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Last broadcast on Mon, 6 Jul 2009, 01:32 on BBC World Service (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Listen to Part 2
THE FORUM, the ideas programme with BRIDGET KENDALL.
Physicist FRANK WILCZEK on why space isn’t really empty.
Writer and activist ARUNDHATI ROY on why India’s democracy doesn’t help the masses.
Philosopher SUSAN NEIMAN on a new Enlightenment.
IN STUDIO
From left to right: Susan Neiman, Bridget Kendall and Arundhati Roy
RECORDING THIS WEEK'S FORUM
MEET THE GUESTS
Professor of physics and Nobel laureate FRANK WILCZEK tells us why most of the mass around us is composed of empty space...only the empty space is not so empty. Space is actually seething with spontaneous activity, a kind of effervescence, which we may not be able to see with our eyes but which we can measure with modern scientific instruments.
Indian writer and activist ARUNDHATI ROY argues that, despite the pomp surrounding recent elections in India, ballot-box democracy only brings benefits to the middle and upper classes and not to the vast masses of the poor as they are not adequately represented in its increasingly expensive mainstream politics.
SUSAN NEIMAN, philosopher and director of the Einstein Forum in Berlin, calls for a new Enlightenment based on four virtues - happiness, reason, reverence and hope - in a quest to revive our understanding of moral values and make us happier people.
60 SECOND IDEA TO CHANGE THE WORLD
In our 60 Second Idea To Change The World Susan Neiman asks us to give sincere and spontaneous compliments to those around us as much as possible, in order to make the world a more pleasant place. The moment we think something good about someone, we should tell them. This spontaneity in complimenting will encourage the notion that the compliment is sincere and not a mechanism for getting something from somebody, as is sometimes perceived.
THIS WEEK'S ILLUSTRATION
Heroic political activists march around in a rich deep space among fish. By Emily Kasriel
IN NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAMME
Zimbabwean writer BRIAN CHIKWAVA on sport and fiction.
Author KAREN ARMSTRONG on the case for God.
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, STEPHEN HOPPER, on landscapes old and new.
Broadcasts
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Sun 5 Jul 200909:32
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Sun 5 Jul 200920:32
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Mon 6 Jul 200901:32
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