Arts and Ideas

As Europe struggles to manage the current financial crisis we are seeing un-elected technocrats replace populist leaders and ratings agencies seemingly wielding increasing power. Philip Dodd and guests discuss whether the pursuit of economic stability is downgrading democracy.

Updated corrected audio: Rana Mitter chairs a debate about the Luddites to mark their 200th anniversary. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

Landscape architect Charles Jencks calls for a new cosmic art, in a talk entitled Reclaiming the Universe. Jencks argues that understanding the universe is too important to be left to scientists and theologians, and wants us to connect to pre-historic ideas about the cosmos, present in monuments such as Stonehenge.

Neuro-scientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore gives a talk on changes in the teenage brain. Teenagers often act on impulse, are lazy, emotional and get into trouble with the police and parents. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London and a leading expert on teenage brains. Using recent research about the radical changes taking place in the adolescent brain, she argues it's time to rethink our attitudes towards youth and the place of teenagers in society.

Psychotherapist Susie Orbach challenges the obsession with personal change. Susie is Britain's most high-profile pyschotherapist, whose book Fat is a Feminist Issue revolutionised the way we understand our bodies. She co-founded The Women's Therapy Centre, has been a consultant for The World Bank and NHS, and is an advocate for body diversity and emotional literacy.

How will our world change as traditional energy supplies shrink and climate change forces us to use less fossil fuels? Should we return to a locally-focused pre-modern lifestyle where travel is a luxury for the few, will conflict over declining resources destabilise the globe, or will science save the day?

Economist Aditya Chakrabortty examines the impact of economic change on society. Over the past 30 years governments of every political hue have promised that great prizes will follow economic change, whilst parts of society have been effectively written off. So argues Aditya Chakrabortty, economics leader writer at The Guardian. He believes even the newly fashionable zeal for a manufacturing revival will do little to help and calls for a radical solution.

Philip Dodd chairs a debate on the obsession with change, at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011. Panel includes the film-maker Molly Dineen and the Rev Dr Giles Fraser.

Julian Savulescu, Oxford Professor of Ethics, makes the case for human enhancement and genetic selection at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

Leading historian Linda Colley gives a talk on how we have dealt with periods of dramatic change in the past and how history can help us to understand change today.

Germaine Greer delivers a talk questioning the pursuit of freedom at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.

Kevin Fong, who presents BBC2's Horizon and is a leading expert on space medicine, gives a talk at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011calling for a second Space Age.

William Hague discusses the dramatic changes taking throughout the globe and Britain's role in this transforming world order.

Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the former Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, gives a talk at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011 on the crisis of commitment in our society.

One of the world's top heart surgeons, Francis Wells, discusses the future of the heart, his work at the cutting-edge of surgery, and his fascination with Da Vinci at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2011.