Arts & Ideas

Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro discusses 1606 - the year Macbeth was written. And Matthew Sweet is joined by Sonia Massai and Andrew Hilton to review the new film starring Michael Fassbender and look at other cinematic versions of "the Scottish play". Matthew also talks to playwright Barrie Keeffe about a revival of his 1977 play Barbarians, while Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Fern Riddell off...

On the final day of Jeremy Corbyn's first Labour Party conference as Leader, Philip Dodd presents a discussion about populism in politics, with philosopher Roger Scruton, historian Justin Champion, journalist and commentator John Lloyd, and activist Sirio Canos Donnay, a representative of the Spanish populist movement Podemos. Romola Garai stars in a new production of Measure for Measure directed...

Margaret Atwood's new novel imagines the future of sexual desire in a social experiment. Professors Yuval Harari and Barry Cunliffe explore the long history of mankind. And Rana Mitter visits the new exhibition about Celts at the British Museum and discusses it with historian and author Dr Janina Ramirez and Professor Barry Cunliffe.

Orhan Pamuk, novelist and Nobel Prize winner is in conversation with Edmund de Waal - the potter and best-selling author of the Hare with Amber Eyes - who has been on a quest to explore the history of porcelain. Philip Dodd chairs a conversation ranging across the colours white and red, appreciating and conserving craft skills, the way historic objects are displayed in museums, and the changing id...

Rana Mitter explores why we sleep with pioneering researcher into the body clock, Russell Foster; Matt Berry, actor, comedian and writer who wrestles with insomnia; Brigitte Steger who has explored Japanese and other global sleeping cultures and Katharine Craik, a renaissance scholar whose new opera project for children is called Watching...back in the 16th century the watching hours were part of...

Professor Lynda Nead has curated an exhibition at the Foundling Museum in London which looks at depictions of "the Fallen Woman" in Victorian England by artists including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Richard Redgrave, George Frederic Watts and Thomas Faed. The display includes a specially-commissioned sound installation by musician and composer Steve Lewinson. Lynda Nead joins Anne McElvoy along with J...

Rana Mitter is joined by young academics who are exploring Indian history during British rule and looking at India in the second world war

Frederick Forsyth discusses spy fiction and fact as he publishes his memoirs and Matthew Sweet explores our emotions with New Generation Thinker Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith, Thomas Dixon and Susie Orbach. Also a review of portraits chosen at the National Portrait Gallery by Simon Schama

South African artist William Kentridge discusses making animated films, drawings and directing the opera Lulu. William Boyd's latest novel Sweet Caress traces the life and work of a photographer. Philip Dodd talks to him about viewing 20th century history and news events through the lens of a fictional photo journalist. New Generation Thinker Zoe Norridge, documentary photographer Anna Fox and Eam...

Anne McElvoy discusses heroic triumph and failure with a trio of eminent historians

Philip Dodd discusses Camelot: The Shining City and reviews the new Harper Lee

Anne McElvoy on French intellectual traditions & rom-com; prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer

Philip Dodd discusses Legal Aid, Law, Language and Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr

Matthew Sweet on Jaws and the film-maker's role in creating the myth of a man-eating machine. Good or bad for the shark? Gareth Fraser, Ian Hunter, Will Self and Fiona Tan discuss.

Tariq Ali discusses Satyajit Ray's 1955 film Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) 60 years on. Rana Mitter is also joined by novelist Sunjeev Sahota and Neil Bartlett.

Anne McElvoy at Tate Modern with the Museum of the Year finalists.

The links between dance, art and the brain and the meaning of "the public"

Matthew Sweet on worrying - Joseph Cornell - Spy Fiction and the First film.

Anne McElvoy discusses the ways Scottish writers negotiate what it means to be Scottish with Janice Galloway, Kathleen Jamie, Peter Mackay and Murray Pittock.

Philip Dodd discusses community and talks a poet Claudia Rankine.

Matthew Sweet is in Cardiff to examine the role of the Left in Welsh politics and its bearing on today's debate about nationalism hearing from In Cardiff Matthew Sweet is joined by Professor Daniel Williams and Sir Deian Hopkin to discuss the role of the Left in Welsh politics and its bearing on today's debate about nationalism. He also talks about the Bardic tradition with the writers, Gwyneth Le...

Rana Mitter talks to Laurence Scott about living in a digital world Channel 4's Humans and explores the writing of Muriel Spark with Dr Sarah Dillon as Spark's novel The Driver's Seat is adapted by Laurie Sansom for The National Theatre of Scotland. 2015 New Generation Thinker Sandeep Parmar discusses diversity in contemporary British poetry and the shortlists for this year's Forward Prizes. Paint...

Geoff Dyer reviews Milan Kundera's first novel in 12 years The Festival of Insignificance. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks talks to Philip Dodd about confronting religious violence

Director John Boorman talks to Matthew Sweet about his new film Queen and Country and its place in a career that includes Deliverance and Excalibur as well as Hope and Glory

Poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger reflects on his writing, and German history, in his latest book New Selected Poems. New Generation Thinker Danielle Thom and the historian and columnist Tim Stanley, join Anne McElvoy to discuss Tate Britain’s exhibition of history painting from the eighteenth century to present day. Plus writer Lindsay Johns reviews the first night of a new RSC production of Othello...