As the winner of the Paul Foot award for investigative and campaigning journalism is announced, Matthew Sweet re-assesses the significance of this award with Ian Hislop and the winner Andrew Norfolk, in a year the judges have described as "exceptionally strong". Matthew talks to political philosopher John Gray about his latest book and asks should we turn towards contemplation of the natural world and the non-human? And James Lasdun discusses his memoir on literary stalking with psychoanalyst Li...
Feb 27, 2013•46 min
Does compassion inhibit rational political debate? To discuss, Philip Dodd is joined by MP David Blunkett, IPPR Director Nick Pearce, and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Adriana Sinclair. Sarah Dunant reviews a new Frederico Barocci exhibition, arguing that the artist should be added to the list of Italian Renaissance masters. Rory Carroll discusses his new book on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. And Annalisa Piras reflects on what the surprises of the Italian election can tell us about the cou...
Feb 26, 2013•46 min
A Landmark edition in which Anne McElvoy and guests look at Alain-Fournier's celebrated and nostalgic tale of adolescent romance, Le Grand Meaulnes. Michèle Roberts, Hermione Lee and Patrick McGuiness examine it's enduring appeal and legacy from the poetry of its language, to the interlocking mysteries of its plot to the intriguing romantic life and early death of its author, and the story of the woman who inspired him. With readings by Peter Marinker.
Feb 21, 2013•43 min
Ray Kurzweil, renowned American inventor, thinker and futurist, joins Rana Mitter to discuss questions of consciousness and humanity, and the possibilities of a world where humans and intelligent machines live side by side. Rana explores the idea of the ‘Anglosphere’, and whether there is a shared identity across the English-speaking world, with historians John Darwin and Tim Stanley and the writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. And playwright Anders Lustgarten discusses his new production for the Royal ...
Feb 21, 2013•45 min
Adam Mars-Jones reviews the first West End revival of the nine Tony award winning; A Chorus Line. What is old age, and when we get there, how do we face the end? Philip Dodd discusses with the best-selling novelist Lynne Reid Banks, historian Pat Thane and Professor of English Literature at Oxford, Helen Small. Plus an interview with the controversial Israeli historian Shlomo Sand.
Feb 20, 2013•45 min
Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think about humanity and how it will impact our moral and philosophical universe. Matthew is joined by the best-selling science-fiction writer Stephen Baxter, the science broadcaster and journalist Sue Nelson, the futurist and neuroscientist Anders Sandberg, and one of our leading space scientists, John Zarnecki, Professor of Space Science at the Open University. This event was recorded as part of Radio 3's Free Thinki...
Feb 19, 2013•44 min
Geoffrey Robertson QC joins Anne McElvoy to pay tribute to American philosopher and constitutional law expert Ronald Dworkin, who died on 14th February 2013 aged 81. We hear from award-winning author Andrew Solomon about his monumental study of modern identity - Far From the Tree. Writer and historian Joanna Bourke reviews Complicit, Channel 4's new feature-length drama, which explores an MI5 officer’s moral dilemma over the use of torture in the War on Terror. And did brutal conquest rather tha...
Feb 15, 2013•46 min
Matthew Sweet discusses the legacy of Sylvia Plath, who died 50 years ago this week, with her friend Ruth Fainlight and the poet Fiona Sampson. Tacita Dean and film maker Mike Figgis join Matthew in the studio to discuss the shift in film from traditional to digital technology and its implications. A review of The Bride and the Bachelors, a new exhibition of the work of Marcel Duchamp. And the science writer Marcus Chown and futurologist Anders Sandberg discuss the potential threats caused by tw...
Feb 14, 2013•45 min
Mark Ravenhill on translating Bertolt Brecht's A Life of Galileo; the value of the mundane is discussed; and is the way in which today's corporations are run now obsolete?
Feb 13, 2013•45 min
Novelist, poet and musician Amit Chaudhuri joins Samira Ahmed to discuss his latest book which reflects on his relationship with Calcutta. Clifford Longley and Peter Stanford discuss the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. Susannah Clapp joins us for a first-night review of Robert Lepage’s Playing Cards 1: Spades, the latest production by one of theatre's boldest and most innovative directors. And former Whitehall insider Gill Bennett lifts the lid on the workings of British foreign pol...
Feb 12, 2013•45 min
Anne McElvoy talks to William Dalrymple about his new book Return of A King - an account of Britain's first Afghan War in the 19th century. A major retrospective of Man Ray, at the National Portrait Gallery, is discussed by writer Kevin Jackson, film critic and Parisienne Ginette Vincendeau, and cultural historian Andrew Hussey. All three discuss the artistic melting pot of Paris in the 1910s and 20s - the subject of a major event at The Rest is Noise Festival at the South Bank centre in London....
Feb 08, 2013•45 min
Samira Ahmed visits the British Museum to see its new show about Ice Age art. She is also joined by Nadeem Aslam - a Pakistani writer whose latest book, The Blind Man's Garden, offers a perspective on the last ten years of world history. Amanda Hopkinson reviews Pablo Larraín's latest film, No. And the novelist Rosie Thomas and biographer Matthew Dennison reflect on Rumer Godden, the author of Black Narcissus.
Feb 07, 2013•45 min
Philip Dodd talks to psychologist Bertolt Meyer, the model for the world's first complete bionic human and recipient of a bionic arm. Opera Now Editor Ashutosh Khandekhar joins Philip to review Kasper Holten's much anticipated debut at the ROH with Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. A new exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London looks at the positive sides of extinction and palaeontologist Norman Macleod, scientist Georgina Mace and psycho-geographer and poet Iain Sinclair discuss. And Phili...
Feb 06, 2013•45 min
The King in the car park: what is the significance of the University of Leicester’s discovery of the bones of Richard III, one of Britain’s most vilified monarchs? Matthew Sweet is joined by human remains sociologist Tiffany Jenkins and historian Jonathan Healey to discuss. BFI curator Nathalie Morris reviews the new film Hitchcock, and discusses the importance of his wife, Alma, for his career and reputation. We look at cross-dressing in the late nineteenth century, with biographer Neil McKenna...
Feb 05, 2013•45 min
Anne McElvoy discusses the libraries of Timbuktu, and what they teach us about literacy and book culture in Africa, with Dr Shamil Jeppie, Dr Marion Wallace, Head of African Collections at the British Library, and the novelist Aminatta Forna. Susannah Clapp delivers a first-night review of a revival of Harold Pinter’s play, Old Times. Historian Paul Kennedy delves into the story of the problem solvers of the Second War, the subject of his new book The Engineers of Victory. And Karl Sharro gives ...
Feb 01, 2013•45 min
Philip Dodd along with Dr Tim Stanley and Paul Glastris review the American version of the political thriller House of Cards. Deborah Cohen, Mark Vernon and Charlotte Blease discuss shame and guilt amongst the British family from the Victorian era to the present day. Rufus Norris and Rotimi Babatunde discuss Feast, a new production at the Young Vic, London. And Auschwitz survivor Otto Dov Kulka tells Philip about his unique education at the hands of the Nazi's.
Jan 31, 2013•45 min
Rana Mitter & Susannah Clapp review a new production of Simon Gray's Quartermaine's Terms starring Rowan Atkinson. Rana also talks to Neil Shubin about his new book, the Universe Within, which traces the history of the cosmos in the human body. In another new book co-author Juan Pablo Cardenal along with Professor O.A. Westad discuss China's Silent Army and whether their investments abroad have sinister and disturbing implications? And Rana talks to Nihad Sirees and Malu Halasa about writing...
Jan 30, 2013•45 min
As the Tate Britain opens a new exhibition of the work of Kurt Schwitters, art critic Charlotte Mullins joins Matthew Sweet to review and to reassess the oeuvre of the German painter and sculptor. Dr Rupa Huq discusses her new book On The Edge, in which she argues that the English suburb has transformed from a paradise to a pressure cooker. As gender has been a topic for national debate recently, Julie Bindel, Jane Fae and Lynne Segal debate the concept of gender as a social category. And Lara F...
Jan 29, 2013•45 min
With the publication of a new, updated version of The Rotten Heart of Europe, a book which caused outrage and delight on its first release, Anne McElvoy discusses the current situation in Europe with the book’s author Bernard Connolly and economist Anatole Kaletsky. Journalist Michael Goldfarb reviews Zero Dark Thirty, the new film which traces the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Anne heads a debate on the shifting definition of the artist, with Tom Morris, poet Don Paterson and critic Sarah Kent. And...
Jan 25, 2013•45 min
This Night Waves special explores ‘kitchen sink realism’, the cultural movement which gave urgent, vivid expression to the reality of post-war Britain. Samira Ahmed is joined by celebrated film maker Ken Loach, film historian Melanie Williams and theatre critic Michael Billington to discuss the aims and achievements of the movement. Composer Neil brand performs live, illustrating a brief history of how music is used in ‘kitchen sink’ films. And art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston explains the ho...
Jan 24, 2013•45 min
Matthew Sweet with a review, from Lynda Neade, of the UK's first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. Maria Konnikova says that Sherlock Holmes can offer us the key to a world where we use our brains to their full potential. Alan Rusbridger and Matthew Taylor explore the status of the amateur in society and ask whether there has been a genuine shift in how we value the role of the non-professional. And Matthew Sweet talks to Norman Stone about his latest book: A Short ...
Jan 23, 2013•45 min
This Night Waves special is devoted to Abraham Lincoln. As Steven Spielberg's new biopic of Lincoln is released in the UK, the pioneering president remains a towering figure in American life. And yet his legacy is not without controversy. Was he really such a saintly figure? And why should Barack Obama feel such a strong connection with Lincoln? Rana Mitter and guests discuss the man, the politics and the legacy.
Jan 21, 2013•44 min
Anne McElvoy settles decorously into Regency England to celebrate the bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen's enduringly popular novel, of a single man in possession of a good fortune, was an immediate success - but it hasn't always inspired slavish admiration: critics have objected to the apparently narrow focus on affairs of the hearth and heart, while the Napoleonic wars raged and the industrial revolution brewed. Anne is joined by leading Austen-ologists Professors John Mullan and ...
Jan 17, 2013•44 min
Philip Dodd is joined by the playwright David Hare whose play, The Judas Kiss, is about to open in the West End starring Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde. We review The Sessions, a new film based on the true story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined, at age 38, to lose his virginity. Historian Carl Watkins joins Philip to discuss everything from memento mori to haunted moorland, along with philosopher and New Generation Thinker Timothy Secret. And Mark Binelli guides us as we ventur...
Jan 17, 2013•45 min
Matthew Sweet talks to the Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre, Jude Kelly and the cultural historian, Peter Conrad about The Rest is Noise, a year-long festival at the Southbank Centre which maps the history of the 20th century through its music. We hear an appraisal, by Diane Roberts, of the Cuban-American and openly gay poet Richard Blanco chosen to read at Barack Obama's inauguration next week. One of this year's New Generation Thinkers Adriana Sinclair discusses rape with the histori...
Jan 16, 2013•45 min
In this edition of weekly highlights, David Benedict reviews the New Year Blockbuster Les Misérables. Philip Dodd is joined by Professors Michael King and Linda Woodhead, and theologian Mark Vernon, to explore whether we can make any sense of the idea of ‘spirituality’ without religion. And Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the life and work of the Russian director Konstantin Stanislavski, born 150 years ago this month.
Jan 15, 2013•41 min
Django Unchained, the newest Quentin Tarantino film causing controversy, is reviewed by Philip Dodd with cultural commentator Kit Davis and film critic Tim Robey. Author Lucy Hughes-Hallett joins Philip to discuss the life of Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio, the subject of her new book The Pike. We explore the complex code of English manners with Henry Hitchings, whose new book tells their history, and Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo. And Philip interviews Sharon Olds, winner of this year’s T S Eli...
Jan 15, 2013•44 min
Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the life and work of the Russian director Konstantin Stanislavski, born 150 years ago this month. Adam Mars-Jones reviews Utopia, a new drama on Channel 4. Which should be our priority, growing the economy or protecting the environment? Environmental campaigner Tony Juniper joins Anne, along with Dr Benny Peiser to discuss. And the historian Jonathan Healey, one of our New Generation Thinkers, reflects on the proposals to change succession laws and what they might...
Jan 11, 2013•45 min
To mark the 60th anniversary of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Rana Mitter is joined by philosophers Rupert Read and Barry Smith, and Wittgenstein’s biographer Ray Monk, to examine his legacy in Western philosophical tradition. Graham Stewart talks about his new book which details the influence and paradoxes of the 1980s. And Aidan Foster-Carter and Shakuntala Banaji discuss the ‘soft’ power that K-Pop and Bollywood have generated for their respective countries.
Jan 10, 2013•45 min
Fiona Shaw takes to the stage with Samuel Coleridge’s epic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; she joins Philip Dodd to discuss language, endurance and death. Professors Michael King and Linda Woodhead, and theologian Mark Vernon, explore whether we can make any sense of the idea of ‘spirituality’ without religion. And David Benedict reviews the New Year Blockbuster, Les Misérables.
Jan 09, 2013•45 min
