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BBC Radio 4


Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday


Start the Week

Andrew Marr discusses the life and work of the writer Vasily Grossman in a special programme recorded at an event in Oxford to celebrate his greatest novel, Life and Fate. Grossman was a Ukrainian Jew who spent most of WWII reporting on the front line with a humanity and attention to detail that defied the Soviet censors. His masterpiece, Life and Fate, pitted communism against fascism but came down on the side of human kindness. Start the Week looks at the legacy of a writer who is largely ignored in his own country, and asks how Grossman's depiction of the war compares to the authorised version in Russia today. Andrew talks to the historian Antony Beevor, the writers Andrey Kurkov and Linda Grant.

Vasily Grossman: his life and legacy

On Start the Week Andrew Marr discusses the relationship between markets and morals with the political philosopher Michael Sandel. In his latest book, What Money Can't Buy, Sandel questions the dominance of the financial markets in our daily lives, in which everything has a price. But the economist Diane Coyle stands up for her much maligned profession, and points to the many benefits of a market economy. The Russian economist Grigory Yavlinksy argues against viewing the world of money as separate from culture and society: he believes the financial crisis was merely a symptom of a wider moral collapse, and that it is time to examine the way we live.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

Michael Sandel on Money and Morality

Sir Alex Younger is the former head of MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service. He assesses the evolving security risks facing Britain in the 21st century, and how the country continues to build strategic partnerships and intelligence agreements in a fracturing world. Younger ran MI6 during President Trump’s first administration and reflects on prospects for ‘the special relationship’ in the second.

With tensions between the US and China, increased economic protectionism and the war in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas, the Head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, Armida van Rij, believes European security and economic prospects appear fragile. And this comes at a time of political polarisation throughout the continent.

After Britain finally left the EU in 2020 following the Brexit vote it was feared that it would be Britain that was isolated and vulnerable. Not so, claims the journalist Ross Clark, in his forthcoming polemic, Far From Eutopia: Why Europe is failing - and how Britain could do better (published 23rd January 2025). Clark pinpoints the absence of economic growth and huge disillusionment about high migration throughout Europe, and how Britain is surpassing many of its former continental partners. But questions still remain about how Britain will fare – on its own – on the global stage.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Security threats and future prospects for Britain and the EU

Tom Sutcliffe explores the importance of acoustics and the evolution of building design in the enjoyment of music. The academic Fiona Smyth tells the story of the groundbreaking work undertaken by scientists, architects and musicians, who revolutionised this new science in the 20th century, in her new book Pistols in St Paul’s. Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, updates the story, revealing the very latest scientific breakthroughs and why certain music venues capture the purity of sound. And the saxophonist Jess Gillam gives a personal view on what playing with different acoustics entails. Gillam is playing in two Christmas concerts, 19th + 20th December, with the CBSO at Symphony Hall, Birmingham – one of the best-designed music venues in the country. 

Producer: Kay Hickman

Acoustics, music and architecture

The poet laureate Simon Armitage challenges himself to write a new poem to capture the spirit of an animal and to see if he can bring it closer to the human world. For a new 10-part series, My Poetry and Other Animals (on BBC Radio 4 at 1.45, from December 23rd), he is guided by his fellow poets as he experiences a series of close encounters – looking into the eye of a tiger, tracking a fox and standing amongst a room full of spiders. 

Elizabeth Bishop and Feargal Sharkey are Simon Armitage’s guides to the world of fish. But the science writer Amorina Kingdom wants everyone to listen more closely to what’s happening underwater. In her book, Sing Like Fish, she traces how sounds travel with currents; the songs, clicks and drumming that help sea creatures to survive, and how this musical landscape is being affected by human noise.

If humans could finally grasp what animals were communicating to each other, could it enable us to join in the conversation with animals? The behavioural ecologist, Professor Christian Rutz, from the University of St Andrews, is a specialist in the different behaviours of crows. He believes that with recent breakthroughs in AI and data collection, talking with animals might be closer than ever.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Animals – up close and talking

Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss how we solve problems and imagine the future. While many people now point to the potential of AI, the prize winning writer Naomi Alderman is interested in the messy magic of human thinking. In the forthcoming BBC Radio 4 series, Human Intelligence she tells the stories of the people – with all their ingenuity and foibles – who built the modern world.

Across history human cultures have devised a wide range of practices to understand, and discover, the mysteries of the past, present and future. The exhibition Oracles, Omens and Answers (at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, until April 2025), co-curated by Dr Michelle Aroney showcases the art of divination. From the use of cards, beads and spiders, to studying the stars, weather and palm lines people have sought ways to clarify and predict the world around them. 

Human imagination is not just the tool of fiction writers, but something that’s vital to navigate the world; to reminisce, anticipate and plan for the future. But how does it work? The neurologist Adam Zeman explores the very latest scientific studies in the world of the imagination, in his new book, The Shape of Things Unseen.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Human intelligence and imagination

In the first programme of the New Year Adam Rutherford follows two possible guides to a more fulfilled life – Socrates and optimism – but asks whether either has any answers to dealing with racism. 

The philosopher Agnes Callard proposes the questioning Socratic method in Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. She shows that this ancient method offers a new ethics to live by, from answering questions about identity and inequality, to helping us love and die well. But to truly flourish we also need a huge dose of optimism, according to the science writer Sumit Paul-Choudhury. In The Bright Side he argues that being optimistic is not only central to the human psyche, but plays a crucial role in overcoming the challenges of the twenty-first century.

The social psychologist Keon West is more sceptical. In his new book The Science of Racism, he challenges those – a reputed half of the population – who think that racism doesn’t exist. He goes back to the data and research to reveal the extent and prevalence of racist behaviour, and the repeated inadequacy of attempts to address it.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Socrates, optimism and racism

Music as Medicine is the latest work by the neuroscientist and best-selling author Daniel Levitin. In it he explores the healing power of music, and the cutting edge research which examines how sound affects the brain. The dance critic Sara Veale is interested in movement. In Wild Grace she tells the untold history of the extraordinary women who were the pioneers of modern dance. While Nwando Ebizie is a practitioner of both music and movement, and is interested in using the latest neurological studies in her art. She will perform the works, Solve et Coagula (arr. Mark Knoop) and All the Calm of a Distant Sea at the Southbank Centre, London (23rd January) as part of the BBC Radio 3 Unclassified concert.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Music and movement; mind and body

Every year world leaders gather at the United Nation’s COP (the Conference of Parties) to discuss how to work together on solutions to tackle climate change. And every year the wrangling lasts into the night as it becomes clear how difficult it is to achieve consensus. In Kyoto the playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson have recreated the drama, intrigue and power plays that resulted in one of COP’s greatest successes, the Kyoto Protocol from 1997. Kyoto is on at the Soho Place Theatre until May 2025.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee is an expert on the impact and footprint of carbon and has watched as countries see-saw on commitments to reduce the use of fossil fuels. In his latest book, A Climate of Truth he argues that we already have the technology to combat many of the problems, but what we’re lacking is the honesty – in our politics, our media, and our businesses – to make a real difference.

But how to save the planet is not necessarily straightforward. In The Shetland Way: Community and Climate Crisis on my Father’s Islands, Marianne Brown returns home after the death of her father. She finds the islanders at loggerheads over the construction of a huge windfarm: while some celebrate the production of sustainable energy, others argue the costs are too high for the environment and local wildlife.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Climate Crisis: truth, lies and compromise

We might live surrounded by manufactured goods but the business of making is far removed and often hidden from our lives, according to the Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Tim Minshall. In Your Life Is Manufactured he takes readers on a tour of mega-factories to artisanal craft shops, seaports to supermarkets to reveal the systems and decisions behind manufacturing. 

The former Chief Scientist of BP, Bernie Bulkin is interested in how cutting edge developments in manufacturing have helped both companies and countries remain financially competitive in the global market. In The Material Advantage he looks at the latest innovative materials and new opportunities. 

But at the heart of the discussion around manufacturing in the 21st century is sustainability. Fiona Dear is Co-Director of the Restart Project, a social enterprise that runs repair events in the community, but also campaigns for broader Right 2 Repair legislation to force companies to make it easier and cheaper for people to mend products, rather than simply buying new.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Manufacturing and sustainability

Andrew Marr talks to Colm Toibin about the ways writers write about families, and also the impact of their own often dysfunctional relationships - from Thomas Mann and WB Yeats, to the nightmares of John Cheever's journals. In her novel, The Children's Book, AS Byatt explored how far a writing mother can harm her children, and yet she argues that she'd prefer to know nothing about a writer's private life. The novelist Will Eaves mined his own family background for his latest book, but insists it's more a work of imagination, than memoir. And it's these relationships, and culture, that are the key to the success of our species, rather than consciousness, language and intelligence, according to the evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Writers on Families: Colm Tóibín and AS Byatt

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