Start The Week sets the cultural agenda for the week ahead, with high-profile guests discussing the ideas behind their work in the fields of art, literature, film, science, history, society and politics.
Episodes available:
Indefinitely 
Mon, 20 May 13
Duration:
42 mins
Anne McElvoy explores movements and people that have changed the political landscape with the MP Jesse Norman; the historian Lady Antonia Fraser; and one of the co-founders of the Occupy movement, David Graeber.
Mon, 13 May 13
Duration:
42 mins
Jonathan Freedland talks to director Carrie Cracknell; the pianist Jonathan Biss; the psychiatrist Tom Burns; and the psychologist Richard Bentall.
Mon, 6 May 13
Duration:
42 mins
Start the Week is at the Brighton Festival. Stephanie Flanders talks to the writer and Guest Festival Director this year, Michael Rosen; the writer and traveller Jay Griffiths; co-founder of interactive theatre group Blast Theory, Matt Adams; and the artist Mariele Neudecker.
Mon, 29 Apr 13
Duration:
42 mins
Lisa Jardine talks to the artist Gavin Turk; the rare book dealer & author Rick Gekoski; the curator of the Pompeii & Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum, Paul Roberts; and the playwright Tanya Ronder.
Fri, 19 Apr 13
Duration:
43 mins
Tom Sutcliffe looks at the cultural history of Italy with the world renowned film director, Bernardo Bertolucci; the journalist and film-maker Annalisa Piras; the English born conductor with Italian roots, Antonio Pappano; and the Italophile Tim Parks.
Mon, 15 Apr 13
Duration:
42 mins
Jonathan Freedland talks to Adam Rutherford, Barbara Sahakian, Steve Jones and Susan Aldworth about life, decision-making and our sense of self.
Mon, 8 Apr 13
Duration:
42 mins
Stephanie Flanders discusses the notion of 'home' and cultural identity with the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, director Indhu Rubasingham, journalist David Goodhart and poet Michael Symmons Roberts.
Mon, 1 Apr 13
Duration:
43 mins
Tom Sutcliffe discusses the 'myth' of progress with the poet and novelist James Lasdun; the classicist Mary Beard; playwright Mark Ravenhill; and the philosopher John Gray.
Mon, 25 Mar 13
Duration:
39 mins
Allan Little talks to Pakistani novelist, Mohsin Hamid about 'how to get filthy rich in rising Asia'; the playwright, Bruce Norris on his new play, 'The Low Road'; author Katherine Boo on life in the Mumbai slums; and the turbulent times of an English village throughout the 20th century is the subject of Peter Moffat's latest television series.
Fri, 15 Mar 13
Duration:
42 mins
Lisa Jardine asks whether the writing of history has been dominated by conflict and difference. With historian Sir David Cannadine; journalist and author Ed Vulliamy; writer Aleksandar Hemon; and historian and writer Professor Margaret MacMillan.
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Aleks Krotoski charts how digital culture is moulding modern living. Each week join technology journalist Aleks Krotoski as she goes beyond the latest gadget or web innovation to understand what sort…
Mon, 6 May 13
28 minutes
It's a phenomenon which seems to have come from nowhere, but in fact computer-based social networks have been around for decades. In this three-part series the BBC's technology correspondent Rory…
Wed, 9 Feb 11
28 minutes
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