Arts and Ideas

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.