
Films investigating melting glaciers, to refugee camps, public bathrooms, & more.
Would you change your nose if you could? What about an entire face transplant?
Published on Friday, 13th November 2020.
What connects a "double elephant" sized map, an academy of dissenters and Daniel Defoe?
Published on Thursday, 12th November 2020.
What is the role of artists in shaping our understanding of history by commemorating war?
Published on Wednesday, 11th November 2020.
Matthew Sweet on charity shops, 'stuff', musical typewriters and the Being Human Festival
Published on Tuesday, 10th November 2020.
Novelist Jonathan Coe and others discuss the director of Some Like It Hot
Published on Thursday, 5th November 2020.
A history of disability: court fools, political activism, and the 19th century novel.
Published on Wednesday, 4th November 2020.
Historians and authors discuss their own work and reflections on conflict and violence.
Published on Tuesday, 3rd November 2020.
Shahidha Bari discuss the audience in the arts with Kwame Kwei Armah and guests
Published on Thursday, 29th October 2020.
From Enlightenment conscience to New Deal USA, carers and refugees. Anne McElvoy hosts.
How the pandemic has transformed our use and experience of urban space
Published on Tuesday, 27th October 2020.
Cesaire's poetry, politics, and ideas on anti-colonialism and black consciousness
Published on Thursday, 22nd October 2020.
Pleasure & responsibility in LGBTQ+ art with the Polari Prize & photographer Sunil Gupta
Published on Wednesday, 21st October 2020.
A haunting & artists as mediums - Kate Summerscale, Richard Wiseman & Matthew Sweet
Published on Tuesday, 20th October 2020.
What is Derrida's influence in the 'post-truth' age?
Published on Thursday, 15th October 2020.
Daljit Nagra and Val McDermid talk about their writing, as part of Durham Book Festival
Published on Wednesday, 14th October 2020.
From VR Vikings & military museums to bakelite - new research into a range of collections
Published on Tuesday, 13th October 2020.
Gallery directors from Russia, USA and Singapore compare notes, hosted by Anne McElvoy
Published on Thursday, 8th October 2020.
Biographers of Tom Stoppard, Sylvia Pankhurst and a little known SS soldier compare notes
Published on Tuesday, 6th October 2020.
Professors Olivette Otele and Simon Hall on understanding connections in black history
Published on Friday, 2nd October 2020.
How knowledge of poets’ lives shapes how we view their work; Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Published on Thursday, 1st October 2020.
Are cows the answer to depleted soil or the problem? With farmer and author James Rebanks
Published on Wednesday, 30th September 2020.
Tales of indigenous people battling for their land; colonialism & anthropology pioneers
Published on Tuesday, 29th September 2020.
Anne McElvoy surveys current thinking on big political ideas and ideology.
Published on Thursday, 24th September 2020.
John Gallagher looks at creating in multiple tongues and the slipperiness of metaphor
Published on Wednesday, 23rd September 2020.
Digging beneath the surface of the classic Brit noir film with director Mike Hodges
Published on Tuesday, 22nd September 2020.
From Neanderthals to Sikh warriors to the idea of ‘WEIRD’ people, 3 authors look at kin
Published on Thursday, 17th September 2020.
Eleanor Barraclough explores the significance of the much mythologised Pilgrim voyage.
Published on Wednesday, 16th September 2020.
Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of Matthew Sweet's guests
Published on Tuesday, 15th September 2020.
Matthew Sweet meets members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Published on Thursday, 6th August 2020.
Pat Barker & Giles Fraser on Russian lit/Edith Hall & Barry Cunliffe on the classical sea
Published on Wednesday, 29th July 2020.
Ben Okri, Louisa Egbunike & Oladipo Agboluaje discuss the Nigerian author's life and work
Shahidha Bari talks to Bernard-Henri Lévy, Stella Sandford, Homi K Bhabha
Published on Tuesday, 28th July 2020.
Politics and friendship and the lives of Ingrid Bergman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Published on Thursday, 23rd July 2020.
A project to re-imagine the Dada arts movement now, and reflections on satire and nonsense
Published on Wednesday, 22nd July 2020.
Daniel Levitin explores new thinking about the relationship between music and memory
From Gilbert White to lockdown blogs - why we need to spend more time in nature.
Published on Wednesday, 15th July 2020.
Matthew Sweet and guests conjure a conversation about the importance and appeal of magic
Published on Tuesday, 14th July 2020.
Sunil Gupta, CN Lester, Tom Shakespeare & Alona Pardo with Matthew Sweet
Published on Monday, 13th July 2020.
The power of humour in protest.
Published on Thursday, 9th July 2020.
Brendan McGeever looks at anti-semitism from Russian attacks to the present day
Matthew Sweet talks to Kylie Murray, Prof Seth Lerer and former Bishop Richard Holloway
Whose life stories are missing from the British history we write and teach?
Published on Wednesday, 8th July 2020.
New Generation Thinker Jeffrey Howard asks is it ever ok to escape from prison?
Published on Friday, 3rd July 2020.
From duelling injuries to eye patches - Emily Cock asks how we respond to peoples' faces
Anne McElvoy looks at betting, economics and the leadership of US presidents
The screenwriter and novelist talks to Matthew Sweet about depicting Britain in his work.
Published on Wednesday, 1st July 2020.
How do large dam projects attract such adoration, despite lessons of twentieth century?
Published on Sunday, 28th June 2020.
How does sewing a dress add to Jade Halbert's understanding of disappearing skills
Susan Greaney asks whether Neolithic attitudes to the earth could shape our thinking.
What is the link between VR dinosaurs & a Tudor wall painting of the Judgement of Solomon?
Ella Parry-Davies draws on experiences of migrant domestic workers in the UK & Lebanon
Tom Smith looks at the early pioneers of this music scene & arguments about whiteness now
A pair of authors due to be at the Bradford Literature Festival compare notes on writing.
Published on Friday, 26th June 2020.
The Man Booker prize winning author and campaigner is in conversation with Philip Dodd.
Published on Thursday, 25th June 2020.
Sandeep Parmar, Jade Cuttle, Edith Hall, Seb Falk talk to Rana Mitter about what we teach
Published on Monday, 22nd June 2020.
A virtual Bare Lit Festival talk, Nadifa Mohammed & Irenosen Okojie with Shahidha Bari
Paul Mendez and Francesca Wade on Virginia Woolf, walking, identity and Dalloway Day
Published on Wednesday, 17th June 2020.
An author, scientist, architect and explorer compare notes on this polar region.
Published on Tuesday, 16th June 2020.
What are the best shelters? the right language? what do we learn from self help in camps?
Bertie Carvel, Amit Lahav, Eleanor Loyd, Roy Alexander Weise, Caroline Dinenage MP & more
Published on Friday, 12th June 2020.
Lara Feigel, Michèle Roberts & New Generation Thinker Alexandra Reza with Shahidha Bari
Published on Wednesday, 10th June 2020.
Mathew Sweet, Linda Grant, Laurence Scott & Lucy Whitehead 150 years since Dickens' death
Published on Tuesday, 9th June 2020.
Naomi Paxton looks at new research into the effectiveness of the UK Act passed in 2015
Published on Sunday, 7th June 2020.
The actor talks to Matthew Sweet about a childhood affected by polio and his career.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd June 2020.
Actor Richard Wilson & Prof Naoko Shimazu discuss Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 film of family life
Published on Tuesday, 2nd June 2020.
Landscape in poetry discussed by Rowan Williams and Simon Armitage at Hay.
Published on Thursday, 28th May 2020.
In a conversation with Mathew Sweet, the gothic author explores writing past and present.
Published on Wednesday, 27th May 2020.
Jay Griffiths, Vincent Deary, Louise Robinson and Matthew Smith discuss our mental health
Published on Thursday, 21st May 2020.
Shahidha Bari talks to a pair of writers about routines & knowing how to start and stop.
Rutger Bregman tells Anne McElvoy why survival of the fittest needs rethinking as an idea
Published on Wednesday, 20th May 2020.
From Indian cricket, a survey of the oceans to Jack the Ripper: 3 shortlisted historians.
Published on Monday, 18th May 2020.
Rana Mitter with the 6 shortlisted historians and an audience at the British Academy
Published on Thursday, 14th May 2020.
New takes on Chaucer, the Bible and African trading from 3 of the historians shortlisted.
Published on Wednesday, 13th May 2020.
From a gratitude train to the sinister broadcasts to US soldiers. Matthew Sweet presents.
Published on Wednesday, 6th May 2020.
Jimmy Wales talks Diderot & collecting knowledge + Tariq Godard on Mark Fisher aka k-punk
Published on Monday, 4th May 2020.
As it comes out in paperback, Mark Haddon talks to Anne McElvoy about The Porpoise.
Published on Wednesday, 29th April 2020.
Matthew Sweet talks to Pamela Hutchinson, Charlotte Crofts & Mark Glancy.
Tony Juniper, Emily Shuckburgh, Dieter Helm and Kapka Kassabova join Rana Mitter at Hay
Published on Wednesday, 22nd April 2020.
Shahidha Bari explores the impact of life changing experiences & the fourth dimension
Published on Tuesday, 21st April 2020.
Edith Hall, Nandini Das and Beatrice Groves on the books Shakespeare would have read.
Published on Thursday, 16th April 2020.
Lewis Dartnell, Gaia Vince and David Farrier join Rana Mitter to look at deep ecology.
Published on Thursday, 9th April 2020.
Philip Dodd talks to actor Christopher Eccleston and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards
Published on Wednesday, 8th April 2020.
Tom Charlton looks for evidence of belief from samplers to children's scribbles in bibles
Published on Tuesday, 7th April 2020.
From a Mesopotamian game to Scrabble, Shahidha Bari discusses competition and gaming.
Published on Saturday, 4th April 2020.
From dance to prayer, knees ups to kneeling
Published on Thursday, 2nd April 2020.
Professors Sally Bushell & Simon Bainbridge talk to New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson
Published on Tuesday, 31st March 2020.
Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the early medieval document and Scottish politics today
Published on Wednesday, 25th March 2020.
Published on Tuesday, 24th March 2020.
Deborah Levy and Laurence Scott talk to Shahidha Bari about the English novelist's work.
Published on Monday, 23rd March 2020.
Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen, Riel Miller, Sarah Dillon & Rupert Read with Matthew Sweet
Published on Friday, 20th March 2020.
Matthew Sweet talks to John Dupré , Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen & Matt Adams
Published on Thursday, 19th March 2020.
From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos - Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade
Hetta Howes, Caroline Edwards & Amy Butt ask is science fiction the new realism?
Published on Wednesday, 18th March 2020.
Is the economic future all about growth? Danny Dorling discusses Slowdown.
Published on Tuesday, 17th March 2020.
Lisa Mullen, Caroline Frost and historian & podcast host Greg Jenner join Matthew Sweet
Published on Thursday, 12th March 2020.
Considering how women have shaped art and advertising and new feminist writing in Korea.
Published on Wednesday, 11th March 2020.
How women have fought on the frontline from antiquity to the present day
Published on Tuesday, 10th March 2020.
Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman, and Jonathan Freedland join Matthew Sweet.
Published on Friday, 6th March 2020.
Yorkshire-born writer with a European outlook who campaigned for World War Two refugees.
Published on Thursday, 5th March 2020.
Shahidha Bari looks at the life and legacy of the 20th century polymath
Hetta Howes learns how Sylvia Xueni Pan and Sarah Ellis are pushing the VR envelope
Anne Enright discusses acting with Daisy Black, Emily Butterworth and Marie Le Conte.
Published on Wednesday, 4th March 2020.
The English Renaissance poet whose reputation at court was ruined by her writing.
Published on Friday, 28th February 2020.
The Romantic poet who inspired Wordsworth is profiled by Sophie Coulombeau.
The Scottish writer whose comic heroine Miss Marjoribanks bucks 19th-century conventions
Zoe Norridge describes translating the testimony of a Rwandan survivor
Ricky Burdett, Liza Fior, Des Fitzgerald, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Edwin Heathcote at LSE
Published on Thursday, 27th February 2020.
Islam Issa hears how Adrian Lester and Ewan Fernie are taking Shakespeare to the people
Philip Dodd talks to Hiromi Ito, Tomoko Sawada, Yukiko Motoya, and Motoyuki Shibata
Daniel Levitin on ageing & Adam Rutherford on race and genetics.
Published on Tuesday, 25th February 2020.
Petina Gappah & Sarah LeFanu on Livingstone, Kipling and Mary Kingsley in Africa
Published on Thursday, 20th February 2020.
Matthew Sweet talks to the Chilean French director Alejandro Jodorowsky and to critics
Published on Wednesday, 19th February 2020.
How do we apply modern LGBT+ language and identities to historical figures?
Published on Thursday, 13th February 2020.
Fern Riddell, Kate Lister and Robin Mitchell discuss their research with Matthew
From sugar and spice, to reparations and memorials: slavery and how we acknowledge it
Published on Wednesday, 12th February 2020.
Matthew Sweet looks back at the early history of cinema
Published on Friday, 7th February 2020.
If we want the arts to be a comfort blanket, where does Beckett fit in?
Published on Wednesday, 5th February 2020.
The German joker Tyll Ulenspiegel. Anne McElvoy, Daniel Kehlmann & Karen Leeder discuss.
John Gallagher discusses the Industrial Revolution with Emma Griffin and William Ashworth
Published on Friday, 31st January 2020.
Published on Thursday, 30th January 2020.
Anne McElvoy hears the story of a woman who gave birth to rabbits and the news from Davos
Rana Mitter marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation & talks to author Anne Michaels
Published on Tuesday, 28th January 2020.
Matthew Sweet with NYT journalist Kate Murphy, Anne Karpf, David Toop.
Published on Friday, 24th January 2020.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Greg Tate, Sam Illingworth & Sunayana Bhargava join Anne McElvoy.
Published on Wednesday, 22nd January 2020.
Nikita Gill, Francesca Wade, Sandeep Parmar & Victoria Leonard talk goddesses & classics
Published on Tuesday, 21st January 2020.
Published on Friday, 17th January 2020.
Matthew Sweet asks if the fictional science of psychohistory changed the future of humans
Published on Thursday, 16th January 2020.
From Elizabethan Anne Dowriche, Victorian Anne Bronte to why women say they read now.
Nudism, camping, and vegetarianism: the Life Reform movement explained.
Published on Wednesday, 15th January 2020.
Rana Mitter, Sally Potter and philosophers discuss whether you can philosophise with film
Published on Friday, 10th January 2020.
Shahidha Bari investigates Wittgenstein's response to scepticism
Published on Thursday, 9th January 2020.
Matthew Sweet lifts the lid on panpsychism, a radical movement in philosophy
Why are we so obsessed by the setting of the big country house, upstairs and downstairs?
Published on Thursday, 19th December 2019.
Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, David Goodhart, Beatrix Campbell & Maya Goodfellow.
Published on Wednesday, 18th December 2019.
Rana Mitter looks at the ideologies surrounding climate disaster
A look at changing attitudes about sportswomen, once dubbed unfeminine, & LGBT athletes
Published on Friday, 13th December 2019.
Matthew Sweet asks how did the English language grow & what are the key election phrases?
Rereading Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence.
Published on Thursday, 12th December 2019.
Shahidha Bari discusses pan-Africanism in plays, films, literature and politics.
Published on Tuesday, 10th December 2019.
The company that gave the world atrocious corporate violence and beautiful art
Published on Thursday, 5th December 2019.
Food for thought? Eleanor Barraclough hosts Vicky Avery, Priya Basil, and Maia Elliott.
Published on Wednesday, 4th December 2019.
Matthew Sweet and guests reflect on the experimental art of Nam June Paik and John Giorno
Published on Tuesday, 3rd December 2019.
Should we take more breaks at during the working day? With Claudia Hammond.
Published on Thursday, 28th November 2019.
Harvard's Larry Summers & OU's Josie Fraser on the impact of technology & globalisation
Published on Wednesday, 27th November 2019.
Rana Mitter talks to historians of China Jung Chang and Julia Lovell, & reporter Cindy Yu
Published on Tuesday, 26th November 2019.
Writer of the English provinces?
Published on Friday, 22nd November 2019.
Celebrating George Eliot with readings from Fiona Shaw
Investigating regeneration and gentrification in the new arts hub.
Research on reporting hangings, assassinations & propaganda from the Being Human Festival
Why do the legendary walls of a Bronze Age city still cast such a long shadow?
Published on Thursday, 21st November 2019.
Hetta Howes talks to winners of this year's AHRC Research in Film Awards
Published on Saturday, 16th November 2019.
What does who we date and how we date say about us?
Published on Thursday, 14th November 2019.
Writers Ben Lerner, JJ Bola & Derek Owusu on images of masculinity in fiction and life
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome... Cabaret and club culture, recorded at the Barbican.
Published on Tuesday, 12th November 2019.
Who decides what’s worth saving and what is culturally significant to protect in wartime?
Published on Thursday, 7th November 2019.
Matthew Sweet celebrates the classic TV sci-fi series with Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat
Published on Tuesday, 5th November 2019.
Forgotten stories from cultural diplomats, British army bases and Berlin dancefloors
Published on Friday, 1st November 2019.
Haunting stories with Kirsty Logan, Jeremy Dyson & host Shahidha Bari
A discussion reflecting on automobiles, AI and the 60th anniversary of the M1 motorway.
Published on Wednesday, 30th October 2019.
Ali Smith, Jay Bernard and James Graham at the British Library with Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet is joined by Rachel Reeves MP, Jane Thomas and Katie Cooper in Hull.
Published on Thursday, 24th October 2019.
Rana Mitter and guests have a look at the history of faith, doubt, economics and art.
Published on Wednesday, 23rd October 2019.
Why we need to rethink the stories we tell of Columbus, Pocahontas & the English in India
Museum directors from Asia and France join Anne McElvoy and an audience at RIBA.
Published on Tuesday, 22nd October 2019.
Matthew Sweet on Chaplin's 1941 film and rising populism today.
Published on Friday, 18th October 2019.
From Sean the Sheep & Damien Hirst, to a knitted bikini.
Published on Thursday, 17th October 2019.
Prehistory with Mike Pitts & Renee So, plus Alex Clark & Tinuke Craig
Published on Wednesday, 16th October 2019.
Orientalism now with Fatima Bhutto, Ziauddin Sardar, Tom Holland, and artist Inci Eviner.
Published on Thursday, 10th October 2019.
Monsters and myths in the art of Gerald Scarfe and Kiki Smith + Caryl Churchill's plays.
Laurence Scott looks at the way Dutch writers are addressing history & contemporary life
Published on Wednesday, 9th October 2019.
Michael Govan Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art talks art with Philip Dodd
Published on Tuesday, 8th October 2019.
Who holds the power? The US activist and author Rebecca Solnit talks to Shahidha Bari.
Published on Thursday, 3rd October 2019.
Incl a Welsh castle w/ more Mughal Art than India's National Museum - a new UK poem map
Rana Mitter talks to Jason Webster, Ed Morales, Iain Sinclair and Iwona Blazwick.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd October 2019.
Matthew Sweet on surveillance capitalism, The Third Man, and Stieg Larsson's obsessions
Published on Sunday, 29th September 2019.
Comedian Sofie Hagen, Colombian novelist Héctor Abad & Isabel Hardman join Shahidha Bari.
Published on Thursday, 26th September 2019.
Alexei Sayle and Adam Mars Jones join Matthew Sweet to revisit '80s film, tv and music
Published on Friday, 20th September 2019.
Lauren Elkin, Lisa Appignanesi and Ben Moser on Susan Sontag's 1966 essay collection.
Published on Wednesday, 18th September 2019.
Susan Neiman, Ursula Owen & Christopher Hampton join Anne McElvoy.
Published on Tuesday, 17th September 2019.
The Future Fashion Factory and changing our attitude to #fastfashion. Plus AI and colours
Published on Monday, 16th September 2019.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr Thomas Waters in discussion with Dr Fern Riddell
Published on Friday, 13th September 2019.
Psychologist Stephen Briers, student Ceyda Uzun and Durham Univeristy's Caroline Dower
Published on Thursday, 12th September 2019.
Ruth Ware and Shaun Usher discuss letter writing in the 21st century
Published on Wednesday, 11th September 2019.
Why the bible story of Jephtha caused more controversy than your average burnt offering.
Published on Monday, 2nd September 2019.
Horatio Clare and Testament discuss landscape’s power to inspire writers
Published on Tuesday, 27th August 2019.
Nina Simone’s achievement with Kevin Legendre, Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Zena Edwards
Published on Thursday, 22nd August 2019.
Seán Williams explores Beethoven’s 9th and Schiller’s accompanying text, An Ode to Joy.
Published on Wednesday, 21st August 2019.
Anindya Raychaudhuri discusses Kipling's Jungle Books with Frances Hardinge and Sue Walsh
Marina Warner & Sophie Anderson enter a world of walking huts and fish that grant wishes
Laurence Scott meets the family of a rediscovered African American writer & 3 historians
Published on Sunday, 18th August 2019.
Historians Kathryn Hughes & Lee Jackson discuss 19th century entertainment.
Published on Friday, 16th August 2019.
Shahidha Bari and Nick Groom on invented monks, fake Shakespeare and a "discovered" diary
Anne McElvoy looks at Napoleon's biography, caricatures and professional impersonators.
Published on Thursday, 15th August 2019.
The film-maker talks to Matthew Sweet about depicting history and politics on film.
Published on Wednesday, 14th August 2019.
Books for children and children in books from Romanticism via the Victorians to now.
Published on Tuesday, 13th August 2019.
Shahidha Bari and Rolf Hind discuss Tchaikovsky’s letters, with readings from Tom Stuart
Published on Monday, 12th August 2019.
Edgar Allan Poe and the gothic
Published on Thursday, 8th August 2019.
Tragedy ancient and modern with Clare Pollard and Jennifer Wallace
Sacha Dench & Sarah Crompton discuss swans in the natural world & on the ballet stage.
Published on Monday, 5th August 2019.
The film-maker talks to Matthew Sweet about BlacKkKlansman & his 2000 film Bamboozled
The legends and landscapes that inspire composers from Finland and Russia
Published on Sunday, 4th August 2019.
Poets Rachael Allen & Jacob Polley join Preti Taneja to reflect on the summer of 1969.
Published on Friday, 26th July 2019.
Naomi Paxton discusses the latest science and clinical practice
Published on Wednesday, 24th July 2019.
Richard Wiseman and Melanie Vandenbrouck discuss the impact of the first Moon landing
Published on Monday, 22nd July 2019.
Matthew Sweet looks at frontispieces, titles and marginalia, and hard texts.
Published on Friday, 19th July 2019.
Anne McElvoy with Florian Huber, Sophie Hardach, Adam Scovell, Tom Smith
Published on Wednesday, 17th July 2019.
A lack of Neolithic dental floss proves to be a boon for archaeologists,
From Juliet's uncertainty, to finding a phrase for descending the stairs
What happens when one becomes two?
Mapping the accents of Greater Manchester with a camper van and a laptop
Camille Paglia in conversation with Philip Dodd about free speech and feminism
Published on Tuesday, 16th July 2019.
Ex-Marine & journalist Elliot Ackerman on Al Qaeda and the Iraq War. Rana Mitter presents
Published on Thursday, 11th July 2019.
Shahidha Bari looks at staging Ayn Rand's ideas and meets the 2019 Caine Prize winner.
Published on Wednesday, 10th July 2019.
Matthew Sweet discusses Iris Murdoch's philosophical essay of 1970
Philip Dodd visits the US rust belt city of Cleveland.
Published on Thursday, 4th July 2019.
Rana Mitter considers fearing Russia past & present with Mark B Smith & Tamar Koplatadze.
Preti Taneja with Guy Gunaratne,Dina Nayeri, Michael Rosen, Momtaza Mehri & Deena Mohamed
Published on Wednesday, 3rd July 2019.
Amitav Ghosh on linking refugees, climate change, Venice & Bengali forests in his fiction
Published on Friday, 28th June 2019.
The art of Cindy Sherman plus art critic Laura Cumming on the days her mother disappeared
Published on Wednesday, 26th June 2019.
Two campaigning women talk to Matthew Sweet.
Alistair Fraser on the fates and fortunes of Glaswegian tough guys
Published on Friday, 21st June 2019.
Philip Dodd is in conversation with the American author James Ellroy
Published on Thursday, 20th June 2019.
Sarah Goldsmith on an immortal trio jacket, waistcoat and trousers
Anne McElvoy watches George Clooney in Catch-22 on TV and looks at recycling fashion.
Tom Smith on the East German Military's fascination with its soldiers' sexuality
Published on Wednesday, 19th June 2019.
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss James Joyce's experimental novel.
Emma Butcher on the publishing phenomenon that was the traumatised 19th c Redcoat
Published on Tuesday, 18th June 2019.
Alun Withey on what made 18th-century men shave off centuries of manly growth
Published on Monday, 17th June 2019.
Johny Pitts and Caryl Phillips discuss the idea of Afropean identity with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Friday, 14th June 2019.
Artist, archaeologists, a writer and a historian of the face make the invisible visible
Published on Wednesday, 12th June 2019.
The cultural contribution of Muslim women and Rana Mitter talks to artist John Keane
Published on Tuesday, 11th June 2019.
Matthew Sweet explores what fed into Orwell's future vision & how our own is shaping up.
Published on Thursday, 6th June 2019.
A panel of researchers share insights into the law and warfare, gender and AI
Published on Wednesday, 5th June 2019.
A discussion hosted by Matthew Sweet at the Barbican's exhibition AI More Than Human
Published on Tuesday, 4th June 2019.
Rana Mitter discusses writing on art from Da Vinci and Rembrandt to Louise Bourgeois.
Published on Thursday, 30th May 2019.
Rana Mitter hosts a debate at Hay Festival about the rise of the environmental movement
Published on Wednesday, 29th May 2019.
Authors Nicola Upson and Joanne Ramos, and researchers Gulzaar Barn & Ella Parry-Davies.
Published on Wednesday, 22nd May 2019.
With Naomi Wolf, Sarah Parker and Luis de Miranda.
The walking & photographs of WG Sebald. An exhibition of money and Jewish history.
Published on Thursday, 16th May 2019.
Anthropologist, Poet, Archaeologist and Angler reflect on what a river should be
Published on Wednesday, 15th May 2019.
Shahidha Bari talks to Professor Bhabha about his influence on postcolonial studies.
Global Dams, Ancient Rome & the Tiber: rivers, power and scarcity
Published on Tuesday, 14th May 2019.
Matthew Sweet talks Spaghetti Westerns w/ Christopher Frayling + conjuring tricks & bias
Published on Friday, 10th May 2019.
Anne McElvoy reads a new biography of Chaucer and talks to novelist Bernardine Evaristo.
Published on Wednesday, 8th May 2019.
Rana Mitter and the six shortlisted historians with an audience at the British Academy
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott.
Published on Tuesday, 7th May 2019.
A philosopher of love and a philosopher in love
Published on Thursday, 2nd May 2019.
Jackie Kay & Selina Thompson discuss the influential US writer & civil rights activist
Published on Tuesday, 30th April 2019.
From German techno music to the Glasgow ‘rag trade’, divisive dams and democracy's bug
Published on Thursday, 25th April 2019.
Aatish Taseer, Veronica Strang and Thomas Dixon at the Free Thinking Festival.
Published on Wednesday, 24th April 2019.
A Free Thinking Festival discussion with Nicky Clayton, Erica Fudge & Kim Bard
Published on Tuesday, 23rd April 2019.
Lisa Appignanesi,Rachel Hewitt & Irenosen Okojie w/ Rana Mitter at Free Thinking Festival
Published on Thursday, 18th April 2019.
From Bambi and Titanic to EastEnders - Matthew Sweet asks what makes us cry and why?
Published on Wednesday, 17th April 2019.
Alan Johnson, Pascale Petit, Hisham Matar & Peter Pomerantsev join Eleanor Barraclough
Does emotion have any place in relationships with patients in a more open age?
Published on Tuesday, 16th April 2019.
Dafydd Mills Daniel looks at links between the UN, Richard III and Disney's Jiminy Cricket
Published on Friday, 12th April 2019.
New Generation Thinker Michael Talbot's Essay from the Free Thinking Festival
Published on Thursday, 11th April 2019.
Some people, some times, just can’t say what they want to. But why not?
What the BBFC archives tell us about censorship debates & a film depicting Salman Rushdie
Published on Wednesday, 10th April 2019.
From Neanderthals, via Tudor England to Chartists - 4 historians on emotion in the past
Lisa Mullen looks at the contribution of Orwell's wife Eileen to his writing.
Published on Tuesday, 9th April 2019.
Ad execs, game designers and VR creatives are all toying with our feelings - is that OK?
Tom Sutcliffe with BBC Radio 4's conversation programme & an audience at Sage Gateshead
Sarah Goldsmith explores the C18th aristocratic craze for pumping iron
Published on Monday, 8th April 2019.
Which is the most pertinent emotion in 2019 UK?
Elsa Richardson on the diet guru who set up a Covent Garden café and sold health products.
Published on Friday, 5th April 2019.
Dr Fern Riddell, Kehinde Andrews, Will Davies & Jo Ann Nadler join Shahidha Bari
Gulzaar Barn asks questions about commercial surrogacy and the way we view our bodies.
Published on Thursday, 4th April 2019.
Ben Anderson looks at fights over land rights, access to nature & care of the environment
Published on Wednesday, 3rd April 2019.
How much emotion should a diplomat, a news reporter or a conciliation expert show?
Daisy Black conjures up images of breaking bread and cannibalism in mystery plays
Published on Tuesday, 2nd April 2019.
Stephen Briers, Caroline Dower and Ceyda Uzun join Anne McElvoy at Sage Gateshead.
A short talk at the Free Thinking Festival from New Generation Thinker Des Fitzgerald.
A crime writer, novelist from Northern Ireland and former prison governor compare notes.
Published on Monday, 1st April 2019.
Historian of emotions Professor Thomas Dixon, Matthew Sweet & the Sage Gateshead audience
Matthew Sweet meets the TV writers of The Likely Lads, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Published on Wednesday, 27th March 2019.
Philip Dodd explores the idea of betrayal
Published on Tuesday, 26th March 2019.
A history of orphans, fears about brainwashing and portraits on show at Compton Verney
Published on Thursday, 21st March 2019.
Authors Max Porter, Samantha Harvey & AK Benjamin discuss empathy with Chris Harding.
Published on Wednesday, 20th March 2019.
One poet and two writers in conversation about language, migrants and personhood
Published on Tuesday, 19th March 2019.
Artist Hew Locke and historians Suzannah Lipscomb, Aanchal Malhotra & Anindya Raychaudhuri
Published on Thursday, 14th March 2019.
Why are estates so often portrayed as incubators of social deprivation and criminality?
Published on Wednesday, 13th March 2019.
Gazelle Twin, Julia Bardsley, Hannah Catherine Jones, Luke Turner & William Fowler.
Published on Tuesday, 12th March 2019.
Novelists Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Layla AlAmmar & historians Jennifer Aston + Jessica Malay
Published on Thursday, 7th March 2019.
Lara Feigel, David Aaronovitch, Melissa Benn, Xiaolu Guo & Matthew Sweet on Doris Lessing.
Published on Wednesday, 6th March 2019.
Philip Dodd goes to David Bailey's studio and talks to Don McCullin about his Tate show.
Published on Tuesday, 5th March 2019.
Shahidha Bari talks poetry and the web series Brown Girls, and the history of sewing.
Published on Monday, 4th March 2019.
Laurence Scott & Will Self on redundant features in design + a visit to Collect Craft Show
Published on Thursday, 28th February 2019.
Rescuing the Ripper's victims from the shadows of history
Published on Tuesday, 26th February 2019.
Fumio Obata and Jocelyne Allen discuss graphic art and manga.
Published on Thursday, 21st February 2019.
Louise Casey, Mary Kaldor, Jamie Bartlett, Heather Rabbatts & Rupert Reid w/ Anne McElvoy
Shahidha Bari talks poetry and the web series Brown Girls, plus the history of sewing.
Published on Wednesday, 20th February 2019.
The musicals star on politics, performing, #Me Too and her Italian-American roots.
Published on Tuesday, 19th February 2019.
Shahidha Bari discusses new research on the the ins and outs of Renaissance culture
Published on Friday, 15th February 2019.
Andrew McMillan, Lavinia Greenlaw, Elanor Dymott, Laura Mucha- the science & art of love.
Published on Thursday, 14th February 2019.
Histories of West Africa, 20th c China, art of translation
Published on Wednesday, 13th February 2019.
The film-maker talks black power, blackface and Academy Awards with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Tuesday, 12th February 2019.
Quassim Cassam & Simon Beard with Matthew Sweet + RW Fassbinder's '70s TV sci-fi series
Published on Thursday, 7th February 2019.
Published on Wednesday, 6th February 2019.
Philip Dodd talks to gilet jaune and novelist Edouard Louis about streets and culture.
Published on Tuesday, 5th February 2019.
Rana Mitter with Katie Paterson Julia Blackburn Charlotte Runcie and Cutty Sark
Published on Thursday, 31st January 2019.
Philip Dodd and guests explore the value of causing offence
Published on Wednesday, 30th January 2019.
Writing about the Holocaust + the shock of Modernism in 1930s Britain
Published on Tuesday, 29th January 2019.
How we deal with unwanted sexual advances and changing depictions on stage are debated.
Published on Thursday, 24th January 2019.
Ways of Seeing with Michael Craig Martin, Aura Satz, Kelly Grovier & Daniel Glaser.
Published on Wednesday, 23rd January 2019.
Matthew Sweet & guests look at films making waves as the Academy announces its shortlists
Published on Tuesday, 22nd January 2019.
Do our heroes and heroines have to be perfect? We look at ikons, film idols & politicians.
Published on Thursday, 17th January 2019.
The must see sights for Post Napoleonic war tourists, cold war travellers & hot spots now
Published on Wednesday, 16th January 2019.
Novelist John Lanchester, historians David Frye, Kylie Murray and journalist Tim Marshall
Published on Tuesday, 15th January 2019.
Time and the value of doing nothing
Published on Thursday, 10th January 2019.
Laurence Scott examines the eminent Victorians Ruskin, Bazalgette and Arthur Hugh Clough.
Published on Wednesday, 9th January 2019.
Matthew Sweet pays tribute to Hollywood's most famous comedy duo Stan and Ollie
Published on Tuesday, 8th January 2019.
How new technology is transforming research in the Humanities.
Published on Friday, 21st December 2018.
An ecological fable about a perfect society ? Matthew Sweet reads Richard Adams' classic.
Published on Thursday, 20th December 2018.
Bobby Seagull & Irving Finkel join Shahidha Bari to look at competitiveness and games.
Published on Wednesday, 19th December 2018.
Peter Wohlleben Emanuele Coccia Marion Sidebottom Luke Turner
Published on Tuesday, 18th December 2018.
Anne McElvoy & guests travel to the frozen ends of the Earth & C17 theatrical magic...
Published on Thursday, 13th December 2018.
The reggae poet and recording artist talks politics religion and writing with Philip Dodd
Published on Wednesday, 12th December 2018.
Deborah Levy, Adam Phillips & Amia Srinivasan join Matthew Sweet at the British Library.
Published on Tuesday, 11th December 2018.
Who's pulling your strings - Matthew Sweet and guests track down today's hidden persuaders
Published on Thursday, 6th December 2018.
Sir Paul Nurse and Tristram Hunt debate with an audience at Queen Mary University London.
Published on Wednesday, 5th December 2018.
Gordon's play Nine Night, the life of Botswana's most influential writer, Rwanda on TV
The director of Get Carter talks to Matthew Sweet about writing his own crime stories.
Published on Thursday, 29th November 2018.
A long lost classic now published, Esi Edugyan's Booker shortlisted novel & new research
Published on Wednesday, 28th November 2018.
Artist Penny Woolcock, global health researcher Thomas Bollyky and Jane Stevens Crawshaw
Published on Tuesday, 27th November 2018.
POTUS, crisis management and ambition - Doris Kearns Goodwin talks to Anne McElvoy
Published on Friday, 23rd November 2018.
Eric Kaufmann talks to Philip Dodd about white identity, populism and immigration
Published on Wednesday, 21st November 2018.
Peter Frankopan & Maya Jasanoff, winner of richest prize for history with Rana Mitter
From ancient religion to London's Greek Cypriot community & the 29 bus route
Published on Thursday, 15th November 2018.
From death cafes to bronze age burials, C19th mourning rings to the way doctors cope.
Published on Wednesday, 14th November 2018.
Shahidha Bari looks at research showcased in the Being Human Festival at UK universities
Is public silence still the best way to honour our war dead?
Published on Thursday, 8th November 2018.
Can public Acts of Commemoration ever encompass multiple individual experience?
Marie Darrieussecq, Andrew Hussey , Tibor Fischer& Damian Catani on Céline's masterpiece
Published on Wednesday, 7th November 2018.
Gillian Clarke. Sabrina Mahfouz and Michael Symmons Roberts respond to the war poet.
Published on Tuesday, 6th November 2018.
Thomas Woolston Free Thinker, Isaiah Berlin philosopher plus memory and neuroscience.
Published on Thursday, 1st November 2018.
The exile of English Catholics 450 years ago and suffragette Punch and Judy.
Published on Wednesday, 31st October 2018.
Julian Baggini, Tiffany Watt Smith & Christopher Harding
Published on Tuesday, 30th October 2018.
Reconstructing the thought-world of the middle ages
Published on Friday, 26th October 2018.
Michael Rosen looks at socialist fairy tales and radicalism in books for children.
Published on Thursday, 25th October 2018.
The film director talks to Matthew Sweet as his historical epic Peterloo opens in cinemas
Published on Wednesday, 24th October 2018.
Patrick Barlow on his play The Messiah, Daisy Black on Stoke's new medieval mystery play
Published on Tuesday, 23rd October 2018.
Marie Darrieussecq, Lisa Mullen, Dafydd Daniel on magic and dystopias with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 18th October 2018.
Rana Mitter explores identity forest landscapes and the long impact of the Ottoman empire
Shahidha Bari with news of the Man Booker Prize and discussion about female philosophers
Published on Tuesday, 16th October 2018.
Shahidha Bari looks at new Gothic research with Nick Groom and Xavier Aldana Reyes
The lawyer Helena Kennedy joins Shahidha Bari to discuss how British justice fails women.
Published on Thursday, 11th October 2018.
Historian Tom Devine, Colombian novelist, Hector Abad and economist Paul Collier
Does LSD open the doors of perception or just mess with your head?
Published on Wednesday, 10th October 2018.
How does Chaucer write about rape and consent ? Shahidha Bari with new academic research.
Published on Saturday, 6th October 2018.
Michael Govan, Sabine Haag & Hartwig Fischer at the Royal Institution, London.
Published on Thursday, 4th October 2018.
The Essex Serpent's author talks to Matthew Sweet about re-imagining the Melmoth myth.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd October 2018.
Gandhi's power, portable citizenship & Indian writing with Rana Mitter & Amit Chaudhuri.
Published on Tuesday, 2nd October 2018.
Lisa Appignanesi; Heather O'Neill; Cherie Dimaline; Pacific Arts Adviser, Jo Walsh
Published on Thursday, 27th September 2018.
Philip Dodd and guests explore the value of causing offence.
Published on Wednesday, 26th September 2018.
Matthew Sweet meets the trio behind the '70s and early '80s TV comedy show
Published on Tuesday, 25th September 2018.
Biographer Sue Prideaux and others discuss Nietzsche's relevance today
Published on Thursday, 20th September 2018.
Being an outsider and learning to think like an outsider
Published on Wednesday, 19th September 2018.
Anne McElvoy and guests explore ideas of tyranny, martyrdom, sin and grace
Published on Tuesday, 18th September 2018.
Bettany Hughes and Alex Clark discuss feminist retellings of The Iliad.
The author of Birdsong in conversation with Anne McElvoy about his new novel Paris Echo.
Published on Thursday, 13th September 2018.
Deborah Frances-White host of The Guilty Feminist pod, Natalie Haynes, Michèle Roberts
Published on Wednesday, 12th September 2018.
Including a report from the London Design Biennale and film historian Peter Biskind.
Published on Tuesday, 11th September 2018.
Writers Belinda Bauer and Patricia Duncker discuss sex and death in literature
Published on Monday, 3rd September 2018.
Physicists Nathan Case & Melanie Windridge discuss the the aurora borealis.
Published on Wednesday, 29th August 2018.
Writers Glyn Maxwell and Polly Clark discuss Auden’s The Age of Anxiety
Writers Louise Doughty and Damian Le Bas discuss Gypsy, Roma & Traveller culture.
Published on Thursday, 23rd August 2018.
with Kerry Andrew and Katherine Langrish
Published on Tuesday, 21st August 2018.
Matthew Sweet talks Jaws with shark expert Gareth Fraser and novelist Will Self.
Published on Monday, 20th August 2018.
Christopher Harding, philosopher Mark Vernon & Hetta Howes discuss ecstatic states.
Published on Tuesday, 14th August 2018.
Historians Laura Rowe and Saul David on the controversial torpedoing of an ocean liner
Published on Sunday, 12th August 2018.
With the novelist Salley Vickers and literary historian Joe Moshenska
Published on Friday, 10th August 2018.
Faithful but dull or unfaithful and interesting that is the question
Published on Monday, 6th August 2018.
Poets Gillian Clarke and Peter Mackay discuss the folktales of the islands of the UK
Novelists John Lanchester & Diana Evans discuss depicting London in their fiction.
Published on Tuesday, 31st July 2018.
Abbie Garrington, Dan Richards discuss how mountains & wild landscapes inspire creativity
Published on Monday, 30th July 2018.
Inspired by Beethoven's musical jokes, Meg Rosoff selects an array of comic fiction
Published on Saturday, 28th July 2018.
Writer Melissa Harrison, archaeologist Francis Pryor on British countryside & rural life
Published on Friday, 27th July 2018.
Tim Birkhead and Helen Macdonald on humanity's long relationship with birds
Lauren Elkin & Seán Williams discuss why walking is an inspiration for writers.
Published on Wednesday, 25th July 2018.
Sarah Dillon and novelist Richard Beard on narrative voices in literature
Published on Saturday, 21st July 2018.
Prof. Tim Whitmarsh & dance critic Judith Mackrell discuss Longus's Daphnis & Chloe.
Published on Tuesday, 17th July 2018.
Writer Howard Jacobson with a keynote lecture on why we need the novel.
Published on Thursday, 12th July 2018.
Anne McElvoy and sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld, artist Dale Harding, writer Stella Tillyard
Matthew Sweet takes a walk around Eleanor Marx's old neighborhood.
Published on Tuesday, 10th July 2018.
Matthew Sweet visits The Marvellous Mechanical Museum at Compton Verney.
Published on Friday, 6th July 2018.
The Italian architect talks to Philip Dodd about his career from the Pompidou to the Shard
Published on Wednesday, 4th July 2018.
Nandini Das and John Gallagher look at words for strangers in Tudor and Stuart England.
Alison Bechdel's memoir on stage, a novel inspired by Kathy Acker, Oscar Wilde in the USA
Published on Thursday, 28th June 2018.
Beauty - Renaissance to the present. Chantal Joffe & Heather Widdows with Anne McElvoy
How the Victorians changed lunch, Elsa Richardson and Chris Kissane join Rana Mitter.
Published on Wednesday, 27th June 2018.
Joanna Cohen looks back at the manifesto which remodelled the Declaration of Independence
Published on Friday, 22nd June 2018.
Curing lovesickness or learning alchemy's secrets. Seb Falk on Chaucer's friend John Gower
Lucy Powell tells the story of a radical community of women set up in 1760s rural England
The tale of Mary Moders, a C17 bigamist and media sensation, is retold by John Gallagher.
Sophie Coulombeau on the life of a C18 cleric and entrepreneur & the idea of failure
The man who loved our trees and woods and new ideas of what they were and might become
Published on Thursday, 21st June 2018.
Colin Grant Hannah Lowe and Jay Bernard discuss writing about Windrush with Shahidha Bari
Matthew Sweet reads Ursula Le Guin's novel + Paul Foot Award.
Published on Tuesday, 19th June 2018.
Debbie Wiseman, Fern Riddell, Frank Tallis and Tiffany Watt Smith join Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 14th June 2018.
Philip Dodd explores the Intellectual Dark Web with Bari Weiss, Douglas Murray + Ed Husain
Published on Wednesday, 13th June 2018.
Why Mark Lilla thinks the American Left needs to rethink + Gulzaar Barn on medical trials
Published on Tuesday, 12th June 2018.
Matthew Sweet talks to Jimmy Carter's former 'drug czar', Peter Bourne.
Published on Thursday, 7th June 2018.
Shahidha Bari talks to three philosophers about how their work applies outside university
Arundhati Roy, Meena Kandasamy and Preti Taneja on translation. With Anne McElvoy
Published on Wednesday, 6th June 2018.
Iraq vet and novelist Kevin Powers, Gary Lachman plus the careers picked by psychopaths.
Published on Friday, 1st June 2018.
Published on Wednesday, 30th May 2018.
Shahidha Bari chairs a discussion recorded with an audience at the Hay Festival.
Published on Tuesday, 29th May 2018.
The landscape of an artist’s imagination plus how mountaineering inspired a physicist
Published on Thursday, 24th May 2018.
Rana Mitter and the 6 shortlisted historians in conversation at the British Academy
Published on Wednesday, 23rd May 2018.
Novelist Philip Roth talks to Philip Dodd about his life and work. (R3 Night Waves 2008)
Writers Sheila Heti, Jessie Greengrass and Jacqueline Rose compare notes on motherhood.
Published on Tuesday, 22nd May 2018.
Self help and identity politics are on the agenda as Philip Dodd meets the YouTube star.
Published on Thursday, 17th May 2018.
Shahidha Bari looks at Enid Marx, Rennie Mackintosh and Edward Bawden and visits the V&A.
Matthew Sweet looks at French philosophy and spies and explores belief with John Gray.
Published on Wednesday, 16th May 2018.
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss talking and speech, including Trevor Cox
Published on Thursday, 10th May 2018.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and renewal of myth, folk and fairy in modern writing
Published on Wednesday, 9th May 2018.
Anne McElvoy looks at why we fight with former army officer Dr Mike Martin.
Published on Tuesday, 8th May 2018.
Pauline Dakin compares notes with Sally Bayley about a childhood on the run and reading.
Published on Friday, 4th May 2018.
Anne Applebaum, Gregory Claeys, Jane Humphries and Richard Seymour discuss Marxism now.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd May 2018.
Jesmyn Ward, John Edgar Wideman and Sarah Churchwell talk to Christopher Harding.
Published on Tuesday, 1st May 2018.
Tomouki Hoshino, Suzanne Mooney, Mariko Nagai and Kyoko Miyake on representing city life.
Published on Thursday, 26th April 2018.
David Peace & Natasha Pulley look at the writing of Akutagawa and the film by Kurosawa.
Published on Wednesday, 25th April 2018.
The photographs of Mika Ninagawa and the new novel from Hideo Yokoyama, with Anne McElvoy
From IKEA to Bergman and ABBA - Matthew Sweet looks at Sweden's impact on Britain.
Published on Thursday, 19th April 2018.
Warwickshire words in the Bard's verse + the real Cleopatra. And playwright Ella Hickson.
Published on Wednesday, 18th April 2018.
Shahidha Bari talks fashion with Jenny Gilbert & to Scrumbly Koldewyn about the Cockettes
The American novelist and essayist talks religion, fiction & US politics with Rana Mitter
Published on Thursday, 12th April 2018.
Jo Nesbø and Mark Ravenhill on the Scottish Play; Chinua Achebe's novel about leadership.
Published on Wednesday, 11th April 2018.
Matthew Sweet on the legacy of the film company behind A Taste of Honey and The Knack.
Published on Tuesday, 10th April 2018.
Richard Holloway, Kathryn Mannix and Kevin Toolis debate the end of life with Philip Dodd
Published on Thursday, 5th April 2018.
Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin with Shahidha Bari.
Published on Wednesday, 4th April 2018.
From piracy to vegetarianism, George Orwell to surrogacy, Newton's alchemy to C18 fitness
Published on Tuesday, 3rd April 2018.
Writer Erica Wagner, engineer Sean Wilkinson & architect Simon Roberts with Rana Mitter.
Published on Thursday, 29th March 2018.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown,Afua Hirsch & Tarjinder Gill debate identity with Philip Dodd.
Published on Wednesday, 28th March 2018.
Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister & Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead
Published on Tuesday, 27th March 2018.
June Sarpong, Emma Frankland, Gavin Francis and Julian Baggini chaired by Anne McElvoy.
Published on Monday, 26th March 2018.
Simon Beard, from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, on AI and Douglas Adams.
Published on Friday, 23rd March 2018.
David Olusoga, Kit Davies and Kenan Malik debate what civilisation means with Philip Dodd
Published on Thursday, 22nd March 2018.
Emma Butcher looks at the view of war in the childhood writings of the Bronte family.
Symeon Brown, James Docherty, Alistair Fraser chaired by Matthew Sweet.
Published on Wednesday, 21st March 2018.
Joanne Paul on satire, flattery and document leaks in the C16 and C17 centuries and now.
David Runciman, Rod Liddle, Caroline MacFarland Danny Dorling & Anne McElvoy in Gateshead
Islam Issa on arguments about Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop in the 21st century
Published on Tuesday, 20th March 2018.
Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver, and John-Henry Clay explore solitude.
Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.
Published on Monday, 19th March 2018.
Alastair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.
Published on Friday, 16th March 2018.
Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Published on Thursday, 15th March 2018.
Julia Hobsbawm, Jamie Bartlett, Laurence Scott and Abeba Birhane with Anne McElvoy.
MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.
Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village & community relations now
Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?
Published on Wednesday, 14th March 2018.
Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew McBain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour
Hetta Howes looks at male fears + why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying & bleeding.
Published on Tuesday, 13th March 2018.
Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Monday, 12th March 2018.
Economist Linda Yueh delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market.
Published on Friday, 9th March 2018.
With Helen Pankhurst, Jane Robinson, Shahida Rahman, Fern Riddell and Miranda Garrett
Published on Thursday, 8th March 2018.
Lara Feigel, Xiaolu Guo, Melissa Benn + David Aaronovitch on Doris Lessing's 1962 novel.
Published on Wednesday, 7th March 2018.
Seán Williams rereads Laurence Sterne's subjective travel book & talks to Philip Hensher
Published on Thursday, 1st March 2018.
Poetic and archaeological trip round our fascination with what comes up when we dig down.
Published on Wednesday, 28th February 2018.
Matthew Sweet with guests including Lord Butler, André Spicer and Eliane Glaser
Published on Thursday, 22nd February 2018.
Steven Pinker explains to Philip Dodd why we should ignore headlines & be more optimistic
Napoleon impersonators, ballads and what if he didn't die in exile?
Published on Wednesday, 21st February 2018.
Film maker Clio Barnard and novelist Amanda Craig on rural life. Matthew Sweet presents.
Published on Thursday, 15th February 2018.
Human Beings are part of Natural History discuss: via art, science and the Bloosmbury set
Published on Wednesday, 14th February 2018.
David Willetts, Polly Toynbee, Simone Finn, Julia Black & Adrian Wooldridge at LSE.
Philip Dodd talks to Michael Ignatieff about the political landscape of central Europe.
Published on Tuesday, 13th February 2018.
Rana Mitter talks to Tariq Ali, novelist, historian & political activist about 1968.
Published on Thursday, 8th February 2018.
Single motherhood, child slavery & parallels w/ Grenfell in the books of Buchi Emecheta
Anne McElvoy on Davos discussions, Ocean liner style at the V&A and mermaids in fiction.
Published on Friday, 2nd February 2018.
Philip Dodd and guests ask has culture forgotten the working class?
Published on Thursday, 1st February 2018.
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
Published on Tuesday, 30th January 2018.
Humboldt as Ecuadorian explorer, plus the territory between Scotland and England.
Published on Thursday, 25th January 2018.
Craig Brown, Afua Hirsch, Robert Jobson, Joe Moshenska, AN Wilson, Philip Dodd on royalty
Published on Wednesday, 24th January 2018.
Lucy Porter & Steve Massa on women of the silent era, Vanda Krefft on William Fox's life
Published on Tuesday, 23rd January 2018.
Fiona Sampson, Daisy Hay, Christopher Frayling and David H. Guston with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 18th January 2018.
Leïla Slimani, President Macron's champion of French culture and language, is interviewed
Published on Wednesday, 17th January 2018.
A car race around Australia is fictionalised in Peter Carey's latest novel + Ovid's tales
Published on Tuesday, 16th January 2018.
Matthew Sweet with Paul Hartnoll, Tony White, Tessa DeCarlo & Paul Cronin on uprisings.
Published on Thursday, 11th January 2018.
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough considers airport lounges railway stations and liminal spaces
Published on Wednesday, 10th January 2018.
Amit Chaudhuri, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Daniel Mendelsohn and Emily Wilson join Philip Dodd
Published on Tuesday, 9th January 2018.
Diving as metaphor, occupation and study from Tudor times to the present
Published on Thursday, 4th January 2018.
Matthew Sweet looks at the career of impresario Philip Astley and 250 years of circus
Published on Wednesday, 3rd January 2018.
Roger Scruton, Kevin Davey, Kirsty Gunn & Haroon Mirza on tradition & experiment
Published on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018.
Malika Booker, Neil Brand, Katherine Cooper and Jake Arnott join Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 14th December 2017.
John Bradshaw, Jessica Pierce, Philip Howell and Laura Purcell with Anne McElvoy.
Published on Wednesday, 13th December 2017.
Philip Dodd and his guests on David Storey's 1960 novel set in the world of rugby league
Published on Tuesday, 12th December 2017.
Catherine Fletcher with Stephen Greenblatt, Islam Issa, Jennifer Evans and Sara Read.
Published on Thursday, 7th December 2017.
Weathermen member Jonathan Lerner on underground protest & The Disaster Artist reviewed.
Published on Wednesday, 6th December 2017.
Masha Gessen talks to Philip Dodd about tracing Russian history through four lives.
Published on Tuesday, 5th December 2017.
The Vietnam War, poetry and flash photography with Ken Burns, Sasha Dugdale & Kate Flint.
Published on Thursday, 30th November 2017.
Essayist Adam Gopnik talks to Shahidha Bari about city living. + artist Lucinda Rogers
The Rt Hon Lord David Willetts talks to Philip Dodd about universities in the UK
Published on Tuesday, 28th November 2017.
Philip Dodd looks at 2000 years of Arab Christians and the modern rise of Pentecostalism.
Published on Thursday, 23rd November 2017.
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith share visions of the future with Rana Mitter. Plus Kevin Rudd.
Published on Wednesday, 22nd November 2017.
New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari & Laurence Scott report on the Being Human Festival
Published on Tuesday, 21st November 2017.
Matthew Sweet in Canterbury and Portsmouth uncovering stories of the lost and the found.
Published on Friday, 17th November 2017.
BBC Head of News James Harding reviews a stage version of Paddy Chayefsky's Network.
Published on Wednesday, 15th November 2017.
Poetry and protest -Jackie Kay, Fred D'Aguiar and Major Jackson at Newcastle University.
Author Boris Akunin and broadcaster and writer Zinovy Zinik talk to Anne McElvoy.
Published on Monday, 13th November 2017.
Michael Nyman, Alexei Popogrebsky, Ian Christie and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh on Dziga Vertov
Published on Thursday, 9th November 2017.
Svetlana Alexeivich on Soviet oral history as literature and Stephen Kotkin on Stalin.
Published on Wednesday, 8th November 2017.
Comedian Janey Godley, historian John Gallagher, author Emma Byrne, poet Bridget Minamore
Published on Friday, 3rd November 2017.
David Hendy, Glyn Maxwell, Kate Kennedy and Lucy Walker with an audience at Aldeburgh.
Published on Wednesday, 1st November 2017.
Anne McElvoy on art from monochrome religious painting to a yellow light filled room...
Published on Tuesday, 31st October 2017.
Director Alex Cox, Christopher Fowler, Clare Walker Gore & Lynda Nead with Matthew Sweet
Published on Thursday, 26th October 2017.
Yanis Varoufakis with Philip Dodd. Plus the new play from Richard Bean and Clive Coleman
Web guru Tim O'Reilly; the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson
Published on Wednesday, 25th October 2017.
Matthew Sweet with an exploration of memory and Winston Graham's novel/Hitchcock's film
Published on Wednesday, 18th October 2017.
Dr Foster writer Mike Bartlett on his new play Albion plus the rise of small nations.
Published on Tuesday, 17th October 2017.
Rana Mitter hosts a debate on relations between Japan, US and China.
Published on Thursday, 12th October 2017.
Simon Schama and Devorah Baum discuss Jewishness
Published on Wednesday, 11th October 2017.
Novelists Salman Rushdie and Lionel Shriver plus Marcus Chown and Rachel Hewitt.
Published on Tuesday, 10th October 2017.
Matthew Sweet watches a vision of Los Angeles 2049 & visits haunted places in Portsmouth
Published on Thursday, 5th October 2017.
The former Booker Prize winner talks to Anne McElvoy and a Proms Extra audience.
Published on Wednesday, 4th October 2017.
Niall Ferguson argues for a less hierarchical history. Degas' images of the human body.
Published on Tuesday, 3rd October 2017.
Michael Symmons Roberts, Helen Mort and Stewart Mottram join Matthew Sweet in Hull.
Published on Thursday, 28th September 2017.
Rana Mitter and guests look back to Edwardian England and at conservative thinking now.
Philip Dodd looks at postcards of beggars, the love and scorn of Dido and radicalisation.
Published on Tuesday, 26th September 2017.
The Northern Irish author of Cal talks to Anne McElvoy about his new novel Midwinter Break
Published on Thursday, 21st September 2017.
Jahnavi Phalkey, Matt Kimberley, Richard Fortey, Adrian Owen & Cordelia Fine.
Published on Wednesday, 20th September 2017.
Philip Dodd and guests explore the art of negotiation and discuss JT Rogers' play Oslo.
Anne McElvoy talks to Anne Applebaum about Russian and Ukrainian history.
Published on Friday, 15th September 2017.
Art and irony - Philip Dodd and Joanna Kavenna on the Käthe Kollwitz show in Birmingham
Published on Thursday, 14th September 2017.
Public pools, the "steamie" and the Turkish bath are explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
Published on Tuesday, 12th September 2017.
Booker Prize winner, Alan Hollinghurst, discusses his new book, The Sparsholt Affair.
Published on Monday, 4th September 2017.
Anne McElvoy discusses Lenin with historians Helen Rappaport and Victor Sebestyen.
Published on Friday, 1st September 2017.
Rana Mitter is joined by Kathleen Burk & Joanna Cohen to discuss the Gettysburg Address.
Published on Tuesday, 29th August 2017.
Matthew Sweet talks to Natalie Haynes about the glory that was Rome.
Ian McMillan on the appeal and arts of the Unfinished
Published on Wednesday, 23rd August 2017.
Elif Shafak and Shahidha Bari tell Ian McMillan why humans need the genie
Published on Friday, 18th August 2017.
Sports sleep coach Nick Littlehales & novelist A. L. Kennedy discuss sleep & insomnia.
Published on Wednesday, 16th August 2017.
Irving Finkel and Shahidha Bari on Mesopotamian writing, jokes and boat building specs
Published on Tuesday, 8th August 2017.
Kevin LeGendre and Claire Martin discuss Ella Fitzgerald
Published on Monday, 7th August 2017.
Anne McElvoy, Dr. Seán Williams & writer Rachel Hewitt discuss sentimentality.
Published on Thursday, 3rd August 2017.
Literature & unhappy people with Will Abberley, Charlotte Mendelson & Claudia Hammond.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd August 2017.
Rana Mitter considers epic sea journeys in history with Barry Cunliffe & Edith Hall.
Published on Tuesday, 1st August 2017.
Nandini Das & novelist Lawrence Norfolk discuss European writers & the idea of ‘Europe’.
Matthew Sweet, Daisy Hay, Richard Davenport-Hines at Imperial College, London
Published on Monday, 24th July 2017.
Thomas Dixon and musicologist Wiebke Thormählen discuss music, literature and emotion.
Published on Tuesday, 18th July 2017.
Geologist Iain Stewart and geographer Nicholas Crane consider the concept of "Deep Time"
Published on Monday, 17th July 2017.
Simon Heffer and Tiffany Jenkins join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Sussex University.
Published on Thursday, 13th July 2017.
Rana Mitter and Linton Kwesi Johnson and Ibram X Kendi
Published on Wednesday, 12th July 2017.
Shahidha Bari discusses LGBTQ in the history of philosophy + the Caine Prize winner
Published on Tuesday, 11th July 2017.
The Punjabi "Romeo and Juliet"; and founding the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence
Published on Thursday, 6th July 2017.
Philip Hoare and Elizabeth Jane Burnett swim in the literary and poetic power of the sea
Published on Wednesday, 5th July 2017.
Matthew Sweet explores the joys of food
Published on Tuesday, 4th July 2017.
Matthew Sweet investigates the Canadian dynamo who transformed British TV drama
Published on Thursday, 29th June 2017.
New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari & Laurence Scott look at Canada in TV, poems + art
The French Canadian playwright/performer and the stand up comedian talk to Philip Dodd
Published on Tuesday, 27th June 2017.
Philip Dodd looks at AI with Garry Kasparov, Vorticism and research into overpopulation.
Published on Thursday, 22nd June 2017.
Rana Mitter and guests look at fact and fiction as they explore how terrorism works.
Anne McElvoy looks at Bonnie Prince Charlie and Nature exhibitions & meets Tom McCarthy.
Published on Tuesday, 20th June 2017.
Anne McElvoy considers Churchill on the big screen and the legacy of Pocahontas.
Published on Thursday, 15th June 2017.
Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott explore our obsession with the self.
Published on Wednesday, 14th June 2017.
Matthew Sweet talks to Will Self about the mind, consciousness and R. D. Laing.
Published on Tuesday, 13th June 2017.
Anne McElvoy and guests look at the style of the election and the job of sketch writers.
Published on Thursday, 8th June 2017.
Matthew Sweet sees a film version of Daphne Du Maurier's novel, and revenge in Shakespeare
Published on Wednesday, 7th June 2017.
Published on Tuesday, 6th June 2017.
New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon chairs a discussion recorded at the Hay Festival.
Published on Thursday, 1st June 2017.
Jules Evans and Roman Krznaric discuss living in the moment and trances with Rana Mitter.
Writers and historians join Catherine Fletcher for a discussion recorded at Hay.
Published on Tuesday, 30th May 2017.
Artist Tom Phillips talks to Philip Dodd about his career as he marks his 80th birthday.
Published on Thursday, 25th May 2017.
Chris Harding discusses the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai
Published on Wednesday, 24th May 2017.
Matthew Sweet explores deafness, plot twists, birds in books & how music is good for you
Published on Tuesday, 23rd May 2017.
Philip Dodd looks at speaking truth to power and the beliefs of John Knox and Galileo.
Published on Thursday, 18th May 2017.
Anne McElvoy explores German Russian history, US electioneering and crime with her guests
Published on Wednesday, 17th May 2017.
Photo London's Master of Photography Taryn Simon on her new exhibition Image Atlas
Published on Tuesday, 16th May 2017.
Anne McElvoy talks to the French novelist about Roland Barthes.
Published on Thursday, 11th May 2017.
Philip Dodd looks at desire & politics as Angels in America runs at the National Theatre
Published on Wednesday, 10th May 2017.
Rana Mitter is joined by the 6 shortlisted authors and an audience at the British Academy
Published on Tuesday, 9th May 2017.
John Carey, Islam Issa, Mandy Green and Joe Moshenska with Philip Dodd.
Published on Friday, 5th May 2017.
Alec Ryrie, Tom Charlton, Elizabeth Goodwin and Tara Hamling join Rana Mitter.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd May 2017.
Peter Stanford Ulinka Rublack and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss Martin Luther.
Published on Tuesday, 2nd May 2017.
Anne McElvoy discusses nation states and war with A.C. Grayling and Susan Buck-Morss.
Published on Thursday, 27th April 2017.
Writer Paul Kingsnorth talks about his changing attitude to the environmental movement.
Published on Wednesday, 26th April 2017.
Matthew Sweet is joined by writer Michele Roberts, who talks about her latest novel.
Published on Tuesday, 25th April 2017.
Poets Mark Doty and Andrew McMillan and Professor Sarah Churchwell on Walt Whitman's poem
Published on Sunday, 23rd April 2017.
The author of The Cider House Rules on religion, Mexico and the USA. With Philip Dodd.
Published on Saturday, 22nd April 2017.
Alain de Botton, Tahmima Anam and AL Kennedy talk to Anne McElvoy about love in prose.
Published on Friday, 21st April 2017.
Tim Birkhead and Phyllis Lee on long-lived animal species and their survival strategies.
Published on Thursday, 13th April 2017.
Published on Wednesday, 12th April 2017.
Carlos Frenk, Eugenia Cheng, Jim Al-Khalili and Louisa Preston debate time and space.
Published on Tuesday, 11th April 2017.
Poet Simon Armitage and writer Alexandra Harris explore time and place in modern Britain.
Published on Monday, 10th April 2017.
Author David Mark and poet Adelle Stripe join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Hull Truck.
Published on Friday, 7th April 2017.
Haemin Sunim, the Buddhist meditation teacher, on calm in a fast-paced 21st century world
Published on Wednesday, 5th April 2017.
The 2017 New Generation Thinkers make their first public appearance together.
Published on Tuesday, 4th April 2017.
Tony Sewell and Mike Grenier on the challenges of education in the 21st century.
Published on Monday, 3rd April 2017.
Christopher Harding explores the Tokyo of a century ago when 'time' was hotly contested.
Published on Friday, 31st March 2017.
Edwina Currie, Miranda Sawyer and Lola Okolosie explore the different times of our lives.
Published on Thursday, 30th March 2017.
Preti Taneja on the architectural links between Letchworth Garden City and New Delhi.
John Gallagher marks the 400th anniversary of Fynes Moryson's great travel book.
Published on Wednesday, 29th March 2017.
Sathnam Sanghera, Judy Wajcman, Griselda Togobo and Robert Colvile on time and working.
Medical historian Matthew Smith on 1970s US psychiatry - a time of hope and promise.
Published on Tuesday, 28th March 2017.
Bettany Hughes, Richard J Evans and John Hall join Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage
Catherine Fletcher on the story of her grandfather, a missionary in India.
Published on Monday, 27th March 2017.
Terry Waite, Erwin James and Cleo Van Velsen on the experience of isolation.
Victoria Donovan on the dilemmas of post-war reconstruction in Soviet Russia.
Published on Friday, 24th March 2017.
Katherine Cooper on the work by British writers to save colleagues in Europe during WW2.
Published on Thursday, 23rd March 2017.
Damon Hill,Tanni Grey-Thompson and Lincoln Jopp on pressured decision-making at top speed
Louisa Egbunike explores images of refugees and Igbo rituals which continue to resonate.
Published on Wednesday, 22nd March 2017.
George Saunders, Kirsty Logan, Jenn Ashworth and Paul McVeigh on writing short fiction.
New Generation Thinker Edmund Richardson with a story linking Egypt and Afghanistan.
Published on Tuesday, 21st March 2017.
Labour MP Harriet Harman on sustaining her career in a fast-changing political world.
Seb Falk on the 14th century monks who studied astronomy, a world of science & religion.
Pinky Lilani, Denise Mina, Jay Griffiths and John Gallagher debate the speed of life.
Russell Foster, leading neuroscientist, with the Free Thinking lecture, The Speed of Life
Published on Friday, 17th March 2017.
New Generation Thinker Shahidha Bari visits exhibitions opening in Gateshead and Newcastle
As London hosts 2 exhibitions of American art, Anne McElvoy discusses the American Dream.
Published on Wednesday, 15th March 2017.
The New York Times bestselling author is in conversation with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Thursday, 9th March 2017.
Author Tracy Chevalier and new academic research into women forgotten from history.
Published on Wednesday, 8th March 2017.
Sarah Dunant, Erica Benner, MP Gisela Stuart and Catherine Fletcher with Philip Dodd.
Published on Tuesday, 7th March 2017.
Author Neil Jordan in a hall of mirrors and artist Laure Prouvost on Flat Time House
Published on Thursday, 2nd March 2017.
Anne McElvoy and guests look back at 1947, the end of empire and refugees travelling now.
Published on Wednesday, 1st March 2017.
Christopher Harding talks to writers Alex Kerr, Yoko Tawada and filmmaker Momoko Ando.
Published on Tuesday, 28th February 2017.
Philip Dodd considers the importance of 'play' in the way our city centres are designed.
Published on Thursday, 23rd February 2017.
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Jules Pretty, Andrew Scott, Philip Coupland, Matthew Kelly
Published on Wednesday, 22nd February 2017.
Anne McElvoy talks to cartoonists and curators about creating memorable images.
Published on Tuesday, 21st February 2017.
Basil Kirchin's Hull, Richard Bean's Civil War play and the re-opened Ferens Art Gallery.
Published on Thursday, 16th February 2017.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Ulinka Rublack and Peter Stanford discuss Martin Luther
Philip Dodd looks at the art of Paolozzi and talks consciousness with Daniel Dennett.
Published on Wednesday, 15th February 2017.
Neil Gaiman talks Norse myths with Rana Mitter. And a look at the ugly side of Valentines
Published on Tuesday, 14th February 2017.
Philip Dodd is in extended conversation about culture & race with Professor Paul Gilroy.
Published on Thursday, 9th February 2017.
Matthew Sweet meets Eric the UK's first robot, built in 1928 now at the Science Museum.
Published on Wednesday, 8th February 2017.
Dolya Gavanski, Stephen Smith, Victor Sebestyen, Charlotte Hobson and Anne McElvoy.
Published on Tuesday, 7th February 2017.
From Ireland to Turkey, from soldiering to walking to photographing - with Anne McElvoy.
Published on Thursday, 2nd February 2017.
Novelist Elif Shafak, US magazine editor Julius Krein, Douglas Murray and Pankaj Mishra.
Published on Wednesday, 1st February 2017.
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Colin Grant and Kei Miller discuss the Caribbean with Matthew Sweet
Published on Tuesday, 31st January 2017.
Tooling a stronger civil society plus a novel on Slavery on both sides of the Atlantic.
Published on Thursday, 26th January 2017.
Anne McElvoy explores topics discussed at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum
Matthew Sweet and guests consider film making in 2017.
Published on Tuesday, 24th January 2017.
Rana Mitter talks Victorian bodies and looks at the Citizens of Everywhere arts project.
Published on Thursday, 19th January 2017.
Artists Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Eddie Chambers and Harold Offeh talk to Anne McElvoy.
Published on Wednesday, 18th January 2017.
Matthew Sweet talks to Stephen Baxter about his sequel to HG Wells's novel.
Published on Tuesday, 17th January 2017.
Anne McElvoy reads novels set in Pakistan and Nigeria; plus Lockwood Kipling art teacher.
Published on Thursday, 12th January 2017.
Artists Kai Syng Tan and Angus Farquhar join Hayden Lorimer and Vybarr Cregan-Reid.
Published on Wednesday, 11th January 2017.
Matthew Sweet and guests consider Hollywood's obsession with Hollywood.
Philip Dodd looks at the biting satire and contemporary relevance of Austrian Karl Kraus
Published on Monday, 2nd January 2017.
Afua Hirsch, Graham Bartram, John Bew, Ash Sarkar & Andrew Rosindell join Anne McElvoy.
Published on Friday, 23rd December 2016.
Xiaolu Guo, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Michael Auslin and David Priestland join Rana Mitter
Published on Wednesday, 21st December 2016.
Philip Dodd talks to Alain Finkielkraut and Karim Miské about French identity
Published on Tuesday, 20th December 2016.
Are public enquiries good government? Plus Matthew Parris on scorn. Anne McElvoy presents
Published on Friday, 16th December 2016.
Philip Dodd and guests consider what we mean by 'news' in 2016.
Published on Wednesday, 14th December 2016.
Edith Hall, Chris Kissane + Matthew Sweet consider what might be on a Brexit reading list
Published on Tuesday, 13th December 2016.
Shahidha Bari looks at computing for cats, de-extinction and an animal symphony.
Published on Thursday, 8th December 2016.
As a newly designed Maths gallery opens at the Science Museum,why we need better numeracy
Matthew Sweet looks at epilepsy considering Joan of Arc, Wilkie Collins & hearing voices
Published on Tuesday, 6th December 2016.
What price the self in the 21st century? with Dexter Dalwood, Susie Scott + Tom McCarthy
Published on Thursday, 1st December 2016.
Douglas Carswell, David Runciman and Eliane Glaser join Matthew Sweet to discuss elites.
Published on Wednesday, 30th November 2016.
Rana Mitter on science and art on show at Liverpool's FACT and what we mean by the weird.
Published on Tuesday, 29th November 2016.
Anne McElvoy on Robert Icke's version of Mary Stuart and the last novel from Günter Grass
Published on Thursday, 24th November 2016.
Zadie Smith talks dance, depicting teenage friends and US/UK differences with Philip Dodd
Published on Wednesday, 23rd November 2016.
Alun Withey on beards, Josh Appignanesi & Devorah Baum on fatherhood, with Matthew Sweet
Published on Tuesday, 22nd November 2016.
Matthew Sweet visits the London Survey, Kew, a cemetery and a hut used by Anzac soldiers.
Published on Thursday, 17th November 2016.
Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott on Vernon Lee, Harvey Matusow and wartime Senate House
Published on Wednesday, 16th November 2016.
From mermaids to robots via monkeys and men and zoos for humans and animals.
Published on Tuesday, 15th November 2016.
Naomi Alderman reports on a version of Maus which puts music alongside the images.
Published on Thursday, 10th November 2016.
Bernardine Evaristo, Keith Piper, Miranda Kaufmann and Kehinde Andrews on Black Britain
Published on Wednesday, 9th November 2016.
Matthew Sweet with novelists Sarah Perry and Carol Birch and some Victorian jokes
Published on Tuesday, 8th November 2016.
Rana Mitter on the first historical novel, one that invented Scotland and built Britain
Published on Thursday, 3rd November 2016.
Post second world war Britain is discussed by the TV dramatist, novelist and Philip Dodd.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd November 2016.
Anne McElvoy discusses new research into how, when and why Britons got the reading habit.
Published on Tuesday, 1st November 2016.
Birmingham Rep stages a play about Enoch Powell; John Keane & Jananne Al-Ani on war art.
Published on Thursday, 27th October 2016.
South Africa and art with William Kentridge, Vivienne Koorland and Gavin Jantjes .
Why chickens are man's best friend, Richard Hakluyt's voyages to America & parallels now
Published on Tuesday, 25th October 2016.
Harriet Walter prepares to play Prospero, a review of the bi-ennial art prize in Cardiff.
Published on Thursday, 20th October 2016.
A graphic novel inspired by Paul Nash's dreams. Religion & revolution in Hungary debated
Published on Wednesday, 19th October 2016.
Kevin Brownlow talks to Matthew Sweet about documenting and restoring silent classics.
Published on Tuesday, 18th October 2016.
Caravaggio's art explored by Letizia Treves, Joe Moshenska and Anders Lustgarten.
Published on Thursday, 13th October 2016.
From Baldwin to Black Lives Matter. Philip Dodd talks to Teju Cole
Published on Wednesday, 12th October 2016.
Gary Lachman discusses Colin Wilson's ideas about alienation with Matthew Sweet.
Published on Tuesday, 11th October 2016.
The authors talk electric shocks, Shakespeare and the power of women with Philip Dodd.
Published on Thursday, 6th October 2016.
As the London Literature Festival opens, HG Wells: women, politics and four dimensions.
Rana Mitter debates refugees, what is a good immigrant? Hitler's drug addiction and games
Published on Wednesday, 5th October 2016.
Benjamin Markovits, Lara Feigel and Kevin Jackson discuss the best fiction of 1946
Published on Thursday, 29th September 2016.
Anne McElvoy & guests on Success, subject for debate on the Third Programme back in 1967
Philip Dodd and guests discuss Clement Attlee's legacy, people power and cultural tastes.
Author of Room talks to Matthew Sweet about starvation and sainthood in her new novel
Published on Thursday, 22nd September 2016.
Pulitzer prize winning American dramatist Suzan-Lori Parks. William Boyd on American art.
Published on Wednesday, 21st September 2016.
Shelina Janmohamed explores "Generation M". Plus Edward Ardizzone's daughter on his art.
Published on Tuesday, 20th September 2016.
Photographer Edward Burtynsky, playwright Ella Hickson & experts on energy policy debate.
Published on Thursday, 15th September 2016.
From Dickens, wartime defences to Doctor Who - Matthew Sweet explores the Thames Estuary.
Published on Wednesday, 14th September 2016.
Judges Ian McMillan, Jackie Kay & Judith Palmer are joined on stage by the winning poets.
Playwright, poet, spy. Anne McElvoy on Aphra Behn at the RSC. And a festival marking 1066
Published on Tuesday, 13th September 2016.
Anna Pavord considers the landscapes created by 'Capability' Brown - born 300 years ago
Published on Wednesday, 7th September 2016.
Historians Adrian Tinniswood and Tom Charlton look at London in ruins in September 1666.
Novelist Tahmima Anam and Preti Taneja join Rana Mitter to explore the writing of Tagore.
Published on Thursday, 1st September 2016.
Novelist Philip Kerr and historian Karen Leeder look at Leipzig in 1989 and Germany now.
Published on Tuesday, 30th August 2016.
Rev Richard Coles and poet Imtiaz Dharker on the Devil in Christian and Islamic cultures.
Published on Wednesday, 24th August 2016.
Actor Michael Pennington continues our series on professions in Shakespeare's plays.
Published on Tuesday, 23rd August 2016.
Shakespeare's depiction of shepherds discussed by James Rebanks and Dr Emma Smith.
Published on Monday, 22nd August 2016.
Sophie Coulombeau reflects on what history can tell us about Naming the Baby
Published on Sunday, 14th August 2016.
Author Stephen Baxter and Sarah Dillon on space and time in HG Wells, born 150 years ago.
Published on Tuesday, 9th August 2016.
The sea and shipwrecks in Shakespeare discussed by sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd August 2016.
Novelist Patricia Duncker and Clare Walker-Gore on George Eliot and German culture.
What did Shakespeare know of the law? Geoffrey Robertson QC talks to Anne McElvoy.
Published on Tuesday, 2nd August 2016.
Religion and clerics in Shakespeare considered by Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London.
Published on Monday, 1st August 2016.
Colonel Tim Collins & Professor Emma Smith consider Soldiers & War in Shakespeare's plays
Published on Thursday, 28th July 2016.
Facial Fuzz: A short back-and-sided history with Kathryn Hughes and Alun Withey
Published on Tuesday, 26th July 2016.
Novelist Philip Hensher and Professor Philip Horne explore Henry James in Italy.
Published on Monday, 25th July 2016.
Hear Charlotte Brontë's biographer Claire Harman & Yorkshire-born novelist Joanne Harris
Published on Tuesday, 19th July 2016.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce on the cultural legacy of the 2012 Olympics and the role of the arts
Published on Monday, 18th July 2016.
Anne McElvoy looks ahead to the Rio Olympics discussing Brazilian culture.
Published on Thursday, 14th July 2016.
Philip Dodd discusses war and modern memory.
Published on Wednesday, 13th July 2016.
Matthew Sweet reports from Liverpool where art has taken over the city.
New Generation Thinker Victoria Donovan on Welsh links to Ukraine. Caine Prize winner
Published on Thursday, 7th July 2016.
Georgia O'Keeffe images of New Mexico at Tate and Matthew Sweet looks at deserts
Published on Tuesday, 5th July 2016.
Hisham Matar's search for his father. Street furniture. Easternisation. Storm Jameson.
Published on Thursday, 30th June 2016.
The long view of the vote to leave the EU and New Generation Thinker Chris Kissane.
Published on Wednesday, 29th June 2016.
British TV and film producer Tony Garnett is in conversation with Matthew Sweet
Published on Tuesday, 28th June 2016.
Anne McElvoy evaluates the fiction of Walter Benjamin and the Soviet superwoman.
Published on Thursday, 23rd June 2016.
Philip Dodd debates "Universities - therapy or learning?". Dr Seán Williams on Nietzsche
Published on Wednesday, 22nd June 2016.
Matthew Sweet discuses hands with Darian Leader plus New Generation Thinker Seb Falk.
Published on Tuesday, 21st June 2016.
Anne McElvoy is joined by curators and artists and an audience at Nottingham Contemporary
Published on Thursday, 16th June 2016.
Emma Cline on cults and teenage girls, and we reread Flora Nwapa's pioneering novel Efuru
Published on Wednesday, 15th June 2016.
Matthew Sweet investigates various paths to reality with artist, writer and cosmologist
Published on Tuesday, 14th June 2016.
Rana Mitter hears about archaeology underwater at home and abroad, at the BM & Ashmoleum
Published on Thursday, 9th June 2016.
Moral philosopher Peter Singer is in conversation with Philip Dodd
Published on Wednesday, 8th June 2016.
Icelandic writer Sjón, the career of Winifred Knights and New Generation Thinker on touch
Published on Tuesday, 7th June 2016.
Philip Dodd explores the art of Bhupen Khakhar as a retrospective opens at Tate Modern.
Published on Thursday, 2nd June 2016.
Lionel Shriver, Marlon James and Steve Jones join Rana Mitter to debate inheritance
Published on Wednesday, 1st June 2016.
The 10 New Generation Thinkers 2016 join Rana Mitter to discuss their research.
Published on Tuesday, 31st May 2016.
Rana Mitter rereads The Tale of Genji sometimes called the world's first novel.
Published on Thursday, 26th May 2016.
Philip Dodd looks at Latin America with writers Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Claudia Pineiro.
Published on Wednesday, 25th May 2016.
The Carry On film as social history and a photography show charting the 20th century.
Published on Tuesday, 24th May 2016.
Anne McElvoy talks to Dame Fiona Reynolds about preserving beauty in the countryside.
Published on Thursday, 19th May 2016.
Writer Iain Sinclair librettist Emma Jenkins composer Paul Hills art historian Iain Bell
Neil Bartlett on Victorian performer Ernest Boulton. Thomas Thwaites on becoming a goat.
Published on Tuesday, 17th May 2016.
Anne McElvoy talks to Neil MacGregor, Volker Kutscher, Hadyn Gwynne.
Published on Thursday, 12th May 2016.
Frank Dikötter, Xiaolu and Xinran join Rana Mitter to revisit the Cultural Revolution
Published on Wednesday, 11th May 2016.
Paul Mason and Bryan and Mary Talbot discuss Louise Michel with Matthew Sweet.
Anne McElvoy with novelists A L Kennedy, Tahmima Anam and Alain de Botton talking Love
Published on Thursday, 5th May 2016.
Philip Dodd talks to the artist Olafur Eliasson and novelist Andrey Kurkov.
Published on Wednesday, 4th May 2016.
Matthew Sweet explores concrete homes with Marina Lewycka and looks at art at the YSP
Published on Tuesday, 3rd May 2016.
Playwright Howard Brenton and director Adrian Noble discuss dramas depicting TE Lawrence.
Published on Thursday, 28th April 2016.
Samuel West, Carol Rutter, Michael Dobson and Matthew Sweet discuss The Winter's Tale.
Published on Wednesday, 27th April 2016.
Edith Hall, Nandini Das and Beatrice Groves on the books which inspired Shakespeare
Published on Tuesday, 26th April 2016.
Anne McElvoy on Sicily plus the London Library at 175 with Tom Stoppard.
Published on Thursday, 21st April 2016.
Philip Dodd debates migration, global solidarity with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek
Konstantin von Eggert, Sophie Fiennes and Geoff Dyer discuss Tarkovsky's 1979 film.
Published on Tuesday, 19th April 2016.
Anne McElvoy talks to architect Marwa Al-Sabouni about Syria's built environment.
Published on Thursday, 14th April 2016.
Philip Dodd talks to artist Bruce McLean about British Conceptual Art on show at Tate.
Published on Wednesday, 13th April 2016.
Matthew Sweet talks to Jonathan Coe about the first stage production of The Rotter's Club
Published on Tuesday, 12th April 2016.
Anne McElvoy considers new books from Thomas Piketty and Yanis Varoufakis.
Published on Thursday, 7th April 2016.
Rana Mitter talks to playwright Anders Lustgarten & rereads Saki's satirical stories.
Published on Wednesday, 6th April 2016.
Bryony Lavery, Alexander Waugh, Philip Eade and Adam Mars-Jones celebrate Evelyn Waugh
Published on Tuesday, 5th April 2016.
Ann Wroe joins Anne McElvoy for an exploration of light from Blackpool to the South Downs
Published on Thursday, 31st March 2016.
Jerry Brotton talks to Rana Mitter about Elizabethan England and the Islamic World.
Published on Wednesday, 30th March 2016.
Shahidha Bari explores the history of suits with Anne McElvoy. Plus dramatist Neil LaBute
Published on Thursday, 24th March 2016.
Rana Mitter considers the myth of the Green Man and our relationship with Nature.
Published on Wednesday, 23rd March 2016.
Phil Davis and Clio Barnard discuss the career of director Alan Clarke.
Published on Tuesday, 22nd March 2016.
Julian Barnes reviews portaits of Russian cultural figures on show at the NPG.
Published on Thursday, 17th March 2016.
Matthew Sweet considers the state of philosophy today
Published on Wednesday, 16th March 2016.
Photographer Martin Parr has curated a show exploring views of the UK from outsiders.
Published on Tuesday, 15th March 2016.
Rana Mitter reads a new history of the Holy Roman Empire & discusses Christianity today.
Published on Thursday, 10th March 2016.
Javier Marias talks to Philip Dodd about fiction, politics & the writing of Cervantes.
Published on Wednesday, 9th March 2016.
Performance poet Hollie McNish and scientist Helen Pearson join Anne McElvoy.
Published on Tuesday, 8th March 2016.
How German historians view Hitler now and Anne McElvoy reviews Botticelli at the V&A
Published on Thursday, 3rd March 2016.
Philip Dodd considers rage in the politics of the US and India
Published on Wednesday, 2nd March 2016.
Film director Neil Jordan on writing fiction. Olivia Laing explores loneliness.
Published on Tuesday, 1st March 2016.
Anne McElvoy and Charles Clover on the old idea shaping contemporary Russian geopolitics.
Published on Thursday, 25th February 2016.
Karl Ove Knausgård talks to Philip Dodd in a programme looking at Scandinavia today.
Published on Wednesday, 24th February 2016.
Rana Mitter discusses a translation of the Qur'an & atheism in the UK & ancient Greece
Published on Tuesday, 23rd February 2016.
Is politics about building a better world, or simply the art of the possible?
Published on Thursday, 18th February 2016.
Jonathan Lynn & his play about Petain & de Gaulle; Delacroix discussed by Philip Dodd
Published on Wednesday, 17th February 2016.
Tom Shakespeare joins Matthew Sweet in Holland for an exhibition marking Bosch 1450-1516.
Published on Tuesday, 16th February 2016.
Playwright James Graham discusses his new comedy which puts Screaming Lord Sutch on stage
Published on Thursday, 11th February 2016.
Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago.
Published on Tuesday, 9th February 2016.
Anne McElvoy profiles the painter Joseph Crawhall one of the lost masters of British art
Published on Thursday, 4th February 2016.
Philip Dodd interviews John Irving whose latest novel is called Avenue of Mysteries.
Published on Wednesday, 3rd February 2016.
Marking Dad's Army on film, Matthew Sweet looks at the fifth column.
Published on Tuesday, 2nd February 2016.
Hear Lorraine's life and writing career discussed on Free Thinking.
Published on Friday, 29th January 2016.
Anne McElvoy views Painting the Modern Garden at the RA and talks to Anna Pavord.
Philip Dodd meets sculptor Michael Sandle, Howard Jacobson and discusses Stefan Zweig
Published on Wednesday, 27th January 2016.
Matthew Sweet explores the art of the con.
Published on Tuesday, 26th January 2016.
Anne McElvoy looks at what happened to the Arab Spring five years on plus Owen Hatherley.
Published on Thursday, 21st January 2016.
Rana Mitter explores Holes in the Ground and their emotional and practical uses.
Published on Wednesday, 20th January 2016.
Merlin Holland, Will Self and Fiona Shaw join Matthew Sweet to discuss Wilde's novel
Published on Tuesday, 19th January 2016.
Matthew Sweet looks at the revival of Westerns and reports on the 2016 Oscar contenders
Published on Thursday, 14th January 2016.
Is France ceasing to be French - Philip Dodd and his guests investigate
Anne McElvoy talks to the winner of this year's TS Eliot poetry prize Sarah Howe.
Published on Tuesday, 12th January 2016.
Anne McElvoy talks to Laura Cumming about a C19 court case involving a Velázquez portrait
Published on Friday, 8th January 2016.
With two plays by Lorraine Hansberry being staged Philip Dodd examines her achievement
Published on Thursday, 7th January 2016.
Matthew Sweet, David & Ben Aaronovitch, Viv Albertine, Iroise Dumontheil, Simon Stephens
Published on Tuesday, 5th January 2016.
Anne McElvoy talks to Christopher Hampton & Adjoa Andoh about Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Published on Thursday, 17th December 2015.
Philip Dodd rereads Conrad's The Secret Agent and considers what a safe city means now.
Published on Wednesday, 16th December 2015.
Published on Tuesday, 15th December 2015.
Mark Baldwin, Catherine Wood, Jennifer Walshe, Sarah Kent and Vayu Naidu debate the arts.
Published on Thursday, 10th December 2015.
Margaret Atwood, Arnaldur Indriadason and MJ McGrath talk about crime fiction and cold.
Published on Wednesday, 9th December 2015.
Joanne Harris and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough discuss the god Loki and Norse beliefs.
Published on Tuesday, 8th December 2015.
Anna Fox and Chantal Joffe discuss Julia Margaret Cameron plus altruism's wilder shores.
Published on Monday, 7th December 2015.
Philip Dodd reviews the newly translated novel from Nobel prize winner Kenzaburo Oe.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd December 2015.
Italian author Umberto Eco talks to Matthew Sweet about conspiracy theories and war.
Published on Tuesday, 1st December 2015.
Sheila Hancock, Neil Bartlett, Bim Adewunmi and head teacher Jonny Mitchell debate rules.
Published on Thursday, 26th November 2015.
David Yelland, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, Dr Sally Marlow and Prof Barry Smith on alcohol
Published on Wednesday, 25th November 2015.
Paul Mason, Lucy Armstrong and Richard and Daniel Susskind debate the future of work
A discussion of the actor/director relationship and are there rules for good theatre?
Anne Fine, Tobias Jones, Tom Shakespeare and Professor Sarah Cunningham Burley debate.
Published on Tuesday, 24th November 2015.
Joanna Kavenna, Natasha Pulley, Susannah Clapp and Christopher Frayling on Angela Carter
Published on Monday, 23rd November 2015.
Danielle Thom looks at the links between bawdy prints and classical sculpture.
Published on Friday, 20th November 2015.
Daniel Lee revisits Vichy France to uncover a different history of Jewish life there.
Published on Thursday, 19th November 2015.
Sam Goodman looks at the way beer was used as both beverage and medicine in Colonial India
Published on Wednesday, 18th November 2015.
Jim al-Khalili, Carlos Frenk, Katy Price and Tom Shakespeare debate scientific discovery
Published on Tuesday, 17th November 2015.
Joe Moshenska on Sir Kenelm Digby - alchemist, astrologer, diplomat and recipe collector.
Kylie Murray explores visions of Scottishness in The Wallace and The Scotichronicon.
Published on Monday, 16th November 2015.
"Tweeting" shepherd James Rebanks and Professor Veronica Strang on traditional thinking.
Peter Mackay on what kilt wearing meant for some soldiers fighting World War One
Published on Friday, 13th November 2015.
Sandeep Parmar on the life of the anti racist campaigner, modernist muse and heiress
Published on Thursday, 12th November 2015.
Margaret Heffernan, Matthew Syed, Cath Bishop and Christopher Frayling explore success.
Nadine Muller on the status of the widow in fact and fiction “
Published on Wednesday, 11th November 2015.
Richard Dawkins explores religion, culture and science talking to Philip Dodd.
Clare Walker Gore on what a C19th MP without hands and feet tells us about stereotypes.
Published on Tuesday, 10th November 2015.
Bim Adewunmi John Yorke Emily Woof and Allan Little join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead
Catherine Fletcher on claims that the first Medici Duke of Florence was mixed race
Published on Monday, 9th November 2015.
Simon Heffer, Peter Tatchell and Joyce Quin in a Free Thinking Festival debate.
Prize-winning poet Claudia Rankine explores language and racism past and present.
Peggy Seeger talks to Philip Dodd about her life. Tomorrow she performs in World on 3.
Published on Thursday, 5th November 2015.
Irish novelist Edna O'Brien in conversation with Philip Dodd.
Published on Wednesday, 4th November 2015.
Matthew Sweet talks to Garry Kasparov, Stuart Maconie and Julie Bindel.
Published on Tuesday, 3rd November 2015.
Dr Alun Withey researches an 18th C healthcare scheme at Bamburg Castle in Northumberland
Published on Thursday, 29th October 2015.
Anne McElvoy looks at healthcare past & present with New Generation Thinker Alun Withey
Erica Jong on her book "Fear of Dying". Richard Jones on staging The Hairy Ape
Matthew Sweet and guests including Marina Warner consider the season of the witch.
Published on Tuesday, 27th October 2015.
The Egyptian feminist author Nawal El Saadawi on protest. Lord Browne on business.
Published on Friday, 23rd October 2015.
Marilynne Robinson, Edwin Heathcote, Thomas Harding, Imtiaz Dharker talk ideas of home
Published on Wednesday, 21st October 2015.
Matthew Sweet with The Invention of Nature, The Cabaret of Plants, and The Black Panthers
Meera Syal and Tanika Gupta discuss with Rana Mitter turning Anita and Me into a play.
Published on Thursday, 15th October 2015.
Salman Rushdie talks to Philip Dodd. Also historian Niall Ferguson on Henry Kissinger.
Published on Wednesday, 14th October 2015.
Matthew Sweet on how weather and twilight can make the world strange.
Published on Tuesday, 13th October 2015.
For National Poetry Day, Matthew Sweet explores Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
Published on Thursday, 8th October 2015.
Zoë Wanamaker, Antony Sher and David Suchet discuss acting Arthur Miller with Philip Dodd
Published on Wednesday, 7th October 2015.
James Fenton on his poetic career. Suffragette reviewed. Mrs Thatcher's legacy discussed.
Published on Tuesday, 6th October 2015.
Matthew Sweet looks at Macbeth on film and talks to Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro.
Published on Thursday, 1st October 2015.
Philip Dodd presents a discussion about populism in politics and culture.
Published on Wednesday, 30th September 2015.
Rana Mitter interviews novelist Margaret Atwood, Professor Yuval Harari and reviews Celts
Published on Friday, 25th September 2015.
Ceramicist Edmund de Waal and author Orhan Pamuk are in conversation with Philip Dodd.
Published on Thursday, 24th September 2015.
Rana Mitter explores why we sleep with pioneering researcher into the body clock, Matt...
Published on Wednesday, 23rd September 2015.
Steve Silberman on attitudes to autism, Gillian Tett on silos, Lynda Nead on fallen woman
Rana Mitter explores new research into India in the second world war and the British Raj
Published on Thursday, 17th September 2015.
Frederick Forsyth discusses spy fiction and fact and Matthew Sweet explores our emotions.
Published on Wednesday, 16th September 2015.
South African artist William Kentridge and novelist William Boyd talk to Philip Dodd
Published on Tuesday, 15th September 2015.
The winning entries in this year's Proms Poetry Competition
Published on Tuesday, 8th September 2015.
Shahidha Bari and Houda Echouafni on this powerful islamic folk-cycle - Arabian Nights
Published on Monday, 7th September 2015.
The playwright David Hare discusses his new memoir, 'The Blue Touch Paper'.
Published on Friday, 4th September 2015.
Michael Cox explores the history of the London School of Economics with Stephanie Flanders
Published on Wednesday, 2nd September 2015.
Hermione Lee on the American writer Willa Cather's 1915 novel 'The Song of the Lark'.
Published on Monday, 31st August 2015.
Ian Christie on the Lumiere brothers' invention of the world's first film camera in 1895.
Published on Saturday, 22nd August 2015.
Lars Tharp and Julia Eccleshare on the work and legacy of Hans Christian Andersen.
Published on Thursday, 20th August 2015.
The history of the National Trust with Dame Helen Ghosh and Patrick Barkham.
Published on Monday, 17th August 2015.
Novelists Helen Dunmore and Louise Welsh on DH Lawrence's 1915 novel, 'The Rainbow'.
Published on Sunday, 9th August 2015.
Philip Hoare and Merlin Holland discuss Wilde's tumultuous year. With Shahidha Bari.
Published on Monday, 3rd August 2015.
Actress Lisa Dwan and singer Susan Bullock discuss the role of memory in performance.
Published on Sunday, 2nd August 2015.
Anne McElvoy discussses the enduring appeal of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
Published on Thursday, 30th July 2015.
Poets Jo Shapcott and Sean O'Brien discuss Ezra Pound's poetry collection, 'Cathay'.
Oscar-winning composer Steven Price on the inspiration of Holst's Planets Suite.
Published on Tuesday, 28th July 2015.
Rana Mitter discuss the appeal of Fiddler on the Roof.
Published on Saturday, 25th July 2015.
Anne McElvoy discusses the German Romantic poetry which inspired Beethoven.
Published on Friday, 24th July 2015.
Rana Mitter with Nicholas Kenyon and Leanne Langley
Published on Sunday, 19th July 2015.
Anne McElvoy discusses heroic triumph and failure with a trio of eminent historians
Published on Thursday, 16th July 2015.
Philip Dodd discusses Camelot: The Shining City and reviews the new Harper Lee
Published on Wednesday, 15th July 2015.
Anne McElvoy on French intellectual traditions & rom-com; prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer
Published on Thursday, 9th July 2015.
Philip Dodd discusses Legal Aid, Law, Language and Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr
Published on Wednesday, 8th July 2015.
Matthew Sweet on Jaws 40 years on with Gareth Fraser, Ian Hunter, Will Self and Fiona Tan.
Published on Tuesday, 7th July 2015.
Tariq Ali discusses Satyajit Ray's 1955 film Pather Panchali.
Published on Monday, 6th July 2015.
Anne McElvoy at Tate Modern with the Museum of the Year finalists.
Published on Thursday, 2nd July 2015.
The links between dance, art and the brain and the meaning of "the public"
Published on Wednesday, 1st July 2015.
Matthew Sweet on worrying - Joseph Cornell - Spy Fiction and the First film.
Published on Tuesday, 30th June 2015.
Anne McElvoy discusses the ways Scottish writers negotiate what it means to be Scottish.
Published on Thursday, 25th June 2015.
Philip Dodd discusses community and talks a poet Claudia Rankine.
Published on Wednesday, 24th June 2015.
Matthew Sweet examines Welsh politics and poetry with Gwyneth Lewis and Iain Sinclair.
Published on Tuesday, 23rd June 2015.
Laurence Scott talks to Rana Mitter about living in a digital world.
Published on Thursday, 18th June 2015.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks talks to Philip Dodd about confronting religious violence
Published on Wednesday, 17th June 2015.
Director John Boorman looks at his film-making career with Matthew Sweet
Published on Tuesday, 16th June 2015.
Poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger reflects on his writing, and German history
Published on Thursday, 11th June 2015.
Martin Amis, Zachary Leader and Sarah Churchwell join Matthew Sweet
Published on Wednesday, 10th June 2015.
Matthew Sweet has a go on Carsten Höller's slide at the Hayward Gallery
Published on Tuesday, 9th June 2015.
Anne McElvoy discusses maths and music with Mathematician Eugenia Cheng.
Published on Thursday, 4th June 2015.
Rana Mitter talks to Kate Grenville, one of Australia's leading novelists, about the...
Published on Wednesday, 3rd June 2015.
'One Man, Two Guvnors' playwright Richard Bean and novelists Steve Tolz and AD Miller...
Published on Tuesday, 2nd June 2015.
BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council run a scheme to find the best...
Published on Thursday, 28th May 2015.
Rana Mitter and guests New York Times journalist David Brooks, the Iranian novelist of...
Published on Wednesday, 27th May 2015.
Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy argues the Middle East Needs a Sexual...
Published on Tuesday, 26th May 2015.
Are work and progress making us inhuman? Anne McElvoy is joined by Steve Hilton, a to...
Published on Thursday, 21st May 2015.
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz discusses income inequality. Novelist Alain Mabanckou...
Published on Wednesday, 20th May 2015.
Matthew Sweet is joined by Colm Toibin to discuss the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop; Beth...
Published on Tuesday, 19th May 2015.
A week on from the election, Anne McElvoy turns to three historians - Tim Bale, Krista...
Published on Thursday, 14th May 2015.
To mark Dante's birth 750 years ago, Philip Dodd chairs a Landmark discussion about of...
Published on Wednesday, 13th May 2015.
Matthew Sweet is joined by former Labour strategist Alastair Campbell, epidemiologist...
Published on Tuesday, 12th May 2015.
Anne Enright, Ireland's first Laureate for Fiction, talks to Anne McElvoy about her...
Published on Thursday, 7th May 2015.
Philip Dodd in extended conversation with the actor Antony Sher whose recent roles and...
Published on Wednesday, 6th May 2015.
Matthew Sweet talks to Hugh Aldersey-Williams, Claire Preston and Gavin Francis about...
Published on Tuesday, 5th May 2015.
Anne McElvoy is joined by the Booker Prize-winning writer Julian Barnes to discuss the...
Published on Thursday, 30th April 2015.
Philip Dodd reports on the first night of Carol Ann Duffy's new adaptation of Everyman...
Published on Wednesday, 29th April 2015.
Matthew Sweet interviews Alberto Manguel about his new book, Curiosity.
Published on Tuesday, 28th April 2015.
As Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is revived at The National's how...
Published on Thursday, 23rd April 2015.
Philip Dodd explores what a world view of Shakespeare means. Guests include Globe from...
Published on Wednesday, 22nd April 2015.
Caryl Phillips talks to Matthew Sweet about his new novel The Lost Child which...
Published on Tuesday, 21st April 2015.
Anne McElvoy is joined by the German novelist Eugen Ruge, British author Lawrence the...
Published on Thursday, 16th April 2015.
Philip Dodd considers violence in culture with crime writer Frances Fyfield, historian...
Published on Wednesday, 15th April 2015.
As Mexico takes centre stage at London's Book Fair Matthew Sweet speaks to two of the...
Published on Tuesday, 14th April 2015.
Rana Mitter discusses a new model for understanding the brain, with researcher and...
Published on Thursday, 9th April 2015.
This evening Free Thinking is devoted to one of the pinnacles of Victorian England –...
Published on Wednesday, 8th April 2015.
With the publication of the widest survey of sexual behaviour since the Kinsey Report,...
Published on Tuesday, 7th April 2015.
Patricia Duncker talks to Anne McElvoy about her new novel which imagines George with...
Published on Thursday, 2nd April 2015.
In this programme about private and public art, Philip Dodd talks to Nicholas Penny,...
Published on Wednesday, 1st April 2015.
As Ridley Scott's science fiction extravaganza, Blade Runner is re-released, Matthew...
Published on Tuesday, 31st March 2015.
Philip Dodd continues his exploration of the culture wars by investigating the tension...
Published on Thursday, 26th March 2015.
Philip Dodd talks to one of the icons of what used to be called the counter-culture,...
Published on Wednesday, 25th March 2015.
In the first of three programmes exploring fractures and faultlines in contemporary...
Published on Tuesday, 24th March 2015.
Anne McElvoy hears from young people involved in the BBC's School Report Day.
Published on Thursday, 19th March 2015.
Does the discipline of Sociology still have a role to play in the 21st century?To we...
Published on Wednesday, 18th March 2015.
Matthew Sweet talks to Andrew Scull, author of Madness in Civilisation and Lisa about...
Published on Tuesday, 17th March 2015.
Anne McElvoy looks at what we mean by the idea of fairness. She also talks to novelist...
Published on Thursday, 12th March 2015.
An extended interview in which Philip Dodd is joined by novelist, screenwriter and...
Published on Wednesday, 11th March 2015.
Douglas Coupland, Shumon Basar and Hans Ulrich Obrist explain the Extreme Present to...
Published on Tuesday, 10th March 2015.
Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro talks to Anne McElvoy about his latest book – The Buried Giant.
Published on Thursday, 5th March 2015.
Churchill famously commented that ‘democracy is the worst form of government, except...
Published on Wednesday, 4th March 2015.
John Gray talks to Matthew Sweet about why the Aztecs might have had a better of than...
Published on Tuesday, 3rd March 2015.
Rana Mitter talks to Tony Harrison, the winner of the biennial David Cohen prize - one...
Published on Thursday, 26th February 2015.
Philip Dodd looks at the value of the arts with the former Chief Scientific Advisor to...
Published on Wednesday, 25th February 2015.
As this year's Paul Foot Awards are announced for campaigning and investigative Anne...
Published on Tuesday, 24th February 2015.
Matthew Sweet talks to the Israeli novelist David Grossman about his book Falling Out...
Published on Thursday, 19th February 2015.
Rana Mitter discusses Buddhism, in Western therapy and in Eastern politics with Mark -...
Published on Wednesday, 18th February 2015.
It's three hundred years since the death of Antoine Galland, a French orientalist and...
Published on Tuesday, 17th February 2015.
Will Hutton joins Anne McElvoy for a programme focusing on economics and wealth in...
Published on Thursday, 12th February 2015.
Karim Miské and Aatish Taseer discuss their recent novels, the French tradition of of...
Published on Wednesday, 11th February 2015.
Dylan Evans tells Matthew Sweet about his experimental community in the Scottish and...
Published on Tuesday, 10th February 2015.
Anne McElvoy assesses reports that members of the new Greek government are age-old and...
Published on Thursday, 5th February 2015.
Poet Paul Muldoon explores the history of Ireland in his new collection, One Thousand...
Published on Wednesday, 4th February 2015.
Andrew O'Hagan talks to Matthew Sweet about identity, capturing memories and the of in...
Published on Tuesday, 3rd February 2015.
Joyce Carol Oates new novel The Sacrifice depicts an act of racial violence which a...
Published on Thursday, 29th January 2015.
Surgeon Henry Marsh and critic Susannah Clapp review the opening of Tom Stoppard's at...
Published on Wednesday, 28th January 2015.
Rana Mitter talks to Richard J Evans' about his new book The Third Reich in History on...
Published on Tuesday, 27th January 2015.
New Generation Thinker Daisy Hay talks to Anne McElvoy about the relationship between...
Published on Thursday, 22nd January 2015.
Philip Dodd plus guests David Reynolds, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Simon Heffer and David...
Published on Wednesday, 21st January 2015.
Author Michael Dobbs, dramatists James Graham and Paula Milne and TV producer Tierney...
Published on Tuesday, 20th January 2015.
Matthew Sweet looks at today's announcement of this year's Oscar nominations focusing...
Published on Thursday, 15th January 2015.
Philip Dodd explores the way we look at art with documentary maker Fred Wiseman, Iwona...
Published on Wednesday, 14th January 2015.
The Scottish poet Robert Crawford and fellow-TS Eliot biographer, Lyndall Gordon join...
Published on Tuesday, 13th January 2015.
Mike Bartlett talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Bull which takes to the stage at at...
Published on Thursday, 8th January 2015.
Lady Antonia Fraser talks to Matthew Sweet about her childhood in Oxford and London in...
Published on Tuesday, 6th January 2015.
In an extended interview, Philip Dodd talks to Clive James whose writing and in the of...
Published on Thursday, 18th December 2014.
Matthew Sweet on Pantomime past to present with writer Jeffrey Richards and Tony...
Published on Wednesday, 17th December 2014.
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek speaks to Philip Dodd about the re-emergence of a radical a...
Published on Tuesday, 16th December 2014.
TV dramatist Jed Mercurio, producer Caryn Mandabach and writer-director, Dominic talk...
Published on Thursday, 11th December 2014.
American author Rebecca Solnit discusses the impact of "mansplaining" which she in her...
Published on Wednesday, 10th December 2014.
Mona Siddiqui talks to Philip Dodd about her book called My Way: A Muslim Woman's Journey.
Published on Tuesday, 9th December 2014.
Philip Dodd and a panel including historians Philip Ziegler and John Guy, biographer a...
Published on Thursday, 4th December 2014.
Philip Dodd, Roger Scruton and Janet Suzman look at theatre in South Africa - a year...
Published on Wednesday, 3rd December 2014.
Scientist Brian Cox and Professor Chris Frayling join the actors Keir Dullea and Gary...
Published on Tuesday, 2nd December 2014.
A celebration of one of the great landmarks of culture as Matthew Sweet talks to the...
Published on Monday, 1st December 2014.
Philip Dodd considers the enduring appeal of the film Alien and whether it's blend of...
Anne McElvoy talks to the historian Geoffrey Parker about Global Crisis, his account...
Published on Thursday, 27th November 2014.
Matthew Sweet looks at depictions of American life and history in a special edition...
Published on Wednesday, 26th November 2014.
Naomi Alderman, Roger Luckhurst and BALTIC curator Alessandro Vincentelli join Matthew...
Published on Tuesday, 25th November 2014.
The Cost of Free Information. Against a backdrop of perceived excess of intellectual a...
Published on Thursday, 20th November 2014.
How much self-knowledge do you need to be happy – and what are the limits to what to...
Published on Wednesday, 19th November 2014.
Knowing Your Characters. Matthew Sweet talks to playwright David Greig and actor about...
Published on Tuesday, 18th November 2014.
A hundred years ago, Ernest Shackleton set out on his Trans-Antarctic expedition which...
Published on Monday, 17th November 2014.
The Spin Doctors of 19th-Century America. Embracing the emerging sciences of the age,...
Published on Friday, 14th November 2014.
Drawing on Shakespeare's plays and Indian translations of them from recent times - and...
Published on Thursday, 13th November 2014.
Animals: Watching Us Watching Them Watching Each Other. Rana Mitter talks to the of at...
Naomi Paxton from the University of Manchester explores the international movement for...
John Lanchester talks to Matthew Sweet about his novel Capital, our understanding of...
Published on Wednesday, 12th November 2014.
Where did language come from? It's often been described as the fundamental barrier and...
Published on Tuesday, 11th November 2014.
Turkey's best selling female writer, Elif Shafak, talks to Anne McElvoy about and as...
Is man the only political beast? Can other animals be regarded as members of our with...
Published on Monday, 10th November 2014.
Anne McElvoy explores whether it is worth getting hot under the collar about blue with...
Historian Alun Withey says beards can shed light on a whole range of things from to...
Published on Friday, 7th November 2014.
Daisy Hay from Exeter University explores the way in which Disraeli invented the as a...
Published on Thursday, 6th November 2014.
Which historical 'facts' should be burned on the fire? How do you comb ancient and for...
Sophie Coulombeau on the origins of the custom for women to take their husband's name.
Published on Wednesday, 5th November 2014.
David Willetts MP and the writer and philosopher Roger Scruton discuss the best way to...
New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton on what 17th-century ideas about censorship share...
Published on Tuesday, 4th November 2014.
Matthew Sweet explores the way digital media have transformed our cultural tastes with...
New Generation Thinker Tiffany Watt-Smith explores mirroring and a nineteenth-century...
Published on Monday, 3rd November 2014.
Anne McElvoy chairs a discussion about conciliation in an age of uprisings recorded in...
Karen Armstrong, one of the world's leading thinkers about religion, gives the Free in...
Published on Friday, 31st October 2014.
Choreographer Akram Khan talks to Anne McElvoy about curating a festival at the Lowry,...
Published on Thursday, 30th October 2014.
Orhan Pamuk talks to Philip Dodd about his writing career and his views of modern Turkey.
Published on Wednesday, 29th October 2014.
Orhan Pamuk talks, in an extended conversation with Philip Dodd, about his writing and...
Mike Leigh discusses his film about Turner. Steve Connor and Matthew Sweet discuss an...
Published on Tuesday, 28th October 2014.
Anne McElvoy talks to celebrated Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood whose most recent a...
Published on Thursday, 23rd October 2014.
How history can help to shape policy making? Rana Mitter is joined by The History MP...
Published on Wednesday, 22nd October 2014.
This Free Thinking is devoted to one of the landmarks of European literature -- Marcel...
Published on Tuesday, 21st October 2014.
Jeremy Deller and Fiona McCarthy have each curated an exhibition looking at the art of...
Published on Thursday, 16th October 2014.
Rana Mitter talks to three people who have been exploring their own relationship with...
Published on Wednesday, 15th October 2014.
Sherlock Holmes is investigated by Mark Gatiss and Matthew Sweet as the Museum of an...
Published on Tuesday, 14th October 2014.
Anne McElvoy talks to Phyllida Lloyd about playing Shakespeare in a female prison in...
Published on Thursday, 9th October 2014.
Canadian filmmaker and originator of the body horror genre, David Cronenberg covers as...
Published on Wednesday, 8th October 2014.
Colm Toibin is one of Ireland's finest writers, whose books explore issues such as and...
Published on Tuesday, 7th October 2014.
At a time when the special relationship between the UK and the US is under particular...
Published on Thursday, 2nd October 2014.
Rana Mitter has a first-night review of Electra with Kristin Scott Thomas from Edith...
Published on Wednesday, 1st October 2014.
Matthew Sweet examines our contradictory attitudes to China and it's culture with the...
Published on Tuesday, 30th September 2014.
As the Schaubühne Berlin's production of Henrik Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People' at...
Published on Thursday, 25th September 2014.
Fukuyama and Howard Jacobson are interviewed by Philip Dodd. In 1989, Francis Fukuyama...
Published on Wednesday, 24th September 2014.
Steven Pinker's research at Harvard is into language and cognition. His new book The...
Published on Tuesday, 23rd September 2014.
Scientist Susan Greenfield, painter Fiona Rae, poet Paul Farley and artist and TV Matt...
Published on Thursday, 18th September 2014.
Martin Amis talks to Philip Dodd about his reputation for courting controversy and his...
Published on Wednesday, 17th September 2014.
Rudy's Rare Records stars Lenny Henry as the son who works alongside his father in a...
Published on Tuesday, 16th September 2014.
Peter Watkins' film Culloden is 50, and in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Sweet...
Published on Monday, 15th September 2014.
The poet Daljit Nagra and Radio 3 presenter Ian McMillan introduce the winning entries...
Published on Friday, 12th September 2014.
In 1914 the American poet Robert Frost published his collection 'North of Boston'.co.
Published on Monday, 8th September 2014.
Poets Andrew Motion and Kate Clanchy discuss the writing of Philip Larkin and his was...
Novelist Martin Amis discusses 'The Zone of Interest', his 14th novel, in which he the...
Published on Friday, 29th August 2014.
From HG Wells and Margaret Atwood to Battlestar Galactica, science fiction texts and a...
Published on Thursday, 28th August 2014.
The audience at a rock concert adoring the star; a Pentecostalist congregation God; an...
Defenders of traditional English language and grammar often present themselves as but...
Published on Wednesday, 27th August 2014.
What do recent debates among medical ethicists and lawyers over male infant reveal the...
Published on Tuesday, 26th August 2014.
Annie Besant promoted contraceptive advice to the Victorian working classes.
What is the place of food and body image in contemporary culture? Lionel Shriver is of...
Published on Saturday, 23rd August 2014.
As the Iceland Symphony Orchestra appear at the Proms, Radio 3's New Generation and in...
Published on Friday, 22nd August 2014.
Wilfred Owen is one of the greatest First World War writers. The poets Fred d'Aguiar...
Professor Sugata Mitra's pioneering experiments gave children in India access to to...
Published on Thursday, 21st August 2014.
Can a map reveal too much? How do they direct our thinking? From ancient atlases to to...
Published on Tuesday, 19th August 2014.
Melbourne prides itself on being the 'cultural and sporting capital of Australia'.co.
Increasing resistance to antibiotics is a threat to Britain which could be as as...
Published on Monday, 18th August 2014.
Award-winning novelist and poet Helen Dunmore and the writer Simon Heffer discuss the...
Published on Sunday, 17th August 2014.
Nature writers Miriam Darlington and Horatio Clare join Rana Mitter to discuss the of...
Published on Friday, 15th August 2014.
The current National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke and the painter Peter Blake the of...
Published on Monday, 11th August 2014.
The poet and playwright Tony Harrison talks to Matthew Sweet about his passionate to...
Published on Thursday, 7th August 2014.
The poet Craig Raine discusses the ways in which borrowing and reshaping existing is a...
Published on Tuesday, 5th August 2014.
On the centenary of Britain's entry into the First World War Dame Shirley Williams and...
Published on Monday, 4th August 2014.
Rana Mitter talks to the actors Janet Suzman and Alexandra Gilbreath about The Taming...
Published on Saturday, 2nd August 2014.
Poet and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles on...
Published on Wednesday, 23rd July 2014.
The Booker prize winning novelist Pat Barker, author of the Regeneration Trilogy on of...
Published on Monday, 21st July 2014.
Professor Rana Mitter discusses contemporary Chinese culture with a novelist and film...
Published on Saturday, 19th July 2014.
Does emotion or reason dictate the financial markets? Anne McElvoy is joined by Global...
Published on Thursday, 17th July 2014.
Billy Kahora, one of the writers nominated for this year's Caine Prize for African to...
Published on Wednesday, 16th July 2014.
Matthew Sweet interviews Karen Joy Fowler author of a novel which looks at the of a a...
Published on Tuesday, 15th July 2014.
With Anne McElvoy. Curator Frances Spalding and Dr Alexandra Harris discuss what of of...
Published on Thursday, 10th July 2014.
Philip Dodd is joined by political commentator Steve Richards to discuss the new of is...
Published on Wednesday, 9th July 2014.
Richard Linklater filmed the actor who stars in Boyhood over 12 years from a 6 year to...
Published on Tuesday, 8th July 2014.
'€˜Oh what a lovely Savas' begins Rana Mitter in this edition of Free Thinking, the...
Published on Thursday, 3rd July 2014.
Yael Farber directs Richard Armitage in the Crucible at the Old Vic. She talks to Dodd...
Published on Wednesday, 2nd July 2014.
From Paul Nash paintings of blasted tree stumps in the first world war to today's Paul...
Published on Tuesday, 1st July 2014.
Jonathan Powell and historians Margaret MacMillan, Orlando Figes and Adam Tooze the...
Published on Thursday, 26th June 2014.
Samira Ahmed discusses feminism with American artist Barbara Kruger and journalist the...
Published on Wednesday, 25th June 2014.
The Thirty-Nine Steps first appeared in Blackwoods Magazine in August and September on...
Published on Tuesday, 24th June 2014.
A new collection of Ranter writings from the English Civil War sheds light on their...
Published on Thursday, 19th June 2014.
Philip Dodd talks to the artist, Sean Scully, about his latest show and explores our...
Published on Wednesday, 18th June 2014.
Matthew Sweet talks to Philip Hensher, who's novel The Emperor Waltz draws together a...
Published on Tuesday, 17th June 2014.
Prize-winning first novelists Eimear McBride and Nathan Filer join Anne McElvoy to...
Published on Thursday, 12th June 2014.
The director of the Hayward Ralph Rugoff, former principal Royal Ballet dancer Deborah...
Published on Wednesday, 11th June 2014.
Amma Asante's film Belle depicts an illegitimate mixed-race girl brought up in London...
Published on Tuesday, 10th June 2014.
Philip Dodd discusses Kenneth Clark's Civilisation and arts broadcasting with Janina...
Published on Thursday, 5th June 2014.
Rana Mitter remembers what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4th 1989 with people...
Published on Wednesday, 4th June 2014.
Matthew Sweet discusses online identity theft and religious belief with American as he...
Published on Tuesday, 3rd June 2014.
Arianna Huffington talks to Anne McElvoy about measuring success using The Third Metric.
Published on Thursday, 29th May 2014.
Presenter Rana Mitter, is joined on the BBC stage at the Hay Festival by writer and PJ...
Published on Wednesday, 28th May 2014.
Rana Mitter talks to historian and MP Tristram Hunt about how Britain's experience of...
Published on Tuesday, 27th May 2014.
Anne McElvoy looks at the resurgence of non-fiction writing and the essay as a form...
Published on Thursday, 22nd May 2014.
As the British Library launches a website devoted to writers' notebooks and novelist a...
Published on Wednesday, 21st May 2014.
Matthew Sweet talks to Iain Sinclair and New Generation Thinker Dr Greg Tate about a...
Published on Tuesday, 20th May 2014.
Nick Payne talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Incognito and the man who stole brain...
Published on Thursday, 15th May 2014.
Interview with the prominent Czech writer who has just published memoir, My Crazy by a...
Published on Wednesday, 14th May 2014.
MJ Hyland reviews Simon Armitage's The Last Days of Troy at the Royal Exchange Lily...
Published on Tuesday, 13th May 2014.
Anne McElvoy looks at the benefits and challenges of cities pooling resources.
Published on Thursday, 8th May 2014.
David Henry Hwang tells Philip about his 2007 drama Yellow Face, reflecting life of in...
Published on Wednesday, 7th May 2014.
As a musical version of The Water Babies opens Simon Heffer and New Generation Thinker...
Published on Tuesday, 6th May 2014.
Samira Ahmed is joined by poets Paul Farley, Fiona Sampson and Clive Wilmer to discuss...
Published on Thursday, 1st May 2014.
The BBC Radiophonic workshop,opened in 1958 with an aim to experiment and produce for...
Published on Wednesday, 30th April 2014.
Philip Dodd explores the sexual mores of eighteenth-century England talking to of of...
Published on Tuesday, 29th April 2014.
Samira Ahmed discusses the ownership of street art with Mary McCarthy, Director of MM...
Published on Thursday, 24th April 2014.
In extended conversation with Philip Dodd, Dame Janet Suzman talks about her acting in...
Published on Wednesday, 23rd April 2014.
Philip Dodd explores 18th century attitudes to the law, crime and punishment with S QC...
Published on Thursday, 17th April 2014.
In 1714 Bernard de Mandeville published his provocative Fable of the Bees, in which he...
Published on Wednesday, 16th April 2014.
Anne McElvoy talks to Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Amanda...
Published on Tuesday, 15th April 2014.
If Mrs Thatcher thought she was living again through Victorian England, we are now the...
Published on Thursday, 10th April 2014.
Naomi Alderman, Geoff Mulgan and Lionel Bently join Philip Dodd to explore the meaning...
Matthew Sweet discusses the silent film star Betty Balfour with BFI curator Byony and...
Published on Tuesday, 8th April 2014.
Anne McElvoy looks at the impact of war, the Afghan elections and childhood violence.
Published on Thursday, 3rd April 2014.
Matthew Sweet explores the idea of the police with the playwright Roy Williams, the of...
Published on Tuesday, 1st April 2014.
Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Victoria Walsh...
Published on Friday, 28th March 2014.
Damon Galgut's new book Arctic Summer evokes EM Forster's experiences in India and the...
Published on Thursday, 27th March 2014.
Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai traces the story of a group of Samurai who to...
Published on Wednesday, 26th March 2014.
Author and design consultant Stephen Bayley has written an e-book called Charm: A...
Published on Thursday, 20th March 2014.
Frank Field MP, child psychiarist Dickon Bevington and authors Meg Rosoff and Philip a...
Historian Archie Brown and military expert Frank Ledwidge join Samira Ahmed to discuss...
Published on Wednesday, 19th March 2014.
American authors Jonathan Lethem and Gary Shteyngart discuss radicalism, belonging and...
Published on Thursday, 13th March 2014.
Philip Dodd chairs a discussion between Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Nicholas Michael...
Published on Wednesday, 12th March 2014.
David Grossman's new book Falling Out of Time mixes poetry, drama and fiction to grief...
Published on Tuesday, 11th March 2014.
Richard Mabey discusses his biography of Flora Thompson, author of Lark Rise to and on...
Published on Thursday, 6th March 2014.
Philip Dodd in conversation with artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel, best known for...
Published on Wednesday, 5th March 2014.
Matthew Sweet visits the British Museum's Vikings exhibition with the curator Gareth 3...
Published on Tuesday, 4th March 2014.
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld talk about the impact of education and religion on success...
Published on Thursday, 27th February 2014.
Film director Wim Wenders and Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi explain why they we...
Published on Wednesday, 26th February 2014.
As Dirty Rotten Scoundrels becomes a musical, Samira Ahmed considers the scoundrel of...
Published on Tuesday, 25th February 2014.
Anne McElvoy looks at the relationship between France and its former colonies, talking...
Published on Thursday, 20th February 2014.
Charlie Chaplin's City Lights is ranked by The American Film Institute as one of the...
Published on Wednesday, 19th February 2014.
Shelagh Delaney wrote A Taste of Honey when she was 18. First performed in 1958, a new...
Published on Tuesday, 18th February 2014.
To mark the death of cultural historian Stuart Hall, another chance to hear his with...
Published on Monday, 17th February 2014.
Ofsted chair Sally Morgan and Tim Montgomerie debate Ed Miliband's speech about parent...
Published on Thursday, 13th February 2014.
Two books published this month include the idea of "the death of God" in their titles:...
Published on Wednesday, 12th February 2014.
Spike Jonze's new film Her depicts a writer developing a relationship with his system...
Published on Tuesday, 11th February 2014.
Hanif Kureishi's career has included screenplays My Beautiful Launderette, Venus, Me...
Published on Thursday, 6th February 2014.
Matthew Sweet revisits Alan Bleasdale's 1986 World War One TV series The Monocled by...
Published on Wednesday, 5th February 2014.
As International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde gives this year’s Anne...
Published on Tuesday, 4th February 2014.
Anne McElvoy on unrest in Ukraine and the state of dissent in Russia today with Boris...
Published on Thursday, 30th January 2014.
Christos Tsiolkas, Germaine Greer and the Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson talk about the...
Published on Wednesday, 29th January 2014.
American novelist Jonathan Lethem discusses the singer Pete Seeger, whose death has...
Published on Tuesday, 28th January 2014.
The actor Simon Russell Beale discusses playing the role of King Lear.
Published on Thursday, 23rd January 2014.
Zhang Weiwei, one of China's foremost public intellectuals, talks to Rana Mitter about...
Published on Wednesday, 22nd January 2014.
Matthew Sweet discusses the way we talk about suicide with Jennifer Michael Hecht, of...
Published on Tuesday, 21st January 2014.
Matthew Sweet talks to director Steve McQueen about his new film '12 Years A Slave' of...
Published on Thursday, 16th January 2014.
Samira Ahmed looks at the appeal of Lena Dunham's US TV series Girls with comedian and...
Sinead Morrissey is the winner of this year's T S Eliot Prize for her anthology Parallax.
Published on Tuesday, 14th January 2014.
As part of BBC Radio 3's Music on the Brink season Professor Roy Foster, the and Nick...
Published on Thursday, 9th January 2014.
Joining Matthew Sweet for a Landmark discussion about Robert Musil's book, The Man its...
Published on Wednesday, 8th January 2014.
As part of Radio 3's Music on the Brink, Free Thinking takes the cultural temperature...
Published on Tuesday, 7th January 2014.
Anne McElvoy discusses the state of Feminism in 2013. From women in the boardroom to...
Published on Thursday, 19th December 2013.
50 years ago this month director Yasujiro Ozu died after making 53 films.
Singer and song writer Neil Tennant in conversation with Philip Dodd. He discusses the...
Published on Tuesday, 17th December 2013.
To pay tribute to the actor Peter O’Toole, Matthew Sweet is joined by director Roger...
Susannah Clapp and Cleo Van Velsen join Anne McElvoy to review the musical stage of...
Published on Friday, 13th December 2013.
The Science Museum in London is staging Mind Maps, an exhibition on the history of and...
Published on Wednesday, 11th December 2013.
As Andrew Lloyd Webber prepares to open his new musical about Profumo and Stephen 1963...
Published on Tuesday, 10th December 2013.
In a change to our usual programme and podcast, Philip Dodd introduces two interviews...
Published on Thursday, 5th December 2013.
Has "business become a dirty word?" Stefan Stern and Linda Yueh join Samira Ahmed to...
Matthew Sweet has a first night review from Susannah Clapp of Jude Law as Henry V by...
Published on Wednesday, 4th December 2013.
Art critic for The Times Rachel Campbell-Johnston profiles the work of Laure Prouvost,...
Published on Tuesday, 3rd December 2013.
Bestselling writer Amy Tan joins Anne McElvoy to discuss her new novel, The Valley of...
Published on Friday, 29th November 2013.
Rana Mitter looks forward to an Age of the Happy City with innovative urban scholar,...
Published on Thursday, 28th November 2013.
As Scotland and England consider the future of the United Kingdom, Philip Dodd what of...
Published on Wednesday, 27th November 2013.
Veteran politician Tony Benn talks to Matthew Sweet about his final volume of diaries,...
Published on Tuesday, 26th November 2013.
With the return of the Young Vic's Theatre Uncut season, Anne McElvoy is joined by and...
Published on Friday, 22nd November 2013.
Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's of...
Published on Wednesday, 20th November 2013.
50 years of Dr Who is celebrated this weekend by the BBC. Matthew Sweet discusses the...
Whose Strife Is It Anyway? Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan of the...
Published on Thursday, 14th November 2013.
In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the...
Published on Tuesday, 12th November 2013.
Is the idea of counselling as non-judgmental listening flawed? New Generation Thinker...
Published on Friday, 8th November 2013.
As we strive to protect our children’s imaginations from negative influences, are we...
Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On...
Today many scientists are engaged in exploring the interaction between logical and of...
Published on Thursday, 7th November 2013.
John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His "Trash Trilogy" involved with...
Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and phone apps have changed the way we share our lives, to an...
Published on Wednesday, 6th November 2013.
What is the neuroscience of depression, how does it affect decision-making, and what a...
Published on Tuesday, 5th November 2013.
In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant on we...
Published on Thursday, 31st October 2013.
Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public and...
Published on Wednesday, 30th October 2013.
A 15th-century English monarch was appointed by God and had absolute supremacy but how...
Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable was...
When Lindisfarne monastery was attacked in 793AD the monk Alcuin described the church...
Published on Monday, 28th October 2013.
Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking 2013,...
Published on Saturday, 26th October 2013.
Neil Tennant, singer of pop duo Pet Shop Boys, grew up in the fishing port of North to...
Published on Friday, 25th October 2013.
Matthew Sweet leads an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta Naomi...
Published on Thursday, 24th October 2013.
A Landmark edition in which Anne McElvoy and guests look at Alain-Fournier's and tale...
In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet examines...
Published on Tuesday, 22nd October 2013.
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity...
Susannah Clapp joins Anne McElvoy for the very first review of David Tennant’s much...
Published on Friday, 18th October 2013.
Fifty years since Oh What a Lovely War was first performed, Night Waves pays tribute...
Published on Thursday, 17th October 2013.
Philip Dodd discusses the announcement of the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize...
Published on Wednesday, 16th October 2013.
Tom Hanks stars as Captain Phillips in the new film from Paul Greengrass; writer Kevin...
Published on Tuesday, 15th October 2013.
In the last of Matthew Sweet's visits to ZSL London Zoo we consider our relations with...
Published on Friday, 11th October 2013.
Social media, as old as Cicero and as revolutionary as Christianity? Tom Standage and...
Published on Thursday, 10th October 2013.
Catholic theologian Hans Küng in his new work asks 'Can We Save The Catholic Church?'.
Published on Wednesday, 9th October 2013.
Jonathan Derbyshire, the Managing Editor of Prospect magazine, and Observer columnist...
Published on Friday, 4th October 2013.
In Night Waves’ second outing to London Zoo, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Angus...
Published on Thursday, 3rd October 2013.
With Rana Mitter. Bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang discusses her new of in...
Published on Wednesday, 2nd October 2013.
Samuel Huntington’s essay ‘The Clash of Civilisations?’ was published twenty and...
Published on Tuesday, 1st October 2013.
Actress Cate Blanchett joins Samira Ahmed to discuss her role in Woody Allen's latest...
Published on Friday, 27th September 2013.
Architect Zaha Hadid joins Rana Mitter to reflect on her designs for the Serpentine's...
Published on Thursday, 26th September 2013.
Australian director Baz Luhrmann shot to fame in 1992 with Strictly Ballroom and was...
Published on Wednesday, 25th September 2013.
Carter Burwell is famed for scoring the films of the iconic Coen Brothers, from 1984's...
As part of the BBC's Sound of Cinema season, Tom Service talks to ten-time Academy...
Acclaimed director Ken Loach and composer George Fenton have collaborated on fourteen...
In the light of recent revelations about feuding in the Labour party does it make to...
In the first of three special programmes from ZSL London Zoo, Matthew Sweet examines...
Published on Tuesday, 24th September 2013.
A Landmark edition recorded in front of an audience at the British Film Institute as...
Published on Thursday, 19th September 2013.
Actor Rory Kinnear, currently playing Iago at the National Theatre, discusses the of...
Anne McElvoy talks to celebrated Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood whose latest novel...
Published on Tuesday, 17th September 2013.
Historian Simon Schama joins Philip Dodd to discuss his book and TV series The Story...
In a special event recorded in front of an audience at London's Royal College of Music...
Published on Friday, 13th September 2013.
Philip Dodd is joined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins speaking about his new...
Published on Thursday, 12th September 2013.
Actor Diana Quick, playwright Jessica Swale and critic Susannah Clapp join Matthew to...
Published on Tuesday, 10th September 2013.
Rana Mitter assesses the shortlist for this year's Booker prize and speaks to nominee...
Ian McMillan, Judith Palmer and Don Paterson introduce the winning entries in this -...
Former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and poet Paul Farley on the work of one of the most...
Published on Thursday, 5th September 2013.
Capturing the sound of dark matter, comets and distant planets is one of the toughest...
D.H. Lawrence hailed Herman Melville's novella, Billy Budd, a masterpiece when it was...
Published on Wednesday, 28th August 2013.
From the very first days of silent film to the contemporary CGI blockbuster, music has...
Published on Tuesday, 27th August 2013.
Benjamin Britten's compositions were inspired by the work of many poets and novelists,...
Published on Wednesday, 21st August 2013.
Rudolf Nureyev was one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century. His charisma and a...
Published on Friday, 16th August 2013.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath and the publication of her a...
Published on Friday, 9th August 2013.
Robert Crawford and Fiona Stafford discuss how the Romantic movement linked Beethoven...
Published on Monday, 5th August 2013.
Rana Mitter introduces an anthology of unexpected readings from the letters and of the...
Published on Friday, 2nd August 2013.
The writers Simon Heffer and Andrew O'Hagan discuss the halcyon days of light music at...
Published on Thursday, 1st August 2013.
In a special event John le Carré celebrates the 50th anniversary of his Cold War The...
Published on Tuesday, 30th July 2013.
Wagner's stage directions are notorious: giant dragons; underwater singing; horses on...
Published on Monday, 29th July 2013.
What makes Falstaff, Prince Hal's fat, boastful and cowardly companion so irresistible...
Published on Thursday, 25th July 2013.
Polish is the third most spoken language in the UK, after English and Welsh, and the a...
Published on Thursday, 18th July 2013.
Rana Mitter talks to conductor and music blogger Kenneth Woods to bust some popular...
Published on Tuesday, 16th July 2013.
In conversation with Anne McElvoy, Boris Johnson discusses leadership ambitions, what...
Published on Thursday, 11th July 2013.
Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on whether we can afford...
Philip Dodd is joined by the historian Tom Holland and the political scientist Salwa...
Published on Wednesday, 10th July 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to award-winning director Jane Campion about her new TV drama Top...
Published on Tuesday, 9th July 2013.
Published on Thursday, 4th July 2013.
Philip Dodd discusses the Problem with Love with behavioural scientist Dylan Evans, AL...
Published on Wednesday, 3rd July 2013.
Two new dystopian novels by the scientist Susan Greenfield and academic Martin Goodman...
Rana Mitter talks to Washington insider Vali Nasr about his new book 'The Dispensable...
Published on Tuesday, 2nd July 2013.
With Anne McElvoy, including an interview with the best-selling american novelist her...
Published on Friday, 28th June 2013.
Rana Mitter chairs a Free Thinking debate from the annual 12-hour My Night With at the...
Published on Wednesday, 26th June 2013.
Journalist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips discusses her autobiography Guardian Angel...
Philip Dodd and Susan Hitch review a new production of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana at...
Published on Tuesday, 25th June 2013.
Anne McElvoy talks to David Edgar about his new play 'If Only' which focuses on The...
Published on Friday, 21st June 2013.
Philip Dodd goes to the V&A to speak to Hari Kunzru about his new work, and discusses...
Published on Thursday, 20th June 2013.
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas hits the road this summer as it...
Published on Tuesday, 18th June 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to Conor McPherson about his new play The Night Alive, working his...
Anne McElvoy talks to Neil Gaiman, prolific award-winning author of novels for adults...
Published on Friday, 14th June 2013.
Samira Ahmed talks to Joss Whedon, creator of the cult TV hit Buffy The Vampire whose...
Published on Thursday, 13th June 2013.
A first night review of the National Theatre's revival of James Baldwin's drama The...
Published on Wednesday, 12th June 2013.
Philip Dodd examines A Crisis of Brilliance a new exhibition at London's Dulwich with...
Published on Tuesday, 11th June 2013.
Alex Harris and Anne McElvoy review the latest Marc Chagall exhibition at the Tate...
Published on Friday, 7th June 2013.
Philip Dodd talks to internationally renowned video artist Bill Viola about his latest...
Published on Thursday, 6th June 2013.
What will China's economy look like in ten years' time? Liam Byrne an MP, is also a he...
Published on Wednesday, 5th June 2013.
Matthew Sweet is joined by writer, Mark Ravenhill and literary critic, Sos Eltis to -...
Published on Tuesday, 4th June 2013.
Anne McElvoy talks to Debra Craine about British choreographer Akram Khan’s new or...
Published on Friday, 31st May 2013.
Philip Dodd reviews the UK premiere of David Mamet's controversial play Race and its...
Published on Thursday, 30th May 2013.
Anne McElvoy discusses ethics and the law after several politicians have complained by...
Published on Wednesday, 29th May 2013.
Matthew Sweet examines our current and past attitudes to childhood and asks whether is...
Published on Monday, 27th May 2013.
With Anne McElvoy. It is of course 200 years this week since the birth of the composer...
Published on Friday, 24th May 2013.
Former physician and best-selling author, Khaled Hosseini talks to Rana Mitter about -...
Published on Thursday, 23rd May 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to the American writer, James Salter... although writer seems an...
Published on Wednesday, 22nd May 2013.
Samira Ahmed talks with Lee Smolin, a controversial and prominent figure in the field...
Published on Tuesday, 21st May 2013.
Anne McElvoy examines the political legacy of Edmund Burke with Conservative MP Jesse...
Published on Friday, 17th May 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to Peter Brook. The theatre director has had a lifelong with which...
Published on Wednesday, 15th May 2013.
With Samira Ahmed. Sarah Churchwell and Kevin Jackson discuss the Great Gatsby as a by...
Matthew Sweet visits Tate Britain’s unveiling of a comprehensive new vision of its...
Published on Tuesday, 14th May 2013.
Anne McElvoy applies herself to the crisis of modern banking, the plight of buildings...
Published on Friday, 10th May 2013.
The Mark Rothko Arts Centre has opened its doors for the first time and some of his to...
Published on Thursday, 9th May 2013.
Rana Mitter talks to the playwright Peter Nichols as his 1981 Passion Play opens again...
Published on Wednesday, 8th May 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to actor, writer and international screen star Terence Stamp as a...
Published on Tuesday, 7th May 2013.
Anne McElvoy hosts a special edition looking at the state of warfare in the modern world.
Published on Thursday, 2nd May 2013.
50 years since 'Billy Liar' was released Samira Ahmed talks to one of the film’s and...
Philip Dodd talks to film and television producer Tony Garnett about his career his of...
Published on Wednesday, 1st May 2013.
Matthew Sweet is on stage at the Theatre Royal Stratford East for a post-performance 5...
Published on Tuesday, 30th April 2013.
Simon Schama joins Anne McElvoy to discuss his foray into literature, and the it...
Published on Friday, 26th April 2013.
Philip Dodd, Jesse Norman MP, Lord Maurice Glasman, the author Paul Kingsnorth, Lisa...
Published on Thursday, 25th April 2013.
Rana Mitter talks to Susannah Clapp with the first review of the National Theatre's of...
Published on Wednesday, 24th April 2013.
Matthew Sweet is leading an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta...
Published on Tuesday, 23rd April 2013.
Anne McElvoy and Susannah Clapp review the west-end play Doktor Glas, starring Krister...
Published on Friday, 19th April 2013.
Rana Mitter discusses the allure of the missing work of art with the writer Rick Gekoski.
Published on Thursday, 18th April 2013.
Howard Brenton discusses his new play The Arrest of Ai Wei Wei with Philip Dodd.
Published on Wednesday, 17th April 2013.
Matthew Sweet asks historian Charles Glass, author of a new book on deserters in World...
Published on Tuesday, 16th April 2013.
Since her death on the 8th April, Baroness Thatcher has been lauded as the greatest of...
Published on Friday, 12th April 2013.
Samira Ahmed talks to American film director Oliver Stone about his documentary which...
Published on Thursday, 11th April 2013.
Matthew Sweet visits Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch, to...
Published on Wednesday, 10th April 2013.
Philip Dodd explores one of the classics of social history, The Making of the English...
Published on Tuesday, 9th April 2013.
Church Historian Diarmaid Macculloch joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the role that has...
Published on Friday, 5th April 2013.
Is nostalgia for an idea of the NHS is inhibiting clear-eyed debate? Samira Ahmed is...
Published on Thursday, 4th April 2013.
What history should children learn and be able to contextualise? And what do they Rana...
Published on Tuesday, 2nd April 2013.
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner looks back at his time as the head of the National Theatre...
Samira Ahmed talks to international best selling author Mohsin Hamid about his new How...
Published on Thursday, 28th March 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to acclaimed literary critic James Wood, visits an exhibition on &...
Published on Wednesday, 27th March 2013.
As Zimbabwe votes in favour of a new constitution, Anne McElvoy is joined by Albie to...
Published on Friday, 22nd March 2013.
Rana Mitter hosts a special edition of Night Waves as part of Radio 3’s Baroque a to...
Published on Thursday, 21st March 2013.
Philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky joins Philip Dodd for an extended conversation a...
Published on Wednesday, 20th March 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to the Spanish novelist Javier Marias about his new book 'The...
Published on Tuesday, 19th March 2013.
Anne McElvoy talks to Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-born writer who some have been to...
Published on Friday, 15th March 2013.
Ken Loach talks to Philip Dodd about his new documentary Spirit of '45, which the of...
Published on Thursday, 14th March 2013.
What does a nineteenth century Swedish play have to say about post-apartheid South to...
Published on Wednesday, 13th March 2013.
Matthew Sweet talks to Booker-nominated novelist Julia O’Faolain about her new and a...
Published on Tuesday, 12th March 2013.
Anne McElvoy meets Hilary Mantel, the winner of the David Cohen Prize for literature.
Published on Friday, 8th March 2013.
The Olympics ceremony master Danny Boyle joins Rana Mitter to discuss the British film...
Published on Thursday, 7th March 2013.
With Matthew Sweet. A first night review, by Susannah Clapp, of Peter Morgan's new The...
Published on Wednesday, 6th March 2013.
Shereen El Feki, author of Sex and the Citadel, joins Philip Dodd to explore how the a...
Published on Tuesday, 5th March 2013.
As extreme libertarian thought is on the rise in right-wing politics, Anne McElvoy is...
Published on Friday, 1st March 2013.
Samira Ahmed examines why James Joyce's experimental and 'difficult' work Finnegans a...
Published on Thursday, 28th February 2013.
As the winner of the Paul Foot award for investigative and campaigning journalism is a...
Published on Wednesday, 27th February 2013.
Does compassion inhibit rational political debate? To discuss, Philip Dodd is joined 3...
Published on Tuesday, 26th February 2013.
Published on Thursday, 21st February 2013.
Ray Kurzweil, renowned American inventor, thinker and futurist, joins Rana Mitter to a...
Adam Mars-Jones reviews the first West End revival of the nine Tony award winning; A...
Published on Wednesday, 20th February 2013.
Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think it...
Published on Tuesday, 19th February 2013.
Geoffrey Robertson QC joins Anne McElvoy to pay tribute to American philosopher and on...
Published on Friday, 15th February 2013.
Matthew Sweet discusses the legacy of Sylvia Plath, who died 50 years ago this week,...
Published on Thursday, 14th February 2013.
Mark Ravenhill on translating Bertolt Brecht's A Life of Galileo; the value of the is...
Published on Wednesday, 13th February 2013.
Novelist, poet and musician Amit Chaudhuri joins Samira Ahmed to discuss his latest on...
Published on Tuesday, 12th February 2013.
Anne McElvoy talks to William Dalrymple about his new book Return of A King - an of in...
Published on Friday, 8th February 2013.
Samira Ahmed visits the British Museum to see its new show about Ice Age art.
Published on Thursday, 7th February 2013.
Philip Dodd talks to psychologist Bertolt Meyer, the model for the world's first human...
Published on Wednesday, 6th February 2013.
The King in the car park: what is the significance of the University of Leicester’s...
Published on Tuesday, 5th February 2013.
Anne McElvoy discusses the libraries of Timbuktu, and what they teach us about and in...
Published on Friday, 1st February 2013.
Philip Dodd along with Dr Tim Stanley and Paul Glastris review the American version of...
Published on Thursday, 31st January 2013.
Rana Mitter & Susannah Clapp review a new production of Simon Gray's Quartermaine's...
Published on Wednesday, 30th January 2013.
As the Tate Britain opens a new exhibition of the work of Kurt Schwitters, art critic...
Published on Tuesday, 29th January 2013.
With the publication of a new, updated version of The Rotten Heart of Europe, a book...
Published on Friday, 25th January 2013.
This Night Waves special explores ‘kitchen sink realism’, the cultural movement to...
Published on Thursday, 24th January 2013.
Matthew Sweet with a review, from Lynda Neade, of the UK's first ever retrospective to...
Published on Wednesday, 23rd January 2013.
This Night Waves special is devoted to Abraham Lincoln. As Steven Spielberg's new of a...
Published on Monday, 21st January 2013.
Anne McElvoy settles decorously into Regency England to celebrate the bicentenary of...
Published on Thursday, 17th January 2013.
Philip Dodd is joined by the playwright David Hare whose play, The Judas Kiss, is to...
Matthew Sweet talks to the Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre, Jude Kelly and...
Published on Wednesday, 16th January 2013.
In this edition of weekly highlights, David Benedict reviews the New Year Blockbuster...
Published on Tuesday, 15th January 2013.
Django Unchained, the newest Quentin Tarantino film causing controversy, is reviewed...
Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the life and work of the Russian director Konstantin...
Published on Friday, 11th January 2013.
To mark the 60th anniversary of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations,...
Published on Thursday, 10th January 2013.
Fiona Shaw takes to the stage with Samuel Coleridge’s epic The Rime of the Ancient...
Published on Wednesday, 9th January 2013.
Matthew Sweet picks over the bones of the Profumo affair with the historian Richard of...
Published on Tuesday, 8th January 2013.
Best-selling novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Rana Mitter about writing historical...
Published on Friday, 21st December 2012.
Bernard Rose, whose new film Boxing Day is a modern rework of Tolstoy’s Master and...
Matthew Sweet discusses The Girl, a new film about Alfred Hitchcock’s vexed with the...
Published on Wednesday, 19th December 2012.
Anne McElvoy talks to the director Ang Lee about his latest film The Life of Pi.
Published on Tuesday, 18th December 2012.
Columnist and youth worker Lindsay Johns argues that we should stop listening to the a...
Published on Thursday, 13th December 2012.
How relevant is the Nation-State in today's world? Philip Dodd debates the future of...
Matthew Sweet chairs an "International Review" edition of the programme and is joined...
Published on Wednesday, 12th December 2012.
Constable, Gainsborough and Turner, the three towering figures of English landscape in...
Published on Tuesday, 11th December 2012.
Published on Thursday, 6th December 2012.
Matthew Sweet speaks to acclaimed director Michael Grandage whose theatre company with...
Samira Ahmed hosts a discussion about cross casting with Fiona Shaw and Carol Rutter a...
Published on Wednesday, 5th December 2012.
As Radio 3 marks the bicentenary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s historic retreat from Anne...
Published on Tuesday, 4th December 2012.
Economist Ian Goldin gives a talk on Globalisation and the Future at Radio 3's Free...
Published on Thursday, 29th November 2012.
Critic Kevin Jackson and Andrew Biswell join Samira Ahmed to review Napoleon Rising, a...
Matthew Sweet talks to Antony Gormley about his gigantic new sculpture Model.
Published on Wednesday, 28th November 2012.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the banker-turned-philosopher who predicted the 2008 financial...
Published on Tuesday, 27th November 2012.
What kind of societies will the Arab Spring give birth to? Democratic, Capitalist, or...
Published on Thursday, 22nd November 2012.
Published on Wednesday, 21st November 2012.
Julie Bindel gives a talk arguing that sexuality is a choice at the Radio 3 Free...
Published on Tuesday, 20th November 2012.
As our global population increases and technology encourages instant communication, we...
Published on Monday, 19th November 2012.
Matthew Smith, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers, explores why the simple has...
Published on Friday, 16th November 2012.
Why have humans evolved to speak so many incomprehensible languages? Why do we work by...
Sue-Ann Harding, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk in which she...
Published on Thursday, 15th November 2012.
What does it mean to belong? Multiculturalism, integration and social division are of...
Joshua Nall, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the Victorian 3...
As Scotland heads towards a referendum on independence, Vicky Featherstone discusses a...
Published on Wednesday, 14th November 2012.
Nandini Das, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the 16th craze...
Does World History still mean Western History, or do we need a radical new of the To...
Published on Tuesday, 13th November 2012.
Martin Goodman, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the perils...
Published on Monday, 12th November 2012.
Amos Oz, one of Israel's most influential thinkers, gives a talk on the Middle East of...
Timothy Secret, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers , gives a talk during Free we...
Published on Friday, 9th November 2012.
Emma Griffin, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on what makes a 3...
Published on Thursday, 8th November 2012.
An audience with Lee Hall, writer of Billy Elliot and The Pitmen Painters, recorded at...
Jonathan Healey, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk questioning...
Theologian Mona Siddiqui and historian Tom Holland join Radio 3’s Free Thinking to...
Published on Wednesday, 7th November 2012.
Adriana Sinclair, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the exert...
Is Social Mobility Overrated? Anne McElvoy chairs a debate from the Radio 3 Free this...
Published on Tuesday, 6th November 2012.
Charlotte Blease, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk that the and...
Published on Monday, 5th November 2012.
On the eve of the US election, Michael Ignatieff gives a talk at Radio 3's Free on in...
Mary Robinson delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival...
Rana Mitter discusses two new shows of the painter, Frank Auerbach's work with the and...
Published on Thursday, 1st November 2012.
Philip Dodd presents a Landmark edition examining Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime...
Matthew Sweet talks to the comedian Ken Dodd about his life and career.
Published on Tuesday, 30th October 2012.
Phil Redmond, the creator of ground-breaking series such as Grange Hill, Brookside and...
Thomas Keneally joins Anne McElvoy to discuss his new novel The Daughters of Mars, the...
Published on Friday, 26th October 2012.
In a special edition Samira Ahmed examines the importance of Norse and Greek mythology...
Published on Thursday, 25th October 2012.
Philip Dodd talks to Playwright Howard Brenton discussing his new play, 55 days, on...
Published on Wednesday, 24th October 2012.
Malu Halasa, curator of the Culture in Defiance exhibition in Amsterdam, joins Matthew...
Published on Tuesday, 23rd October 2012.
The friendship that developed between Wagner and Nietzsche is documented in a vast of...
Published on Thursday, 18th October 2012.
Philip Dodd discusses The End of Men: And the Rise of Women with author Hanna Rosin.
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon joins Matthew Sweet to discuss his new...
Published on Wednesday, 17th October 2012.
Sculptor Anish Kapoor joins Samira Ahmed to discuss his new exhibition at London's...
Published on Friday, 12th October 2012.
Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former UN Secretary General, is Philip guest...
Published on Thursday, 11th October 2012.
Matthew Sweet chairs an "International Review" edition of the programme, with critics...
Published on Tuesday, 9th October 2012.
Novelist and film director Paul Auster joins Anne McElvoy to discuss his new memoir,...
