Start the Week

Karen Armstrong argues against the notion that religion is the major cause of war. The former nun tells Tom Sutcliffe that faith is as likely to produce pacifists and peace-builders as medieval crusaders and modern-day jihadists. But Justin Marozzi charts the violent history of Baghdad and asks what role religion had to play there. The philosopher Christopher Coker explores how warfare dominates our history, and argues that war, like religion, is central to the human condition.

Hilary Mantel takes a break from her award-winning series of novels charting the rise and fall of the Tudor fixer, Thomas Cromwell, to discuss her new collection of short stories. She talks to Tom Sutcliffe about why her latest work eschews the historical to focus on contemporary Britain. The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor tells the story of Germany from its Roman past to the present day through objects that symbolise the dynamic changes in its culture and identity. 'English Magic' is the focus of the artist Jeremy Deller's touring exhibition which melds myth, folklore and politics to explore British society. And the Jamaican poet Kei Miller pits the scientific cartographer against the spiritual map builder to explore our understanding of place and territory.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to Michael Holroyd about why he put his own family in the spotlight in his late 50s novel A Dog's Life, only published in the UK after the death of his parents. Family secrets and a doctor's revenge are at the heart of Herman Koch's darkly comic novel, while Hugo Blick's new television series, An Honourable Woman, explores how the sins of the father resonate in the present. The playwright Rona Munro looks ahead to a trilogy of plays which chart the rise and fall of Scotland's Royal Family, from James I to III, with tales of love, war, treachery and intrigue.

Andrew Marr discusses how far the brain can change and adapt with the neuroscientist Heidi Johansen-Berg. Decades ago it was thought that the adult brain was immutable but later research has shown that even brains damaged by stroke have the capacity to adapt. The writer Ben Shephard looks back to the turn of the 20th century and the birth of modern neuroscience, while the novelist Charles Fernyhough asks whether knowing more about the way the brain works will have as big an impact as the findings of Darwin and Freud. The clinical psychologist, Mark Williams, is interested in how we can relieve the despair of feeling trapped in our thoughts, and is one of the pioneers of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the director Erica Whyman about a series of plays by the RSC which focus on the idea that 'well behaved women rarely make history'. The historian Helen Castor looks back at the Middle Ages to some of the earliest roaring girls, while the soprano Joyce DiDonato brings alive Mary, Queen of Scots, the tragic hero of Donizetti's opera. The political activist Julie Bindel has been behaving badly since she came out as a lesbian in the 1970s. She looks at what it means to be gay in 2014 and whether the genuine gains that have been achieved in the last forty years have castrated a once-radical social movement.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses the history of pain with the historian Joanna Bourke, who explores how our attitude to suffering has changed through the centuries. The former Conservative MP, Norman Fowler, looks back at the public health campaign that revolutionised the fight against HIV and Aids in Britain in the 1980s, and how discrimination and political expediency are hampering prevention and treatment around the world today. The Director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar remembers when he was a junior doctor and patients were dying of Aids because there was no treatment. He warns that the overuse and misuse of anti-biotic drugs could herald a return to the days of untreatable diseases.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses whether Western states have anything to learn from countries like China and Singapore. Adrian Wooldridge argues that many governments have become bloated and there's a global race to reinvent the state. In the past Britain was at the forefront of exporting ideas on how to run a country, as the Labour MP Tristram Hunt explains in his book on the legacy of empire. Charu Lata Hogg from Chatham House looks at the challenges to democracy in Thailand where the country is in political turmoil, and the journalist Anjan Sundaram spent a year in The Congo during the violent 2006 elections, and looks at day-to-day life in a failing state.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the commentator Rod Liddle about his assertion that modern Western society has become politically and socially stagnant. In his polemic, Selfish Whining Monkeys, Liddle argues that his generation are self-obsessed, deluded and spoilt. Neil Jameson from Citizens UK dismisses this description of society and says his growing number of members are organised, socially active and community-minded. The Chinese writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo contrasts East and West in her latest tragic love story, and the Artistic Director Ramin Gray talks about the play The Events, which has a community choir at its heart and explores the aftermath of a violent event.

Start the Week is at the Charleston literary Festival with the novelists Tim Winton, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Nicola Barker and the poet and publisher Michael Schmidt. The death of the novel has been predicted since the early twentieth century but in a special programme recorded in front of an audience Tom Sutcliffe talks to three leading novelists from around the world about their latest works. They discuss their influences and their divergent styles, from Knausgaard's minute examination of his life to Tim Winton's tale of disillusionment and redemption, and Nicola Barker's humorous eccentrics. Michael Schmidt has written a biography of the novel, charting its ups and downs, its personalities and relationships and argues the form is in rude health.

Anne McElvoy talks to the biologist Ken Thompson who dismisses attempts to control invasive species and questions the veracity of dividing plants and animals into 'native' and 'alien'. However, the Director of the Kew Innovation Unit, Monique Simmonds, warns that alien pests and diseases can have a devastating effect on much-loved plants, and that it's vital to maintain and support diverse environments. The farmer John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons in his account of the life of an English meadow and he laments the decline of some of his favourite birds from his childhood. The woolly mammoth used to be native in Europe before it became extinct, and the palaeontologist Victoria Herridge confounds expectations by identifying the smallest mammoth ever known to have lived.

Tom Sutcliffe asks whether it's better to lead from the front, or advise from the side-line. The Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, Richard Hytner celebrates the latter: those who wield influence and authority away from the limelight. Heather Rabbatts has experience of being a Deputy and a Chief Executive in both politics and business. The academic Archie Brown looks back at the history of political leadership and questions whether strong leaders are the most successful and admirable, while Tony Blair's former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell turns to Machiavelli's The Prince for a primer on the art of government.

Anne McElvoy talks to the poet Simon Armitage about his dramatisation of The Last Days of Troy. His play, based on Homer's epic, reveals how cycles of conflict and revenge, pride and self-deception continue throughout history. Greek myth is at the heart of a new opera, Thebans, in which the playwright and poet Frank McGuinness draws on the tragedy of the mythical monarch Oedipus and his daughter Antigone. Natalie Haynes explores what happens when troubled teenagers become enthralled by Greek tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge in her debut novel, while Kenan Malik goes on a quest for a moral compass.

Anne McElvoy talks to the social theorist Jeremy Rifkin who foresees the gradual decline of capitalism and the rise of a collaborative economy. As new technology enables greater sharing of goods and services, Rifkin argues that it provides a challenge to the market economy. The sociologist Saskia Sassen warns that the majority of people may not enjoy the fruits of this new world as increasing inequality, land evictions and complex financial systems lead to their expulsion from the economy. The Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng looks back at the history of international finance and how gold and war have shaped the economic order of today.

Anne McElvoy looks back at the life of the maverick scientist James Lovelock who pioneered the theory of Gaia, of a self-regulating Earth. Lovelock also looks to the future and the next evolution of Gaia which could lead to the extinction of human life, and a rise of Artificial Intelligence, but the writer and ecologist George Monbiot prefers his future world with wolves, wild boars and beavers living alongside humans. The UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change has warned to expect more volatile weather patterns, and the physicist Joanna Haigh explains how scientists from all disciplines are working together to measure the impact of solar activity on the Earth's climate.

Tom Sutcliffe looks back three hundred years to the Hanoverian succession to the British throne. The curator Lucy Worsley explains how the German Georges claimed the crown and how they kept it. The Georgian period is also the setting for Paula Byrne's biography of Dido Belle, the daughter of an aristocrat and a captured West Indian slave. Also on the programme, the MP Chris Bryant explores the history of Parliament and the movement of power from King to democracy. But what of today's Royals? The director Rupert Goold's latest production follows the coronation of Prince Charles to examine what it means to rule Britannia.