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Start the Week

<p>Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday</p>

BBC Radio 4

How has life online reshaped society in real life? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by 3 guests who are investigating the digital sphere, and in some cases resisting its ubiquity.The filmmaker Baroness Beeban Kidron exposes how digital platforms exploit and divide in her book, Users: How Big Tech Took Control and How to Fight Back. She argues for more political and civic action to counter their unchecked influence. The business journalist Katherine Dunn explores how GPS shapes so many aspects of everyday life, from dating and supermarket shopping to global trade and navigation. In Little Blue Dot she also reveals the hidden fragility of this technology. The Indian novelist Meena Kandasamy talks about Fieldwork as a Sex Object, a fierce exploration of online misogyny, deepfakes and digital mob violence, where the internet’s political and cultural conflicts spill into the real world with devastating consequences.Producer: Katy HickmanStart the Week returns after our summer break on Monday 7th September.

Life Online: Power, Risk and Resistance

What has happened to working-class identity in Britain? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Adam Rutherford explores the political fractures within families and communities.Nicola Wilding discusses These Wild English: A Family, a Class, a Country on Fire, tracing three generations of her family and the pull of belonging, nationalism and far-right politics amid economic decline. Natasha Carthew draws on her personal experience of growing up poor in Cornwall in her latest work. Rough Edges brings to light the inequalities shaping coastal communities, where austerity, second homes and seasonal work deepen divisions and marginalisation. The poet Daljit Nagra reflects on his upbringing in a predominantly white working-class town for his latest collection, Yiewsley, exploring race, migration and the cultural shifts that have reshaped Britain from the post-war years to the present.Producer: Katy Hickman

Working-Class Lives: Identity and Political Fractures

How have we made discoveries about the world around us and how has our understanding changed when we got it wrong? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking about the the nature of scientific discovery, understanding and changing our mind. Andrea Wulf's latest book is The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity. She has reassessed the botanist and ethnologist who accompanied Captain Cook's second voyage, taking him from Antarctica to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. During this time, Forster studied diverse people, culture and nature and returned a confirmed opponent of empire, racism and slavery: he was celebrated in his lifetime, but has since been largely forgotten by history.  The geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden argues that the latest research complicates our ideas about blame, punishment and moral responsibility. In her new book Original Sin: The Genetics of Wrongdoing, the Problem of Blame and the Future of Forgiveness, she looks at the area where human behaviour meets inherited biology. She thinks we must look again at questions of wrong doing and free will, reassessing old ideas of guilt and accountability. We are all hormonal all of the time, because to be hormonal is to be human says Saira Hameed, a leading endocrinologist. Hormones are the often misunderstood signalling system that makes our bodies function which she explain in her new book, Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones, separating medical breakthroughs from the obsessions of wellness influencers.  Producer: Ruth Watts

Scientific discovery and misunderstanding

What are the biggest problems facing the economy - and how might we set about dealing with them - from inequality to inflation, domestic growth to geopolitics? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday, Tom Sutcliffe leads a conversation exploring what the solutions might look like.Jeremy Hunt’s new book Can We Be Rich Again?: The Surprising Potential of Britain's Economy makes the case for optimism. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer outlines current problems – low growth, high public debt and taxes, stagnant living standards and divided politics, but he argues Britain still has a lot going for it - the tech sector, financial services and respected institutions.  He says if the British economy is to grow again, politicians need to get better at delivering their plans.Mariana Mazzucato believes we need to rethink the way we manage economics with government and business working together to promote human flourishing. For her, the problems are deepening inequality, the climate crisis and declining public trust. She is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College, London where she is the Founding Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Her new book The Common Good Economy: A New Compass sets out how the economy could be designed to serve people and the planet better.And, how has the way that we think and talk about the global economy and national problems changed in recent years? Patrick Foulis is contributing editor at the Financial Times, a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution and author of a forthcoming book on globalisation. Producer: Ruth Watts

Searching for economic solutions

In front of an audience at the Hay Festival, Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, bringing together three thinkers who each, in different ways, examine the stories societies tell about themselves, and how those stories become enduring myths.Historian Antony Beevor investigates the life of Rasputin, a figure who has long hovered between fact and legend. His new work asks how a barely literate peasant from Siberia, the so-called ‘mad monk’, managed to bewitch the Romanovs, and how the wild stories that swirled around him, inexorably led to the Tsar’s downfall. Philosopher Susan Neiman turns to the moral narratives that underpin contemporary political life. Her work asks whether universal values can still guide societies when myths of division are so compelling.Classicist, broadcaster and performer Natalie Haynes brings the ancient world into sharp modern focus. Her retellings of Greek myths restore voice and agency to characters, particularly women, who have been sidelined or simplified by centuries of interpretation. Her latest novel, No Friend to This House, puts the abandoned Medea centre stage.Producer: Katy Hickman

Mythmaking at Hay: from Medea to Rasputin

What is the future of farming and rural life? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking about the future of food production and the communities that support it. Minette Batters was the first female president of the National Farmers’ Union. Born and raised on the family farm that she took over running, she became a committed advocate for the UK farming industry. UK agriculture has faced challenges from Brexit, Covid as well as international conflict and energy crises. Her new book, Harvest, part memoir and manifesto, makes a case for how and why we must rally to support British farming and rural life. Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. Modern, intensive farming systems producing pesticide-laced foods at scale, he says, are bad for us and bad for the planet. He believes that it is time to change the way we produce food today, making the case for sustainable agriculture. In Eat the Planet Well he argues that consumers can lead this change, even where governments fail to act. Melissa Harrison has written columns, nature diaries, a series of novels and non fiction books including All Among the Barley, Rain and At Hawthorn Time, and a book for children. Her latest novel, The Given World, is a portrait of rural society, village life and the English countryside which explores a way of life, exploring social tension and the rhythms of the natural world.  Producer: Ruth Watts
Assistant Producer: Emily Channon

Farming, food production and rural life

What can an art exhibition, a concert hall and Classical town tell us about twentieth century German history? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday, Samira Ahmed leads a conversation exploring what inter-war Weimar, the Nazi's obsession with so-called 'degenerate art' and the programming of German music at the Wigmore Hall in London reveal about the course of German history and our responses to it. Katja Hoyer's last book, Beyond the Wall was a history of East Germany which concentrated on the consequences the Nazi rule and the Second World War. Now the Anglo-German Historian has turned her attention to Weimar, the town that gave its name to the ambitious republic whose failure paved the way to Nazism. Looking at the stories of a series of varied individuals, she asks how a nation that prided itself on its culture and civility enabled Nazism and why it haunts us to this day because we fear a repeat. Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe is BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week for a fortnight.Art historian John-Paul Stonard's new book is The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art, 1937. The exhibition of Entartete Kunst ('degenerate art') was held in the Hofgarten arcade in Munich in the summer of 1937. Just a few weeks earlier, the same paintings and sculptures by modern German artists had been on display in some of the most prestigious museums in Germany. An extensive propaganda campaign of confiscation and defamation by the Nazis saw the condemnation of works by Jews, Bolsheviks and the enemies of the German Reich. It remains one of the most visited exhibitions ever - and it shaped views of modern art well into the second half of the twentieth century.Julia Boyd's There is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall tells the story of London's privately run music venue. During the Second World War it was possible for audiences to hear exiled German and Austrian Jewish musicians playing Beethoven among a wide range of recitals. Other concerts programmed included Entartete Musik (forbidden or so-called 'degenerate Music’), including the banned composer Gustav Mahler. Producer: Ruth Watts

German history

What happens when art, fiction and biography take us to places that unsettle, reorient and transform our sense of the world? On Radio 4’s weekly discussion programme, Naomi Alderman moves from science fiction and land art to the landscape of the mind.Pioneering multimedia artist and musician Laurie Anderson discusses The Republic of Love, which she is performing at the Brighton Festival on 6th May. It’s an immersive multi-sensory experience, in which she reinterprets past pieces, including her 80s hit Big Science, to illuminate the political and emotional strangeness of the present moment. (Her new album, Let X=X is released on May 8, 2026)Writer Nina Allan reflects on co-authoring The Illuminated Man, the biography her late husband, the novelist Christopher Priest, had started about J. G. Ballard. She explores Ballard’s singular imagination, shaped by wartime internment in Shanghai, and his repeated motifs of flooded cities, drained swimming pools, and the violence seeping through gated communities seen in books including Empire of the Sun, Crash and The Drowned World. Art historian Joy Sleeman introduces the first major UK exhibition devoted to the American artist Nancy Holt, MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater, at the Goodwood Art Foundation (until November 2026). She reveals how Holt’s land art, from her 18 feet long concrete Sun Tunnels to a posthumous installation Hydra’s Head, invites viewers into cosmic and elemental landscapes where art and the environment meet.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Laurie Anderson: Strange and Disorientating Landscapes

What can chemistry reveal about what it means to be human? On Radio 4’s weekly conversation programme, Tom Sutcliffe leads a conversation that ranges from the molecules within us to the experimental pioneers who transformed our understanding of the material world.Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu discusses Chain Reaction, her vivid and deeply personal journey into the chemistry underpinning everything we touch, consume and inhabit. She brings to life the chemical bonds that hold our bodies together and the reactions that sustain all life, while recounting her own story, from childhood in post war Nigeria to a groundbreaking career designing treatments for blindness.Science historian Kit Chapman introduces The Age of Alchemy, tracing the long, global evolution of chemistry before it became a modern science. Travelling from ancient Sri Lankan steel forges to Egyptian alchemical texts and Chinese herbal laboratories, he reveals how early experimenters, merging mysticism, medicine and metallurgy, laid crucial foundations for scientific method and discovery.Professor Mark Miodownik set up the Institute for Making at University College London and is Royal Society Professor of Public Engagement with Science. He is a leading materials scientist who has led work on plastic waste and biodegradable plastics. He discusses the latest research on the chemical composition of the things we are making, and the things we throw away.    Producer: Ruth Watts

Chemical Reactions

What can the things we create, keep and bury tell us about who we are? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Adam Rutherford explores material culture – the power of objects you can touch – and how they connect us to the past.Classicist Mary Beard discusses her book Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, arguing that everyday remnants of antiquity, from bread to paint pots abandoned at Pompeii, still matter. And that Ancient Greece and Rome continue to shape how we see our own world.Theatre director Greg Doran set himself the task of tracking down the surviving copies of Shakespeare’s First folio, after the death of his husband the actor Antony Sher. He recounts his worldwide quest in Walking Shadow: Love, Loss and Shakespeare, which also reveals the importance of the enduring physical presence of Shakespeare’s work.Dr Sophia Adams, curator at the British Museum, discusses the extraordinary Melsonby Hoard, the largest collection of Iron Age metalwork ever found in Britain, and what its burnt and buried objects reveal about power, ritual and life before the Roman conquest. The exhibition, Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard, will go on display at the Yorkshire Museum, York from 15th May 2026.Producer: Katy HickmanAssistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Why Stuff Matters: Objects, Power and the Past

Is radical change possible to solve some of today’s most intractable problems? In Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by three journalists to discuss the challenges of trying to live differently. John Kampfner has travelled the world to find examples of places and people bravely and imaginatively confronting some of our most pressing problems – from climate change to health, housing and education. His book is called Braver New World: The Countries Daring to Do Things Others Won’t.But Nicolas Niarchos questions how we live sustainably when the hidden costs of the green transition can be so devastating. In The Elements of Power he investigates the global supply of rare earth metals, essential for decarbonisation, and the terrible, bloody human cost for those involved in their extraction.Natasha Walter explores how activism is being reshaped in the era of climate emergency. In Feminism for a World on Fire, she reflects on the movements fighting for justice, and asks what forms of solidarity and resistance are needed when the planet itself is under threat.Together, the panel consider the innovations, compromises and moral dilemmas that come with trying to live well on a warming planet.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Challenges and solutions

How have the evolutionary forces that shaped animal sex and behaviour influenced the ways humans conserve, study and coexist with other species? As the Zoological Society of London, the precursor to the zoo, celebrates its 200th anniversary, Adam Rutherford is joined by three guests whose work uncovers the scientific, historical and ethical threads connecting humans with the wider animal world. Biologist Lixing Sun introduces his new book On the Origin of Sex - the Weird and Wonderful Science of how our Planet is Populated, uncovering how mating strategies and reproductive behaviour evolved across species. From Californian Condors to clownfish, the dazzling array of ways in which the animal kingdom procreates is both baffling and astonishing.Cultural historian Elsa Richardson, from the University of Strathclyde, discusses her latest research into the archives of Edinburgh Zoo, revealing a rich and little‑known record of early zoological observation, public spectacle and the shifting moral landscapes of how people have imagined, displayed and interpreted animal behaviour.And Sarah Forsyth, Curator of Mammals at ZSL, reflects on the history of the organisation and offers insights into the crucial conservation work that the Zoo is involved in today.  From field programmes to breeding initiatives, Sarah explores how modern zoos can help safeguard species and shape our understanding of animals in a rapidly changing world.Producer:  Natalia Fernandez 
Senior Producer:  Katy Hickman

Zoos, sex and conservation

What can past and present struggles over work and power tell us about the future of labour? Tom Sutcliffe and guests examine tensions between workers, employers and the state, from the upheavals of the early twentieth century to today’s shifting workplace.Constitutional specialist David Torrance explores the economic, political and social forces that shaped the General Strike of 1926. His new book The Edge of Revolution explains how Britain came to the brink of constitutional crisis and what the confrontation reveals about national identity, political authority and collective action.Professor Jane Holgate, a long time trade unionist and community organiser, reflects on the dynamics of solidarity. She is the co-author of Changemakers, a study of radical strategies for social movement organising, the evolving role of unions, and what effective action looks like in a fragmented modern economy.The Financial Times journalist and editor of the Working It brand Isabel Berwick looks ahead to the future of work, assessing how technology, demographic change and shifting employee expectations are reshaping the workplace.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Industrial action: from 1926 General Strike to today

How do the stories we inherit, and the ones we tell, shape our journey from childhood into adulthood? In Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Naomi Alderman and guests examine the shifting boundaries between youth, experience and societal expectation across memoir, history and fiction.Booker Prize winner David Szalay talks about Flesh, his stark, propulsive novel tracing one boy’s path from adolescence in Hungary to adulthood among London’s super rich, exploring desire, power, class and the ways childhood experiences reverberate across a lifetime. Filmmaker and writer Penny Woolcock grew up in a British enclave in Argentina. Her coming-of-age memoir, The Man Who Gave Me a Biscuit: Love and Death in Argentina, interweaves memories of teenage rebellion with the buried histories of genocide, authoritarianism and a society built on repression. The historian Laura Tisdall discusses We Have Come to Be Destroyed, her vivid account of growing up in Cold War Britain, revealing how young people challenged the world adults made for them - from activism and anxieties about the future, to everyday resistance against narrow expectations.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Growing Up

What makes us who we are? In Radio 4's discussion programme to start off the week, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore consciousness and identity, and whether the face reveals our inner thoughts and character.American science writer Michael Pollan is celebrated for his work on food and psychedelic drugs. His new book A World Appears, is a sweeping investigation into consciousness - examining where our sense of self comes from, how it is experienced across species, and what new theories from neuroscience, philosophy and plant biology reveal about awareness.Cultural historian Fay Bound-Alberti traces the long, complex history of the human face, showing how it has been used to define identity, moral character and social status, and how new technologies – from photography to facial recognition – shape our understanding of selfhood in the modern world.Mary Costello’s latest novel A Beautiful Loan, focuses on the life of Anna Hughes, a woman looking back across decades of love, loss and betrayal as she tries to understand the choices that shaped her and the deeper self she learns, slowly, to claim.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Consciousness and Identity

What lies beneath the world's oceans? From the phenomenal infrastructure of telecoms cables to shipwrecked galleons and treasure and the sea creatures of the literary imagination - we explore the mysteries of the deep. Adam Rutherford chairs Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week. His guests are:The writer Julian Sancton is the author of Neptune's Fortune which tells the story of Roger Dooley, a diver who went in search of a lost ship. An accidental discovery in the archives led the unlikely treasure hunter to search for the shipwreck of an eighteenth century galleon, the San José. Laden with riches on its way to the New World, it was sunk in a fierce battle and its location was forgotten for centuries. The pursuit is a tale of maritime archaeology, rival treasure hunters, legal and political obstacles and the challenge of narrowing the search to a small area of the sea bed.     We think of the internet as wireless, but it is connected by nearly 900,000 miles of fiber-optic cables at the bottom of the ocean, stitching whole continents together. In The Web Beneath the Waves, the journalist Samanth Subramanian explains the secretive cable-laying operations behind the world of undersea infrastructure. He discovers the environmental risks to them, corporate interests over them and the acts of “grey zone warfare” when ghost ships cut the cables of other countries.Joan Passey is a senior lecturer in English at Bristol University and a BBC Arts and Humanities Research Council New Generation Thinker. She is the co-founder of the Haunted Shores Network and a leading researcher in literary study of coasts and seascapes, combining an understanding of folklore, myth and technology.  
 
Producer: Ruth Watts

Under the sea

The UK government has declared 2026, the National Year of Reading. The numbers suggest that reading needs all the public relations it can get. Under a third of school children say they read for pleasure and the number going on to read English Literature at University has shrunk by over a third in the last fifteen years. Their parents are not doing much better, with some surveys suggesting that any where up to half of adults have not read a single book in the last year. So, how can the case for the value of reading and the simple pleasure of picking up a book cut through?  Tom Sutcliffe chairs Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week. His guests are:Margaret Busby was Britain's first Black woman publisher who has enjoyed a 50 year career at the centre of cultural life and the book trade. Among her achievements she founded a publishing house, edited the ground-breaking international anthologies Daughters of Africa and New Daughters of Africa and championed authors marginalised by the mainstream. Her new book Part of the Story: Writings from Half a Century features her own literary output from between 1966 and 2023.  Sarah Dillon, Professor at the University of Cambridge, has looked at the question 'what are you reading?' The books we encounter shape the choices we make and when it comes to scientists, it appears that ideas from imaginative literature influence their thinking.   Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning, co-authored with Dr Claire Craig, former Director of the UK Government Office for Science, makes the case for the value of attention to stories in decision making.Lottie Moggach is an arts journalists and writer of literary thrillers - she's also edited, researched and taught writing. Her latest novel, Mrs Pearcey, is Victorian true crime novel. She reflects on historical fiction, her own reading and working as a writer today.   Producer: Ruth Watts

Reading and storytelling

How do we think about war? How do we imagine it, picture it and explain it? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking what we can learn about ourselves from our varied intellectual and cultural responses to conflict.Sir Lawrence Freedman is one of the world's leading scholars of warfare. In his new collection of essays, On Strategists and Strategy, he considers some of the key strategic thinkers of the last century and thoughts about the significance of political calculation, military tactics, organisational behaviour, character and psychology.A new exhibition opens in March at the Imperial War Museum, London titled Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art. The curator Rebecca Newell explains what we learn from the ways in which artists recorded changes to the city during the Second World War in paintings, drawings and film.The Hôtel Lutetia, the grand hotel on Paris's Left Bank, has over the years drawn bohemians and great artists, including Matisse and Picasso. However, for a short period around the Second World War, the hotel was witness to significant events. Jane Rogoyska's new book Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War peoples the hotel with the intellectual and refugees gathering there in the 1930s, the men of the German military intelligence service who made it their headquarters and the deportees returning from concentration camps.Producer: Ruth Watts

Thinking about war

When society, financial systems and human beings fall short, how can we repair the damage? Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, exploring the social, moral and political contradictions of the world we face today, with US novelist George Saunders, Turkish writer Ece Temulkuran and investigative journalist Oliver Bullough,      The Booker Prize winning novelist, George Saunders new book Vigil deals with the moral ambivalence of a greedy oil executive; the death bed reckoning of a man who resists facing his life and legacy.       
 
The Turkish writer, Ece Temulkuran's new book Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding a Home in the 21st Century explores the rising global displacement of people who will need to forge stronger connections amid political and social upheaval. In an investigation of money laundering, Oliver Bullough's Everybody Loves Our Dollars sets out the scale of the problem and why we are failing to tackle the global systems that allow illicit money to move freely using sites as varied as Bicester Shopping Village in Oxfordshire and a casino in Vancouver, Canada. Producer: Ruth Watts

Breakage and repair

Games are supposed to be fun — so what happens when the logic of games, points and competition escapes the playground and starts reshaping everyday life? The novelist and games-writer Naomi Alderman and her guests explore how the joy of play collides with the pressures of a gamified society.Philosopher C Thi Nguyen introduces The Score, his examination of how ranking systems and numerical targets can both sharpen and warp our values, revealing how life becomes less playful when everything is reduced to points.Journalist and critic Keza MacDonald discusses Super Nintendo, her cultural history of the iconic console, tracing how its games, aesthetics and innovations transformed the medium and helped define what play means for generations of players.The Financial Times' commentator Stephen Bush examines the growing role of games and game like incentives in public life, exploring how the techniques of play — from reward structures to competitive framing — are reshaping political behaviour and communication.Producer: Katy Hickman

Fun and games

A lawyer, artist and curator discuss different examples of censorship and self censorship in Radio 4's weekly discussion of ideas to kick off the week. Tom Sutcliffe's guests are: Ai Weiwei: a major name in contemporary art and for decades a leading voice for freedom of expression in his native China – and the wider world. In 2011 he was detained for eighty-one days in a secret location, unable to communicate with the outside world.  His new book, On Censorship moves from authoritarian regimes to the pervasive influence of corporate power, social media and dominant interest groups in democracies. Baroness Helena Kennedy has written the introduction to collected writings of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist who was murdered outside her home in Moscow twenty years ago. With continued attacks in Russia on press freedom, the way she spoke truth to power remains inspirational for Baroness Kennedy. The figure of the Samurai is often associated with ideas about discipline, sacrifice and war but a new exhibition at the British Museum (on until May 4th) looks at the way this warrior class became consumers and patrons of culture. Rosina Buckland has co-curated the show. Producer: Ruth Watts

Censorship

Adam Rutherford and guests discuss intelligence, genetics and the nature of reality. How are scientific advances in AI, cognitive science and genetics changing our understanding of the material world and what it means to be human?  Adrian Woolfson argues that we must transform biology into programmable engineering material. To do this, we must decode the generative grammar of DNA, the language of life itself, so we might create or change genomes – possibly including our own. In his book, 'On the Future of Species Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence' he imagines a future where - we grow houses rather than build them; smartphones are living; clothing has opinions; all human knowledge fits into a speck of DNA; disease is a thing of the past; and the human lifespan is dramatically extended.What can we learn by combining cognitive science and artificial intelligence? In The Emergent Mind, a new book co-authored by Gaurav Suri, looks at how a data-driven neural network can create thoughts, emotions, and ideas – a mind – in both humans and machines alike. He argues that if we want to understand intelligence then we should look at the concept of neural network, the framework inspired by the human brain that lies behind Artificial Intelligence. He explains a new idea 'emergence' - and what it may mean.Joanna Kavenna's latest novel, Seven is a satire about a game without rules. It encompasses encounters with philosophy, artificial intelligence and dreams, poetry and the natural world. The plot travels through time and space, in a world without boundaries and where nothing can be pinned down and everything is in flux. It raises questions about how much we can truly know about reality.  Producer: Ruth Watts

Biology, technology and the future

If trust in politicians is broken and the political system isn't delivering, then how might we go about fixing things? Can we revive faith in democratic government by doing things differently? 
  
The political scientist Hélène Landemore argues that electoral politics is broken and that the answer lies in doing away with career politicians. She imagines dismantling a system that is biased in favour of the special interests of big money, propelled by the constant quest for re-election and the jaded proffering empty promises. In her new book, Politics without Politicians she posits that, among other solutions, we need Athenian style participation through mechanisms such as civic lotteries. More people need to be involved first hand in decision making if everyone is to feel heard.  Author and broadcaster Phil Tinline explains why he thinks politicians need to start thinking and talking about power again if they are to stand a chance of delivering on their promises. He argues that if nothing ever changes, then we need to understand who has too much power and who has too little and be prepared to do something about it. Michael Gove is the editor of The Spectator and a member of the House of Lords. He has extensive experience of government, serving in cabinet under four prime ministers between 2010 and 2024. It is widely acknowledged among, both his admirers and his critics, that he rapidly got to grips with his department's brief and knew exactly how to drive an agenda for change. He reflects on his experiences.  Producer: Ruth Watts

Rethinking politics

What is the purpose of the Arts? Can music, literature and visual art change our lives physically and socially, as well as personally? Adam Rutherford explores the power of the arts and how it might be defined and explained.Engaging with the arts is one of our most powerful tools for unlocking health and happiness argues Daisy Fancourt. She is is Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London and Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. In her new book, Art Cure, she shows how songs support the development of children's brains; how dance can build neural pathways; how theatre and exhibitions can decrease pain, stress and depression and how the arts can improve the functioning of every major organ system in the body. Drawing on the latest research research in a range of scientific fields, she traces a connection between the arts and human flourishing. Earliest Stories: Stories, Novellas, Humoresques, 1880-1882 is a collection of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov's work while he was still a student of medicine. In his juvenilia we see flashes of insight alongside comedy, compassion and a developing narrative voice. Rosamund Bartlett, translator, biographer and cultural historian writes about how stories have long been dismissed, but written as his family faced financial crisis, reveal much about the threads that connect together in his life and work.      BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service explores how music transports and defines us in his new book.  In A History of the World in 50 Pieces, he examines how classical music reflects our changing politics, society and technological advances - and how composers, musicians and listeners have shaped history. From Bach to Beethoven via the Happy birthday song, he explores the power of music to connect and and challenge us.  Producer: Ruth Watts

The arts and health

What do animals mean to us? Naomi Alderman explores how animals shape human understanding, from ancient burial rites to modern science.The psychologist Justin Gregg specialises in dolphin social cognition. He introduces his new book, Humanish, a witty and provocative look at anthropomorphism — our habit of seeing human traits in animals, objects and machines — and how it helps us make sense of the world and increases empathy.Peter Fretwell is a leading scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, and author of The Penguin Book of Penguins. He celebrates the charm and complexity of penguins, from their evolutionary quirks to their cultural symbolism, alongside the threats they face today.Marianne Hem Eriksen is Professor of Viking Studies at the National Museum of Denmark and part of the BBC / Arts and Humanities Research Council scheme of New Generation Thinkers. She draws on archaeological evidence to show how Viking societies had a complex relationship with animals, seeing them not just as pets or food, but as extensions of human identity and mythology.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Animals and Meaning

How much can we truly know about the inner lives of others? Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Miles Leeson and Karen Leeder to reflect on the challenge of interpreting the minds and motivations of poets, both past and present. Editor Miles Leeson presents Poems from an Attic, a newly published collection of Iris Murdoch’s previously unseen poetry. Found in a box long after her death, these intimate verses offer fresh insight into the desires of a writer better known for her novels and philosophy.Professor Karen Leeder has spent much of her career studying the poetry of East Germany. Her recent translation of Durs Grünbein, Psyche Running: Selected Poems 2005-2022 won this year's Griffin Poetry Prize 2025. Grünbein has written about the wartime bombing of his birth city Dresden and as a translator of classical authors, including Aeschylus and Seneca, his work features reflections on the relevance of the past and of antiquity in the present. Nick Makoha's latest volume of poetry The New Carthaginians draws on an eclectic range of artistic, historic and cultural sources from the politics of 1970s Uganda to the myth of Icarus and the exploded collages of the neo-expressionist art movement. He writes employing symbols and traditions in startling ways to transform what we might think we know into something completely new. Producer: Ruth Watts

Poetry - reading, writing, editing and translating

Three visions of darkness as the days draw in. Adam Rutherford's guests for Radio 4's Monday discussion programme are a poet, a photographer of night-time and a National Gallery curator. Night Vision is the latest book from the award-winning poet and writer Jean Sprackland exploring our complex relationship with the dark: what we fear and what we wish to banish. In the dark she finds a place of possibility and she asks what might we discover in the dark if we free our imagination. The photographer Jasper Goodall has been taking photographs in the dark for many years, mainly in forests and woodlands. In 2025 in exhibitions on show at Nottingham, Brighton, Cornwall and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition he has displayed works which draw on classical myth, European folklore and animistic belief systems. Christine Riding, Director of Collections and Research, talks about the images of scientific experiment and industrialisation in England on show in the National Gallery's exhibition showcasing the candlelight paintings of Wright of Derby (1734-1797).  Wright of Derby: From the Shadows in the Sunley Room at the National Gallery runs until 10 May 2026 and there is an entrance fee. Producer: Ruth Watts

The Dark

Three prize-winning authors in today's discussion programme hosted by Tom Sutcliffe:The German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525 was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Tens of thousands of peasants rose up to demand a new, more egalitarian order—only to be crushed in a brutal counterattack that left up to 100,000 dead. The historian Lyndal Roper argues that this rebellion was far from chaotic: it was a coherent mass movement inspired by the radical ideals of the Protestant Reformation.  Her book Summer of Fire and Blood is the winner of the 2025 Cundill History Prize. The neurologist Masud Husain explores the human mind through the stories of seven patients. In asking what it is that makes us who we are, he explores how our identity can shift when we lose just a single cognitive ability. He examines the stories a man who ran out of words, a woman who stopped caring what others thought, and another who, losing her memory, believed she was having an affair with her own husband. His account of the science of identity, Our Brains, Our Selves, won the Royal Society's 2025 Trivedi Science Book Prize.  The historian Hannah Durkin explores the stories of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade. Based on her original research she uses first hand accounts to tell the stories of the enslaved in their own words. Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade is the winner of the 2025 Wolfson History Prize. Producer: Ruth Watts

Histories, emotions and identity

What can the cosmos tell us about our past and future? Tom Sutcliffe and guests look skyward and deep into the quantum world to ask how much we can really know about the universe - and about ourselves. Space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock, presenter of this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, shares her passion for inspiring the next generation to think big, as she explores the wonders of our solar system and the questions that still puzzle astronomers.  Physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies introduces his new book Quantum 2.0, charting the strange and revolutionary principles of quantum mechanics and how they are reshaping technology, science, and our understanding of reality itself. From the Natural History Museum, Caroline Smith brings insights from meteorites — fragments of ancient worlds — and explains how these cosmic messengers help scientists search for life beyond Earth and piece together the story of our solar system’s origins. Together, in Radio 4's weekly ideas discussion programme Start the Week, they consider the limits of knowledge: whether in decoding quantum mysteries, interpreting rocks from space, or imagining the motivations of those who first looked to the stars.Producer:  Ruth Watts
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Space, Quantum Frontiers and Cosmic Clues

What can genetics and palmistry tell us about how we understand identity, character and health? Adam Rutherford is joined by Professor of Zoology Matthew Cobb; the historian Professor Alison Bashford and the geneticist Charlotte Houldcroft.Matthew Cobb discusses his biography Crick: A Mind in Motion.  From the discovery of DNA’s structure to Francis Crick’s later work on consciousness, Cobb reveals a restless thinker whose collaborations — with scientists, artists and poets — shaped some of the most profound ideas of the 20th century.Alison Bashford turns to palm reading in her new book Decoding the Hand, a history of palmistry and its surprising entanglement with science, medicine and magic.The geneticist Charlotte Houldcroft's research uses ancient DNA to work out how DNA viruses - such as smallpox and herpes - change over time and the consequences of this evolution for our immune systems.Producer:  Natalia Fernandez

Genes and hands: mapping character and health

How can we reclaim the internet? Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss the digital age - its supporters and discontents. Tech critic Cory Doctorow introduces his new book Enshittification, a blistering diagnosis of how online platforms have decayed — from innovation to exploitation — and what we can do to make it better for ordinary users. Novelist and broadcaster Naomi Alderman draws on history in Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today, arguing that we’ve lived through information crises before, and that lessons from the invention of writing and the printing press can help us navigate today’s digital turbulence. Journalist Oliver Moody, the author of Baltic: The Future of Europe, discusses Estonia’s radical embrace of digital governance, and what it reveals about the possibilities — and limits — of a truly connected state.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Digital Futures and Information Crises

Threats to the natural world are the focus of today’s conversation. Adam Rutherford talks to wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght, novelist Juhea Kim and criminal psychologist Julia Shaw.Jonathan Slaght discusses Tigers Between Empires, his account of the international effort to save the Siberian tiger from extinction in the wake of the Cold War. Juhea Kim’s short story collection A Love Story from the End of the World imagines lives lived in precarious balance with nature, from biodomes in Seoul to landfill islands in the Pacific. Dr Julia Shaw’s Green Crime investigates the psychology behind environmental destruction, profiling the perpetrators of ecological harm and the people fighting to stop them.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Saving Tigers, Green Crime and Cli-fi

In her latest novel, One Aladdin Two Lamps, the writer Jeanette Winterson takes inspiration from the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights. But she calls on the reader to look again at stories we think we know, unpick how fiction works, and have the courage to challenge and change the narrative.The saxophonist and presenter Soweto Kinch will perform his new album, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, with the London Symphony Orchestra (at the Barbican, London, on Friday 14th November), combining British jazz, hip-hop and orchestral music. This is the finale of his acclaimed trilogy of politically charged, genre-defying works that tell different stories of the past, present and future. The former MP Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade in Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and Borders, and wrote a column for a local newspaper. In Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders he’s collected together these fragmentary moments from rural life and local politics to capture a wide-ranging portrait of life and stories from the Cumbrian countryside. Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Storytelling: Jeanette Winterson, Rory Stewart and Soweto Kinch

The internationally renowned choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor swaps stage for gallery in a landmark exhibition exploring his multifaceted career at Somerset House (from 30 Oct 2025–22 Feb 2026). ‘Infinite Bodies’ investigates how Wayne McGregor has combined body, movement and cutting-edge digital technologies to redefine perceptions of physical intelligence. Throughout the gallery space he draws together designers, musicians, engineers and dancers to bring the artworks to life.The Booker prize winning novelist Anne Enright is in the studio to talk about her latest work, ‘Attention, Writing on Life, Art and the World’. Unlike her fiction, in these essays, Enright speaks directly to the reader, elucidating her thoughts on everything from family history to Irish politics and the control of women, to new perspectives on literary legends. There’s a screen idol at the heart of Tanika Gupta’s new play, Hedda (at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, until 22nd November). Inspired by the life of Anglo-Indian film star Merle Oberon, Gupta sets her play just after India’s independence and transforms Ibsen’s classic into a story about power, identity and representation.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Crossing genres with Wayne McGregor

The Library of Lost Maps by James Cheshire, Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography, tells the story of the discovery of a treasure-trove at the heart of University College London. In a long-forgotten room James found thousands of maps and atlases. This abandoned archive reveals how maps have traced the contours of the world, inspiring some of the greatest scientific discoveries, as well as leading to terrible atrocities and power grabs. But maps have not always been used to navigate or reveal the world, according to a new exhibition at the British Library on Secret Maps (from 24 October 2025 to 18 January 2026). Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Four Points of the Compass, explains how mysterious maps throughout history have been used to hide, shape and control knowledge. The biographer Jenny Uglow celebrates a different kind of mapping in her new book, A Year with Gilbert White: The First Great Nature Writer. In 1781 the country curate Gilbert White charted the world around him – from close observation of the weather, to the migration of birds to the sex lives of snails and the coming harvest – revealing a natural map of his Hampshire village.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Maps – lost, secret and revealing

Of the 7,000 languages estimated to exist, half will have disappeared by the end of this century. That’s the stark warning from the Director of the Endangered Languages Archive, Mandana Seyfeddinipur. The evolution of languages, and their rise and fall, is part of human history, but the speed at which this is happening today is unprecedented. Mandana will be appearing at the inaugural Voiced: The Festival for Endangered Languages at the Barbican in October. A sense of loss also runs through Sverker Sörlin’s love letter to snow. The professor of Environmental History in Stockholm writes about the infinite variety of water formulations, frozen in air, in ‘Snö: A History’ (translated by Elizabeth DeNoma), and his fears about the vanishing white landscapes of his youth.In the Arctic the transformation from frozen desert into an international waterway is gathering pace. Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London and with co-author Mia Bennett sets out the fight and the future of the Arctic in ‘Unfrozen’. While territorial contest and resource exploitation is causing tensions within the region, there is also potential for new ways of working, from Indigenous governance to subsea technologies.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Endangered languages and vanishing landscapes

The economist Yanis Varoufakis found himself in the eye of the storm as Greece’s Minister of Finance in 2015, at the height of the country’s debt crisis. Now he reflects on his political awakenings and the women who influenced him in Raise Your Soul. It’s a family story that starts in Egypt in the 1920s and traces Greece’s tumultuous century through Nazi occupation, civil war, dictatorship, socialism and economic crisis. The historian Professor Mary Vincent focuses on the Spanish Civil War and has written about fascism, political violence and its impact on the people.  She sees both similarities and stark differences between the Greek and Spanish Civil Wars and ponders the question of how global politics influence what happens in nation states.As a new translation of Thucydides’s The History of the Peloponnesian War (by Robin Waterfield) is published, the classicist Professor Paul Cartledge explains why this ancient text has remained essential reading for military leaders and politicians for centuries. Thucydides’s account of the war between Athens and Sparta that began in 431 BCE depicts the devastation of civil war and reflects on the nature of political power.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Yanis Varoufakis on Greece’s civil war

The experimental cognitive psychologist and popular science writer, Steven Pinker delves into the intricacies of human interactions in his latest book, ‘When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...: Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and Outrage’. From avoiding the elephant in the room to the outing of the emperor’s new clothes, Pinker reveals the paradoxes of human behaviour. Common knowledge can bind people and communities together in a shared purpose, but Aleks Krotoski, the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Artificial Human and The Digital Human, journeys to the fringes of human endeavour in The Immortalists. There, Silicon Valley tech billionaires are using their wealth to focus on their own futures, attempting to disrupt and defy their own mortality.How people behave to strangers and how much they’re willing to spend to help them, is at the heart of David Edmonds’s biography of the philosopher Peter Singer. Death in a Shallow Pond considers Singer’s most famous thought experiment and his contention that we’re morally obliged to come to the aid of those less fortunate if we can. It’s a practical philosophy that has divided opinion, but also inspired a new movement of effective altruism.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Steven Pinker on common knowledge

At the Contains Strong Language Festival in Bradford, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore the history and culture of the city, and nation, through its poetry and stories. From battlefields and royal courts, coalmines to curry houses Start the Week looks at the language and rhythms that have captured the country. The historian Catherine Clarke is retelling the story of the past in a new way in ‘A History of England in 25 Poems’. From the 8th century to today these verses illuminate the experiences, emotions and imaginations of those who lived through it. As the 2025 City of Culture, Bradford gets an imaginative re-making in ‘The Book of Bradford: A City in Short Fiction’, a collection filled with rich diversity and youthful energy. Its editor Saima Mir, who grew up in the city, says the stories don’t avoid the scars of past challenges, but there’s pride in a city that has overcome differences and is looking ahead.Moving on from the past is also reflected in Andrew McMillan’s debut novel, ‘Pity’, which follows three generations of a Yorkshire mining family, exploring themes of masculinity and post-industrial decline. As a prize-winning poet, McMillan will also be performing at the Contains Strong Language Festival in Bradford.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Contains Strong Language Festival, Bradford

Lyse Doucet tells the history of Afghanistan in recent decades through the story of the Inter-Continental hotel, which opened in the capital in 1969. The BBC’s international correspondent stayed there frequently from the late 1980s, and she details how the Soviet occupation, civil war, US invasion and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban have all left their mark on 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul', and the people who worked there.There’s plenty of pink champagne and fine dining in Michela Wrong’s study of the rise and fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, the charismatic dictator of Congo/ Zaire at the end of the 20th century. It’s 25 years since her biography, 'In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz', was published, and as the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be on the brink of another civil war, she reflects on this latest cycle of violence.There have been calls for international help in the DRC, but just how effective is military intervention in the long run? Ashleigh Percival-Borley served in Afghanistan in 2010 but had to watch from the sidelines as the US and UK abruptly pulled out a decade later, leaving a vacuum filled by the Taliban. Now, as a military historian and one of BBC Radio 4's researchers-in-residence, she’s interested in giving voice to women in war – not just as the victims, but as active participants.  
The New Generation Thinkers scheme, which puts research on radio, is a partnership between BBC Radio 4 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Afghanistan and the DRC

The Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy looks back at her foremost influences in her memoir, Mother Mary Comes To Me. While her writing and activism are shaped by early circumstances – both financial and political – at the centre is her relationship with her mother, who she describes as ‘my shelter and my storm’.The poet Sarah Howe won the TS Eliot prize for poetry for her debut collection, Loop of Jade. In her new work, Foretokens, she returns to the complex inheritance of family and language, as she tries to piece together the fragmentary, often mythical, early life of her Chinese mother, given away at birth. The academic Lea Ypi travels through the history of Ottoman aristocracy to the making of modern Albania and the early days of communism as she attempts to retrace the life of her beloved grandmother. In her new book, Indignity: A Life Reimagined, she reveals the fragility of truth, as her own memories collide with secret police reports and newly discovered photographs.Producer: Katy Hickman
Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Arundhati Roy and maternal inheritance

Sanctuary is an ancient idea of a place of refuge or freedom from harm.  It has deep roots in the history, literature and myths of many cultures. Marina Warner’s new book Sanctuary explores travelling tales and concepts of hospitality and home - suggesting that myths, stories and works of art can be places of sanctuary too.  The story of leprosy is a story of isolation and exclusion over thousands of years. In his book,  Outcast, Oliver Basciano has written about his journey across the hinterlands of the world to demystify the lives of those who have been ostracised. He argues that the image we still hold onto of medieval leprosy is a nineteenth-century myth invented to justify the gross mistreatment of patients in the name of colonial, religious and economic exploitation. Churches are a spiritual home for some 200 million Christians worldwide, but they often hold a fascination and interest for the most committed atheist. A church is a place of sanctuary, but also a place where the drama of life is played out. Fergus Butler-Gallie is an Anglican priest and his new book Twelve Churches explores the history of Christianity through the places worshippers have built.   Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ruth Watts

Sanctuary, refuge and exile

We think we know what a genius is: a tortured poet; rebellious scientist; monstrous artist; or a tech disruptor. You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius says Helen Lewis in her new book, The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers. From Leonardo da Vinci to Elon Musk, she asks if the modern idea of genius, as a class of special people, is distorting our view of the world.With ten platinum albums Tupac Shakur was one of the stars of hip hop music when he was murdered at the age of 25. His music was very influential and his name is also associated with the legacy of Black Panther politics. In Words for My Comrades: A Political Biography of Tupac Shakur, Dean Van Nguyen argues that while much of the energy of the Black political movement was absorbed by the commercial music culture of the 1990s – Tupac’s contribution lives on today.   Gertrude Stein was considered a genius by some, a charlatan by others. She posed for Picasso’s portrait; hosted Matisse and Hemingway in Bohemian Paris; and she dazzled American crowds on her sell-out tour for her sensational Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, a version of the relationship with her partner. Francesca Wade’s new book Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, explores the creation of the Stein myth. Presenter: Adam Rutherford
Producer: Ruth Watts

The Idea of Genius

There is a parallel world which operates under different rules and benefits those with money and power. That’s the argument made by the journalist Atossa Araxia Abrahamian in her new book The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the world. She traces the rise of a freeports, charter cities and offshore havens. Danny Dorling contends that we’re not very good at spotting the real crises we face today. In The Next Crisis: What We Think About the Future, he explains why the most urgent global crises are rarely the ones that hit the headlines. From inequality, immigration and international conflicts to climate change, pandemics and tsunamis, he challenges our assumptions about the threats we face and how we should think about our uncertain future.It is time to reclaim online spaces, says Adele Zeynep Walton. In her new book Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World she explores how the price of the connections and conveniences of online life has been the mental health of a generation. She says that social media platforms and digital technology are making us vulnerable and it is time these spaces were governed and regulated.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ruth Watts

Hidden spaces and dangerous places

Professor Frank Close looks at how the quest to understand radioactivity and the atomic nucleus was initially fired by scientific curiosity and then by more human motives. What began as collaboration between scientists in the pursuit of atomic energy was overwhelmed by politics and opened the way to the possibility of nuclear war. Frank Close’s Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age: 1895-1965 shows how scientific knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships and takes us into the rooms where discoveries and decisions were made. Nuclear energy is the most promising tool that we have to tackle the climate emergency, so argues Tim Gregory in his new book Going Nuclear How the Atom Will Save the World. He says it is time to debunk the myths about nuclear waste and radiation and that nuclear power is reliable and safe. Harnessing the atom is our best hope of providing abundant and clean energy to ensure an equitable and prosperous future.  For Baroness Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party, nuclear has been a continual disaster. As an energy source nuclear it has been impractical, inflexible and unreliable; a dinosaur technology whose use has declined. She believes that the continued appearance of nuclear in policy debates is a distraction from renewables and energy conservation. She believes that we have not found an adequate solution to the problem of nuclear waste. And in the field of defence, the majority of countries want a ban on nuclear weapons.  
 
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Ruth Watts

The uses and abuses of the atom

In front of an audience at the Hay Literary Festival Tom Sutcliffe talks to The archaeologist and presenter of the hit TV show, The Great British Dig, Chloë Duckworth, who explains how every object tells a story. She reveals how even the rubbish our ancestors threw away can offer a window on the past and forge a connection with the present day. Business journalist Saabira Chaudhuri's new book Consumed, examines how companies have harnessed single-use plastics to turbocharge their profits over the last seventy years. Consumer goods makers have poured billions of dollars into convincing us we need disposable cups, bags, bottles, sachets and plastic-packaged ultra-processed foods. Taking in marketing, commercial strategy and psychology, she explains just how we got here. The paleobiologist Sarah Gabbott is more interested in looking at how what we throw away today becomes the fossils of tomorrow. Discarded (co-authored with Jan Zalasiewicz) highlights the cutting-edge science that is emerging to reveal the far-future human footprint on Earth.Producer: Katy Hickman

Hay Festival: exposing the secrets of rubbish

In his new book, Blueprints, Marcus du Sautoy traces the connections between mathematics and art and the ways in which creatives use numbers to underpin their work – unconsciously or otherwise. From the earliest stone circles to the unique architecture of Zaha Hadid, du Sautoy shows us that there are blueprints everywhere and how logic and aesthetics are intrinsically intermingled.  Sophie Pavelle is also interested in connections and her forthcoming book, To Have or To Hold, explores symbiotic relationships in nature. Focusing on eight key examples, Sophie Pavelle explains how these mutually beneficial connections are crucial for the survival of our natural world and how they play an integral role in regulating ecosystems and strengthening resilience. She asks if we are capable of restoring and nurturing our environment or will we continue to exploit the Earth’s resources, till death do us part?  The British Museum’s new exhibition illuminates the captivating work of the nineteenth-century Japanese artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (from 1st May to 7th September 2025).  He was fascinated by the natural world and many of his pictures take flora and fauna as their subject matter.  Hiroshige was one of Japan’s most talented, prolific and popular artists and his influence was not only felt in his home country, but spread globally – influencing artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and contemporary artists such as Julian Opie. The curator of the exhibition, Alfred Haft, shines a light on the oeuvre of Hiroshige, his techniques and enduring legacy.Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Mathematics, Symbiosis and Japanese art

The cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins looks at the long history of the private life from Ancient Athens to the digital age. In her new book, Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and fall of the Private Life, she examines how our attitudes to the intimate and personal, have shifted over time. She argues that the challenge of big tech is simply the latest development that has seen our private lives increasingly exposed for public consumption. It is only through understanding the history of the very idea of the private life, that we might protect it.       Homework: A Memoir is Geoff Dyer's new book. In it he tells his own story, that of a boy growing up in a working class family in the 1960s and 1970s. He charts the transformative opportunities afforded by the post war settlement for an eleven year old boy who wins a place at a grammar school. Evoking deep personal memories, he explores the challenges of his childhood and teenage years in the mid twentieth century England. Lanre Bakare is interested in the stories of the Black Britain we don’t often hear – the one that exists beyond London.  In moving his focus outside the capital, he explores the economic and social unrest of 1970s and 1980s from very different perspectives. His new book, We Were There: How Black Culture, Resistance and Community Shaped Modern Britain suggests that we need to incorporate a broader range of the experiences of Black Britons into the fabric of our national story.Producer: Ruth Watts

History: private, personal and political

Our sense of smell is vital to appreciating food and drink, it can warn us of danger, and enhance enjoyment of our environment, and yet it is one of our least explored sensory systems. In The Forgotten Sense, olfaction specialist Dr Jonas Olofsson explains the science behind our sense of smell.Dr Ally Louks caused a stink on social media when she mentioned the subject of her PhD thesis, Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose. But she shows just how much readers can learn from paying attention to the aroma of a writer’s work.While imagining the stench of a Dickensian city street can enhance a reader’s experience, what about actually smelling burning rubber as you play a video racing game? Professor Alan Chalmers explains the groundbreaking research currently ongoing to make gaming a more immersive experience, with smell at its centre.Producer: Katy Hickman

Smell – the underrated sense

In his new book, Robert Macfarlane takes the reader on a river journey, through history and geography, to posit the idea that rivers are not merely for human use, but living beings. In Is A River Alive? he argues that human fate is interwoven with the natural world, and that it’s time we treated nature not as a resource, but a fellow being. But does the natural world have legal rights? In A Barrister for the Earth the lawyer Monica Feria-Tinta explains how she’s sought justice for environmental wrongs. Her case against the destruction of cloud forests was the world’s first Rights of Nature case. In Britain many environmental campaigners argue for the Right to Roam and greater access to private land. But in Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith presents a counterargument on the benefits of restricting access to the countryside, advocating for wildlife’s right to tranquillity.Producer: Katy Hickman

Advocating for nature

As congregations age and dwindle, what are we to make of the decline of Christianity in England? Bijan Omrani argues that Christianity has had a profound and ongoing impact on English society, laws and culture. In his new book, God is an Englishman, he makes the case for the things we stand to lose as a nation as Christianity loses its hold on our hearts and minds.     In Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever, Lamorna Ash talks to those bucking the trend: the young people discovering Christianity. She considers various encounters with faith from evangelical festivals to monastic retreats and Quaker meetings. Through interviews she explores what it means to embrace Christianity today.     Dr Helen-Ann Hartley is the Bishop of Newcastle who has led calls for reform, as the Church of England has been mired in safeguarding scandals. She believes that the Anglican church still has a vital role to play supporting communities, offering a lifeline to the lonely, the homeless, those living with mental illness, and welcoming those of all faiths and none. In order to play its full role in the modern world, she wants to see the church modernised and its governance overhauled.  Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Ruth Watts

Christianity and British society

The lawyer Philippe Sands weaves together a story of historical crimes, impunity and the law in his latest book, 38 Londres Street. He uncovers the links between a Nazi hiding in plain sight in Patagonia and the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and the failed attempts to bring either to justice. Kenneth Roth has led Human Rights Watch for the last three decades, overseeing investigations into violence and oppression in countries all over the world. In Righting Wrongs he tells the stories of the wins and the losses, and the ongoing fight to uncover, and prosecute, abuses.The BBC’s former Syria correspondent Lina Sinjab was forced into exile more than a decade ago after threats from President Bashar al-Assad’s government. She could only watch as death and destruction ripped through her country, and those in power appeared to act with impunity. She looks at how Syria is faring since the fall of al-Assad’s brutal regime.Producer: Katy Hickman

Impunity and fighting for justice

In 1967 a group of writers in the US pulled off an ingenious hoax – the publication of a so-called top secret document detailing how global peace would destroy American society. Even when the deception was revealed, many groups on the left and right argued it was true, or that it revealed truths about the ‘deep state’. Phil Tinline takes up the story in Ghosts of Iron Mountain, showing how what started as satire gained currency, as trust in government and institutions collapsed. During the Covid-19 lockdown the comedian Rosie Holt began a series of satirical videos in which she spliced together actual footage from news interviews with her play-acting the role of a politician. Many of her parodies caused outrage as viewers thought she was a real MP. The statistician and epidemiologist Professor Adam Kucharski is interested in how people establish fact from fiction. In Proof: The Uncertain Science Of Certainty he explores how truth emerges, but warns against building a society that distrusts and doubts everything.Producer: Katy Hickman

Untangling fact from fiction

The celebrated artist, Sir Grayson Perry, has a new exhibition of work, Delusions of Grandeur, made in direct response to the masterpieces at the Wallace Collection in London (until 26th October). He candidly admits he initially found the Collection’s opulence difficult to work with, until he created an alter-ego artist, Shirley, who was inspired by the aesthetic.In recent years museums and art galleries have become a regular battleground in the culture wars. One of today’s anti-woke warriors is the writer Lionel Shriver. Her latest satirical novel, Mania, imagines a world where intellectual meritocracy is heresy; the words 'stupid' and 'smart' are no longer acceptable, and novels like The Idiot and My Brilliant Friend are banned.In Shriver’s imaginative world language and thought is heavily policed, speech is free only if it doesn’t offend. The academic Fara Dabhoiwala has written about the emergence of this contested idea, in What Is Free Speech? He shows in the shifting story of the last three hundred years that freedom of speech is not an absolute from which different societies have drifted or dissented, but a much more mercurial, complicated matter.Producer: Katy Hickman

Delusions of grandeur and freedom of speech

Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 ‘for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.’ In his latest novel, Theft, he returns to the streets of his childhood home in Zanzibar, to trace the intertwined lives of three young people in a story of love, betrayal and kindness. The Possibility of Tenderness is a memoir by the prize-winning poet Jason Allen-Paisant as he moves from his family home in the rural Jamaican hills, to Oxford’s gleaming spires, to the woodlands of Leeds. It’s a story about the transformative power of plants and the legacy of dreams.  Language, music and food are at the heart of Samantha Ellis’s new book, Chopping Onions On My Heart: On Losing and Preserving Culture. The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, she grew up surrounded by the noisy, colourful sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, a language in danger of being lost forever. Producer: Katy Hickman

Abdulrazak Gurnah on family and resistance

Five years ago, in response to the Covid pandemic, the government mandated a series of lockdowns, with the closure of schools and businesses and social distancing. Tom Sutcliffe is joined by guests to discuss how such a monumental event could have had affected brain cognition, and whether there have been lasting effects on young people. But he also hears tales of resilience among neurodiverse communities.The neuroscientist Daniel Yon looks at the cognitive impact of unprecedented events in his forthcoming book, A Trick of the Mind - How the Brain Invents Your Reality (published, June 2025). He explains how times of instability and uncertainty upset the brain’s ability to understand the world, and make people more susceptible to conspiracy theories. The Covid-19 Social Study was the largest study exploring the psychological and social effects of the pandemic on the UK population. Dr Daisy Fancourt, Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London explains what they learnt about the impact of social isolation. The developmental psychologist at Cambridge University, Professor Claire Hughes, has looked more closely at families with young children, across six different countries, with very different lockdown policies. Although there was a link between family stress related to the pandemic and child problem behaviours, more recent work questions whether the lockdown has had longer term effects. The artist and zinemaker Dr Lea Cooper has co-curated a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, Zines Forever! DIY Publications and Disability Justice (until 14th September). Zines are self-published works, and Dr Cooper says several on display were created during lockdown, and showcase personal stories of resistance and self-expression.Producer: Katy HickmanPart of BBC Radio 4's series of programmes exploring Lockdown’s Legacy

Lockdown and the Covid generation

In The Ideological Brain Leor Zmigrod studies the impact of political ideology on the makeup and shape of the brain. She found that those on the political extremes, as well as those with the most dogmatic beliefs, display more cognitive rigidity. The historian John Rees focuses on the small group of firebrand parliamentarians at the heart of the English Civil Wars. The Fiery Spirits describes how the radical republicans influenced more moderate MPs and led to the defeat, and execution, of Charles I.2025 is the centenary of the birth of Margaret Thatcher and fifty years since she became the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK. The political commentator and broadcaster Iain Dale publishes a biography of her later this year, and questions the role of ideology within Thatcherism.  Producer: Katy Hickman

How political ideology affects the brain

The Great Auk: Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife is the subject of Tim Birkhead’s new book. This goose-sized seabird became the favoured food of hungry sailors and hunters, and the last two were killed in 1844. But then the bird became an obsession for collectors who vied for the last skins, eggs and skeletons. Victorian hunters, explorers and collectors feature strongly in the story of the Great Auk. The writer Kaliane Bradley places the 19th century polar explorer Commander Graham Gore at the heart of her time-travelling novel, The Ministry of Time. The book is being made into a television series on BBC1 – to be aired later in the Spring. Human activity has had, and continues to have, a big impact on bird populations. While several species have gone extinct, more are classified as threatened. But a joint conservation project between farmers and wildlife organisations is looking at restoring ‘zombie’ ponds, in an effort to increase pockets of wildlife. The RSPB’s Mark Nowers helps to organise the Lost Ponds Project and is involved in the protection of turtle doves, whose numbers are vulnerable.Producer: Katy Hickman

The Great Auk meets Victorian explorers, and zombie ponds

The story of Liverpool’s once thriving port is one of spectacular rise, and spectacular fall. In Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain, the historian Sam Wetherell looks at the city post-WWII, as the decline in the port led to the poverty and neglect of its population, the deportation of Chinese sailors, and the discrimination against the city’s Black population. It’s a history as prophecy for what the future might hold for the communities caught in the same trap of obsolescence.As manufacturing has declined in the UK it has grown exponentially in China, which is now known as ‘the world’s factory’. Dr Yu Jie is a senior research fellow at Chatham House and an expert in China’s economic diplomacy. She considers what the mega-cities that have emerged out of China’s rise, and the communities living in them, can learn from the history of Liverpool.  Corby in the Midlands was once at the heart of British steelmaking, with one of the largest operations in Western Europe. But once the plant was closed in the 1980s, the ‘clean-up’ became known as one of the worst environmental scandals, causing serious birth defects in the town. The four-part series, Toxic Town, written by Jack Thorne (on Netflix from 27th February) tells the story of the families as they fight for justice.Producer: Katy Hickman

Community and industrial decline

History was written down for the very first time in the ancient region of Mesopotamia. In Between Two Rivers, Moudhy Al-Rashid tells the story of the civilisations that rose and fell, through the details left on cuneiform tablets from 4000 years ago – from diplomatic letters to receipts for beer. And the drive that led ancient scribes to record the events and legends of the past.Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus was probably born in AD69, and although little is known about his own life, his biography of the twelve Caesars vividly captured what it was like to be at the centre of power in the Roman Empire. The historian Tom Holland pays homage to his fellow history-writer, Suetonius, in a new translation of The Lives of the Caesars.Archaeologists at the ancient Sumerian city-state of Ur believe they found evidence of a museum in the ruins, which suggests that the desire to display and preserve artefacts, and tell stories from the past, is nothing new. Gus Casely-Hayford is the curator of the V&A East which opens in the Spring, and is expected to offer a new way of viewing the past, and a chance to see behind the scenes of a museum.Producer: Katy Hickman

Writing and rewriting history

From the early 1970s feminist activists from across the globe campaigned under a single demand – Wages for Housework. The historian Emily Callaci traces the lives and ideas of its key creators in her new book, Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise. The campaign highlighted the need to change the way work, and especially what has been traditionally deemed women’s work, is valued. Although men are still paid more than women, and women still play a greater role in the home, recent polling reveals that nearly half of Britons say women's equality has gone far enough. And that figure has been rising significantly in the last decade. Rosie Campbell, Professor of Politics at King’s College London also points out that a growing number of young men believe it will be harder to be a man than a woman in 20 years’ time.So is it time for women to stop campaigning and #JustBeKind? Definitely not, according to the writer Victoria Smith. In her new book, UnKind, she unpicks the kindness trend that emerged in the 2020s, and argues that women and girls have again been coerced into a passive role.Producer: Katy Hickman

Wages for Housework – then and now

We might live surrounded by manufactured goods but the business of making is far removed and often hidden from our lives, according to the Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Tim Minshall. In Your Life Is Manufactured he takes readers on a tour of mega-factories to artisanal craft shops, seaports to supermarkets to reveal the systems and decisions behind manufacturing. The former Chief Scientist of BP, Bernie Bulkin is interested in how cutting edge developments in manufacturing have helped both companies and countries remain financially competitive in the global market. In The Material Advantage he looks at the latest innovative materials and new opportunities. But at the heart of the discussion around manufacturing in the 21st century is sustainability. Fiona Dear is Co-Director of the Restart Project, a social enterprise that runs repair events in the community, but also campaigns for broader Right 2 Repair legislation to force companies to make it easier and cheaper for people to mend products, rather than simply buying new.Producer: Katy Hickman

Manufacturing and sustainability

Every year world leaders gather at the United Nation’s COP (the Conference of Parties) to discuss how to work together on solutions to tackle climate change. And every year the wrangling lasts into the night as it becomes clear how difficult it is to achieve consensus. In Kyoto the playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson have recreated the drama, intrigue and power plays that resulted in one of COP’s greatest successes, the Kyoto Protocol from 1997. Kyoto is on at the Soho Place Theatre until May 2025.Professor Mike Berners-Lee is an expert on the impact and footprint of carbon and has watched as countries see-saw on commitments to reduce the use of fossil fuels. In his latest book, A Climate of Truth he argues that we already have the technology to combat many of the problems, but what we’re lacking is the honesty – in our politics, our media, and our businesses – to make a real difference.But how to save the planet is not necessarily straightforward. In The Shetland Way: Community and Climate Crisis on my Father’s Islands, Marianne Brown returns home after the death of her father. She finds the islanders at loggerheads over the construction of a huge windfarm: while some celebrate the production of sustainable energy, others argue the costs are too high for the environment and local wildlife.Producer: Katy Hickman

Climate Crisis: truth, lies and compromise

Music as Medicine is the latest work by the neuroscientist and best-selling author Daniel Levitin. In it he explores the healing power of music, and the cutting edge research which examines how sound affects the brain. The dance critic Sara Veale is interested in movement. In Wild Grace she tells the untold history of the extraordinary women who were the pioneers of modern dance. While Nwando Ebizie is a practitioner of both music and movement, and is interested in using the latest neurological studies in her art. She will perform the works, Solve et Coagula (arr. Mark Knoop) and All the Calm of a Distant Sea at the Southbank Centre, London (23rd January) as part of the BBC Radio 3 Unclassified concert.Producer: Katy Hickman

Music and movement; mind and body

In the first programme of the New Year Adam Rutherford follows two possible guides to a more fulfilled life – Socrates and optimism – but asks whether either has any answers to dealing with racism. The philosopher Agnes Callard proposes the questioning Socratic method in Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. She shows that this ancient method offers a new ethics to live by, from answering questions about identity and inequality, to helping us love and die well. But to truly flourish we also need a huge dose of optimism, according to the science writer Sumit Paul-Choudhury. In The Bright Side he argues that being optimistic is not only central to the human psyche, but plays a crucial role in overcoming the challenges of the twenty-first century.The social psychologist Keon West is more sceptical. In his new book The Science of Racism, he challenges those – a reputed half of the population – who think that racism doesn’t exist. He goes back to the data and research to reveal the extent and prevalence of racist behaviour, and the repeated inadequacy of attempts to address it.Producer: Katy Hickman

Socrates, optimism and racism

Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss how we solve problems and imagine the future. While many people now point to the potential of AI, the prize winning writer Naomi Alderman is interested in the messy magic of human thinking. In the forthcoming BBC Radio 4 series, Human Intelligence she tells the stories of the people – with all their ingenuity and foibles – who built the modern world.Across history human cultures have devised a wide range of practices to understand, and discover, the mysteries of the past, present and future. The exhibition Oracles, Omens and Answers (at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, until April 2025), co-curated by Dr Michelle Aroney showcases the art of divination. From the use of cards, beads and spiders, to studying the stars, weather and palm lines people have sought ways to clarify and predict the world around them. Human imagination is not just the tool of fiction writers, but something that’s vital to navigate the world; to reminisce, anticipate and plan for the future. But how does it work? The neurologist Adam Zeman explores the very latest scientific studies in the world of the imagination, in his new book, The Shape of Things Unseen.Producer: Katy Hickman

Human intelligence and imagination

The poet laureate Simon Armitage challenges himself to write a new poem to capture the spirit of an animal and to see if he can bring it closer to the human world. For a new 10-part series, My Poetry and Other Animals (on BBC Radio 4 at 1.45, from December 23rd), he is guided by his fellow poets as he experiences a series of close encounters – looking into the eye of a tiger, tracking a fox and standing amongst a room full of spiders. Elizabeth Bishop and Feargal Sharkey are Simon Armitage’s guides to the world of fish. But the science writer Amorina Kingdom wants everyone to listen more closely to what’s happening underwater. In her book, Sing Like Fish, she traces how sounds travel with currents; the songs, clicks and drumming that help sea creatures to survive, and how this musical landscape is being affected by human noise.If humans could finally grasp what animals were communicating to each other, could it enable us to join in the conversation with animals? The behavioural ecologist, Professor Christian Rutz, from the University of St Andrews, is a specialist in the different behaviours of crows. He believes that with recent breakthroughs in AI and data collection, talking with animals might be closer than ever.Producer: Katy Hickman

Animals – up close and talking

Tom Sutcliffe explores the importance of acoustics and the evolution of building design in the enjoyment of music. The academic Fiona Smyth tells the story of the groundbreaking work undertaken by scientists, architects and musicians, who revolutionised this new science in the 20th century, in her new book Pistols in St Paul’s. Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, updates the story, revealing the very latest scientific breakthroughs and why certain music venues capture the purity of sound. And the saxophonist Jess Gillam gives a personal view on what playing with different acoustics entails. Gillam is playing in two Christmas concerts, 19th + 20th December, with the CBSO at Symphony Hall, Birmingham – one of the best-designed music venues in the country. Producer: Kay Hickman

Acoustics, music and architecture

Sir Alex Younger is the former head of MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service. He assesses the evolving security risks facing Britain in the 21st century, and how the country continues to build strategic partnerships and intelligence agreements in a fracturing world. Younger ran MI6 during President Trump’s first administration and reflects on prospects for ‘the special relationship’ in the second.With tensions between the US and China, increased economic protectionism and the war in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, the Head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, Armida van Rij, believes European security and economic prospects appear fragile. And this comes at a time of political polarisation throughout the continent.After Britain finally left the EU in 2020 following the Brexit vote it was feared that it would be Britain that was isolated and vulnerable. Not so, claims the journalist Ross Clark, in his forthcoming polemic, Far From Eutopia: Why Europe is failing - and how Britain could do better (published 23rd January 2025). Clark pinpoints the absence of economic growth and huge disillusionment about high migration throughout Europe, and how Britain is surpassing many of its former continental partners. But questions still remain about how Britain will fare – on its own – on the global stage.Producer: Katy Hickman

Security threats and future prospects for Britain and the EU

While the great Italian renaissance painters and the Dutch masters are world famous, why are there so few British artists from this period leading the way? It’s one of the questions the art historian Bendor Grosvenor examines in his new history, The Invention of British Art. From prehistoric bone carvings to the landscapes of John Constable, Grosvenor reassesses the contribution British artists have made at home and abroad.The writer and former curator at the V&A Susan Owens wants to turn our attention to drawing. It is a simpler, more democratic form of art-making, she argues in The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History of Art. And one that is a fundamental part of the creative process. She reveals what can be learnt by looking again at the sketches made by Gainsborough, William Blake and Tacita Dean. The artist Lucinda Rogers specialises in urban landscapes. She immerses herself in her environment and records straight from eye to paper. Her intimate street views explore the changing nature of cities, from London to New York. During the US Presidential election she travelled to different locations as a reportage illustrator. A reproduction of her first sketchbook, New York Winter 1988, has just been re-released. Producer: Katy Hickman

The story of British art - from cave paintings to landscapes

The UK high street has appeared to be in a near perpetual state of distress since the birth of self-service shopping in the 1950s. Since then, local authorities approving out-of-town developments in the 1970s, the rise of the supermarket, the internet and the recent Covid lockdowns, have all taken their toll on town centres. Adam Rutherford talks to three guests about the changing nature of the  high street.Annie Gray explores the long and varied history of shopping districts in The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts still standing today. The urban designer and strategic planner Vicky Payne believes the high street is far more resilient than people think. Her research has looked at the innovative work being done across the country, from Bournemouth to Barnsley, to revitalise town centres. And the food writer Angela Hui shines a light on the central role that migrants have played – from running corner shops to restaurants. Her Chinese takeaway installation, inspired by her experiences growing up behind the counter of her parents’ business in Wales, forms part of the All Our Stories exhibition at the Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre, until December 2025.Producer: Katy Hickman

The high street

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (on BBC iPlayer) adapted from the final book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy, and directed by the BAFTA award winner Peter Kosminsky, traces the final four years of Thomas Cromwell’s life. After the execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s fixer and royal secretary, Cromwell, continues his climb to power and wealth, becoming the most feared and influential figure of his time. But as the King becomes more irascible and Cromwell’s enemies circle, it’s only a matter of time before he’s brought down.George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham was King James I’s favourite and then Charles I’s confidante and first minister. But he too fell spectacularly from grace, amid political and sexual intrigue. In her biography, Scapegoat, Lucy Hughes-Hallett dramatizes the Duke’s transformation from a young man who traded on his beauty to one with immense wealth and political power. The late novelist Hilary Mantel compared Cromwell with Boris Johnson’s political advisor Dominic Cummings, another outsider whose political influence spread far and wide. The columnist and Associate Editor at the Financial Times, Stephen Bush, considers the role of today’s fixers and ‘special advisors’; how much power they can wield; and as the political cycle turns, whether their downfall is inevitable.Producer: Katy Hickman

Rise and fall of the political fixer

Sex has become one of the most controversial topics in the history of the Church. But the historian Diarmaid MacCulloch shows in his book, Lower Than the Angels, that in the last 2,500 years Christianity has encompassed a much greater diversity of beliefs, including on homosexuality and the role of women. He argues that far from there being a single Christian theology of sex, there have always been a wide range of readings and attitudes.In one of the foundational stories of the Bible, in Genesis, Eve is created as an afterthought, from one of Adam’s ribs, to be his companion. The classicist Helen King puts the female body at the centre of her book, Immaculate Forms, and examines the ways in which religion, and medicine, have played a gatekeeping role over women’s bodies.The prize-winning poet, Ruth Padel, re-imagines the Christian story of the Virgin Mary – a girl in a Primark t-shirt facing a life shaped by divine will. Her new collection, Girl, unravels the myths and icons surrounding girlhood, and also paints a portrait of the Cretan ‘snake goddess’ as she’s unearthed and reshaped at the hands of a male archaeologist.Presenter: Amanda Vickery is Professor in Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of LondonProducer:  Katy Hickman

Sex and Christianity

The farmer James Rebanks recounts a season he spent on a remote Norwegian island learning the ancient trade of caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. In The Place of Tides he tells the story of Anna, a ‘duck woman’ who helped revive this centuries-old tradition. As he traces the rough pattern of her work and her relationship with the wild, Rebanks reassess his own relationship with his Lake District farm, his family and home. Alice Robinson is a designer who has never shied away from the inescapable link between agriculture and luxury fashion. In Field Fork Fashion she looks back at the origins of her chosen material, leather, and traces the full life of Bullock 374 from farm to abattoir, tannery to cutting table. And in retelling this story she asks whether it’s possible to create a more transparent, traceable and sustainable system. There are many crafts classified as ‘endangered’ in Britain, but one that has had a renaissance in the last 50 years is the ancient tradition of thatching. Protections put in place by Historic England in the 1970s not only kickstarted a thatching revival, but also helped save heritage crop varieties. Andrew Raffle from the National Thatching Association says the relationship with local farmers is vital for the tradition, and there are an estimated 600-900 thatchers working today.Producer: Katy Hickman

Ancient crafts: feathers, leather and thatch

Does ambition have to be seen as corrupting, or like a kind of illness’? These are the questions the business writer Stefan Stern asks in his book, Fair or Foul: the Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition. He argues that far from the cliché of a scheming wife, Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth demonstrates a more sophisticated understanding of human nature, that could help us navigate the pitfalls of ambition today.The playwright Zinnie Harris made Lady Macbeth the hero of her adaptation of the classic play last year. But now she’s focused on the figure of The Duchess of Malfi, in a contemporary retelling. Played by the actor Jodie Whittaker, the Duchess defies her family’s wishes and control, and asserts her own desires, with devastating results. The Duchess is on at the Trafalgar Theatre, London until 20th December.Mary Queen of Scots spent nearly two decades imprisoned under the orders of Elizabeth I. From her chambers she wrote countless letters, many of them in code. Now 400 years after her death a new cache of encrypted letters has been uncovered.  Jade Scott, a historian and expert on Mary’s correspondence, brings her captivity to life in Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots. Producer: Katy Hickman

Female ambition and control

Adam Rutherford gets to grips with the crisis in adult social care and asks, whose responsibility is it to fix it?  David Goodhart, from the Policy Exchange think tank, writes about the huge changes that have been wrought on family life over the past 60 years and how they have impacted the way in which we live and care for each other.  In his new book, The Care Dilemma, he argues that we are in desperate need of a new policy settlement that not only supports gender equality, but also recognises the importance of strong family and community bonds, and the traditional role women have played as carers. Bringing us her own personal story from the frontline of adult social care is Kathryn Faulke.  She worked for years in a senior role at the NHS and then became a home care worker. In Every Kind of People she tells the stories of individuals who are part of the system, the cared-for and the carers, and shows how these issues affect us all.  This is a story about real lives and real people, revealing the challenges, and the benefits, of working with some of the most vulnerable members of society. Every Kind of People will be Radio 4's Book of the Week, starting on Monday 28th October.So how can we improve the lives of those who require care and also support the carers themselves?  Anna Coote is Principal Fellow at the New Economics Foundation and has written extensively on public health policy, public involvement and gender and equality. She believes in taking practical action to change the way we work and value time and believes in our ability to build a fairer and more sustainable social security system – both for ourselves and for future generations.Producer: Natalia Fernandez

A duty of care

Yuval Noah Harari’s best-selling Sapiens explored human’s extraordinary progress alongside the capacity to spin stories. In Nexus he focuses on how those stories have been shared and manipulated, and how the flow of information has made, and unmade, our world. With examples from the ancient world, to contemporary democracies and authoritarian regimes, he pits the pursuit of truth against the desire to control the narrative. And warns against the dangers of allowing AI to dominate information networks, leading to the possible end of human history.The classicist, Professor Edith Hall, looks at how information flowed in Ancient Greece, and how the great libraries of Alexandria and Pergamon were precursors to the World Wide Web. Homer wrote about intelligent machines in his epic poetry, which suggests that the human desire for AI goes back a long way, along with the hubris about being in control. By understanding and appreciating the past, Professor Hall argues we can look more clearly at our current condition. Madhumita Murgia is the first Artificial Intelligence Editor of the Financial Times and the author of Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI. She investigates the impact AI can have on individual lives and how we interact with each other. And while there are fears that companies have unleashed exploitative technologies with little public oversight, cutting edge software has unprecedented capacity to speed up scientific discoveries. Producer: Katy HickmanIn the discussion about the use of artificial intelligence and the effects of bias in algorithms, a contributor said that no one under the age of 40 has been able to receive a liver transplant under an algorithmic system designed to help find the recipient who would benefit the most. Over the past three UK financial years, 133 people aged 17 to 39 received transplants that were allocated to them through this system using what is called a transplant benefit score.

From Sapiens to AI

The prize-winning writer Richard Powers moves from the forests and outer space in his last two novels The Overstory and Bewilderment, to dive into the vast and mysterious ocean in his latest work, Playground. Through the lives of four main characters he explores the ubiquity of play in the natural world, and the role technology is playing in the game of evolution.  The scuba diving philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith concludes his three part exploration of the origins of intelligence, with Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World. As he looks back at the origins of life and its divergence, he places humans within this 3.8 billion year history, and their shared sentience with other life forms, and weighs their current responsibilities on an evolving planet. The marine biologist Professor Heather Koldewey takes her responsibilities very seriously, acting to protect the oceans from over-fishing and plastic pollution. One of the world’s leading authorities on seahorses, Koldewey has looked at forming partnerships with others to solve problems, from working with a manufacturer to turn discarded fishing nets into high-end carpets, to creating conservation areas alongside local fishing communities in projects across the Indian Ocean.Producer: Katy Hickman

Oceans and the game of evolution

The best-selling historian William Dalrymple presents India as the great superpower of ancient times in The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. He argues that for more than a millennium India art, religions, technology, astronomy, music and mathematics spread far and wide from the Red Sea to the Pacific, and its influence was unprecedented, but now largely forgotten.China’s significance has long been celebrated and understood, with reference to the ancient trading routes linking the east and west. The historian Susan Whitfield is an expert on the Silk Roads. She talks to Adam Rutherford about the extraordinary discovery of manuscripts in a cave in Dunhuang, in Northern China, which provide a detailed picture of the vibrant religious and cultural life of the town. An exhibition of the manuscripts, A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang, runs at the British Library until 23rd February 2025.But what of India’s cultural and artistic influence and expression in modern times? Shanay Jhaveri is the new Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican and curator of their new exhibition, The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 (October 2024 until January 2025). This landmark group show explores the way artists have responded to a period of significant political and social change in India in the 20th century.Producer: Katy Hickman

Ancient India and China: from golden to silk roads

‘Professor Risk’ David Spiegelhalter delves into the data and statistics to explore the forces of chance, ignorance and luck in The Art of Uncertainty. Whereas life is uncertain, he shows how far the circumstances of how, when and where you were born have an overriding influence on your future. But he warns against confusing the improbable with the impossible. The novelist Roddy Doyle returns to the fortunes of one of his iconic characters, Paula Spencer, in his new book, The Woman Behind The Door. Mother, grandmother, widow, addict and survivor Paula Spencer is finally laying the ghosts of the past to rest, but how much is passed on to the next generation?The historian Eliza Filby is interested in inheritance of a different kind – money and housing. In Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad, she explores the nature of privilege through her own family’s experience. Filby’s grandfather had the lucky fortune of winning a house in a card game and the family went on to become ‘working class accidental millionaires’ who could pass on their fortune to later generations.Producer: Katy Hickman

Chance and fortune

The historian Timothy Snyder is famous for his work on the horrors of the 20th century and his call to arms to fight against tyranny in the 21st. Now, in ‘On Freedom’ he explores what liberty really means. He challenges the idea that this is freedom ‘from’ state or other obligations, and explores how across the US, Russia and Ukraine, true liberty is the freedom ‘to’ thrive and take risks. The Ukrainian poet, Oskana Maksymchuk also considers the question of freedom in her collection, Still City, a book that started as a poetic journal on the eve of the Russian invasion in 2021. The fragmentary poems detail the everyday moments amid the violence and fear and precarity of a country at war. The Russian Orthodox Church has managed to survive the turbulent history of the country, from tsarist demagoguery to Soviet atheism, and is now free to flourish under Vladimir Putin. But in her new book, The Baton and the Cross, the journalist Lucy Ash reveals how the religion has formed an unholy alliance with politics, state security and big money.Producer: Katy Hickman

On Freedom

The author and poet Kathleen Jamie celebrates a new form of writing – weaving personal notes, prose poems and acts of witness – in her latest book, Cairn. The new collection is a meditation on the preciousness and precariousness of both memory and the natural world. The broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allan has taken a closer look at the relationship between humans and the earth in her book Clay. From the first clay tablets to the throwing of pots on a wheel, the history of this everyday material is bound up with our own and the act of creation.The artist Mark Hearld has a passion for making, from collage to printmaking, sculpture and ceramics. Like Kathleen Jamie he takes inspiration from the flora and fauna of the British countryside. In July he will be working in collaboration with the weavers at Dovecot in Edinburgh to turn his paper collages into a tapestry. Visitors to Dovecot will be able to see Mark and the weavers in action (Mark Hearld: At Home in Scotland, until July 18th). The Dovecot Tapestry studio was first established in Scotland in 1912 and today’s master weaver Naomi Robertson looks back at its history. She explains how over the last century expert craftsmen and woman have worked together using the colour and texture of the threads to transform artworks, from one medium – paper or canvas – to another.Producer: Katy HickmanStart the Week will be off air until Monday 16th September but you can find hundreds of episodes available on BBC Sounds and through the programme website.

Weaving magic in words, clay and paper

How do animals detect natural disasters before they happen? Martin Wikelski, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour at the University of Konstanz argues they have a ‘sixth sense’ that humans are only just beginning to understand. In his book, The Internet of Animals, he reveals the extraordinary network of information gathered by tagging and tracking thousands of animals across the world.At the University of Glasgow researchers have been looking at how technology can be used to help animals communicate with each other. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas explored the potential of video-calling to reduce loneliness in parrots and found that the sociable birds preferred the live interaction to pre-recorded videos. The traditional rhythms of a pastoral life are at the heart of Kapka Kassabova’s new book, Anima. In the mountainous region of Bulgaria, she follows the ‘pastiri’ people, the shepherds struggling to hold onto an ancient way of life, and their relationship with the oldest surviving breeds of sheep and goats, and their legendary breed of dog, the Karakachan.Producer: Katy Hickman

Animal communication

British social etiquette might be famed for its liberal use of please and thank you, but civility is very much a European import, according to John Gallagher, professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leeds. As courtiers visited the French and Italian courts in the 16th century they not only learnt new languages but new rules of behaviour too. As the century progressed civility began to be weaponised as travellers sought to distinguish themselves from the ‘barbarous’ foreigners.The lexicographer and Countdown regular Susie Dent explains the etymology of terms like civilised, polite and barbarous. And she explores changing tastes in what is deemed impolite: in the Middle Ages the biggest taboo was any profanity that used the Lord’s name in vain, whilst the words we consider the most offensive today were commonplace.For years Professor Louise Mullany has been studying the prevalence and power of politeness in our everyday speech and actions. In her book, Polite: The Art of Communication at Home, at Work and in Public she uncovers the unwritten rules of behaviour, exploring the gender and generational differences, the art of the political apology, and whether politeness standards really are declining.The comedian and impressionist Matt Forde unpicks the argument that satirical shows like Spitting Image have contributed to the perceived lack of civility in politics. For his latest podcast, The Political Party, he is aiming to behave impeccably as he interviews a candidate from all 650 constituencies before the general election. Producer: Katy Hickman

Politeness and civility

Why are there areas of severe deprivation in prosperous countries, and how can prosperity be shared more equally? Those are the questions the world-renowned development economist Paul Collier explores in his book, Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places. He looks at areas that were once thriving – from the mining towns of South Yorkshire to the bustling city ports in Colombia – to explore widening inequality, but also to offer ideas of economic renewal.Matthew Xia directs the UK premier of Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morriseau at the Donmar Warehouse (from 28th June to 24th August 2024). Set in Detroit in 2008, the play follows a tight-knit group of workers in one of the city’s last surviving car factories as they struggle to come to terms with its inevitable closure.  This is a story about the human cost of a global financial crisis and of enduring hope, against the odds.Joanna Kusiak calls herself a scholar-activist as she recounts the movement she was involved in that put people and community before speculative finance and profit. Her book, Radically Legal, is the story of how a group of ordinary Berliners used a forgotten clause in the German constitution to take back more than 240,000 apartments from corporate landlords. The book is based on Kusiak’s winning entry to the Nine Dots Prize, which supports the development of book proposals, and was in response to the question set by the prize: ‘why has the rule of law become so fragile?’ Producer: Katy Hickman

‘Left behind’, but not forgotten

In front of an audience at the Hay Literary Festival Adam Rutherford talks to the botanist and Native American Robin Wall Kimmerer. In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass she shows the importance of bringing together indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge, to increase understanding of the languages and worlds of plants and animals. Hugh Warwick is an expert on hedgehogs but in his latest book, Cull of the Wild, he focuses on animals less native, and beloved. From grey squirrels in Anglesey to cane toads in Australia he explores the complex history of species control, and the ethics of killing in the name of conservation.The writer Olivia Laing turns her attention to the efforts to create paradise on earth. In The Garden Against Time she retells her own attempts to restore a walled garden in Suffolk while investigating the long history of gardens – real and imagined, follies and pleasure grounds.Producer: Katy Hickman

Hay Festival: ancient wisdom and ecology

The American author Marilynne Robinson is celebrated as a writer of fiction and non-fiction that raises philosophical questions about how to live an ethical life. In her latest book, Reading Genesis, she explores the stories in the Bible and God’s promise of enduring covenant with humanity.The writer Naomi Alderman grew up with stories from the Old Testament, and although no longer a believer, attests to the power and strangeness of these ancient stories. She wishes they were as popular as the Greek myths.The poet Malika Booker grew up in Guyana where she says the King James Bible was ubiquitous. Its language has influenced her own work, and in recent years she has set herself the task of creolising the Bible, infusing its stories with the cadences of home.Producer: Katy Hickman

Reading the Bible

The National Gallery in London is displaying Caravaggio’s last painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (until 21 July 2024), an extraordinary work depicting the violence and intense naturalism of the scene, and the painter’s revolutionary use of dramatic lighting. The curator Francesca Whitlum-Cooper says Caravaggio changed the art world in the 17th century. But the painter was as famous for his personal life as his art: he left murder and mayhem in his wake as he attempted to evade the law.For most of its existence The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula languished in private collections and was sold for just £3,500 in the 1970s, with few believing it was by Caravaggio. Now it’s been identified as an original it’s worth millions. The fortunes to be made and lost in the art market, the risks, the greed and the deals are the subject of Orlando Whitfield’s book All That Glitters. He details his friendship with the contemporary art dealer Inigo Philbrick, a young man whose spectacular rise is matched only by his dramatic fall, convicted and imprisoned for fraud owing $86.7 million.The art market is often shrouded in secrecy and is one of the very few unregulated markets left in the global economy. Angelina Giovani-Agha is an art historian who has specialised in provenance research. She understands that each painting has a story to tell and a unique record of acquisition. Her work involves investigating ownership history and highlighting any murky inconsistencies, as well as specialising in looted artworks.Producer: Katy Hickman

Art: market, money and malfeasance

As a new exhibition opens in Liverpool exploring the survival of bees Start the Week takes stock of the life and times of this extraordinary insect. The artist Wolfgang Buttress uses a fusion of art, science and technology to create a sensory experience of the sights and sounds of bees. Bees: A Story of Survival is on at the World Museum, Liverpool until May 2025.They’ve been around for over 120 million years and Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary University of London, says the thousands of different bee species have evolved a huge diversity of lifestyles and are some of the most intelligent animals on Earth. They not only use a symbolic language, can count, use tools and learn by observation, but are now believed to have an emotional hinterland.For millennia, bees have held a special significance in human culture.  Claire Preston, Professor of Renaissance Literature at QMUL, traces the symbolism of bees through historical and literary records, from ancient political analogies to today’s discussions about hive minds.While there are increasing fears about the future of bees as they battle exposure to pesticides, diseases and habitat destruction, Alison Benjamin is one of a growing number of people trying to raise awareness. She is the co-founder of Urban Bees and wants to shift the focus away from farmed hives of honey bees which are growing in popularity in cities, to the protection and survival of wild and solitary bees.Producer: Katy Hickman

Bees – culture and survival

May Day is the title of Jackie Kay’s new collection. The former Makar of Scotland explores a history of political protest, and the cultural influencers of the past, from Rabbie Burns to the poet Audre Lorde and Paul Robeson. She also celebrates the lives and activism of her parents, and grieves for their loss. The Green MP Caroline Lucas wants to reclaim and rewrite England’s national story in her book, Another England. By exploring its radical tradition through its literary heritage she seeks to foreground the diverse writers and poets who spoke of a shared sense of identity and purpose, and a deep-rooted commitment to the natural world. The journalist and writer Simon Heffer looks back a century to the interwar period, a time of radical transformation of British society post the Great War, as many of the old attitudes started to be swept away. In his history, Sing As We Go, he shows how the culture of the time both shaped and reflected these changes.Producer: Katy Hickman

Protest and patriotism

The astrophysicist Professor Lisa Kaltenegger is like an explorer of old, but her voyage takes her far from earth, planet hunting across the universe. She is Director of the Carl Sagan Institute to Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell University, and in her new book Alien Earths she describes the very latest discoveries of exoplanets which are the best contenders for harbouring alien life. Claudia de Rham is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London and in her book The Beauty of Falling she tells the story of gravity. From her personal experience of diving in the ocean and freefalling over the earth, to exploring the limits of Einstein’s general theory of relativity she seeks to understand both the feeling and the fundamental nature of gravity.If only all of physics could be so compelling! Professor Mark Fromhold is Head of Physics at Nottingham University and is campaigning for a change to the way pupils are taught, suggesting that quantum physics be incorporated into the curriculum. He argues that at present the subject is too earth-bound, and ‘dull as dishwater’.Producer: Katy Hickman

Alien life and gravity

London, and the river that runs through it, is at the heart of the new play London Tide, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. Ben Power has adapted the novel and co-written original songs with the singer-songwriter PJ Harvey. He tells Adam Rutherford that although it combines the savage satire and social analysis of the original, it is, in essence, a love letter to the capital. London Tide is playing at the National Theatre until 22nd June.The award-winning architect Amanda Levete reflects on the challenges of designing buildings and public spaces in major historic cities around the world – taking into consideration the aesthetics of the built environment, whilst meeting the needs of the community and tackling sustainability.Amanda Levete considers the Pompidou Centre in Paris to be one of the twentieth century’s most iconic buildings and an inspiration for her own architectural practice. The journalist Simon Kuper takes stock of his adopted city, as Paris prepares for the Olympics. In Impossible City he explores today’s ‘Grand Paris’ project which aims to connect its much famed central areas with its neglected suburbs.Producer: Katy Hickman

City living

2024 has been dubbed the year of elections, as at least 64 countries – including the UK – are heading for the polls. Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore the state of democracy.The political philosopher Erica Benner reflects on the tensions in liberal democracy in her book, Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power. From her childhood in post-war Japan, to working in post-communist Poland, and with forays into ancient Greece and Renaissance Erica Benner looks at the role of ordinary citizens in keeping democracy alive.Democracy in India has a long history with roots in ancient councils of elders, although its modern manifestation began with independence from British rule in 1947. But the anthropologist Alpa Shah raises questions about how far democratic institutions are failing in India, as minority groups - the Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims - are  targeted and demonised, in her new book The Incarcerations. The UK will have a general election this year, and although satisfaction with politics ranks very low in relation to other countries, faith in democracy continues to rise. The research is by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, and its director Bobby Duffy says that while there’s little support for authoritarian forms of government, the idea of Citizen Assemblies are becoming more popular.Producer: Katy Hickman

Power to the people

Humankind’s relationship with music can be traced back millions of years and across continents. In Sound Tracks the archaeologist Graeme Lawson unearths some of the oldest instruments, from water-filled pots in Peru from AD700 that chirp like a bird, to bells from a tomb in 5th century China. He argues that music is part of what makes us human.An ancient horn, played from a watchtower on Hadrian's Wall, is a far cry from the modern version the award-winning trumpeter Alison Balsom plays. She is giving the UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra (Barbican on the 11th April; Bristol Beacon on the 12th). This is a contemporary piece that showcases the huge versatility of the trumpet, from the opening pre-historic-sounding wild elephant call to ceremonial fanfare and New Orleans jazz.The celebrated poet John Burnside’s new collection, Ruin, Blossom explores what it is to be human as we contemplate our mortality. But even amidst the ruin and death and decay, his words reveal the beauty and hope in the everyday natural world: ‘first sun streaming through the trees … a skylark in the near field, flush with song’.(Extract from Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto, played by Alison Balsom with the Swedish Radio Orchestra in a concert from 17th February 2024, with permission from the Swedish Radio Orchestra )Producer: Katy Hickman

Music and poetry

The historian Michael Taylor looks back at the past tug of war between religion and science, and how the discovery of ancient bones challenged religious orthodoxy. Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War Between Science and Religion is the story of a group of people whose insights tested beliefs about creation and cosmology, and ushered in the secular age.But Nick Spencer from the thinktank Theos dismisses the idea that science has rightly relegated religion to the margins. In his new book Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity (co-authored with Hannah Waite) he argues that religious belief is uniquely placed to help people navigate a world dominated by scientific breakthroughs – from AI to aliens, gene editing to the treatment of mental health.Professor Frances Flinter has been at the forefront of innovations in the treatment of genetic conditions for decades in her role at Guy’s & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and says that medical decisions are rarely based purely on science, but involve thinking about what it means to be human. Producer: Katy Hickman

The war between science and religion

The Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded the Pulitzer prize for his debut novel The Sympathiser in 2016. Now he turns his attention to memoir, in A Man of Two Faces. He was four when he was forced to flee Vietnam with his family, but as he looks back at his life he explores the necessity of forgetting and remembering, and how far the promise and dream of America can be trusted. The journalist and Deputy Editor of Harper’s Bazaar Helena Lee wants to showcase the voices and experiences of writers from the East and Southeast Asian diaspora living in the UK. East Side Voices celebrates the diversity of that experience and explores the impact on identity, community and family.Jessica J. Lee was born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a Welsh father and in her collection of essays, Dispersals, she muses on the question of how plants and people become uprooted and cross borders. Combining memoir, history, and scientific research she explores how entwined our fortunes, movement and language are with the plant world. Producer: Katy Hickman

Crossing borders and belonging

Andrey Kurkov is Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist. When Russia invaded Ukraine he turned his writing to journalism and memoir, but his latest book is a work of fiction set amid the chaos of the Russian Revolution. The Silver Bone (translated by Boris Dralyuk) is the first in a trilogy of historical mysteries in which the recently orphaned detective investigates his first case while Bolsheviks, Cossacks, and white Army Guards all vie to take control of Kyiv. The journalist and writer Peter Pomerantsev retells the daring story of the WWII propogandist Sefton Delmer who managed to infiltrate German airwaves and skilfully question Nazi doctrine. How to Win an Information War reveals the extent of the complexity of spin and indoctrination used in the past, alongside the role of propaganda today in Putin’s Russia.The information war is heading into a new era with the development of generative AI which makes it simple to produce fake text, audio and videos. The news editor at MIT Technology Review Charlotte Jee says the pace of change is extraordinary, and regulation is lagging behind, as deepfakes are becoming more difficult to distinguish from actual human content. Producer: Katy Hickman

Intrigue and disinformation from the Russian Revolution to Ukraine invasion

The Nobel prize winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan explores how time affects our bodies, brains and emotions in his new book, Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality. As he explains the recent scientific breakthroughs to extend lifespan by altering our biology, he also considers the ethical questions such efforts raise. The neuroscientist Charan Ranganath asks a different question in his book, Why We Remember. Using case studies he unveils the principles behind how the brain retains information, and what and why we forget so much. He also looks at what happens to our memories as we age. In her new book, Nostalgia, the historian Agnes Arnold-Forster blends social history and psychology in a quest to understand this complex emotion. While it was thought of as an illness in the 17th century, it is now used as a widespread marketing tool impacting our choices from politics to food. But if nostalgia prompts us to glorify the past, Arnold-Foster asks how that impacts the present, and future.Producer: Katy Hickman

Time passing: ageing, memory and nostalgia

The plant Rafflesia has the world’s largest flowers and gives off one of the worst scents; it’s also something of a biological enigma, a leafless parasite that lives off forest vines. For the botanist Chris Thorogood, an expert in parasitic and carnivorous plants at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Rafflesia is also an obsession. In his book, Pathless Forest, he goes in search of this mysterious plant in some of the last wildernesses in South East Asia. Dr Kelsey Byers is an evolutionary chemical ecologist who specialises in floral scent and its influence on the evolution of flowering plants. In her laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich she studies how flowers use different smells to attract their pollinator of choice. From sweet aromas to the stink of rotting flesh, she explores how plants use con-artistry and sexual deception to thrive.The ethnobotanist William Milliken from Kew Gardens has spent much of his career working with indigenous people in the Amazon to preserve traditional plant knowledge. Now he’s focused on collecting folklore about the use of plants to treat ailments in animals in Britain. From wild garlic treating mastitis in cows, to cabbage for flatulence in dogs, he hopes to uncover a cornucopia of plant-based veterinary medicines.Producer: Katy Hickman