Arts & Ideas

Rana Mitter talks to historian and MP Tristram Hunt about how Britain's experience of Empire shaped today's global cities. Plus a discussion about the future of India with Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Dr Shruti Patel and the writer, Pankaj Mishra.

Anne McElvoy looks at the resurgence of non-fiction writing and the essay as a form hearing from Jonathan Freedland, Wayne Kostenbaum and Maia Jenkins. Novelist Tim Winton talks about his new book Eyrie. Political commentators Robert Ford and Peter Kellner explore when does populism becomes extremism.

As the British Library launches a website devoted to writers' notebooks and manuscripts, Discovering Literature, novelist Lawrence Norfolk takes a look at his own notebooks, and talks to AS Byatt, John Cooper Clarke and David Mitchell about theirs. He's joined in the studio by Wendy Cope, Bidisha, and Rachel Foss of the British Library for a discussion about notebooks, creativity, and how the digi...

Matthew Sweet talks to Iain Sinclair and New Generation Thinker Dr Greg Tate about a walk to mark John Clare's death 150 years ago. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, discuss how privacy vs expression and remembering vs forgetting clash in the internet age. Plus Cherry Potter and Daniel Bird...

Nick Payne talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Incognito and the man who stole Einstein's brain. New Generation Thinker Fern Riddell reviews Sky Atlantic's Penny Dreadful and our fascination with Victorian Gothic. Helen McCarthy and Pauline Neville-Jones discuss female diplomats. Plus another New Generation Thinker, Jules Evans, reports on the Reader Organisation's Conference at the British Libra...

Interview with the prominent Czech writer who has just published memoir, My Crazy Century, followed by a discussion debating whether Europe will always need an East. And why are we interested in science fiction film and theatre.

MJ Hyland reviews Simon Armitage's The Last Days of Troy at the Royal Exchange Manchester starring Lily Cole. Chris Harding looks at Japanese fears in Godzilla and The Wind Rises. Dr Philip Roscoe and Professor Geoffrey Wood on whether academia needs to change the focus of studies into financial systems. Plus Zoe Norridge discusses Deutsche Borse prize winner Richard Mosse and depictions of Africa...

Anne McElvoy looks at the benefits and challenges of cities pooling resources. Michael Wynne and Rachel De-lahay discuss their plays opening in Liverpool and Birmingham this week. Plus New Generation Thinkers Matthew Smith, from the University of Strathclyde, and Charlotte Blease, from University College Dublin, have been working on philosophy and psychiatric diagnosis, depression and ADHD.

David Henry Hwang tells Philip about his 2007 drama Yellow Face, reflecting life of Asian American and now showing in London; biographer Rachel Holmes and New Generation thinker, historian Emma Griffin explore Eleanor Marx's life.

As a musical version of The Water Babies opens Simon Heffer and New Generation Thinker Corin Throsby discuss the ideas of Charles Kingsley. Matthew Sweet talks about literary satire with novelist Edward St Aubyn. Plus we mark today's anniversary of Roger Bannister's 4 minute mile by talking to documentary maker Sally McLean about her current film project which profiles the Viennese running coach F...

Samira Ahmed is joined by poets Paul Farley, Fiona Sampson and Clive Wilmer to discuss Thom Gunn, who died ten years ago. An interview with Michael Cunningham, about his new novel The Snow Queen. Plus historians Charlie Laderman and Umit Ungor discuss Turkish Armenian relations.

The BBC Radiophonic workshop,opened in 1958 with an aim to experiment and produce original music for various iconic BBC programmes. It was shut down 40 years later by Director General John Birt. In an edition recorded just as the Workshop prepare to release a new album, and tour the UK, Matthew Sweet brings together Radiophonic Workshop members Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Peter Howell...

Philip Dodd explores the sexual mores of eighteenth-century England talking to Faramerz Dabhoiwala of Exeter College, Oxford, Joanne Bailey of Oxford Brookes University, David Turner of Swansea University, author and broadcaster Hallie Rubenhold and Judith Hawley of Royal Holloway College. This download does contain some strong language.

Samira Ahmed discusses the ownership of street art with Mary McCarthy, Director of MM Contemporary Arts; Professor Lionel Bently, barrister and copyright expert on intellectual property, and street artist and gallery owner, Pure Evil. Ex-ITV CEO Stewart Purvis on the rise of indie news organisation Vice. Plus artist Jeremy Millar, film critic Chris Darke and Habda Rashid, Assistant Curator at The...

In extended conversation with Philip Dodd, Dame Janet Suzman talks about her acting and directing and politics in her native South Africa - which goes to the polls on May 7th.

Philip Dodd explores 18th century attitudes to the law, crime and punishment with Professor Norman S Poser, Antonia Hodgson, Lucy Powell and Geoffrey Robertson QC.

In 1714 Bernard de Mandeville published his provocative Fable of the Bees, in which he explored the relationship between morality and economic wealth. As part of Radio 3's 18th Century season of programming, Matthew Sweet chairs a discussion with the Natural History Museum's Dr Erica McAlister, Southampton University economic historian Dr Helen Paul, finance journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4...

Anne McElvoy talks to Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Desmond Shawe-Taylor and historians Amanda Foreman, StellaTillyard and Jeremy Black about 18th century monarchy and power.

If Mrs Thatcher thought she was living again through Victorian England, we are now living through the eighteenth century. This special edition of Free Thinking explores London as the centre of the world then and now, financial bubbles bursting then and now, and the lust for consumption then and now, whether of bodies or bodices. Philip Dodd brings together the MP and author Kwasi Kwarteng, histori...

Naomi Alderman, Geoff Mulgan and Lionel Bently join Philip Dodd to explore the ever-changing meaning of Originality. Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, discusses the meaning of greatness in art in front of the new exhibition - Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice. And as Simon Stephens's new play Birdland opens, the playwright talks inspirations, death and originality.

Matthew Sweet discusses the silent film star Betty Balfour with BFI curator Byony Dixon and comedian Lucy Porter and interviews Dutch novelist Peter Buwalda and James Lovelock.

Anne McElvoy looks at the impact of war, the Afghan elections and childhood violence. She's joined by Professor Hew Strachan and Ian Morris. Film critic Charlotte O Sullivan has been watching 'I Declare War,' Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson's film about childhood games which turn sour. And in the week that the British Command handed over to the Americans in Helmand province, Noorjahan Akbar and Ha...

Matthew Sweet explores the idea of the police with the playwright Roy Williams, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Sara Thornton, the historian Kate Colquhoun and the film maker and criminologist Roger Graef.

Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Victoria Walsh join Anne McElvoy to discuss the display of art and design. As Prospect magazine launches the long list for its poll of World Thinkers for 2014, Serena Kutchinsky, Digital Editor of Prospect, joins Anne to debate what makes a leading intellectual. And lawyer and political activist Raja Shehadeh outlines the argu...

Damon Galgut's new book Arctic Summer evokes EM Forster's experiences in India and the inspiration Forster found there. Galgut joins Rana Mitter and a panel of guests including Tariq Ali and Alex Clark to explore the writing and career of EM Forster in a programme live from Radio 3's pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre.