Arts & Ideas

Scientist Brian Cox and Professor Chris Frayling join the actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood for a discussion about Stanley Kubrick's landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey chaired by Matthew Sweet and...

2 Dec 201444min

A celebration of one of the great landmarks of culture as Matthew Sweet talks to the novelist, Will Self and the film director, Mike Hodges about Solaris. They discuss both Stanislaw Lem’s extraordina...

1 Dec 201429min

Philip Dodd considers the enduring appeal of the film Alien and whether it's blend of intellect, suspense, technical skill and sheer bravado has ever been surpassed with guests Iain Sinclair and Linda...

1 Dec 201429min

Anne McElvoy talks to the historian Geoffrey Parker about Global Crisis, his influential game-changing account of the political and social upheavals which characterised the Seventeenth Century around ...

27 Nov 201445min

Matthew Sweet looks at depictions of American life and history in a special edition hearing from three contemporary American authors: Marilynne Robinson, Jane Smiley and Richard Ford.

26 Nov 201443min

Naomi Alderman, Roger Luckhurst and BALTIC curator Alessandro Vincentelli join Matthew Sweet to discuss how science fiction and space travel change our view of this world and to discuss whether the li...

25 Nov 201443min

The Cost of Free Information. Against a backdrop of perceived excess of intellectual property, and problems that require solving with a matter of urgency, Rana Mitter and Jodie Ginsburg, Dr. Rufus Pol...

20 Nov 201443min

How much self-knowledge do you need to be happy – and what are the limits to what you can achieve alone? Paul Dolan, Vincent Deary and Beatrix Campbell ask why everybody from governments to therapists...

19 Nov 201443min