Arts & Ideas

Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On stage at Free Thinking to debate the issue are: Dame Fiona Reynolds, former head of the National Trust; Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage and author of The Building of England and The Men from the Ministry; Jon Alexander, reformed ad-man and founder of the newcitizenship project; rural sociologist Professor Mark Shucksmith, Director of Newcastle University's Newcastle Institute of Social renewal and Canon Dagmar Winter, Rural Affairs Officer for the Diocese of Newcastle. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 and chaired by Samira Ahmed in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Today many scientists are engaged in exploring the interaction between logical and intuitive aspects of the mind. New Generation Thinker Gregory Tate, from the University of Surrey, argues that novelists have been examining similar psychological questions for centuries, and he outlines the way the novels of Jane Austen shed light on the balance of power between thought and emotion. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His "Trash Trilogy" involved negotiations with film censors. In an extended interview recorded in front of an audience, John Waters talks to Samira Ahmed about a career which has moved from film to hosting a show on American Court TV which featured marriages that ended in murder. Their discussion ranges over the influence of Catholicism, his birthplace Baltimore, the films of Douglas Sirk and the perils of hitchhiking. Recorded in front of an audience.

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and phone apps have changed the way we share our lives, leading to an explosion in the telling of life stories. Alice Hall, from the University of York, explores our changing perceptions of what memory and memoir mean and looks at the way the language of modern fiction has tried to reflect this shift. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

What is the neuroscience of depression, how does it affect decision-making, and what are the ethics of medical treatments? Rana Mitter chairs a discussion looking at how we control our minds. He is joined on stage by Professor Barbara Sahakian who questions the ethics of smart drugs, Richard Bentall the Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, and Guardian columnist and author Clare Allan. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant pressure on time, how does not having enough shape the way we think and act? Professors Sendhil Mullainathan from Harvard, Simin Davoudi from Newcastle and Jeremy Till from Central St Martins discuss scarcity and sustainability with Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage Gateshead. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public pressure and the increasing emphasis on "choice" and "consultation" leave professional expertise and political instinct? Anne McElvoy chairs a panel at the Free Thinking Festival of Ideas, including the founder of the Renewal campaign David Skelton, the columnist David Aaronovitch and Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead.

A 15th-century English monarch was appointed by God and had absolute supremacy but how was that belief shaken when medieval kings were unfit to rule or the throne was contested? New Generation Thinker Sarah Peverley, from Liverpool University, looks at the way the people viewed their rulers during the Wars of the Roses. Recorded on Saturday 26 October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable "We", which was published in 1919. It depicts a city of glass where citizens are spied upon. Fans of the book have included George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe and it increasingly resonates with today's concerns about surveillance techniques. Matthew Sweet and an audience at The Free Thinking Festival from Sage Gateshead discuss the novel with poet Sean O'Brien, columnist David Aaronovitch and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon. Recorded on Sunday 27 October 2013.

When Lindisfarne monastery was attacked in 793AD the monk Alcuin described the church of St Cuthbert, "splattered with the blood of the priests." New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, from Durham University, takes this moment as the starting point for an exploration of the power battles between Vikings and Anglo Saxons which led to the symbolic battles of 1066. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2013, exploring the traits that determine a healthy life span and arguing that we need to rethink the relationship between health, wealth and self-control. Professor Marmot is one of the global pioneers of research into health inequalities - how stress, status and diet can affect our wellbeing. His ground-breaking Whitehall Studies followed the health and stress levels of British civil servants over a decade and he coined the term "status syndrome" to describe his discovery that being lower down the pecking order leads to a shorter life span. Recorded on Friday 25 October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead.

Neil Tennant, singer of pop duo Pet Shop Boys, grew up in the fishing port of North Shields and went to a Catholic school in Newcastle. He talks to Philip Dodd about the influence of the North East on his career, which began in publishing and magazines. Last year the Pet Shop Boys performed at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics and they have just returned from a tour which has taken them to 29 countries.

Matthew Sweet leads an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta Forna, Naomi Alderman and Tim Stanley on an expedition to find "the common reader" -- being stalked by Woolf in the 20th Century and by Johnson in the 18th. Both believed that the common reader "uncorrupted with literary prejudices" was the final arbiter of "poetical honours" so it's a quest that's clearly still relevant today. The question is what does a common reader look like in our digital age? What are they reading? Where? And how?

A Landmark edition in which Anne McElvoy and guests look at Alain-Fournier's celebrated and nostalgic tale of adolescent romance, Le Grand Meaulnes. Michèle Roberts, Hermione Lee and Patrick McGuiness examine it's enduring appeal and legacy from the poetry of its language, to the interlocking mysteries of its plot to the intriguing romantic life and early death of its author, and the story of the woman who inspired him. With readings by Peter Marinker.

In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet examines the work and legacy of director Michael Grigsby, who died earlier this year, and who made a trilogy of films in Ulster. In the first two, Too Long A Sacrifice and The Silent War, he invited people to talk about how The Troubles had impacted on their lives. Matthew Sweet is joined by two film-makers who worked closely with Michael Grigsby, Rebekah Tolley and John Furse, to pay tribute to his work. This event was recorded at the Playhouse Theatre in Derry-Londonderry, this year's UK City of Culture.

BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity around the country. In the first of 2 programmes from Derry-Londonderry Matthew Sweet celebrates the city's status as City of Culture 2013 and explores its cultural past and present with a series of discussions, events and interviews recorded at The Playhouse. Writer Owen Hatherley, Derry-based architect Mary Kerrigan and local crime writer Brian McGilloway reflect on the architecture and landscape of Derry and the lives of its citizens.

Susannah Clapp joins Anne McElvoy for the very first review of David Tennant’s much anticipated performance as the lead in Shakespeare's Richard II. Writer and journalist Eric Schlosser reveals a series of near-disasters in the history of management of nuclear weapons. New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough has a sneak preview of the Illuminating York Festival, which celebrates the city’s Viking history. Richard Burton on his new biography of poet Basil Bunting.

Fifty years since Oh What a Lovely War was first performed, Night Waves pays tribute to Joan Littlewood's revolutionary anti-war musical. In a programme recorded before an audience at the Theatre Royal Stratford East where the show received its premiere, Samira Ahmed and her guests, the critic, Michael Billington, Erica Whyman from the RSC, the historian, David Kynaston and Murray Melvin from the original cast, discuss how Oh What A Lovely War changed Britain's theatrical landscape and redefined the way the think about the First World War.

Philip Dodd discusses the announcement of the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize with Sarah Churchwell. Susannah Clapp is in the studio discussing Rufus Norris, the director revealed today as the new Artistic Director of the National Theatre. Philip is joined by the Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland and historian of US politics Prof Philip Davis to discuss the current US shutdown. James Malpas and Karen Leeder review the new Paul Klee exhibtion at the Tate Modern. And Philip takes a trip into the heart and history of the Kremlin and asks the historian Catherine Merridale about it's secrets.

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Phillips in the new film from Paul Greengrass; writer Writer Kevin Jackson and Anja Shortland join Matthew Sweet to discuss the film and its portrayal of Somali Piracy. Film historian David Thomson discusses the most memorable moments in films. As David Greig’s play The Events opens, inspired by the Norwegian massacre by Anders Breivik, the director Ramin Gray, forensic psychiatrist Cleo Van Velsen and priest Giles Fraser discuss the possibility of forgiveness in the face of atrocity.

In the last of Matthew Sweet's visits to ZSL London Zoo we consider our relations with our closest animal relatives - apes. Daniel Simmonds, Keeper at ZSL London Zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, discusses the problems that come with looking after creatures so similar to, but different from us. Is any kind of mutual understanding possible at all? Matthew picks up the theme with anatomist and anthropologist Alice Roberts, physician and philosopher Raymond Tallis and novelist James Lever. So what happens when you stare into the eyes of an ape?

Social media, as old as Cicero and as revolutionary as Christianity? Tom Standage and William Dutton join Philip Dodd to explore our networked world and to question whether social media alters historic mappings of power and authority. Photographer Dayanita Singh discusses her new retrospective at London’s Hayward gallery and her approach to the camera. As part of Verdi 200, Radio 3’s season celebrating the composer’s bicentenary, music historian Sarah Lenton and scholar René Weis explore Verdi’s passion for Shakespeare.

Catholic theologian Hans Küng in his new work asks 'Can We Save The Catholic Church?'. He discusses this and more with Anne McElvoy. Anna Raeburn and Adam Mars-Jones review the first episode of Masters of Sex and discuss the work of Masters and Johnson. In a theatre critique, Susannah Clapp comes straight from the Donmar Warehouse to the studio for a first night review of Arnold Wesker's 'Roots'. And the author Wendy Lower has written a new book 'Hitler's Furies - German women in the Nazi Killing Fields' and Anne asks her what she found there.

Jonathan Derbyshire, the Managing Editor of Prospect magazine, and Observer columnist Nick Cohen discuss the genealogy of left wing politics in Britain. The thinker and psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek takes on the ideology machine of Hollywood in his new film, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Directors Richard Eyre and Stephen Unwin discuss their two respective productions of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, which have both just opened. Melissa Benn asks what messages we are conveying to young women and what advice we should be giving our daughters to empower them for the future.

In Night Waves’ second outing to London Zoo, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Angus Wilson's 1961 novel 'The Old Men at the Zoo'. Matthew is joined by Wilson's friend and biographer Margaret Drabble, by the poet and novelist Iain Sinclair, and by Jonathan Powell and Margot Hayhoe who brought the story to TV screens in the 1983 BBC series.

With Rana Mitter. Bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang discusses her new biography of the most important woman in Chinese history; Empress Dowager Cixi. Alastair Sooke survey's a new show by The critics' favourite Young British artist, Sarah Lucas. US historian Tim Stanley joins Rana to discuss former Chilean President Salvador Allende along with the author of a new book on the subject, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera. And our latest contribution to the Sound of Cinema season: Simon Fisher Turner discusses his new soundtrack to The Epic of Everest.

Samuel Huntington’s essay ‘The Clash of Civilisations?’ was published twenty years ago; Philip Dodd and guests Douglas Murray, Maria Misra and Gideon Rose discuss the importance and relevance of the essay today. Karen Leeder reviews a new exhibition of the work of George Grosz which focuses on his satirical depictions of bourgeois life in Weimar Berlin. Simon Heffer on his new book High Minds, which explores 1840s-1880s as a period which laid the foundations for modern Britain.

Actress Cate Blanchett joins Samira Ahmed to discuss her role in Woody Allen's latest film, Blue Jasmine. Renaissance scholar Alexander Lee, Sarah Dunant and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker John Gallagher reassess the Renaissance and consider whether our view of the period is seen through rose-tinted glasses. Maxim Leo on his new memoir, Red Love, and the compromises involved in living in the DDR. Art critic Joanne Harwood reviews Tate Modern's retrospective of the late Brazilian artist Mira Schendel.

Architect Zaha Hadid joins Rana Mitter to reflect on her designs for the Serpentine's new Sackler Gallery. Critics Ian Christie and Muriel Zagha discuss the sounds and music of French Cinema. Philosopher Julian Baggini and Classicist Richard Seaford consider the pros and cons of cynicism towards the public sphere.

Australian director Baz Luhrmann shot to fame in 1992 with Strictly Ballroom and was nominated in 2003 for seven Tony awards for his Broadway production of La Boheme. He's best known however for his bright and brash films Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and The Great Gatsby which was released earlier this year. On all three he has worked with Glasgow based composer Craig Armstrong who studied with Cornelius Cardew and began his career as in-house composer at the city's Tron Theatre. Baz and Craig explain to Tom Service how their creative relationship works and reflect on the role of music in Baz's films.

Carter Burwell is famed for scoring the films of the iconic Coen Brothers, from 1984's Blood Simple to Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and No Country for Old Men; they have one of the longest standing collaborations in the industry. Burwell was born in New York City where in the 1980s he played in a number of punk bands and worked at the New York Institute of Technology where he was first approached by the Coens. He talks to Tom Service about how he goes about approaching each score, for the Coen Brothers as well as other regular collaborators Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, Gods and Monsters), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation), and Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths).

As part of the BBC's Sound of Cinema season, Tom Service talks to ten-time Academy Award nominee James Horner. Horner was born in Los Angeles but spent his early years in London and studied at the Royal College of Music before returning to California to pursue a doctorate in composition. Having initially intended composing concert music he fell into the film industry more or less by accident. His award winning collaboration with James Cameron has spanned three decades, from Aliens in 1986 to the biggest selling soundtrack of all time Titanic, and most recently 2009's Avatar, and he has also regularly worked with Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13), and Mel Gibson (Braveheart, Apocalypto).

Acclaimed director Ken Loach and composer George Fenton have collaborated on fourteen films together in the last two decades. Beginning in 1994 with Ladybird Ladybird, they have worked together on titles including Sweet Sixteen, My Name is Joe, Looking for Eric, and the Palme d'Or-winning The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Currently working on a new release for 2014 being filmed in Ireland, they take time out to talk to Tom Service about the role of music in Ken's films - how it can make the specific universal and bring to the fore real emotions rather than false ones.

In the light of recent revelations about feuding in the Labour party does it make sense to demand or even expect loyalty from people in public life? Two former newspaper editors, Andreas Whittam Smith and David Yelland will be joining Philip Dodd to give their opinions. Also in the programme the historian, Tom Holland, will be sharing his passion for Herodotus; Tim Clark and Rosina Butler will be discussing the evolution of the Japanese erotic print; and the Magnum photographer, Martin Parr will be paying tribute to one of his gurus - the late Tony Ray Jones.

In the first of three special programmes from ZSL London Zoo, Matthew Sweet examines the Zoo as cultural institution. Matthew discusses the Zoo's current incarnation as conservation centre with ZSL's Zoological Director David Field and head of the Tiger Conservation Programme Sarah Christie, and takes a tour of the Zoo with architecture critic Ellis Woodman to explore the peculiarities of designing housing for animals.

A Landmark edition recorded in front of an audience at the British Film Institute as part of the Sound of Cinema season: Matthew Sweet is joined by the film's stars Peter Wyngarde and Clytie Jessop, psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, writer and critic Christopher Frayling and stage and screenwriter Jeremy Dyson to examine the British horror classic The Innocents. They explore how the combination of cinematography, the script of William Archibald and Truman Capote and Georges Auric's original music and the direction of Jack Clayton created a masterpiece that terrified even the critics.