Arts and Ideas

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• Night Waves - David Eagleman 23 May 12

  Fri, 25 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to neuroscientist David Eagleman to discuss the new ethical issues raised by the contradictory nature of brain science. The online social revolution is arguably the biggest cultural change the world has experienced since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. However, Andrew Keen - in his new book Digital Vertigo - suggests the social revolution is more dizzying and divisive than it is communitarian and life-enhancing. He's joined by writer and broadcaster, Naomi Alderman to untangle the web of social media. Anne also talks to the former diplomat and soldier Rory Stewart MP about his new two-part television documentary about Afghanistan. And a new exhibition at the British Museum explores how man's relationship with the horse has developed over centuries, from the deserts of Arabia to the race courses of England. Historians Louise Curth and Donna Landry discuss how the iconography of the horse has been represented in art and culture.

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• Night Waves - Sicilian Culture 23 May 12

  Thu, 24 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  As a new book about warring philosophical frenemies Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre is published, Philip Dodd explores their fractious relationship. Italian affairs commentator Geoff Andrews and Sicilian journalist Alessandra Bonomolo discuss to what extent the Sicilian Renaissance was successful. And Nick Pearce, director of the Institute for Public Policy Research, journalist Sue Cameron and political historian Peter Catterall discuss the nature of safe spaces in politics: how much have they facilitated the course of politics in the UK? Should all ministerial advice be made public?

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• Night Waves - Jackie Kay 22 May 12

  Wed, 23 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Samira Ahmed talks to Jackie Kay and the former Reith lecturer, Michael Sandel about their new books, reviews a new production of Pinter's Betrayal and discusses the merits of a new extended version of Sergio Leone's gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America.

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• Night Waves - John Healy and Marilynne Robinson

  Tue, 22 May 12

  Duration:
  44 mins

  Matthew Sweet talks to the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson about the theologian, Jean Calvin and what she believes is his profound influence on the great tradition of American literature. Also in the programme, the writer John Healy. After fifteen years of living on the streets of London as an alcoholic, Healy discovered chess in prison, and then wrote an acclaimed autobiography, The Grass Arena. As a new documentary, Barbaric Genius, sets out to unravel the tangled story of how that publishing success turned into infamy, John Healy talks to Matthew Sweet about his life and his writing.

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• R3Arts:Night Waves-Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

  Fri, 18 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to Susannah Clapp about The Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theatre. Angie Hobbs,Emily Sandberg and Anders Sandberg discuss how far we should push athletic performance. Michael Goldfarb and Ian Christie assess the legacy of the film Colonel Blimp. What has its impact been on the way we think about the conduct of war? And Caroline Cox decodes the meaning of the word Glamorous and reviews the V and A’s Ballgowns exhibition.

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• Night Waves - Photographers' Gallery 16 May 12

  Thu, 17 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Samira Ahmed and guests discuss the opening and relaunch of The Photographer's Gallery in London this weekend after relocating to new premises and a multi-million pound overhaul. Carlos Fuentes, one of Mexico's greatest writers, died on Tuesday and Professor Steven Boldy, an expert on his work and close friend, explains why he was so significant in the Spanish-speaking world and beyond. Paul Seabright, the author of "The War of the Sexes", and historian Joanna Bourke debate whether the answer to greater harmony and equality between the sexes lies in our remote evolutionary past. And New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari and Lucy Powell discuss this year's Brighton Festival curated by Vanessa Redgrave.

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• Night Waves - Ideology 15 May 12

  Wed, 16 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Matthew Sweet presents Night Waves with a first night review of a new production of Falstaff live from the Royal Opera House in London. Journalist Peter Oborne and writer Eliane Glaser join Matthew to debate political ideology. Scottish human rights lawyer and screenwriter Paul Laverty talks to Matthew about his new political film Even The Rain and Diego Marani a linguist at the European Union who writes a column for a Swiss newspaper in the made up language of Europanto.

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• Night Waves - Taliban Poetry

  Tue, 15 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Rana Mitter reads a new collection of poetry from the Taliban in a newly translated volume that attempts to get inside the lives of a people little understood in the West. Science writer Philip Ball traces the rise of curiosity back to the 17th century and the Scientific Revolution when it changed from a vice to a virtue. And a review of an exhibition that’s a time capsule of 18th Century loot revealing the tastes, art, books and souvenirs of aristocrats returning from their Grand Tour of Europe.

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• R3Arts:Night Waves-Bring Up the Bodies,56 Up,Babel

  Fri, 11 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to Hilary Mantel about her new historical novel Bring up the Bodiesand to Michael Apted the film maker behind the ground-breaking television documentary project 56 Up which has been following the lives of a selection of English people at seven year intervals.Susannah Clapp reviews Babel, the latest project from the immersive theatre company who won plaudits for last year's mammoth theatrical extravaganza, The Passion, in Port Talbot. This event has been commissioned for World Stages London as part of the Cultural Olympiad and uses the biblical story of the Tower of Babel as a starting point around which to organise 500 performers in an outdoor performance that has been billed as the theatrical event of the year.

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• Night Waves - Vidal Sassoon 16 May 11

  Thu, 10 May 12

  Duration:
  16 mins

  In remembrance of Vidal Sassoon, Night Waves podcasts an interview with Philip Dodd first broadcast on Monday 16 May 2011. As a film is released about Vidal Sassoon's life, he talks to Philip about growing up as a Jew in East London in the 1930s, his life as the iconic hairdresser of the 1960s and his later work.

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• Night Waves - Andro Linklater 09 May 12

  Thu, 10 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Samira Ahmed talks to Andro Linklater whose new book Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die examines the assassination of the all-powerful prime minister of Great Britain, on 11 May 1812.

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• Night Waves 8th May

  Wed, 9 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Victorian women cast a long shadow over our imaginations But do we do enough to differentiate between the fictional characters and the real women? What lies beneath our perceptions of either? Matthew Sweet embarks on an exploration of the Victorian woman's psyche with the writers, Kate Summerscale and Sarah Ruhl and the historians, Kate Williams and Lynda Nead.

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• Night Waves - Portraits Day 07 May 12

  Tue, 8 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  In a special edition from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Philip Dodd is joined by writer Ian Rankin, artist Alison Watt whose self portrait now hangs at the gallery, the poet and critic Robert Crawford, and John Leighton Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland to examine the nature of portraiture and the cultural tensions created when capturing a likeness in figurative and abstract painting, poetry and literature.

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• Night Waves - Landmark: The Tempest 03 May 12

  Fri, 4 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Philip Dodd presents a Landmark edition devoted to Shakespeare's The Tempest, a drama reimagined by artists from Purcell to Derek Jarman via TS Eliot, Derek Walcott and Thomas Adès. In the studio to discuss this strange and compelling play are the writer and director Jonathan Miller who first directed the Tempest in 1970 and again in 1988, David Troughton, the actor who played Caliban in Sam Mendes 1993 production, the Shakespeare scholar Helen Hackett, composer and director Jeremy Sams who created a version of The Tempest story, The Enchanted Island, for the Metropolitan Opera and the writer Kamila Shamsie.

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• Night Waves - Bauhaus 02 May 12

  Fri, 4 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Rana Mitter presents with a review of the new Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican and a discussion asking what it means to be Posh. Plus a new book on Darwin’s predecessors and a new exhibition in Cambridge on tombs from the Han China era.

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• Night Waves - Leonardo da Vinci 01 May 12

  Wed, 2 May 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  In this edition of Night Waves with Anne McElvoy, cardiac surgeon Francis Wells takes a look at a new exhibition of the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Ruchir Sharma, investment banker for Morgan Stanley together with Robert Guest, Washington Correspondent for The Economist, investigate what global and political forces are shaping emerging markets. Award-winning Bola Agbaje returns to the Royal Court Theatre, London with her new play Belong and discusses her work. And Jules Evans explains why we should be suspicious of attempts to measure our happiness levels, and put our faith in ancient philosophy instead.

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• night Waves 30th April

  Tue, 1 May 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Matthew Sweet presents a review of The English National Opera's The Flying Dutchman. He also traces the beginnings and history of Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company with Carla Laemmle,the founder’s niece and also asks if the stigma of being gay is melting away in secondary schools?

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• Night Waves - Imagination 25 Apr 12

  Thu, 26 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Philip Dodd talks to the writer Jonah Lehrer whose new book sets out to unravel creativity and understand the imagination. Thirty years ago the film Koyaanisqatsi was released and Jon Adams, a Radio 3 New Generation Thinker, argues that it's lasting legacy is the effect it has had on the advertising industry. Philip and guests also take a look at the World Shakespeare Festival, in particular the Globe Theatre which is staging all of Shakespeare's 37 plays in 37 different languages. And, as the Science Museum puts on display a Ripley Scroll recently discovered in its archives Philip explores the resurgence of alchemy's reputation with the historians Jennifer Rampling and Peter Forshaw.

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• Night Waves - The Rolling Stones 24 Apr 12

  Thu, 26 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  For Night Waves Samira Ahmed will be considering the legacy of that most venerable British institution - The Rolling Stones. Samira will also be talking to Harry Shearer, who's latest project has raised the spirit of Richard Nixon from his political grave to walk again as the star of a television drama. Something just as dramatic but not as funny is revealed in Ferdinand Mount's latest book - The New Few and to round things off Briony Hanson will assess Albert Nobbs, the film for which Glenn Close received an Oscar nomination for playing the part of a man.

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• Night Waves - Live Forever 23 Apr 12

  Tue, 24 Apr 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet talks to David Hare. His new play South Downs is paired with a new staging of Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version and these two one-act plays look at the emotional journey of both pupils and teachers at the beginnings and end of their lives. And do we really want to live forever? According to a new book much of all human endeavour is about our desire to be immortal. Also, Jack Zipes, author of The Irresistible Fairy Tale examines why fairy tales are uniquely capable of getting under the skin of culture and staying there.And there's a review of The Bridge the latest scandi-crime drama to hit the small screen.

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• Night Waves Ron Muek 18th April

  Fri, 20 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  We review the latest exhibition of a modern Frankenstein – one of the descriptions used for Ron Mueck, a hyper realist sculptor, who evokes both admiration and contempt. Also in the programme Award winning poet and first National Laureate of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis talks about her first ever play Clytemnestra and Tony Blair’s former speechwriter, Philip Collins and Edith Hall, a Professor of Classics argue over the ingredients of a great speech and whether technology really has fundamentally changed the art of speechwriting.

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• Night Waves - Gold 19 Apr 12

  Fri, 20 Apr 12

  Duration:
  44 mins

  The price of gold is on a high. Rana Mitter examines its incredible allure and asks if it has a role in the modern financial system with economist John Butler, novelist AS Byatt, metallurgist Susan La Niece, economic anthropologist Keith Hart and financial journalist Paul Lewis.

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• Night Waves - Transparency 17 Apr 12

  Wed, 18 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Sam West directing a new revival of Close the Coalhouse Door tells Anne McElvoy why the production still matters today. Anne is also joined by Ahmed Rashid to discuss his new book 'Pakistan on the Brink' and Louise Doughty on the tricky art of getting romantic comedy right in 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'. And with calls for detailed personal tax statements on how our money is spent, we look at how this will change our relationship with the state. Will increased transparency in our public institutions change the cultural landscape of Britain?

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• Night Waves 16th April

  Tue, 17 Apr 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet is joined by Nick Harkaway and Naomi Alderman to consider our changing relationship with the internet. He watches Kevin Macdonald's documentary on the life and legacy of Bob Marley and talks to Whit Stillman about his new film Damsels in Distress. And Kevin Jackson writes about the life of the art critic Tom Lubbock

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• Night Waves - Feminism 12 Apr 12

  Fri, 13 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Anne McElvoy and guests with a special programme on feminism: writing, philosophy and the body. Anne is joined by Susannah Clapp the author of "A Card from Angela Carter", the writer Janice Galloway and literary critic Suzi Feay. And Anne discusses whether the philosophical under-pinnings of feminism need adjustment with the philosophers Nancy Bauer and Meena Dhanda the feminst activist and writer Bidisha and Charlotte Vere founder of the think tank Women On.

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• Night Waves - Mozart's Sister 11 Apr 12

  Thu, 12 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Liberals want gentle dogs, and conservatives want obedient ones argues social and cultural psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his new book The Righteous Mind. Music critic Hilary Finch has the verdict on a new film 'Mozart's Sister'. Also, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, Night Waves explores the nature of hubris and its relation to engineering innovations and knowledge advancement.And writer and director Enda Walsh comes in to discuss Misterman.

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• Night Waves - British Landscape 10 Apr 12

  Wed, 11 Apr 12

  Duration:
  41 mins

  How should we appreciate the land around us? Tonight's Night Waves is devoted to a discussion on our changing relationship with the British landscape. Juliet Gardiner is joined by theologian and environmentalist Martin Palmer, writer and explorer Tristan Gooley, Fiona Reynolds Director General of the National Trust, and Radio 3 new Generation Thinker Alexandra Harris.

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• Night Waves - Luxury 09 Apr 12

  Mon, 9 Apr 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Philip Dodd explores our passion for luxury in an age of austerity. Is it a sin or simply the inevitable expression of our human nature? How has our understanding of luxury changed over the centuries? Should we embrace it or shy away? To examine these questions Philip is joined by Giles Fraser, Chris Sanderson, Robert Frank, Maxine Berg and Michael Scott.

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• Night Waves - La Grande Illusion 05 Apr 12

  Thu, 5 Apr 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Anne McElvoy presents a landmark edition on the Jean Renoir film La Grande Illusion. Popular with the audience and critics on its release in 1937, this masterpiece of French cinema tells the story of French officers trying to escape from a World War One prison. The film examines the themes of nationalism, duty, class and politics and has influenced a number of subsequent films including Casablanca and The Great Escape. Film historians Ginette Vincendeau and Ian Christie and professor of French History Julian Jackson join Anne to examine what makes this one of film's classics.

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• Night Waves - Sculptured Carving 04 Apr 12

  Thu, 5 Apr 12

  Duration:
  47 mins

  Philip Dodd goes to Kew Gardens in London to watch David Nash carving sculpture from felled trees and author Tom Holland discusses In the Shadow of the Sword, his new account of the history of Islam.

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• Night Waves-International Review 03 Apr 12

  Tue, 3 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Matthew Sweet chairs an "International Review" edition of the programme, with critics from around the world coming together to discuss the latest global cultural events and arts issues. They'll be discussing an Afrikaaner drama Beauty by Oliver Hermanus about being secretly gay in Bloemfontein; an Egyptian novel Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan, set in a world populated by worshippers of both Jesus and Jupiter; and as the world's biggest ever Shakespeare festival kicks off later this month, we'll be asking how global Britain's greatest author really is.

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• R3Arts:Night Waves Peter Carey, Museums, Daniel Everett

  Tue, 3 Apr 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Rana Mitter talks to the Australian writer Peter Carey about his new novel The Chemistry of Tears. Europe's museums are increasingly turning to countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for help in funding exhibitions. Does this form of cultural diplomacy force curators to compromise their content?Martin Roth, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum debates with Observer columnist Nick Cohen. And what can the language of an obscure Brazilian tribe called the Pirahã tell us about the evolution of our own? Linguist Daniel Everett explores how different societies have produced dramatically different languages.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 8

  Fri, 30 Mar 12

  Duration:
  13 mins

  Romance proved difficult for Schubert - he stood barely five feet tall, with a long oval face and a deeply cleft chin. In turning to the streets of 19th century Vienna, "a night in the arms of Venus lead to a lifetime on Mercury" Whilst uncertainty exists about the cause of Schubert's death from syphilis, what do his attempts at mercury remedies reveal about his final few years? The medical historian and author of Romanticism and the Sciences Andrew Cunningham, examines The UnRomantic death of the mercurial Schubert.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 7

  Fri, 30 Mar 12

  Duration:
  13 mins

  During the 19th century public performance became polite and professional. Audiences listened attentively in an environment free of gimmicks, and performance criticism blossomed. Night Waves' Matthew Sweet examines the legacy that controlling an audience would create, and how this new wave of respectability enabled writing, composing and performance to prosper.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 6

  Fri, 30 Mar 12

  Duration:
  13 mins

  Night Waves' Philip Dodd reflects on the paradoxes on snow in music and literature and life, with Schubert as the point of departure and return.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 5

  Fri, 30 Mar 12

  Duration:
  12 mins

  Jenny Uglow concentrates on Schubert and Scotland exploring his settings of Ossian poems, and Scott's The Lady of the Lake.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 4

  Wed, 28 Mar 12

  Duration:
  13 mins

  The novelist Clare Morrall imagines what may have happened during one of Schubert’s meetings with his great hero, Beethoven.

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• Play Schubert for Me - Episode 3

  Wed, 28 Mar 12

  Duration:
  12 mins

  Schubert's voice emerges uniquely from song which emanates from poetry. Robert Vilain, a specialist in the German poetic tradition, examines Schubert's poetic sources from Goethe to Wilhelm Muller

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• Night Waves - The RSC & Filumena 22 Mar 12

  Tue, 27 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  With Rana Mitter. Susannah Clapp and Michael Billington discuss the appointment of Gregory Doran as new director at the RSC and they also discuss a new English version of Filumena by the Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo. Professor Steven Rose, and the curator of a new Wellcome Collection exhibition, Marius Kwint, discuss our scientific and cultural relationship with the brain. And we re-examine the life and achievements of one of Germany's most colourful leaders, king Frederick the Great as it celebrates the 300th anniversary of his birth.

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• Play Schubert For Me - Episode 2

  Mon, 26 Mar 12

  Duration:
  12 mins

  Attempts to explain both Schubert's achievements and mood swings through theory, often fall short of explanation. The writer, philosopher and retired medical doctor Raymond Tallis re examines the neurological and psychological evidence of a composer who increasingly meditated on the darker side of the human psyche and human relationships

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• Play Schubert For Me - Episode 1

  Mon, 26 Mar 12

  Duration:
  11 mins

  The journey Sir George Grove made to Vienna by train was one of vision and passion. He went in pursuit of the lost works of a neglected composer, Franz Schubert, and his pilgrimage resulted in the discovery of the score of Rosamunde. Travel writer Simon Calder explores the journey of anticipation and what drove the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians to seek out the work of a relatively unpopular composer.

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• Night Waves - Tarkovsky 21 Mar 12

  Thu, 22 Mar 12

  Duration:
  37 mins

  Philip Dodd and Susan Hitch review the world premier of Jonathan Dove's opera, Life is a Dream and also Paul Allen reviews Complicite's The Master and Margarita. Night Waves also discusses the world out of which Tarkovsky's imagination came and the romance of the past and the essentials of the future of engineering.

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• R3 Arts: Night Waves: Nadine Gordimer

  Thu, 22 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to Nobel laureate and Booker Prize winner Nadine Gordimer. In her new novel, No Time Like the Present, Gordimer examines her home country of South Africa in the post-apartheid world of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma and what has become of it since Mandela's jubilant release from prison. At the centre of the story is an interracial couple, Steve and Jabulile, living in a newly - tentatively - free South Africa, he a university lecturer she a lawyer, both comrades in the Struggle and now parents of children born in freedom. There is nothing extraordinary about their lives, and yet, in telling their story, and the stories of their friends and families, Gordimer manages to capture the state of her nation.

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• Night Waves - Opium & TV Dramas 13 Mar 12

  Tue, 20 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Matthew Sweet on 'Opium: Reality's Dark Dream.' Corruption and pain relief, war and poetry in a new book by Thomas Dormandy. Night Waves discusses current historical TV dramas with the social historian Juliet Gardiner and the cultural commentator Christopher Cook. The film critic Jonathan Romney assesses The Kid with a Bike and Sonia Solicari views new exhibition, The Age of Elegance.

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• Night Waves: The English and Christianity, Four Horsemen, Miro Exhibition, Antarctica

  Fri, 16 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Anne McElvoy about why he believes that Christianity offers the best way to understand how and why the English are as they are. Anne discusses the new documentary, 'Four Horsemen' with its director, Ross Ashcroft and the financial analyst Louise Cooper. Richard Cork visits the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to review the first major exhibition of Joan Miro's works of sculpture. And Gabrielle Walker talks about her new book which maps the intricate histories of the world's most uninhabitable territory: Antarctica.

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• Night Waves: Eli Zaretsky

  Fri, 16 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Philip Dodd with an interview with cultural historian, Eli Zaretsky on his new book, 'Why America needs a Left'. Lindsay Johns reviews "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl" and Ian Christie talks about "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia".

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• Night Waves - Turner Inspired 13 Mar 12

  Thu, 15 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Matthew Sweet discusses "Turner Inspired" at the National Gallery in London and Sue Prideaux's new biography of Strindberg. Also on the programme, an examination of Kony 2012, a campaigning You Tube video now seen by over 76 million people and the award winning novelist Marilynne Robinson on her new book of essays.

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• Night Waves: Miss Fortune, Jerry White, Lloyd Newson, Museum Narration

  Tue, 13 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Samira Ahmed is joined by Helen Wallace to review the UK premiere of composer Judith Weir's new opera, 'Miss Fortune'. Historian Jerry White talks about his latest chronicle of London, this time the 18th century, physical theatre director Lloyd Newson and James Cuno and Mark Jones discuss the merits and pitfalls of narrating museum exhibits in an explanatory, encyclopaedic arrangement.

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• Night Waves: Going Dark, Disaster, Russell Banks, Bel Ami

  Mon, 12 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Susannah Clapp reviews a new play Going Dark running at the Young Vic Theatre. Martin Dusinberre, Christopher Gerteis and Geoff Brumfiel discuss whether attitudes to natural disaster in Japan have changed. Russell Banks, a twice Pulitzer finalist, discusses his latest book, The Lost Memory of Skin and Ginette Vincendeau reveiws Bel Ami.

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• Night Waves - Landmarks: Bram Stoker's Dracula

  Thu, 8 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  As we approach the centenary of Bram Stoker's death, Philip Dodd presents a Landmark edition of Night Waves devoted to his Victorian gothic horror novel Dracula.

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• Night Waves - Paul Preston, The Stuff That Really Matters, Mark Pagel, Chung Kuo China

  Thu, 8 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Rana Mitter meets Paul Preston, whose new account of the Spanish Civil War is called 'The Spanish Holocaust - Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth Century Spain'. We visit 'The Stuff That Really Matters' - a new exhibition of textiles assembled by Seth Siegelaub for the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles. Neuroscientist Mark Pagel and the philosopher Kristina Musholt discuss the ways in which different academic disciplines see humanity. And finally Chung Kuo China is a fascinating window on 1970s China under Mao and Li Jie of Harvard University talks about this important film.

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• Night Waves - James Robinson, Peter Gill, Claude Lanzmann

  Thu, 8 Mar 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet meets James Robinson who offers a new way of understanding wealth and poverty. Peter Gill one of Britain's most important directors of the last thirty years talks about adapting A Provincial Life based on a Chekhov short story. And The Patagonian Hare is Claude Lanzmann's memoir of his life as a writer, thinker, film director and witness to the twentieth century.

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• Night Waves: Eve Arnold, Khodorkovsky, Beauty in Evolution, Raspberry Pi

  Thu, 8 Mar 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to Eamon McCabe about the late photographer Eve Arnold, the German film maker Cyril Tuschi about his new documentary, 'Khodorkovsky'. Discusses the importance of beauty in evolution with the philosopher David Rothenberg. And asks what does Raspberry-Pi - the ultra-cheap computer designed to make you engage with programming tell us about our relationship with technology?

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• Night Waves - The Future of Science, Financial Fiction, Alghieri Boetti & Atomic Time

  Thu, 1 Mar 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  The historian Jon Agar and the science writer, Marcus Chown consider the achievements of science in the 20th century. DJ Taylor and Justin Cartwright reflect on how the world of money and finance is represented in fiction. Sarah Kent will be assessing the first major retropsective of the Italian artist, Alighiero Boetti. And Professor of Historical Geography Christopher Withers reflects on whether it's time to switch from Greenwich Mean Time to the atomic clock.

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• Night Waves - Richard Holloway, Jonathan Safran Foer and Howard Jacobson

  Wed, 29 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Philip Dodd explores the boundaries between faith and doubt. His expert guides in this vast territory are the former bishop, Richard Holloway and the writers, Jonathan Safran Foer and Howard Jacobson.

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• Moby Duck, The Art of Peace, Appointment with the Wicker Man

  Thu, 23 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  With Rana Mitter. Donovan Hohn talks about tracking 28,000 yellow plastic ducks lost at sea. John Gittings and Hew Strachan discuss war and peace in today's world. And Susannah Clapp provides a first night review of National Theatre of Scotland's production 'An Appointment with the Wickerman' in Aberdeen.

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• 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, A Small Circus, Jeremy Deller, Carbon Democracy

  Wed, 22 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  With Anne McElvoy. Paul Allen reviews 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore. Translator Michael Hoffman and biographer Jenny Williams discuss Hans Fallada. A look at democracy through the history of energy. And an interview with artist Jeremy Deller.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Free Love, Catholicism, Roger Corman, Red Dog

  Tue, 21 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  With Matthew Sweet. French philosopher Pascal Bruckner and the author Lisa Appignanesi discuss Free Love. Piers Paul Read explores what place Catholicism has in modern British public life. A review of a new documentary about producer and director Roger Corman. And writer Louis de Bernieres talks about a new film adaptation of his novel Red Dog.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Religion and Politics, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Fawzia Koofi

  Fri, 17 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  With Anne McElvoy. We discuss the fraught relationship between religion and politics. Anne Karpf reviews the Oscar-nominated Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. A look at the friendship of Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson. And politician Fawzia Koofi outlines her one woman fight to lead Afghanistan into the future.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Waste Not, Universities, Posthumous Pardons

  Thu, 16 Feb 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  With Philip Dodd. Julia Lovell and Richard Cork talk about 'Waste Not', the first solo exhibition in the UK by the Chinese artist Song Dong. Stefan Collini, Dougald Hine, Roey Sweet and Deborah Bowman tackle universities. And posthumous pardons: should we alter past verdicts?

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Elif Safak at Free Thinking Festival

  Wed, 15 Feb 12

  Duration:
  46 mins

  The Turkish novelist Elif Shafak talks to Rana Mitter in an interview recorded at last year's Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Picasso, Baka Doc, Speed-Dating, Josie Rourke

  Tue, 14 Feb 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  With Matthew Sweet. Artist Brad Lochore reviews a new exhibition at Tate Britain: Picasso and Modern British Art. Phil Agland talks about his new documentary about the Baka people in Cameroon. An audience goes speed-dating with a New Generation Thinker from the Free Thinking Festival last year. And Josie Rourke talks about her new appointment as Creative Director of London's Donmar Warehouse theatre.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Lawrence Durrell, Kate Grenville, Cullen Murphy, Gene Sharp

  Tue, 7 Feb 12

  Duration:
  49 mins

  Philip Dodd talks to Cullen Murphy about his new book, God's Jury. Matthew Sweet takes a new look at Lawrence Durrell. And Anne McElvoy talks to Kate Grenville about her books on Australian Colonialism and also interviews Gene Sharp about non-violent protests.

  Download 23MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• The Trial of Ubu, David Scheffer & The Hajj

  Wed, 1 Feb 12

  Duration:
  44 mins

  Matthew Sweet talks to David Scheffer, architect of the Modern War Crimes Tribunal and discusses the Hajj with film-maker Navid Ahktar and Venetia Porter curator at The British Museum. Also Anne McElvoy discusses the play, Trial of Ubu with theatre critic Susannah Clapp.

  Download 20MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Coriolanus,WG Sebald,Protests, Environmental Politics

  Wed, 25 Jan 12

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet talks to philosopher Roger Scruton about environmental politics and also discusses the writer WG Sebald with cultural historian Kevin Jackson and the writer and translator Amanda Hopkinson. Susannah Clapp and film historian Ian Christie came into the studio to talk about Coriolanus - the first big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s political power play. And Anne McElvoy talks to Paul Mason about his book ‘Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere’.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Population Growth

  Thu, 22 Dec 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Throughout this week, Night Waves examines some of the major cultural forces shaping the 21st century. Anne McElvoy and guests discuss mega-cities, sustainability and the ethics of living together.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Scientific Breakthroughs

  Thu, 22 Dec 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Throughout this week, Night Waves examines some of the major cultural forces shaping the 21st century. Anne McElvoy asks to what extent are science and medicine shaping our lives and what breakthroughs are shaping the future?

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Greed

  Thu, 22 Dec 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Throughout this week, Night Waves examines some of the major cultural forces shaping the 21st century. Philip Dodd and guests look at greed in its many forms, accompanied Peter Marinker reading Falstaff, Faustus and others.

  Download 22MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Artistic Endeavours

  Thu, 22 Dec 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Throughout this week, Night Waves examines some of the major cultural forces shaping the 21st century. Matthew Sweet and guests attempt to define the zeitgeist via the cultural artefacts and moments of 2011.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Vaclav Havel, Christopher Hitchens

  Mon, 19 Dec 11

  Duration:
  36 mins

  In a special edition of the podcast, we mark the passing of both Christopher Hitchens and Vaclav Havel, with interviews, reviews and analysis from the Night Waves archives.

  Download 17MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• International Review:

  Mon, 12 Dec 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet entertains guests from Ghana, Italy, India and Egypt to discuss Saladin, a new book by Anne-Marie Eddé, the legacy of the Crusades, Nanni Moretti's latest film We have a Pope and Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian recipient of the Nobel Prize.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Is Politics Dead?

  Mon, 12 Dec 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  As Europe struggles to manage the current financial crisis we are seeing un-elected technocrats replace populist leaders and ratings agencies seemingly wielding increasing power. Philip Dodd and guests discuss whether the pursuit of economic stability is downgrading democracy.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Were the Luddites Right?

  Thu, 1 Dec 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Updated corrected audio: Rana Mitter chairs a debate about the Luddites to mark their 200th anniversary. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Charles Jencks

  Fri, 25 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Landscape architect Charles Jencks calls for a new cosmic art, in a talk entitled Reclaiming the Universe. Jencks argues that understanding the universe is too important to be left to scientists and theologians, and wants us to connect to pre-historic ideas about the cosmos, present in monuments such as Stonehenge.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

  Thu, 24 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Neuro-scientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore gives a talk on changes in the teenage brain. Teenagers often act on impulse, are lazy, emotional and get into trouble with the police and parents. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London and a leading expert on teenage brains. Using recent research about the radical changes taking place in the adolescent brain, she argues it's time to rethink our attitudes towards youth and the place of teenagers in society.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Susie Orbach

  Tue, 22 Nov 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Psychotherapist Susie Orbach challenges the obsession with personal change. Susie is Britain's most high-profile pyschotherapist, whose book Fat is a Feminist Issue revolutionised the way we understand our bodies. She co-founded The Women's Therapy Centre, has been a consultant for The World Bank and NHS, and is an advocate for body diversity and emotional literacy.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• The impact of a future energy crisis on our way of life

  Fri, 18 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  How will our world change as traditional energy supplies shrink and climate change forces us to use less fossil fuels? Should we return to a locally-focused pre-modern lifestyle where travel is a luxury for the few, will conflict over declining resources destabilise the globe, or will science save the day?

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Aditya Chakrabortty

  Fri, 18 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Economist Aditya Chakrabortty examines the impact of economic change on society. Over the past 30 years governments of every political hue have promised that great prizes will follow economic change, whilst parts of society have been effectively written off. So argues Aditya Chakrabortty, economics leader writer at The Guardian. He believes even the newly fashionable zeal for a manufacturing revival will do little to help and calls for a radical solution.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Can We Stop the Mania for Change?

  Thu, 17 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Philip Dodd chairs a debate on the obsession with change, at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011. Panel includes the film-maker Molly Dineen and the Rev Dr Giles Fraser.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Julian Savulescu - The Moral Obligation to Improve

  Wed, 16 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Julian Savulescu, Oxford Professor of Ethics, makes the case for human enhancement and genetic selection at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Linda Colley

  Mon, 14 Nov 11

  Duration:
  44 mins

  Leading historian Linda Colley gives a talk on how we have dealt with periods of dramatic change in the past and how history can help us to understand change today.

  Download 20MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Germaine Greer

  Fri, 11 Nov 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Germaine Greer delivers a talk questioning the pursuit of freedom at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Kevin Fong

  Thu, 10 Nov 11

  Duration:
  44 mins

  Kevin Fong, who presents BBC2's Horizon and is a leading expert on space medicine, gives a talk at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011calling for a second Space Age.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• The Foreign Secretary William Hague

  Wed, 9 Nov 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  William Hague discusses the dramatic changes taking throughout the globe and Britain's role in this transforming world order.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Rev Dr Giles Fraser

  Tue, 8 Nov 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, gives a talk at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011 on the crisis of commitment in our society.

  Download 22MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Francis Wells

  Mon, 7 Nov 11

  Duration:
  46 mins

  One of the world's top heart surgeons, Francis Wells, discusses the future of the heart, his work at the cutting-edge of surgery, and his fascination with Da Vinci at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• R3Arts:Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

  Mon, 7 Nov 11

  Duration:
  60 mins

  Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launches this year's BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival with a lecture on how the internet will continue to radically change our world

  Download 28MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Chris Patten

  Tue, 1 Nov 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  The full Night Waves interview with ex-Hong Kong Governor and new chairman of the BBC Trust, Chris Patten.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• David Attenborough, golden age of science, Soviet art

  Tue, 1 Nov 11

  Duration:
  44 mins

  David Attenborough talks to Matthew Sweet about his new TV series Frozen Planet. Philip Dodd asks whether we're living through a golden age of science. And Rana Mitter looks at the architects of the Russian Revolution with Richard Cork and Clementine Cecil.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Cultivating Civility, the Village, the Lives of Novelists

  Tue, 25 Oct 11

  Duration:
  51 mins

  Philip Dodd looks at the state of English civility. Anne McElvoy delves into the world of famous writers. Matthew Sweet discusses the place of the village in the British psyche and Juliet Gardiner reviews the play Jumpy.

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Robert Trivers, Quentin Blake, Carol Ann Duffy

  Mon, 17 Oct 11

  Duration:
  52 mins

  This week in the face of a deepening economic crisis Rana Mitter asks should we save or spend? Evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers discusses self-deception with Matthew Sweet. Illustrator Quentin Blake tells Rana about his latest work for hospitals. And poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy talks to Anne McElvoy about bees.

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Woody Allen, Charles Dickens biography and what it means to be human

  Tue, 11 Oct 11

  Duration:
  48 mins

  Juiet Gardner talks to Woody Allen about his latest comedy Midnight in Paris. Philip Dodd reviews a new biography of the writer Charles Dickens. Anne McElvoy looks at how the line between humanity and technology is becoming increasingly blurred and historian Joanna Bourke tells Matthew Sweet What it Means to be Human.

  Download 23MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Robert Harris, King Lear, The British Empire

  Mon, 3 Oct 11

  Duration:
  38 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to writer Robert Harris about his new novel set amidst the current banking crisis. Critic Susannah Clapp reviews King Lear, starring Tim Pigott-Smith. And Philip Dodd is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng and Richard Gott to discuss their views on the British Empire.

  Download 18MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Lars von Trier Special

  Mon, 3 Oct 11

  Duration:
  44 mins

  In this special edition of the podcast, Matthew Sweet's full interview with the Danish director Lars von Trier, discussing his long and varied career.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• R3Arts:Private Eye,Grief,Imran Khan,Thomas Friedman

  Tue, 27 Sep 11

  Duration:
  64 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to Adam Macqueen as Private Eye turns 50. Matthew Sweet discusses Mike Leigh's new play Grief and talks to Imran Khan anout his ambition to lead Pakistan and Philip Dodd in conversation with Gideon Rachman, Anatole Lieven and Pullitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman - who has co-written a book with the title That Used to Be US: What Went Wrong With America and How It Can Come Back.

  Download 30MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• New Generation Thinkers, Screen Writers, Anna Funder, Page One documentary

  Wed, 21 Sep 11

  Duration:
  49 mins

  Rana Mitter discusses irony with our New Generation Thinkers and Anne McElvoy talks to critic David D’Arcy about Andrew Rossi's documentary film Page One and to Anna Funder about her new novel All that I Am. And a series of screenwriter’s lectures at BAFTA and the British Film Institute is celebrating the importance of screenwriters and providing a forum in which they can’t have credit for their work stolen by the director.

  Download 23MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 12 September 2011

  Mon, 12 Sep 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Poet and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen and presenter Ian McMillan introduce the winning entries in the first ever Proms Poetry competition and Rabbi Julia Neuberger explores the piano’s literary life across the ages in conversation with Anne McElvoy,

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 5 September 2011

  Mon, 5 Sep 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Biographer John Carey and author Meg Rosoff join Ian McMillan to discuss one of Britain's greatest post-war novelists - William Golding. And acclaimed violinist Tasmin Little completes our series of events in which musicians from this year’s Proms season introduce and discuss their favourite works of fiction and poetry.

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 2 September 2011

  Fri, 2 Sep 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  The death of Prince Albert 150 years ago inspired the creation of the home of the Proms - the Royal Albert Hall. Historians Kate Williams and Dan Cruickshank join Matthew Sweet to reassess the Prince Consort and his legacy "the Albertopolis". And cellist Matthew Barley is the third guest in a four-part Proms Plus series in which musicians from this year's Proms season introduce their favourite works of fiction and poetry. Susan Hitch hosts.

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary: Dante and Andrew Litton

  Thu, 25 Aug 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Historical novelist Sarah Dunant and Margaret Keane, author of ‘Inferno’, discuss Dante’s Divine Comedy. Leading American conductor Andrew Litton introduces a personal choice of readings from their favourite fiction and poetry.

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 17 August 2011

  Wed, 17 Aug 11

  Duration:
  40 mins

  Matthew Sweet talks to Sir Ronald Harwood, Oscar winning screenwriter of The Pianist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Neil Brand, doyen of silent film pianists, discussing the role of music in film â¿¿ from The Keystone Kops to indie films. Matthew also talks to comedians Natalie Haynes and Steve Punt to unveil and perform their favourite humorous writing from down the ages and asks what makes literary comic gold?

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 11 August 2011

  Thu, 11 Aug 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Tariq Ali and Daniel Karlin discuss the writer Kipling and authors Val McDermid and Louise Welsh explore the explosion in Scandinavian crime writing with Rana Mitter.

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 3 August 2011

  Wed, 3 Aug 11

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Playwright Mark Ravenhill and actor and writer Simon Callow discuss Faust with Matthew Sweet and Ian Mcmillan is in conversation with the conductor Robert Hollingworth about his favourite works of fiction and poetry.

  Download 19MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Proms Plus Literary 25 July 2011

  Thu, 28 Jul 11

  Duration:
  39 mins

  Kate Mosse and Edmund de Waal discuss great French literary classics with Matthew Sweet, and Peggy Reynolds talks to Rana Mitter about the cello in literature, with musical illustrations.

  Download 18MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Arianna Huffington, Bertrand Tavernier & Hollywood portraiture

  Tue, 12 Jul 11

  Duration:
  47 mins

  Arianna Huffington talks about the launch of her online newspaper, the Huffington Post, in the UK. Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier discusses his new historical drama set in the 16th century. Terry Charman and Kate Adie look at the Imperial War Museum in its 75th year. And a survey of Hollywood portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery.

  Download 22MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Light Fantastic, Raymond Tallis, Libya, New Generation Thinker

  Tue, 5 Jul 11

  Duration:
  43 mins

  Highlights from a Night Waves special as part of the Light Fantastic Festival weekend. Raymond Tallis and Armand Leroi discuss Raymond's new book, Aping Mankind. Paul Cartledge looks at the cultural collateral damage caused by military action against Gadaffi. New Generation Thinker Zoe Norridge on cultural responses to genocide memorial sites in Rwanda.

  Download 20MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• R3Arts:Margaret Drabble, Emma Rothschild ,Stanley Spencer exhibition and Authenticity and the Internet

  Mon, 27 Jun 11

  Duration:
  51 mins

  Nightwaves looks at the subject of internet anonymity, visits a new exhibition of work by Stanley Spencer in Warwickshire, and empire, enlightenment, and emotion – all come together in an eighteenth-century Scottish townhouse in a new book from historian Emma Rothschild

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Arundhati Roy, Siddharta Deb and Retromania

  Tue, 14 Jun 11

  Duration:
  51 mins

  Acclaimed novelists Arundhati Roy and Siddhartha Deb look at India as an emerging superpower. Kevin Macdonald discusses his film made up of footage from ordinary people. American playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney explains why he wrote a play about a PR company. And is Retromania really that new?

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Sherry Turkle, Candace Allen, Amnesty International, Senna

  Tue, 7 Jun 11

  Duration:
  55 mins

  Sherry Turkle on how new technology is changing the way we think and form relationships. Candace Allen reviews an exhibition of photographs, postcards and journalism of US lynchings. Director Asif Kapadia discusses his award-winning documentary about the controversial racing driver Ayrton Senna. A discussion about the changing role of Amnesty International.

  Download 25MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Nightwaves

  Tue, 31 May 11

  Duration:
  54 mins

  Anne McElvoy talks to the Egyptian cultural historian Leila Ahmed about her new book which explores the resurgence of the Muslim veil and to three veteran war reporters who feature in a new Imperial War Museum North exhibition about the correspondent's life behind the frontline and the changing nature of war reporting. With Kate Adie, Michael Nicholson and Eric Thirer. As London’s Jewish Museum launches its Entertaining the Nation exhibition, Matthew is joined by actress and comedian Maureen Lipman and historian David Ceserani to reflect on the Jewish contribution to British entertainment and as Bob Dylan turns 70, Anne discovers why his recent work still has meaning from singer Barb Jungr and English academic, Daniel Karlin.

  Download 25MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Francis Fukuyama, train murders, Dining with Alice, Vidal Sassoon

  Mon, 23 May 11

  Duration:
  62 mins

  Francis Fukuyama talks about his new book. A discussion about train murders. Susannah Clapp on immersive theatre. And interview with Vidal Sassoon.

  Download 29MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Malcolm X, Diana Athill and Ai Wei Wei

  Tue, 17 May 11

  Duration:
  51 mins

  An overview of the legacy of Malcolm X, Diana Athill on her short stories, a new film from Chad and a celebration of the work of Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei.

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Molly Dineen, Brian Christian, Bin Laden, Shah of Iran

  Tue, 10 May 11

  Duration:
  53 mins

  Molly Dineen discusses her first collection of documentaries on DVD. Brian Christian talks about his book, The Most Human Human. A discussion on Bin Laden. Abbas Milani on his biography of the Shah of Iran.

  Download 25MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Edward St Aubyn, Super Injunctions & Pakistan

  Wed, 4 May 11

  Duration:
  51 mins

  Edward St Aubyn talks about his new book, At Last, the final in the Patrick Melrose series. Anatol Lieven discusses his new book, Pakistan, A Hard Country. Max Clifford is on the panel of guests talking about Super Injunctions and we talk about the world of the Luddite

  Download 24MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• The Avengers

  Wed, 27 Apr 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Matthew Sweet dons his kinky boots to investigate the phenomenon of The Avengers, 50 years after its first transmission.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Michel Sheen, Cameron Mackintosh & Wim Wenders

  Mon, 18 Apr 11

  Duration:
  66 mins

  Michael Sheen talks about his role in the Passion Play in his home town of Port Talbot. Cameron Mackintosh discusses his latest musical, Betty Blue Eyes. Wim Wenders on his filmic ode to Pina Bausch and Matthew Sweet visits the new Turner Contemporary in Margate.

  Download 31MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Aie Weiwei, the value of Arts & All About Love

  Mon, 11 Apr 11

  Duration:
  55 mins

  Isabel Hilton on the artist Ai Weiwei and his recent problems with the Chinese state. Critic Louisa Buck reviews an exhibition of women war artists at the Imperial War Musuem. Philip Dodd and guests discuss whether the arts really do matter and Lisa Appignanesi talks about her new book All About Love.

  Download 26MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Jim Loach, Victorian Prostitutes, Mrs. Dalloway

  Mon, 4 Apr 11

  Duration:
  45 mins

  An interview with director Jim Loach on his film Oranges and Sunshine about child-deportation; the Victorian Prostitute as a character in fiction discussed by Lesley Hall and DJ Taylor; and an extract from the Night Waves Landmark edition on Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

  Download 21MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Butlins, Herzog, Jennifer Egan, Pet Shop Boys

  Mon, 28 Mar 11

  Duration:
  55 mins

  A look at Butlins at 75 with Roy Hudd and Martin Parr, an interview with Werner Herzog, novelist Jennifer Egan on her new book, and the collaboration between the Pet Shop Boys and choreographer Javier de Frutos.

  Download 25MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Italy, David Baddiel, Frank Skinner, existence

  Tue, 22 Mar 11

  Duration:
  58 mins

  A panel of guests discuss the state of Italy, as the country marks 150 years of unification. David Baddiel on his latest novel. Chemist Peter Atkins explores great questions of existence. And Frank Skinner talks about his comedy career.

  Download 27MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Rattigan, Arab world, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mark Malloch-Brown

  Mon, 14 Mar 11

  Duration:
  61 mins

  Trevor Nunn on reviving Terence Rattigan's play Flare Path. What does it mean to be an Arab? Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston discusses her new memoir. Former UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch-Brown on his new book.

  Download 28MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Niall Ferguson, Joanna Hogg & Tom Hiddleston

  Mon, 7 Mar 11

  Duration:
  57 mins

  Niall Ferguson talks about his new series, Civilisation and the importance of 'killer apps. Joanna Hogg talks about her latest film Archipelago and is joined by the leading man Tom Hiddleston. The poet Michael Longley talks about his latest collection of poems and we discuss the apparent enthusiasm for Nazi ideology in India.

  Download 27MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Billy Bragg, China, Beat Poets, Michael Grade

  Mon, 28 Feb 11

  Duration:
  58 mins

  Billy Bragg talks about protest songs, Rana Mitter hosts a discussion about the differing accounts of Chinese and British histories, Roger McGough and Ian Sinclair review the new film Howl, and an interview with Michael Grade.

  Download 27MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• 14 April 11: Edna O'Brien, Siddhartha Mukherjee

  Tue, 22 Feb 11

  Duration:
  62 mins

  Edna O'Brien talks to Philip Dodd about her new book Saints & Sinners. Matthew Sweet talks to Mark Henderson, the kidnapping victim who has made a documentary about his return to his place of capture. Matthew also discusses a new biography of Humphrey Bogart. And Anne McElvoy and guests discuss modern Gypsy culture.

  Download 29MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• 07 Feb: David Chipperfield & Colin Thubron

  Mon, 14 Feb 11

  Duration:
  62 mins

  Travel writer Colin Thubron talks about his journey of discovery through Tibet. Architect David Chipperfield on his latest buildings, Sarah Dunant reviews the film of Never Let Me Go and Matthew Sweet looks at the history of the Fig Leaf.

  Download 29MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Night Waves 31 Jan 11

  Mon, 7 Feb 11

  Duration:
  59 mins

  We ask does the West really understand India? Director Peter Kosminsky discusses his new TV drama The Promise. We review the film version of Brighton Rock and hear why the tenth parallel is so significant to Muslims and Christians.

  Download 27MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Biutiful, laughter, John Gray and Susan Hiller

  Mon, 31 Jan 11

  Duration:
  49 mins

  We review Oscar-nominated film Biutiful. A discussion about laughter with German choreographer, director, performer and filmmaker, Antonia Baehr. Philosopher John Gray on his new book, The Immortalisation Commission. Interview with artist Susan Hiller.

  Download 23MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Black Swan, Wilbert Rideau, Rudyard Kipling & Mary Midgley

  Mon, 24 Jan 11

  Duration:
  63 mins

  We review the film, Black Swan. Anne McElvoy talks to Wilbert Rideau who spent 44 years in an American prison. Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Rudyard Kipling in the 75th year of his death and Philip Dodd talks to the philosopher Mary Midgley

  Download 29MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Danny Boyle, Nev Schulman, David Harding and Will Self

  Thu, 30 Dec 10

  Duration:
  59 mins

  Directors Danny Boyle and Nev Schulman on their latest films; psychotherapist Susie Orbach and panel on 'just desserts'; interview with Hedge Fund millionaire David Harding; writer Will Self on the idea of Family Britain.

  Download 27MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Peter Weir, Garry Kasparov & The King's Speech

  Tue, 21 Dec 10

  Duration:
  61 mins

  Director Peter Weir talks about his new film, The Way Back. Chess grandmaster, Garry Kasparov about life after chess. A discussion about The King's Speech and our attitudes on stammering and a debate about the impact global religion will have on future politics.

  Download 28MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Frank Cottrell Boyce, Lisa Jardine and the street versus the internet

  Mon, 13 Dec 10

  Duration:
  56 mins

  Frank Cottrell Boyce on the joys of failure; Lisa Jardine and her scientist father's dilemmas during WWII; Ballet - on the rise or in demise? And which is more powerful, the street or the internet?

  Download 26MB (right click & "save target as / link as")

• Anne Enright, David Thompson & Climate Science

  Tue, 7 Dec 10

  Duration:
  56 mins

  Anne Enright discusses a new anthology on Irish short stories, film critic David Thompson on his new Dictionary of Film. Another debate from the Free Thinking Festival on possessions and Climate Science.

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• Lord Ian Blair, PJ O'Rouke, Pat Barker, Michael Holroyd

  Wed, 1 Dec 10

  Duration:
  50 mins

  Lord Ian Blair talks about violence and human behaviour; Pat Barker discusses her novels charting World War I, political satirist PJ O'Rourke on his new book, 'Don't Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards' and biographer Michael Holroyd talks about why his latest book is probably his last.

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• Kevin McCloud, Craig Raine and Speed Dating with a Thinker

  Tue, 23 Nov 10

  Duration:
  56 mins

  This week, TV designer Kevin McCloud talks about shopping and festival goers speed date with a thinker as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead. And in London, plain speaking poet Craig Raine and the anthropologist who meets terrorists.

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• Free Thinking

  Thu, 18 Nov 10

  Duration:
  61 mins

  This week's Arts & Ideas podcast features extracts from Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival. We debate the nature of happiness, comedy versus tragedy and actress Fiona Shaw talks about the roles that have informed her work.

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• Richard Cohen and The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

  Mon, 8 Nov 10

  Duration:
  44 mins

  Julia Neuberger and Jonathan Miller review 'Journey through the Afterlife: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead' at the British Museum; Richard Cohen talks to Philip Dodd about his new book, 'Chasing the Sun' and Ian Morris discusses his new book, Why the West Rules which is also reveiwed by the historian Joanna Bourke.

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• Amanda Foreman, Fintan O'Toole & Alasdair Gray

  Mon, 1 Nov 10

  Duration:
  47 mins

  The Irish commentator Fintan O'Toole talks to Philip Dodd. Amanda Foreman discusses her new book based on the relationship between Britain and America during the American Civil War. Rana Mitter and guests explore how and why we smile and author and artist Alasdair Gray discusses Kafa and Michaelangelo

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• Larkin's Letters, Mary Warnock & H P Lovecraft

  Mon, 25 Oct 10

  Duration:
  45 mins

  Philip Dodd and poets Fiona Sampson & Anthony Thwaite discuss the letters of Philip Larkin to his friend and lover of 40 years, Monica Jones. Dame Mary Warnock talks to Anne McElvoy about assisted dying and Rana Mitter talks to historian Patrick Wright about his book on Anglo-Chinese relations. And we look at the work of the Edwardian writer, H P Lovecraft.

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• Salman Rushdie, Socrates, Aaron Sorkin, Howard Jacobson

  Mon, 18 Oct 10

  Duration:
  52 mins

  Salman Rushdie on his new book Luka and the Fire of Life. Biographer Bettany Hughes and philosopher Jonathan Ree reconstruct the life of Socrates. Aaron Sorkin talks about his new blockbuster film about Facebook and the winner of this year’s Man Booker prize, Howard Jacobson.

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• Jonathan Franzen, Mona Saudi & Peter Ackroyd

  Tue, 12 Oct 10

  Duration:
  42 mins

  Jonathan Franzen talks about his new book Freedom. We discuss the winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa. The Jordanian sculptor Mona Saudi talks about her new exhibition and Peter Ackroyd on his new book, The English Ghost.

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• Mrs Gaskell, Gaugin, Colm Toibin & Correct English

  Tue, 5 Oct 10

  Duration:
  59 mins

  In the 200th year of Mrs Gaskell's birth, Jenny Uglow and Katheryn Hughes discuss her work. Colm Toibin talks to Philip Dodd about his latest book, The Empty Family. We review Paul Gaugin at Tate Modern and discuss the use of 'Correct English' with Simon Heffer and Michael Rosen

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• Progression, Diaghilev & John Pawson

  Fri, 1 Oct 10

  Duration:
  47 mins

  The use of the word 'Progression' in politics is discussed with Peter Hitchens, Kitty Ussher & Peter Catterall. The architect John Pawson on his retrospective at the London Design Museum and the choreographer Siobhan Davies reviews a new exhibition of Sergei Diaghilev at the V&A in London

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• Tony Blair, The Blitz & David Lloyd George

  Mon, 20 Sep 10

  Duration:
  58 mins

  Tony Blair talks about his new book, A Journey. In the week of the 70th anniversary of The Blitz, the historian, Juliet Gardener, talks about its impact on 21st Century culture. And Roy Hattersley who has written a new biography of David Lloyd George is joined by Shirley Williams to ask what lessons today’s coalition government can be learned from the one that he led in peacetime.

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• Proms Literary Festival

  Fri, 10 Sep 10

  Duration:
  41 mins

  Ian McMillan discusses the story of Hansel and Gretal and its continuing relevance to children today and he also explores the relationship between poetry and music

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• Proms Literary Festival

  Fri, 3 Sep 10

  Duration:
  42 mins

  A celebration of Schiller's Ode to Joy sung by Billy Bragg. Exploring the genius of Czech writing including Franz Kafka.

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