Arts & Ideas

Presenter Rana Mitter, is joined on the BBC stage at the Hay Festival by writer and provocateur, PJ O'Rourke and the Freakonomics authors, the economist Steven D Levitt and journalist Stephen J Dubner...

28 Maj 201443min

Rana Mitter talks to historian and MP Tristram Hunt about how Britain's experience of Empire shaped today's global cities. Plus a discussion about the future of India with Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Dr Shrut...

27 Maj 201443min

Anne McElvoy looks at the resurgence of non-fiction writing and the essay as a form hearing from Jonathan Freedland, Wayne Kostenbaum and Maia Jenkins. Novelist Tim Winton talks about his new book Ey...

22 Maj 201445min

As the British Library launches a website devoted to writers' notebooks and manuscripts, Discovering Literature, novelist Lawrence Norfolk takes a look at his own notebooks, and talks to AS Byatt, Joh...

21 Maj 201444min

Matthew Sweet talks to Iain Sinclair and New Generation Thinker Dr Greg Tate about a walk to mark John Clare's death 150 years ago. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Profess...

20 Maj 201444min

Nick Payne talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Incognito and the man who stole Einstein's brain. New Generation Thinker Fern Riddell reviews Sky Atlantic's Penny Dreadful and our fascination with Vic...

15 Maj 201444min

Interview with the prominent Czech writer who has just published memoir, My Crazy Century, followed by a discussion debating whether Europe will always need an East. And why are we interested in scien...

14 Maj 201444min

MJ Hyland reviews Simon Armitage's The Last Days of Troy at the Royal Exchange Manchester starring Lily Cole. Chris Harding looks at Japanese fears in Godzilla and The Wind Rises. Dr Philip Roscoe and...

13 Maj 201445min