Arts and Ideas

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launches this year's BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival with a lecture on how the internet will continue to radically change our world

The full Night Waves interview with ex-Hong Kong Governor and new chairman of the BBC Trust, Chris Patten.

David Attenborough talks to Matthew Sweet about his new TV series Frozen Planet. Philip Dodd asks whether we're living through a golden age of science. And Rana Mitter looks at the architects of the Russian Revolution with Richard Cork and Clementine Cecil.

Philip Dodd looks at the state of English civility. Anne McElvoy delves into the world of famous writers. Matthew Sweet discusses the place of the village in the British psyche and Juliet Gardiner reviews the play Jumpy.

This week in the face of a deepening economic crisis Rana Mitter asks should we save or spend? Evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers discusses self-deception with Matthew Sweet. Illustrator Quentin Blake tells Rana about his latest work for hospitals. And poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy talks to Anne McElvoy about bees.

Juiet Gardner talks to Woody Allen about his latest comedy Midnight in Paris. Philip Dodd reviews a new biography of the writer Charles Dickens. Anne McElvoy looks at how the line between humanity and technology is becoming increasingly blurred and historian Joanna Bourke tells Matthew Sweet What it Means to be Human.

Anne McElvoy talks to writer Robert Harris about his new novel set amidst the current banking crisis. Critic Susannah Clapp reviews King Lear, starring Tim Pigott-Smith. And Philip Dodd is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng and Richard Gott to discuss their views on the British Empire.

In this special edition of the podcast, Matthew Sweet's full interview with the Danish director Lars von Trier, discussing his long and varied career.

Anne McElvoy talks to Adam Macqueen as Private Eye turns 50. Matthew Sweet discusses Mike Leigh's new play Grief and talks to Imran Khan anout his ambition to lead Pakistan and Philip Dodd in conversation with Gideon Rachman, Anatole Lieven and Pullitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman - who has co-written a book with the title That Used to Be US: What Went Wrong With America and How It Can Come Back.

Rana Mitter discusses irony with our New Generation Thinkers and Anne McElvoy talks to critic David D’Arcy about Andrew Rossi's documentary film Page One and to Anna Funder about her new novel All that I Am. And a series of screenwriter’s lectures at BAFTA and the British Film Institute is celebrating the importance of screenwriters and providing a forum in which they can’t have credit for their work stolen by the director.

Poet and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen and presenter Ian McMillan introduce the winning entries in the first ever Proms Poetry competition and Rabbi Julia Neuberger explores the piano’s literary life across the ages in conversation with Anne McElvoy,

Biographer John Carey and author Meg Rosoff join Ian McMillan to discuss one of Britain's greatest post-war novelists - William Golding. And acclaimed violinist Tasmin Little completes our series of events in which musicians from this year’s Proms season introduce and discuss their favourite works of fiction and poetry.

The death of Prince Albert 150 years ago inspired the creation of the home of the Proms - the Royal Albert Hall. Historians Kate Williams and Dan Cruickshank join Matthew Sweet to reassess the Prince Consort and his legacy "the Albertopolis". And cellist Matthew Barley is the third guest in a four-part Proms Plus series in which musicians from this year's Proms season introduce their favourite works of fiction and poetry. Susan Hitch hosts.

Historical novelist Sarah Dunant and Margaret Keane, author of ‘Inferno’, discuss Dante’s Divine Comedy. Leading American conductor Andrew Litton introduces a personal choice of readings from their favourite fiction and poetry.

Matthew Sweet talks to Sir Ronald Harwood, Oscar winning screenwriter of The Pianist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Neil Brand, doyen of silent film pianists, discussing the role of music in film – from The Keystone Kops to indie films. Matthew also talks to comedians Natalie Haynes and Steve Punt to unveil and perform their favourite humorous writing from down the ages and asks what makes literary comic gold?