Start the Week

Andrew Marr talks to the director Kevin Macdonald, the filmmaker Roger Graef, the biographer Jenny Uglow and the Indian writer Aman Sethi.

Start the Week is at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead to debate whether the world is becoming a more divided place. Andrew Marr discusses the state of politics with the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and the writer-turned-politician Michael Ignatieff, while the Israeli author Amos Oz asks whether entrenched ideas have increasingly polarised debate.

Andrew Marr discusses torture and secrets with Ian Cobain, David Anderson QC, Clare Bayley and M R Hall.

Andrew Marr talks to the writers Ali Smith and Kevin Jackson, the BBC's Arts Editor Will Gompertz and the composer Julian Anderson.

Andrew Marr discusses the US with Richard Ford, Lionel Shriver, Edward Luce and Thomas Grant.

Andrew Marr discusses the dying art of handwriting with the novelist Philip Hensher, whilst the author and publisher Diana Athill celebrates the art of correspondence. With the poet Wendy Cope and philosopher and blogger, Nigel Warburton.

Andrew Marr discusses Eastern and Central Europe with the historians Anne Applebaum and Mark Mazower, and the journalists Victor Sebestyen and Helen Szamuely.

Andrew Marr celebrates myth and fairy tales with the authors Philip Pullman, and Sara Maitland, and the directors Tim Supple and Keith Warner.

In a special edition of Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to Salman Rushdie.

Andrew Marr talks to Maajid Nawaz about his journey from Islamist extremist to a champion of democracy. National identity and the state of the nation is at the heart of Robert Chesshyre's book; Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss, looks to an alternative future where "decline is not inevitable." And the former ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyer, turns his attention to the rich and powerful across the world, to see how different power networks operate.

Andrew Marr goes in search of a better life with the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips; the philosopher Julian Baggini; the poet Helen Dunmore; and the scientist Frances Ashcroft.

Andrew Marr asks how far scientific evidence can influence the political agenda. His guests are Professor David Nutt, MP David Blunkett, Jill Rutter from the Institute for Government and science writer Mark Henderson.

Andrew Marr discusses World War II with Antony Beevor; Max Hastings; Niall Ferguson; and Juliet Gardiner.

Andrew Marr at the Charleston Festival with the artist Grayson Perry; writer and trustee of Charleston Virginia Nicholson; historian Faramerz Dabhoiwala; and writer Janice Galloway.

Andrew Marr discusses landscape and architecture with Thomas Heatherwick; Jonathan Meades; Anna Minton; and Robert Macfarlane.