Interviews, news and analysis of the day's global events. 
Chapters
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Susan Wolf
What is it that gives your life meaning: Is it what makes you happy? Or what makes you feel good for helping others? Or is there a third elusive category that covers all those activities that make us neither happy nor good, but somehow adds value to our lives? Questions which philosopher Susan Wolf asks in her book and in this week’s programme. -
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton also wants us to enrich our appreciation of life and answer our need for meaning. In his latest book Religion for Atheists, he argues that one of the problems is that we humans tend to overplay our own significance in the world. So we should spend more time contemplating the vastness of the universe and how meaningless our existence is in comparison. Finding meaning through recognizing we don’t matter?
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Alexandre Mitchell
How do you find the meaning which an ancient object had for their original owners? Archaeologist and fiction writer Alexandre Mitchell is often faced with the task of working out how and why people used a particular object centuries - or even millennia - ago. But can we ever understand ancient Greeks or Romans from our modern vantage point and in a completely different context? And does knowing what the future holds change your views on what we find meaningful? -
60 Second Idea to Change the World
Jane Austen as a self-help tool? Philosopher Alain de Botton believes that schools and universities poorly equip students to face the challenges and dilemmas of daily life, from how to have relationships or raise children, to how to manage one’s anxieties and ambitions. So he wants to reform the education system using great novels, plays or paintings as conduits for contemplating some of the large and important questions in life. So, goodbye courses on Narrative Trends in 19th Century French Novel! Instead, how about lessons in Surviving the Tensions of Marriage, or Coping with Death?
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In Next Week's Programme
The Challenge of Ageing: guest presenter Baroness Helena Kennedy is joined by a live audience at the London School of Economics’ festival Space for Thought, as well as Swedish champion of visual statistics, Hans Rosling; founder of Oxford’s institute of aging, Sarah Harper; and one of Britain’s sprightliest of nonagenarians, crime writer PD James.
Broadcasts
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BBC World ServiceSat 23 Feb 2013 13:05 GMT BBC World Service
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BBC World ServiceSat 23 Feb 2013 23:05 GMT BBC World Service
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BBC World ServiceSun 24 Feb 2013 02:05 GMT BBC World Service
Free downloads
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Forum - A World of Ideas
Ideas from the world's biggest thinkers. Hear philosophers, scientists, politicians, novelists,...
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Forum - Sixty Second Idea to Improve the World
A radical, inspiring, controversial idea from a global thinker from the world of philosophy,...
