Arts & Ideas

30 years ago There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation was published. Philip Dodd talks to the author Professor Paul Gilroy about its impact and whether discussions about race and culture in Britain have moved on or not. Producer Eliane Glaser.

Matthew Sweet meets Eric the UK's first robot, built in 1928 now at the Science Museum as part of a big display exploring robotics. He's joined by Kathleen Richardson who is Senior Research Fellow in the Ethics of Robotics at De Monfort University, Murray Shanahan - Professor of Cognitive Robotics from Imperial College - and Ryan Abbott from the University of Surrey School of Law to discuss the le...

As the Royal Academy unveils its huge new show of work produced in Russia between 1917 and 1932, Anne McElvoy and her guests - the film maker and actor, Dolya Gavanski, novelist Charlotte Hobson and the historians Stephen Smith and Victor Sebestyen - assess the role played by artists in the revolution and the relevance of their paintings, sculptures, films, books and music today. Revolution: Russi...

Garrett Carr travelled by foot and canoe along Ireland's border. Kapka Kassabova journeyed to what she calls "the edge of Europe". Frank Ledwidge's army career took him to the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, Nikolas Ventourakis is fascinated by how to capture the abstract notion of borders in photographs. They talk to Anne McElvoy about the essence of edges, notions of the other and the challenges...

The Indian writer and essayist, Pankaj Mishra believes we are living in an age of unprecedented anger - one that liberal rationalists struggle to comprehend. He joins Philip Dodd to consider the long term impact of these fervent times. Elif Shafak talks about her latest novel, Three Daughters of Eve, which looks at love, friendship and religion set in Oxford and Istanbul. They are joined in the Fr...

Join Matthew Sweet in the Caribbean -- well, not literally but certainly intellectually. He'll be discussing the region's history with the cultural commentator, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, whose new book, Island People, is already being compared to V S Naipaul. Does it make sense to think of the Caribbean as a cohesive region rather than a collection of very individual islands? To help settle this ques...

Peter Bazalgette, former Arts Council England chair and TV executive, discusses why we need to become more empathetic. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin has given the Proms Lecture exploring the mind and music. He talks about lies and statistics and how we can make better decisions. James Bartholomew believes the Welfare State may be holding us back. Together they explore with Philip Dodd, how to buil...

Anne McElvoy explores topics discussed at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos - she's joined by former Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, economist Liam Halligan and MIT scientist Andrew McAfee. Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th, New Generation Thinker Seán Williams discusses his research into barbers in the camps. Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh dis...

On the day of the Oscar nominations, Matthew Sweet is joined by critics Dana Stevens and Ryan Gilbey and writer Christopher Frayling to survey the last year in film. Also, does T2 make any sense if you haven't see the original Trainspotting? Young journalist Stevie Mackenzie-Smith reports back. And Deborah Lipstadt, the American historian who took on the Holocaust denier David Irving in a landmark...

Rana Mitter talks Victorian bodies with Kathryn Hughes from Darwin's beard to whether George Eliot had milkmaid's hands. Stanley Price explains how James Joyce and Italo Svevo forged a firm friendship when they met in Trieste. Poet and New Generation Thinker Sandeep Parmar and writer Lauren Elkin discuss the Citizens of Everywhere art project which will see commissioned writing, art, workshops in...

Artists Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Eddie Chambers and Harold Offeh talk to Anne McElvoy about their art and the influence of the British Black Art movement - which began around the time of the First National Black Art Convention in 1982 organised by the Blk Art Group and held at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Eddie Chambers has written Roots and Culture: Cultural Politics in the Making of Black Britai...

Matthew Sweet talks to Stephen Baxter about his sequel to HG Wells's novel War Of The Worlds, which was first serialised in 1897 and imagined an England invaded by Martians. Stephen Baxter's novel, which has been authorised by the HG Wells estate, is called The Massacre of Mankind and it sets the action 14 years after a Martian invasion. Eimear McBride's novels are noted for their 'experimental' a...

Anne McElvoy talks to Nadeem Aslam and Chibundu Onuzo about their novels set in Pakistan and Nigeria which follow characters who have to find safe places to live following violent uprisings; Alex Evans joins them to explore myth-making plus we hear from Julius Bryant, the curator of an exhibition at the V&A about Lockwood Kipling art teacher and father of Rudyard. Nadeem Aslam is the author of...

We've been runnning for two million years give or take. Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott explore contemporary running as solitary inspiration and communal activity with the Geographer and 1999 Scottish Hill Running Champion, Hayden Lorimer, the artists Kai Syng Tan and Angus Farquhar, and the literary scholar and bare-foot artiste, Vybarr Cregan-Reid. Conversation ranges from feeling empowered on...

Agent to stars including Humphrey Bogart, Clancy Sigal looks back at the absurdities of the 1950s movie business. Catherine Wheatley and Larushka Ivan Zadeh discuss the new musical La La Land starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling which is picking up many of the prizes in the film awards season and look at Hollywood's preoccupation with its own back yard. Authors Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph lift t...

American author Jonathan Franzen's interest in the Austrian satirist and journalist resulted in him publishing The Kraus Project. He joins Philip Dodd, novelist Lawrence Norfolk and literary historian, Heide Kunzelmann for a programme exploring the writing and politics of Karl Kraus (1874–1936) - whose artistic achievements include 700 one man performances of works by Brecht, Goethe, Shakespeare a...

Anne McElvoy explores the history and possible future of the Union Jack or Union flag in a year which has seen the Brexit Vote. With: Graham Bartram - chief vexillologist at the Flag Institute, who grew up in Scotland, Northern Ireland and West Africa John Bew – professor of history and foreign policy at Kings Afua Hirsch – Sky News correspondent, writing a book called Brit(ish) which will be publ...

Rana Mitter debates the meaning of patriotism in Russia, China, Japan and Latin America with guests including historian and policy analyst Michael Auslin, David Priestland who is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, Chinese-British novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo (whose autobiography is published in January) and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, lawyer and author of What If Latin America Rule...

At the end of a year which has seen Britain vote for Brexit, the rise of political parties claiming patriotism in other European countries and a sense of national pride being invoked by politicians in Russia and China - Free Thinking hears from some of the key thinkers exploring these current debates. Our week long focus begins in France where Philip Dodd talks to the public intellectual, Alain Fi...

Are public enquiries good government? At the end of a year where we have seen the Hillsborough and Chilcot reports are these the best way of calling to account? Margaret Hodge and Bronwen Maddox join Anne McElvoy to discuss. Plus, Matthew Parris considers the concept of scorn and those who are best at pouring it. Matthew Parris has written an updated version of Scorn: The Wittiest and Wickedest In...

John Simpson joins Philip Dodd to discuss fifty years of reporting from around the world for the BBC and what the future holds for foreign correspondents. Once our news came from three primary sources: newspapers, radio and TV. But in a digital world which offers a proliferation of 'news' how do we separate fact from opinion or even fakery? Former director general of the BBC and current CEO of The...

Classicist Professor Edith Hall, New Generation Thinker Chris Kissane, novelist Elif Shafak, and Dr Alan Mendoza from the Henry Jackson Society join Matthew Sweet to consider what might be on a reading list to prepare for a post Brexit world. Reading List: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Moniza Alvi, Europa Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart Voltaire, Candide Sun Tzu, The Art Of War Bryan Burrough and...

Shahidha Bari and guests look at our relationship with animals. Chris Packham discusses his 'animal symphony' composed with musician Nitin Sawhney for a new documentary exploring animal reactions to music. Darwin expert and New Generation Thinker Will Abberley reviews an exhibition considering our relationship with the rest of the living world. Science writer Helen Pilcher explains the new science...

Anne McElvoy meets David Rooney curator of the Winton Mathematics gallery at the Science Museum which has been redesigned by Zaha Hadid architects and explores the way maths skills are increasingly needed for jobs. She discusses the changing attitudes to mathematics in history and the present day with Alex Bellos, writer on maths puzzles, maths historian Serafina Cuomo and maths lecturer Vicky Nea...

Colin Grant, author of a book exploring his brother's epilepsy, joins presenter Matthew Sweet, New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore who writes about Wilkie Collins and Charles Fernyhough - who studies hearing voices. Plus director Josie Rourke on Joan of Arc on stage at the Donmar Warehouse and theatre critic David Benedict. St Joan by George Bernard Shaw starring Gemma Arterton is at the Donm...