Stephanie Flanders contemplates nothing with science editor Jeremy Webb who is fascinated with the idea of vacuum, voids and absolute zero; and astronomer Carolin Crawford explains there's more to black holes than meets the eye. The director Simon McBurney looks to reveal all in his production of the Magic Flute, including liberating the orchestra from the pit to centre stage; and Fiona Shaw asks 'is this all?' in her re-imagining of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Producer: Natalia Fernandez....
Nov 04, 2013•42 min
Start the Week is at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead. Anne McElvoy talks to the historian Catherine Merridale about the Kremlin - a Russian fortress which has retained its original medieval function to intimidate and control, and which holds a special place in the imagination. Few buildings in England inspire such fear, but Simon Thurley explores how the country's architecture has influenced the world. The Newcastle-born writer Michael Chaplin looks to the history of the River Ty...
Oct 28, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders asks the head of the British Red Cross, Sir Nick Young, whether the charity's principle of neutrality is still as relevant today as it was 150 years ago. The journalist Lindsey Hilsum has reported on the major international conflicts and atrocities in the last few decades and wrestles with the moral complexities of being neutral and impartial. Making judgements about who deserves to be helped and how many, concerns the economist Paul Collier, as he attempts t...
Oct 17, 2013•42 min
Tom Sutcliffe discusses the role and place of contemporary art in today's global, digital world with the artist Grayson Perry. While the Director of Tate Britain Penelope Curtis looks back to a time when images held such power and caused such outrage that they had to be destroyed, in an exhibition on iconoclasm. Philip Davis offers a defence of the value of reading serious literature. And Nicholas Lovell looks at the money that artists can make, using the internet to change the way they relate t...
Oct 14, 2013•42 min
Anne McElvoy looks back to the Victorian age with Simon Heffer who argues it laid the foundations for modern society, from the evolution of British democracy, to new attitudes to education, religion and science. Professor of British Government, Anthony King, considers if the blunders of today's parliamentarians has anything on the antics of Gladstone and Disraeli. But the writer DJ Taylor believes it's the era's novels which have left a lasting impression. And the curator Sonia Solicari has crea...
Oct 04, 2013•42 min
Stephanie Flanders talks to the Canadian poet Anne Carson about updating a three thousand year old myth, in which the red winged monster becomes a moody teenage boy. Daljit Nagra takes inspiration from poets across Asia for his own version of the ancient text, Ramayana. The sins of the father are revisited in Richard Eyre's version of Ibsen's Ghosts. And Celtic Europe is the setting for Graham Robb's latest journey, as he uncovers a lost map which reveals hidden meanings in an ancient civilisati...
Sep 27, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders considers the impact of new technology on 'digital natives', a generation who have never known life without facebook and smartphones. Beeban Kidron's new film explores the lives of teenagers and the corporations that influence and manipulate their online lives for profit. The entrepreneur Jamal Edwards started filming his friends rapping when he was just 15, he's used the web to become a multi-million pound CEO. The academic Farida Vis researches the invisibl...
Sep 23, 2013•42 min
As Start the Week returns to Radio 4, Tom Sutcliffe talks to Margaret Atwood about her vision of the future. In the last of a trilogy of dystopian novels, Atwood charts the fortunes of a group of survivors after a man-made plague has devastated the world. There's more man-made corruption and savagery in Vicky Featherstone's first production as the new Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre: The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas is a dark morality tale. But the philosopher A C Grayling go...
Sep 16, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Sue MacGregor asks what happens when the world's population reaches ten billion. The computer scientist, Stephen Emmott argues that time is running out for humanity unless we radically change our behaviour, but the geographer Danny Dorling believes that we should be preparing for the inevitable population decline. Jill Rutter explores the impact of differing scientific advice on politics, and the complexity of evidence-based policy. And with India's population set to exceed tha...
Jul 01, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders discusses social mobility. Zadie Smith's novel NW is a portrait of modern urban life in which characters try, but mostly fail, to escape their past. The Conservative Minister David Willetts and the columnist Owen Jones discuss what meritocracy and opportunity mean in today's society. And the social historian David Kynaston looks to the end of the 1950s when meritocracy became the buzz word of the day. Producer: Katy Hickman.
Jun 24, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland talks to Hari Kunzru about his dystopian vision, where books and the act of remembering have been banned. Jane Rogers explains how her apocalyptic tale may be set in the future but points to today's abuse of scientific knowledge and the heroism of youth. Past real events are at the heart of James Robertson's latest novel which explores grief, justice and the truth. And the photographer Adam Broomberg asks how far images of war capture the truth. Producer: Kat...
Jun 17, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the Russian expert Fiona Hill about the many faces of Vladimir Putin, while Vladislav Zubok considers the impact of the past on the Russia of today. Oliver Bullough turns to drink to understand the soul of the nation and the historian Rachel Polonsky considers the cultural landscape of the post-Soviet era. Producer: Katy Hickman.
Jun 10, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Allan Little grapples with super-symmetric particles, superstrings and multiverses with the help of Jon Butterworth. But the writer Jim Baggott dismisses many of the ideas of modern theoretical physics as mere fairy tales and fantasy. The sociologist Hilary Rose bemoans the commercialisation of biological sciences and warns against believing the hype. But the world-renowned stem cell scientist Stephen Minger believes recent developments show great promise for the treatments of ...
Jun 03, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Emily Maitlis talks to the Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt about the digital future. A future where everyone is connected, but ideas of privacy, security and community are transformed. Former Wikileaks employee James Ball asks how free we are online. The curator Honor Harger looks to art to understand this new world of technology. And worried about this brave new world? David Spiegelhalter, offers a guide to personal risk and the numbers behind it. Producer: Katy Hic...
May 27, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores movements and people that have changed the political landscape. The MP Jesse Norman champions the founder of modern conservatism, the 18th century philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke. Lady Antonia Fraser brings to life the Great Reform Bill of 1832 which transformed the way Britain was governed. And one of the co-founders of the Occupy movement, David Graeber, looks afresh at the idea of democracy. Producer: Katy Hickman.
May 20, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Carrie Cracknell talks to Jonathan Freedland about her new production of Berg's opera, Wozzeck, and the descent of the central character into madness and despair. The pianist Jonathan Biss looks at whether Schumann's later music reflects the troubled state of his mind. The psychiatrist's diagnostic bible is to be updated later this month, and Tom Burns and Richard Bentall discuss the controversies that continue to dog the world of psychiatry. Producer: Katy Hickman.
May 13, 2013•42 min
Start the Week is at the Brighton Festival. Stephanie Flanders talks to Michael Rosen about why the 1929 children's novel, Emil and the Detectives, is at the heart of the festival, with its city tale of hope, invention and dissent. But the writer and traveller Jay Griffiths criticises a Western risk-averse society for denying children the opportunity to roam free. Stanmer Woods is the setting of Matt Adams's latest theatrical experience which traces the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland...
May 06, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Lisa Jardine talks to the artist Gavin Turk about the construction of artistic myth and the question of authorship and authenticity. The rare book dealer Rick Gekoski searches for lost treasures amid tales of theft, forgery and destruction, while the curator Paul Roberts reveals the life and culture preserved in the volcanic devastation of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The everyday object - a table - is at the centre of Tanya Ronder's new play of belonging, identity and inheritance....
Apr 29, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at the cultural history of Italy. The world renowned film director, Bernardo Bertolucci discusses his latest film Me and You. The journalist and film-maker Annalisa Piras looks back at her country's political, economic and social decline over the last two decades while the English born conductor with Italian roots, Antonio Pappano, talks about the musical soul of Italy. And Tim Parks offers a portrait of his adopted homeland - the 'charmingly irritating dyst...
Apr 19, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland journeys from the origin of life to the possibilities of new life-forms with the geneticist Adam Rutherford. Steve Jones updates the Bible from the point of view of modern science and Barbara Sahakian looks at our ability to make decisions, and whether 'smart drugs' should be used to boost our reactions. The artist Susan Aldworth is inspired by neuro-scientific imagery to explore the relationship between mind and body in her portraits of those with epilepsy a...
Apr 15, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders talks to the award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about the notion of 'home' in today's globalised world. It's a theme taken up on stage in 'Paper Dolls' directed by Indhu Rubasingham, which follows a Filipino drag act working in Tel Aviv. David Goodhart explores the British Dream and the successes and failures of post war immigration. And from the movement of people, to the trade in powders, salts, paints and cures, the poet Michael Symmons Robe...
Apr 08, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe discusses the 'myth' of progress with James Lasdun, Mary Beard, Mark Ravenhill and John Gray. The poet and novelist James Lasdun talks about his experience of being cyber-stalked and the terrifying opportunities new technology offers. Mary Beard looks back to classical times to see how far the relationship between persecutor and persecuted have changed. Playwright Mark Ravenhill discusses his comic reworking of Voltaire's 'Candide'. But is everything in the 21st c...
Apr 01, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Allan Little talks to Pakistani novelist, Mohsin Hamid about 'how to get filthy rich in rising Asia', and his self-help manual of rags to riches. The playwright Bruce Norris dramatises an entrepreneur's quest for wealth with priceless ambition, while Katherine Boo explores the slums of Mumbai to question the impact of the volatility of the market. And the turbulent times of an English village throughout the 20th century is the subject of Peter Moffat's latest television series....
Mar 25, 2013•39 min
On Start the Week Lisa Jardine asks whether the writing of history has been dominated by conflict and difference. The Professor of History, David Cannadine argues against the predominant 'them and us' agenda, and for a common humanity. While the Balkan writer Aleksandar Hemon splits his life between Sarajevo and Chicago. Ed Vulliamy reported on the war in Bosnia and explores a journalist's role in historical events, and Margaret MacMillan discusses the teaching of history. Producer: Katy Hickman...
Mar 15, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland talks to Ken Loach about post-war Britain, and the spirit of unity which aimed to create a vision of a fairer society. Thirty years on and this culture of cooperation descended into fist fights in the House of Commons, and James Graham's stage imagining of the 1974 hung parliament. David Boyle takes the story on to examine the demise of the middle classes, and Harriet Sergeant looks at Britain's underclass, and the reasons why it's growing. Producer: Katy Hic...
Mar 11, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores the state of feminism today. It's fifty years since Betty Friedan's landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, questioned the role of women in society. Anne McElvoy discusses that role today with the Living Dolls author, Natasha Walter, the proponent of erotic capital Catherine Hakim, the radical feminist Finn Mackay and the journalist and academic Shereen El Feki who has been looking at the changing sexual attitudes and behaviour in the Arab world. This progra...
Mar 04, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Bridget Kendall discusses the role and future of the Commonwealth. As its Secretary-General at the turn of the century, Sir Don McKinnon reveals its inner workings. But the journalist Frances Harrison is critical of the organisation for failing to challenge human rights abuses. The MP Kwasi Kwarteng questions whether the Commonwealth can ever shed the baggage of Empire, and Sir Ronald Sanders asks if it can survive the rise of China. Producer: Katy Hickman.
Feb 25, 2013•42 min
On Start the Week Lisa Jardine discusses how complex maths has broken free of the laboratory and now influences every aspect of our lives. James Owen Weatherall applauds the take-over of the financial world by physicists, Marcus du Sautoy revels in the numbers and Kenneth Cukier explores how big data will change everything from disease control to bargain buys. But the cultural commentator Tiffany Jenkins sounds a note of caution about a world where everything is measurable. Producer: Katy Hickma...
Feb 11, 2013•42 min
Bridget Kendall discusses the roots and reach of Islamist terrorism from Afghanistan to Africa. The historian William Dalrymple looks back to Britain's First Afghan War where many Afghanis rose in answer to the call for jihad. Nadeem Aslam's latest novel ranges across the Afghan-Pakistan border where the past and the present are locked together. Dr Christina Hellmich explores what has happened to al-Qaeda since Osama bin Laden's death. And as David Cameron calls the response to Islamist terroris...
Feb 04, 2013•42 min
Start the Week Allan Little explores the legacy of George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. Joan Bakewell, Tim Montgomerie, Chris Mullin and Phil Collins discuss Orwell's warning that evasive language, euphemism and insincerity dominate political writing, and assess the impact of today's political diaries, blogging and tweeting. Producer: Katy Hickman.
Jan 28, 2013•42 min
