Arts & Ideas

The Big Short, Liar's Poker and Flash Boys expose the culture of Wall Street trading works. The Blind Side, Coach and Moneyball explore the world of sport. For his latest book ‘The Undoing Project’, Michael Lewis looks at the friendship of two Nobel Prize-winning psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Matthew Sweet talks to Michael Lewis about his investigative methods and how this latest book fits into his interest in the psychology of sportsmen, bankers and risk takers. The Undoing Project is out now. Producer: Fiona McLean

The work of scientist Margaret Cavendish, poet Lady Mary Wroth, and interior designer Charlotte Robinson are explored in a programme looking at why women are left out of some historical accounts. Tracy Chevalier's novels include stories inspired by fossil hunter Mary Anning, by early settlers of the American west, by women in the lives of painters including Vermeer and William Blake. Tracy Chevalier joins Ailsa Grant Ferguson, Emma Wilkins and Miranda Garrett who'll be sharing their new research with Anne McElvoy on International Women's Day. Tracy Chevalier is the author of At the Edge of the Orchard about an American pioneer family, Remarkable Creatures inspired by the Victorian fossil hunter Mary Anning and The Lady and the Unicorn - a love story set against the weaving of a set of medieval tapestries which hang in the Museum of Cluny in Paris. Her new book published in May is New Boy, a re-working of Othello set in an American school in the 1970s with a cast of 11 year olds. Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Authors Sarah Dunant and Erica Benner, MP Gisela Stuart and historian Catherine Fletcher join Philip Dodd to explore the continuing relevance of Machiavelli's The Prince which was first circulated in 1513.Sarah Dunant's series of Renaissance novels include Blood and Beauty: the Borgias and In The Name of The Family: A Novel of Machiavelli and The Borgias. Erica Benner has written Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli's Lifelong Quest For Freedom. Catherine Fletcher is the author of The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' MediciProducer: Robyn Read

Worlds within worlds - Matthew Sweet talks to filmmaker and author Neil Jordan about his new novel Carnivalesque, which features a hall of mirrors and stolen children. He makes a tour of Flat Time House in south London and speaks to the Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost and curator Gareth Bell-Jones about the house's creator, the pioneering British conceptual artist John Latham (1921-2006). And to round things off, he ventures into the lush green world of the Teletubbies with broadcaster Samira Ahmed and child psychologist Sam Wass to explore the show's enduring fascination twenty years after it first appeared on television.Neil Jordan's latest novel is called Carnivalesque. A World View: John Latham is on at London's Serpentine Gallery from March 2nd to May 21st and includes a series of events at http://flattimeho.org.uk/Producer: Zahid Warley

Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, has now written a love story unfolding against today's refugee crisis. He joins Anne McElvoy to explore migration past and present. They're joined in the studio by New Generation Thinkers Preti Taneja and Sam Goodman who share their research and compare notes about Partition in film and fiction. Gurinder Chadha talks about her new film Viceroy's House, which features Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal, Huma Qureshi, and Michael Gambon in a depiction of events in 1947 when Lord Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of India. Mohsin Hamid's novel Exit West is out now. Viceroy's House is released in cinemas around the UK from Friday March 3rd.Producer: Torquil MacLeod

New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding meets novelist Yoko Tawada, filmmaker Momoko Ando, Elmer Luke editor of a new series of chapbooks and Japanologist Alex Kerr.Alex Kerr is the author of Lost Japan and Dogs and Demons. Yoko Tawada's books include Memoirs of a Polar Bear which has just been translated into English. The Keshiki Series edited by Elmer Luke includes writing by Yoko Tawada, Aoko Matsuda, Keiichiro Hirano, Misumi Kubo, Masatsugo Ono and Natsuki Ekezawa. Momoko Ando graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in London and studied film at New York University. Her films are Kakera: A Piece Of Our Life (2009) and 0.5mm (2014). They are all in England to take part in the Japan Now Festival at the British Library organised by Modern Culture. Producer: Fiona McLean

Philip Dodd considers the importance of 'play' in the way our city centres are designed, built, look and feel in the 21st century with architect Stephen Witherford, social anthropologist Clare Melhuish, urban planner Ben van Bruggen, and Jonathan Glancey author of 'What's So Great About the Eiffel Tower?'. Plus, Durham poet Gillian Allnutt discusses a life in words and receiving the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. What's So Great About the Eiffel Tower? by Jonathan Glancey is published on the 28th of February. Gillian Allnutt's latest collection poetry, Indwelling, is published by Bloodaxe Books.

Matthew Sweet talks to poet and writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, environmental scientist, Jules Pretty and geologist, Andrew Scott, and historians Matthew Kelly and Philip Coupland about Soil and Culture and Survival Stories For some Soil is where they come from, for others it is an object of aesthetic beauty, for most of us it is the means by which we get what we need to live. Poet and writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett's forthcoming A Dictionary of Soil explores the lives lived within and through the soil of three fields which constitute the origins of her family's ancestral village. Agroecology expert, Jules Pretty says Soil We Can Rebuild It and in an environmentally friendly way and it will continue to feed us. Geologist Andrew Scott examines soils from deep time to discover what they can tell us about how the planet and life on Earth evolved. Historian Matthew Kelly is interested in the cultural history of landscape and focuses on environmental policy in Britain after World War II and Philip Coupland is the biographer of Jorian Jenks, a man who might have been regarded as the father of the British Green Movement if he hadn't joined Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. They join Matthew Sweet to think through our developing relationship with the life-giving dirt beneath our feet and discuss whether a happy ending just might be possible.Presenter: Matthew SweetGuests: Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex author 'The Earth Only Endures' (2007) and 'Agri-Culture' (2002) Andrew C. Scott, Emeritus Professor of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London author of ‘Fire on Earth: An Introduction’ (2014) Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Newman University. Author of Swims (Pennned in the Margins, 2017) Philip Coupland 'Farming, Fascism and Ecology: A Life of Jorian Jenks' 2016 Matthew Kelly, Professor of Modern History, Northumbria University 'Quartz and Feldspar: Dartmoor A British Landscape in Modern Times' 2015Producer: Jacqueline Smith

MP Jess Phillips on life in the public eye. Plus Ned Kelly, Lady Macbeth, one once flesh and blood, the other imagined into being, yet both have done sterling work as ciphers to the human condition. Anne McElvoy talks to Rebecca Daniels, curator of an exhibition marking the centenary of Australia’s great myth-maker, the artist Sidney Nolan and to David Taylor, curator of an exhibition at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre about the way memorable images work and legends are made—they are joined by Lorna Miller and Kevin 'Kal' Kallaugher, who draw on their experience as political cartoonists.Transferences: Sidney Nolan in Britain runs at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester from 18th February 2017 – 4th June 2017 and part of centenary programming across 2017. You can find out more from http://www.sidneynolantrust.org/centenary-2017/centenary-programmeDraw New Mischief: 250 years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons is in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s PACCAR room: 25 February – 15 September 2017 Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking the Truth by Jess Phillips is out now. Producer: Karl Bos Editor: Robyn Read

Matthew Sweet visits Hull - the city where he grew up - and seeks out Basil Kirchin's sound world, Richard Bean's version of Hull during the Civil War and the re-opened Ferens Art Gallery where he used to spend Saturday mornings.You can hear more of Basil Kirchin's music for films in tonight's Late Junction which follows at 11pm and Radio3 is recording Mind on the Run featuring Goldfrapp's Will Gregory with members of the BBC Concert Orchestra - the event takes place 17th - 19th Feb at Hull City Hall and will be broadcast on Hear and Now on March 4th. The Ferens Art Gallery is displaying Francis Bacon's Screaming Popes until May 1st; Pietro Lorenzetti's panel painting Christ Between Saints Paul and Peter until April. Exhibitions by Ron Mueck, Spencer Tunick's Sea of Hull commission and the Turner prize follow later in 2017.Richard Bean's play The Hypocrite - dramatising what happened in the Civil War when parliament charged Sir John Hotham with denying King Charles entry to Hull - runs from Friday 24th of February – Saturday 25th of March at Hull Truck Theatre, and Friday 31th of March – Saturday 29th of April at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-AvonProducer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Its 500 years since the German friar, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Reformation. The violent upheavals that followed have tended to obscure his character, his beliefs and his legacy. Nowadays when we think of him we usually conjure up the image of a jowly zealot. To uncover a truer likeness Anne McElvoy was joined at the London School of Economics by Luther's latest biographer, Peter Stanford and the historians, Diarmaid MacCulloch and Ulinka Rublack -- was he a fundamentalist reactionary or the enlightened creator of our modern world.Producer: Zahid Warley

Dubbed the "godfather of British pop art", Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) is the subject of an exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery. Philip Dodd and his guests art historians Richard Cork and Judith Collins, philosopher Barry Smith and writer Iain Sinclair discuss Paolozzi's legacy. Plus an interview with American philosopher Professor Daniel Dennett Co-Director Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. Eduardo Paolozzi runs at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 16 February – 14 May 2017Daniel Dennett's latest book is called From Bacteria to Bach and Back.Producer Torquil MacLeod

Neil Gaiman on his enduring attraction to the world of giants, gods and rainbow bridges of Norse myths and why he's produced his own version; plus research into the ugly side of Valentines from classical times to the 19th century with Annebella Pollen and Edmund Richardson, and, as the RSC prepares to bring Snow in Midsummer to the stage, the first of a planned series of Chinese classics, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig explains her play's 13th century origins and along with Craig Clunas, author of Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, talks to Rana Mitter about bringing Chinese culture to new global audiences. Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig play Snow in Midsummer based on a Chinese classic is on at The Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre Feb 23rd-March 25th 2017 Craig Clunas' new book is Chinese Painting and Its Audiences Neil Gaiman's new book is called Norse Mythology. Annebella Pollen is Principal Lecturer in the History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton and has published her research on Valentines in Early Popular Visual Culture, 2014. Edmund Richardson Director of the Durham Centre for Classical Reception, University of DurhamProducer: Jacqueline Smith

30 years ago There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation was published. Philip Dodd talks to the author Professor Paul Gilroy about its impact and whether discussions about race and culture in Britain have moved on or not. Producer Eliane Glaser.

Matthew Sweet meets Eric the UK's first robot, built in 1928 now at the Science Museum as part of a big display exploring robotics. He's joined by Kathleen Richardson who is Senior Research Fellow in the Ethics of Robotics at De Monfort University, Murray Shanahan - Professor of Cognitive Robotics from Imperial College - and Ryan Abbott from the University of Surrey School of Law to discuss the legal and ethical implications of our increasing reliance on robotics and automation. And Kevin Jackson looks at the first English translation of Makt Myrkranna or Powers of Darkness - Valdimar Asmundsson's 1901 Icelandic reworking of Bram Stoker's vampire classic Dracula. Producer: Torquil MacLeod

As the Royal Academy unveils its huge new show of work produced in Russia between 1917 and 1932, Anne McElvoy and her guests - the film maker and actor, Dolya Gavanski, novelist Charlotte Hobson and the historians Stephen Smith and Victor Sebestyen - assess the role played by artists in the revolution and the relevance of their paintings, sculptures, films, books and music today.Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 runs from February 11th to April 17th at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Charlotte Hobson's novel is called The Vanishing Futurist. Dolya Gavanski is currently working on her second feature film, Soviet Woman: Work, Build and Don't Whine. Professor Stephen Smith from All Souls College, Oxford is the author of books including The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism and Russia in Revolution. Victor Sebestyen's Lenin the Dictator is published later this month.Producer: Zahid Warley

Garrett Carr travelled by foot and canoe along Ireland's border. Kapka Kassabova journeyed to what she calls "the edge of Europe". Frank Ledwidge's army career took him to the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, Nikolas Ventourakis is fascinated by how to capture the abstract notion of borders in photographs. They talk to Anne McElvoy about the essence of edges, notions of the other and the challenges of invisible borders which come and go like the smile of the Cheshire Cat. The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border by Garrett Carr looks at a landscape which has hosted smugglers, kings, runaways, soldiers, peacemakers, protesters and terrorists Border: A journey to the Edge of Europe, Kapka Kassabova explores the rich human history in the wild borderlands of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Nikolas Ventourakis Project: Defining Lines Frank Ledwidge barrister, writer, Losing Small Wars and Investment in Blood Producer: Jacqueline Smith

The Indian writer and essayist, Pankaj Mishra believes we are living in an age of unprecedented anger - one that liberal rationalists struggle to comprehend. He joins Philip Dodd to consider the long term impact of these fervent times. Elif Shafak talks about her latest novel, Three Daughters of Eve, which looks at love, friendship and religion set in Oxford and Istanbul. They are joined in the Free Thinking studio by Douglas Murray, founder of the centre for social cohesion and on a line from USA, Julius Krein, editor of American Affairs, a new magazine backing Trumpism. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak is published on the 2nd of February. Age of Anger: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra is published on the 7th of February.

Join Matthew Sweet in the Caribbean -- well, not literally but certainly intellectually. He'll be discussing the region's history with the cultural commentator, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, whose new book, Island People, is already being compared to V S Naipaul. Does it make sense to think of the Caribbean as a cohesive region rather than a collection of very individual islands? To help settle this question Matthew and Joshua are joined by Colin Grant, author of I & I - the Natural Mystics and the Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller who'll be reading from his acclaimed new novel, Augustown, and his Forward Prize Winning poetry collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. To round things off the actor and writer, Lavern Archer and the director, Anton Phillips will be in the studio to let you in on one of the stage's best kept secrets -- the wildly popular vernacular theatre from Jamaica that's been packing out the likes of the Manchester Opera House since the late Eighties. Kei Miller's novel is called Augustown. Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's non fiction exploration is called Island People The Caribbean and The World. Colin Grant's book about Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer is called , I &I - The Natural MysticsProducer: Zahid Warley

Peter Bazalgette, former Arts Council England chair and TV executive, discusses why we need to become more empathetic. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin has given the Proms Lecture exploring the mind and music. He talks about lies and statistics and how we can make better decisions. James Bartholomew believes the Welfare State may be holding us back. Together they explore with Philip Dodd, how to build a better stronger Civil State. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a novel ranging across 250 years and two branches and seven generations of a Ghanaian family shadowed by the experiences of slavery and slaving. Gyasi follows two different branches of one Fante family obsessed by notions of home whilst swept along by different but equally challenging histories on either side of the Atlantic. She talks to Philip Dodd about the importance of home for Africans and African-Americans and the still low representation of writers from modern Africa and the need for more. Peter Bazalgette has written The Empathy Instinct: A Blueprint for a Civil Society Daniel Levitin has written The Organized Mind and his new book is called a Field Guide to Lies and Statistics - a Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World. James Bartholomew, follows up his The Welfare State We're In, with The Welfare of Nations Yaa Gyasi's novel is called Homegoing. Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Anne McElvoy explores topics discussed at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos - she's joined by former Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, economist Liam Halligan and MIT scientist Andrew McAfee. Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th, New Generation Thinker Seán Williams discusses his research into barbers in the camps. Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh discusses the way the history of indentured labour has influenced her latest dance piece.Shobana Jeyasingh's Material Men Redux, informed by the personal stories of dancers Sooraj Subramaniam and Shailesh Bahoran, tours to Nottingham, Ipswich, Eastleigh, Birmingham, Glasgow and London from February.Producer:Torquil MacLeod.

On the day of the Oscar nominations, Matthew Sweet is joined by critics Dana Stevens and Ryan Gilbey and writer Christopher Frayling to survey the last year in film. Also, does T2 make any sense if you haven't see the original Trainspotting? Young journalist Stevie Mackenzie-Smith reports back. And Deborah Lipstadt, the American historian who took on the Holocaust denier David Irving in a landmark court case, discusses its retelling in Denial, a new film starring Rachel Weisz. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Rana Mitter talks Victorian bodies with Kathryn Hughes from Darwin's beard to whether George Eliot had milkmaid's hands. Stanley Price explains how James Joyce and Italo Svevo forged a firm friendship when they met in Trieste. Poet and New Generation Thinker Sandeep Parmar and writer Lauren Elkin discuss the Citizens of Everywhere art project which will see commissioned writing, art, workshops in schools and debates exploring the idea of citizenship in a globalised world. James Rivington from the British Academy unveils the 20 Academic Books that Shaped Modern Britain ahead of Academic Book Week.Kathryn Hughes latest book is called Victorians Undone.Stanley Price has written James Joyce and Italo Svevo: The Story of a FriendshipProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Artists Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien, Eddie Chambers and Harold Offeh talk to Anne McElvoy about their art and the influence of the British Black Art movement - which began around the time of the First National Black Art Convention in 1982 organised by the Blk Art Group and held at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.Eddie Chambers has written Roots and Culture: Cultural Politics in the Making of Black Britain and Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin. Sonia Boyce is Professor at Middlesex University, a Royal Academician and will also have a solo show at the ICA later this year. She is one of the recipients of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award. She is also the Principal-Investigator of the Black Artists & Modernism project. Isaac Julien is showing Other Destinies at the Royal Ontario Museum from January and shows at Victoria Miro Gallery. Harold Offeh is an artist, curator and senior lecturer in Fine Art at Leeds Beckett University. His work Covers will feature in Untitled: art on the conditions of our time.Nottingham Contemporary's The Place Is Here brings together around 100 works by over 30 artists and collectives spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video and archival displays from the 1980s. It runs from 04 Feb - 30 Apr 2017New Art Exchange’s exhibition, Untitled: art on the conditions of our time, runs from 14 Jan - 19 Mar 2017 and features 12 British artists each with ties to Africa.Producer: Karl Bos Editor: Robyn Read

Matthew Sweet talks to Stephen Baxter about his sequel to HG Wells's novel War Of The Worlds, which was first serialised in 1897 and imagined an England invaded by Martians. Stephen Baxter's novel, which has been authorised by the HG Wells estate, is called The Massacre of Mankind and it sets the action 14 years after a Martian invasion. Eimear McBride's novels are noted for their 'experimental' approach. She joins Matthew with the academic and writer Mark Blacklock to discuss what 'experimental' can mean when applied to the novel. And, recently posters have appeared all over the UK with the following words: 'Legal Name Fraud, The Truth, It's Illegal To Use A Legal Name'. Matthew is joined by the barrister and legal blogger Carl Gardner to discuss the legal ideas behind the campaign. Producer: Luke Mulhall

Anne McElvoy talks to Nadeem Aslam and Chibundu Onuzo about their novels set in Pakistan and Nigeria which follow characters who have to find safe places to live following violent uprisings; Alex Evans joins them to explore myth-making plus we hear from Julius Bryant, the curator of an exhibition at the V&A about Lockwood Kipling art teacher and father of Rudyard. Nadeem Aslam is the author of books including Maps For Lost Lovers and The Blind Man's Garden which have won a series of awards. His new novel is called The Golden Legend. Chibundu Onuzo's first novel The Spider King's Daughter won a Betty Trask Award and her new novel is called Welcome to Lagos. Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London is a free display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London opening Saturday January 14th. The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough by Alex Evans is out now. Producer: Harry Parker

We've been runnning for two million years give or take. Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott explore contemporary running as solitary inspiration and communal activity with the Geographer and 1999 Scottish Hill Running Champion, Hayden Lorimer, the artists Kai Syng Tan and Angus Farquhar, and the literary scholar and bare-foot artiste, Vybarr Cregan-Reid. Conversation ranges from feeling empowered on city streets to teaming up with the wind to the horrid history of the treadmill and explore whether Running deserves better representation in the arts. Presenters: Shahidha Bari Laurence ScottGuests: Vybarr Cregan-Reid – author of Footnotes How Running Makes Us Human Angus Farquhar, Creative Director of NVA Public Art, author of a blog 'The Grim Runner' Hayden Lorimer Running Geographer Kai Syng Tan, Artist and curator of a biennial festival Run Run Run Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Agent to stars including Humphrey Bogart, Clancy Sigal looks back at the absurdities of the 1950s movie business. Catherine Wheatley and Larushka Ivan Zadeh discuss the new musical La La Land starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling which is picking up many of the prizes in the film awards season and look at Hollywood's preoccupation with its own back yard. Authors Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph lift the lid on the bizarre world of obsessive film collectors. Clancy Sigal's autobiography, Black Sunset is out now. A Thousand Cuts: The Bizarre Underground World of Collectors and Dealers Who Saved the Movies by Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph is out now. La La Land is out in cinemas across Britain from January 13th certificate 12A Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

American author Jonathan Franzen's interest in the Austrian satirist and journalist resulted in him publishing The Kraus Project. He joins Philip Dodd, novelist Lawrence Norfolk and literary historian, Heide Kunzelmann for a programme exploring the writing and politics of Karl Kraus (1874–1936) - whose artistic achievements include 700 one man performances of works by Brecht, Goethe, Shakespeare and others - plus performances of Offenbach's operettas, accompanied by piano and singing all the roles himself; whose magazine Die Fackel published Oskar Kokoschka, Adolf Loos, Heinrich Mann, Arnold Schönberg, August Strindberg and Oscar Wilde and whose support for other artists included assisting Frank Wedekind in staging his controversial play Pandora's Box. In 1915 Kraus began writing a satirical play about World War One called The Last Days of Mankind which mixes dialogue drawn from contemporary documents with fantasical expressionist scenes of apocalypse. A dramatisation featuring actors Giles Havergal and Paul Schofield was broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Part of Radio 3's Breaking Free series of programmes exploring music and culture in Vienna. Producer: Zahid Warley

Anne McElvoy explores the history and possible future of the Union Jack or Union flag in a year which has seen the Brexit Vote. With: Graham Bartram - chief vexillologist at the Flag Institute, who grew up in Scotland, Northern Ireland and West Africa John Bew – professor of history and foreign policy at Kings Afua Hirsch – Sky News correspondent, writing a book called Brit(ish) which will be published next year Ash Sarkar - a senior editor for Novara Media and who hosts an online video series #OMFGSarkar Andrew Rosindell - Conservative MP for Romford and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Flags and Heraldry Committee With contributions on the design from Jonathan Meades and Amber Butchart.At the Conservative Party Conference Theresa May's speech argued that the establishment must stop sneering at the patriotism of ordinary Britons. With renewed discussions about Scottish independence in the wake of the Brexit vote, what might this mean for the idea of patriotism in Britain - and for the flag which was created in 1606 as ‘the flag of Britain’, and which gained the name ‘Union’ in 1625.Part of a week-long focus on Free Thinking on the idea of patriotism and why politicians of all stripes are claiming that their parties are the most patriotic.Producer: Eliane Glaser.

Rana Mitter debates the meaning of patriotism in Russia, China, Japan and Latin America with guests including historian and policy analyst Michael Auslin, David Priestland who is Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, Chinese-British novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo (whose autobiography is published in January) and Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, lawyer and author of What If Latin America Ruled the World?Part of a week of programmes on Free Thinking exploring the way patriotism has become a subject of intense debate amongst politicians and thinkers in countries across the world.Definition of patriotic. : having or showing great love and support for your country/ being proud of itThis summer saw Russia opening a “patriotic” summer camp for hundreds of veterans' children and President Putin talked about patriotism being the only possible unifying national idea. In China a directive, issued earlier this year by the Communist Party organization of the Ministry of Education, called for “patriotic education” to thread through the curriculum in schools and tensions in the South China Sea have seen a rise in political rhetoric talking about patriotism.Producer: Torquil MacLeod

At the end of a year which has seen Britain vote for Brexit, the rise of political parties claiming patriotism in other European countries and a sense of national pride being invoked by politicians in Russia and China - Free Thinking hears from some of the key thinkers exploring these current debates. Our week long focus begins in France where Philip Dodd talks to the public intellectual, Alain Finkielkraut and the novelist and film-maker Karim Miské. Alain Finkielkraut is a member of the Académie française, a council of 40 greats elected for life. In France his books are best-sellers but his views about integration and French identity have led to clashes. Finkielkraut's father survived deportation to Auschwitz. In his own career he has taught at universities in USA and France and his books have explored topics including French colonialism, Jewish identity, the internet and the decline of French culture. Karim Miské is the author of the award winning novel, Arab Jazz, and of an essay, N'Appartenir which charts his search for a sense of belonging in contemporary France. Producer: Zahid Warley.

Are public enquiries good government? At the end of a year where we have seen the Hillsborough and Chilcot reports are these the best way of calling to account? Margaret Hodge and Bronwen Maddox join Anne McElvoy to discuss. Plus, Matthew Parris considers the concept of scorn and those who are best at pouring it. Matthew Parris has written an updated version of Scorn: The Wittiest and Wickedest Insults in Human History Margaret Hodge has written Called To Account: How Corporate Bad Behaviour and Government Waste Combine to Cost Us Millions. Bronwen Maddox is Director of the Institute for Government Producer: Craig Smith.

John Simpson joins Philip Dodd to discuss fifty years of reporting from around the world for the BBC and what the future holds for foreign correspondents. Once our news came from three primary sources: newspapers, radio and TV. But in a digital world which offers a proliferation of 'news' how do we separate fact from opinion or even fakery? Former director general of the BBC and current CEO of The New York Times Company, Mark Thompson, journalist Susie Boniface (aka Fleet Street Fox), author and TV producer, Peter Pomerantsev, and academic, Martin Moore, consider what we mean by news in 2016. We Chose to Speak of War and Strife: The World of the Foreign Correspondent is by John Simpson.Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia is by Peter PomerantsevEnough Said: What's gone wrong with the language of politics? is by Mark Thompson. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Classicist Professor Edith Hall, New Generation Thinker Chris Kissane, novelist Elif Shafak, and Dr Alan Mendoza from the Henry Jackson Society join Matthew Sweet to consider what might be on a reading list to prepare for a post Brexit world.Reading List: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Moniza Alvi, Europa Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart Voltaire, Candide Sun Tzu, The Art Of War Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, Barbarians At The Gate Ali Smith, Autumn Hannah Arendt, Men In Dark TimesProducer: Luke Mulhall

Shahidha Bari and guests look at our relationship with animals. Chris Packham discusses his 'animal symphony' composed with musician Nitin Sawhney for a new documentary exploring animal reactions to music. Darwin expert and New Generation Thinker Will Abberley reviews an exhibition considering our relationship with the rest of the living world. Science writer Helen Pilcher explains the new science behind 'De-extinction'. Alan Hook describes his research into playfulness and computer games for cats. Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-extinction by Helen Pilcher is out now. Making Nature at the Wellcome Collection in London runs until the 21st of May. The Animal Symphony is on Sky Arts on the 9th December at 6pm, then on demand. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Anne McElvoy meets David Rooney curator of the Winton Mathematics gallery at the Science Museum which has been redesigned by Zaha Hadid architects and explores the way maths skills are increasingly needed for jobs. She discusses the changing attitudes to mathematics in history and the present day with Alex Bellos, writer on maths puzzles, maths historian Serafina Cuomo and maths lecturer Vicky Neale. They are joined by astro-physicist Neil de Grasse Tyson who is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Alex Bellos is the author of Alex Through The Looking Glass and his latest book called Can You Solve My Problems. Neil de Grasse Tyson is the author of many books including Welcome to the Universe co-written with J Richard Gott and Michael A Strauss. Vicky Neale is Whitehead Lecturer at the Mathematical Institute and Balliol College at Oxford University. Serafina Cuomo is Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Producer: Harry Parker.

Colin Grant, author of a book exploring his brother's epilepsy, joins presenter Matthew Sweet, New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore who writes about Wilkie Collins and Charles Fernyhough - who studies hearing voices. Plus director Josie Rourke on Joan of Arc on stage at the Donmar Warehouse and theatre critic David Benedict.St Joan by George Bernard Shaw starring Gemma Arterton is at the Donmar Warehouse in London from December 9th - January 18th. It will be broadcast live in cinemas in partnership with National Theatre Live on Thursday 16 February 2017 Charles Fernyhough is a Professor of Psychology at Durham University who has published The Voices Within: The history and science of how we talk to ourselves. Colin Grant's book exploring epilepsy is called A Smell of Burning. Clare Walker Gore is a New Generation Thinker researching Victorian literature at the University of Cambridge. New Generation Thinker is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find people who can turn research into radio programmes.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

What price the self in the 21st century? We may be living in the age of the "selfie" and of social media narcissism but is there anything fixed about the self? Philip Dodd and his guests, the novelist, Tom McCarthy, the sociologist, Susie Scott, the neuroscientist, Daniel Glaser and the painter, Dexter Dalwood explore the notion of identity today taking in the major Rauschenberg retrospective at Tate Modern, Erving Goffman's seminal work of sociology, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life and the way we all use words to constantly make and remake our selves. Robert Rauschenberg runs at Tate Modern from December 1st until April 2nd 2017. Dexter Dalwood's art is on show at the Saatchi Gallery in an exhibition called Painters' Painters which runs from 30 Nov 2016 - 28 Feb 2017. Tom McCarthy's novels include C and Satin Island Producer: Zahid Warley.

Matthew Sweet discusses elites and their role in contemporary politics, with Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton;Professor David Runciman, Head of the Department of Politics & International Studies at the University of Cambridge; Eliane Glaser, writer and Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University; and Lynsey Hanley, visiting Fellow in Cultural Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. Eliane Glaser's most recent book is called Get Real: How to See Through the Hype, Spin and Lies of Modern Life Lynsey Hanley's most recent book is Estates: An Intimate HistoryProducer: Luke Mulhall.

Wierd fiction presents the universe as an irrational place, totally indifferent to human concerns. Is 'the wierd' a more general approach that can bextended beyond fiction to encompass the other arts, or even politics and science? Rana Mitter discusses the idea of the wierd with literary scholar Nick Freeman of the University of Loughborough, cultural theorist Caroline Edwards of Birkbeck, University of London, and astronomer Marek Kukula of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Continuing to explore the faultline between art and science, Rana meets artist Helen Pynor and gallery director Mike Stubs to discuss science and art on show at Liverpool's FACT. And, we discuss the new Japanese animated film Your Name with Japanologist Irena Hayer of the Univeristy of Leeds, and Justin Johnson, curator of animation and films for younger people at the British Film Institute. No Such Thing As Gravity is on show at FACT, Liverpool until February 5th 2017. Your Name is on release at selected cinemas throughout the country now. Producer: Luke Mulhall

Juliet Stephenson and Lia Williams decide which role to play on the toss of a coin in Robert Icke's version of Schiller's Mary Stuart at the Almeida. The director explains why. Just before he died in 2015 the Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass completed his last book. Karen Leeder has been reading the English translation of it. And New Generation Thinker Preti Taneja has been reading a selection of other newly translated fiction. Plus MP Rachel Reeves has written a history of a campaigning MP who played a crucial role in the de-criminalisation of homosexuality, the legalisation of abortion and the abolition of the death penalty and who was also a driving force in the roll-out of comprehensive education. She talks to presenter Anne McElvoy about why the work of Alice Bacon interests her.Of All That Ends by Günter Grass is out now. Alice in Westminster: The Political Life of Alice Bacon by Rachel Reeves is out now. Mary Stuart runs at London's Almeida Theatre from December 2nd to January 21st.Preti Taneja's pick of literature in translation includes:Istanbul, Istanbul - Burhan Sonmez (Saqi Books) Eve Out of her Ruins - Ananda Devi (CB Editions) Trysting - Emanuelle Pagano (And Other Stories) Panty - Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay (Tilted Axis Press)Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Zadie Smith talks dance, depicting teenage friendships and US/UK differences with Philip Dodd as her new novel Swing Time is published in Britain and BBC TV dramatises her book NW starring Nikki Amuka-Bird and Phoebe Fox.Producer: Robyn Read

Matthew Sweet tries to separate out the clichés from the reality when it comes to male masculinity in 2016 with the director of the forthcoming Being A Man festival at London’s Southbank and Josh Appignanesi and Devorah Baum, the husband and wife team behind a new documentary that charts the emotional turmoil of childbirth on a man reluctant to grow up.Plus, Matthew travels to the Florence Nightingale Museum in London to meet New Generation Thinker and historian of beards, Alun Withey, who reveals why the current craze for male facial hair is not a patch on the Victorian age.And do you think you’re a good listener? Do you think you’re being listened to? In a year of political upheaval that’s rapidly reshaping a new world order, the head of the Government’s 'nudge unit’ David Halpern, and communications professor Jim Macnamara, consider the importance of listening when it comes to a functioning democracy.The New Man by Josh Appignanesi and Devorah Baum is in selected cinemas. Being a Man runs at London's Southbank centre from November 25th - 27th Florence Nightingale Museum: The Age of the Beard: Putting on a Brave Face in Victorian Britain, runs from 18th November 2016 to 30th. Jim Macnamara is the author of Organizational Listening: The Missing Essential in Public Communication. He is conducting a public lecture, The Lost Art of Listening: the missing key to democratic and civil society participation, on Wednesday 23rd November at the London School of Economics.Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Matthew Sweet visits little known locations in London to meet researchers drawing on archives of the past to cast new light on the present. The Cross Bones Graveyard in Southwark was used in the Middle Ages to bury sex workers and others living on the fringes of respectable society. We visit the site with Sondra Hausner, an anthropologist of religion who's studied modern practices for memorializing the women buried at the site. Vicky Iglikowski and Rowena Hillel are researchers at the National Archives at Kew investigating records that shed light on LGBT history in the Capital. We'll leaf through the records to see what they've uncovered. New Generation Thinker Naomi Paxton and her colleague Ailsa Grant Ferguson have identified a moment when Shakespeare, radical politics, and the roots of the National Theatre all converged, in a building in Bloomsbury used to house Anzac soldiers during the First World War. And we join Peter Guillery, editor of the Survey of London, to investigate the work of this ongoing project to document the streets of London in all their complexity. Part of a week of programmes on BBC Radio 3 focusing on new research. The Being Human Festival which takes place at universities across the UK from November 17th - 25th will feature events linked to these research projects. Both this and the New Generation Thinkers scheme are supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott present a programme looking at new research into supernatural fiction writer Vernon Lee with Francesco Ventrella. Lee used the phrase "iron curtain" and declared herself a "cosmopolitan from her birth, without any single national tie or sympathy". They also debate what it means to lie, examine the life of communist informer Harvey Matusow with Doug Haynes, and look at new scientific research into the way consistent lying can change behaviour. Plus, Jenny Kitzinger on the gulf between popular ideas of ‘coma’ and the realities of such states. Part of a week of programmes on BBC Radio 3 exploring new academic research. Being Human festival of the humanities runs from 17–25 Nov 2016 at universities across the UK. It is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) which works with Radio 3 on the New Generation Thinkers scheme to find academics who can turn their research into radio.Producer: Craig Smith

French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss famously said that ‘animals are good to think with’. Rana Mitter with Sarah Peverley, Charles Forsdick, Alasdair Cochrane, Eveline de Wolf, Michael Szollosy and an audience at FACT, Liverpool debate robots, humans and animals.The broadcast will preview upcoming events organised by the University of Liverpool as part of their Being Human festival programme and is part of a week of programmes on Radio 3 focusing on new research and the UK wide festival supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. From a best friend to a tasty snack or something we must carefully husband to a threat we must eradicate, we humans think about animals in lots of ways. But how has our thinking about animals changed over time, and what does that tell us about our shifting attitudes toward the natural world and our place in it? Hear the views of a medievalist who studies bestiaries and mermaids, a French scholar who explores the history of the ‘human zoo’, and a political theorist who argues that we should extend human rights to animals, a zookeeper, and an expert on human-robot relations.Producer: Luke Mulhall

Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer prize-winning Maus - a father-son memoir about the Holocaust drawn with cats and mice - is one of the classics of graphic novels. He's now collaborating with the Jazz composer Phillip Johnston on a show that puts music alongside the images. Naomi Alderman talks to them and to the performance artist Marina Abramovic who's written a memoir. Plus Sarah Churchwell watches a film version of Philip Roth's American Pastoral which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Ewan McGregor directs and stars as a man whose life starts to fall apart as his daughter commits an act of political terrorism.Wordless! Art Spiegelman + Phillip Johnston is at the Barbican in London on 11 November 2016 / 19:30 It's part of the London Jazz Festival. You can find more events on BBC Radio 3 and on the BBC Music Jazz pop-up station which will run from 10am on Thursday 10th November until 10am on Monday 14th November on digital radio, online and the iPlayer Radio appMarina Abramovic's memoir is called Walk Through Walls. American Pastoral is out in cinemas across the UKProducer: Zahid Warley.

Bernardine Evaristo, Keith Piper, Miranda Kaufmann and Kehinde Andrews consider the question what it means to be Black British and how should a wider history be taught and reflected in literature. New Generation Thinker Nandini Das presents.Kehinde Andrews is at Birmingham City University where his research includes looking at black activism. He is series editor of Blackness in Britain with Rowman and Littlefield InternationalMiranda Kaufmann is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her book Black Tudors will be published by Oneworld in autumn 2017. Bernardine Evaristo is the author of prose and poetic novels including The Emperor's Babe and Mr Loverman. She teaches creative writing at Brunel University.Keith Piper's exhibition Unearthing the Banker’s Bones, in partnership with Iniva, is at Bluecoat in Liverpool and runs until 22 January 2017.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Matthew Sweet talks to 21st-century novelists Sarah Perry and Carol Birch about why the 19th century illuminates their writing. And can the Victorians still make us laugh? Cultural historians Fern Riddell and Bob Nicholson, consider the question raised by a new exhibition. Plus neo-Victorians - historian Mark Llewellyn on the curiously enduring presence of the 19th century in contemporary culture.Victorian Entertainments: There Will Be Fun at the British Library in London runs from Fri 14 October 2016 - Sun 12 March 2017. There is a special Friday Night Late on November 25th.Presenter: Matthew SweetGuests: Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent Carol Birch, Orphans of the Carnival Mark Llewellyn (with Ann Heilmann), Neo-Victorianism: The Victorians in the Twenty-First Century Fern Riddell, The Victorian Guide to Sex Bob Nicholson from Edge Hill University is the author of many articles about Victorian literature and periodicals and he has been working with Dr Mark Hall (Computing) and the British Library on a digital humanities project that aims to create an online archive of one million Victorian jokes. Producer: Jacqueline Smith