Start The Week

On Start the Week Mariella Frostrup talks to the academic Hamid Dabashi about his critique of European intellectual heritage and identity. In his polemic Can Non-Europeans Think? Dabashi argues that those outside the West are often marginalised and mis-represented. Ancient Greece dominates the intellectual landscape in Europe and Edith Hall looks back to explore what made this civilisation so successful. The Greeks of Ancient Athens were always questioning their society and asking what makes people happy, and Douglas Murray wonders whether the secular West has stopped asking those questions, and is the shallower for it. The artist Glenn Ligon takes inspiration from black writers and abstract expressionists to give a fresh perspective on the values of contemporary America. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the Indian writer Vikram Seth about his latest collection of poetry, Summer Requiem, which traces the dying days of summer and is haunted by loss and decay. The cuckoo's song may celebrate the arrival of spring, but as Nick Davies explains the cuckoo is also a signal of doom, as he explores how cheating evolves and thrives in the natural world. The writer Olivia Laing finds inspiration in a murmuration of birds to ask questions about the beauty of patterns and freedom of movement, and Nick Groom celebrates and regrets the passing of the English seasons and folklore. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy discusses our obsession with violence. The historian Richard Bessel explores its past ubiquity, but argues that our modern attitudes towards it have changed. There's little change in the attitudes towards women in the armed forces, according to a play by the academic Helen Benedict. Diana Preston sees history repeating itself as weapons of mass destruction continue to be used in much the same way as a century ago. For June Oscar, an Indigenous leader from North Western Australia, the history of her people has been dominated by the violent struggle with settlers from the 1770s. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe explores life in the oceans. The biologist Luke Rendell studies the evolution of social learning in whales and dolphins, and seeks to define their culture beneath the waves. The seahorse is a creature with a rich mythical history and is the subject of Andrew Motion's latest poem, while the biologist Helen Scales weaves science, natural history and culture in her story of the seashell. The biochemist Nick Lane looks back over 4 billion years to explain why life is the way it is and believes energy flux is the vital factor that has driven the origin and evolution of life. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe asks whether altruism is best explained through evolutionary science or moral philosophy. David Sloan Wilson argues for the former and believes altruism is part of group dynamics and social behaviour. William MacAskill may study the moral case for doing good, but is more interested in the practical impact than the heroic sacrifice. The Mexican campaigner Lydia Cacho knows what it means to make enormous personal sacrifices for the sake of others - her exposure of sexual and physical abuse has led to numerous threats on her life. While the composer Tansy Davies attempts to bring to the stage human beings in extremis as she creates an opera based on the events of 9/11.Producer: Luke Mulhall.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to Adrienne Mayor about the Amazons, the legendary warrior women who glorified in fighting, hunting and sexual freedom. The Greeks described these wild barbarian archers, and Mayor reveals new archaeological discoveries which prove these women were not merely figments of their imagination. Five hundred years ago wolves roamed throughout Britain's wilderness and in her latest novel, The Wolf Border, Sarah Hall considers the possibility of re-wilding the countryside. Such freedom would have its limits and the wolves' movements would have to be managed and contained, a condition which John Gray considers in his book on human freedom: The Soul of the Marionette.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to Robert Douglas-Fairhurst about the life of Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has become an influential part of our cultural heritage but beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Gillian Beer explores the links between Darwin and Carroll and the struggle to define and classify a changing world. The children's author Katherine Rundell enjoys the chaos and ambivalence in the Alice stories, and brings a sense of adventure to her own work. Centuries earlier, as intrepid travellers returned from distant lands with tales of wonder and exotic beasts, fearful hybrid monsters were all the rage as Damien Kempf describes in his Medieval Monsters.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Susan Pinker argues that face-to-face contact increases longevity and reduces the risks of illness. She tells Anne McElvoy that although new technology connects more people, it can often leave us more disconnected. However the writer and gamer Nicholas Lovell explains that online gamers have their own sense of community. The philosopher Daniel Dennett considers whether it's possible to create a robot that can rival the human brain, and the poet Sam Riviere has used and manipulated the results of search-engines to compose his new collection: 72 poems marking the 72 days of Kim Kardashian's marriage in 2011. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe discusses shame and betrayal. Jennifer Jacquet argues that modern-day shaming of corporations is a powerful tool to bring about change. However Jon Ronson believes too many lives have been devastated by public shaming and ridicule. Judas is a name synonymous with betrayal but Peter Stanford asks whether in the 21st century he has become the ultimate scapegoat? Arthur Miller's play All My Sons is a classic tale of family, loyalty, guilt, and betrayal and is brought to the stage by the artistic director of Talawa, Michael Buffong. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe finds out what goes on inside the mind of a mathematician. Cédric Villani explains the obsession and inspiration which led him to being awarded the Fields Medal, 'the mathematicians' Nobel Prize' in 2010. Zia Haider Rahman combines pure maths, investment banking and human rights in his exploration of how abstract theory can impact on real life. Vicky Neale reveals the beauty of prime numbers, while the director Morgan Matthews finds love in his film x+y at the International Mathematics Olympiad. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe explores the fracturing political landscape and the rise of anti-establishment parties. The politics lecturer Robert Ford explains the increasing support for the SNP, UKIP, and the Greens and what that means for the forthcoming General Election. Catherine De Vries is a Professor of European politics and compares what's happening across the Channel. Srdja Popovic was one of the leaders of Otpor - the movement that played a pivotal role in bringing down Slobodan Milosevic - and he advises how using humour, rice pudding and lego men can change the world. The Royal Opera House is staging Brecht and Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, a satire on money, morality and pleasure-seeking, and its director John Fulljames seeks out the contemporary resonances in this story of consumerism and loss of humanity.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr looks at what happens when political power fractures and how 'soft power' retains its influence. Peter Pomerantsev spent a decade working in Russia's fast-growing television industry and tells the story of a country changing from communism and nascent democracy to a mafia-state and oligarchy. The political analyst Joseph Nye coined the phrase 'soft power' in 1990 and in his latest essay argues that while America's economy may have been overtaken by China, the US century is far from over. Impressionist art continues to grow in popularity and price-tag, and the curator Anne Robbins looks back on the life of Paul Durand-Ruel, the 19th century art dealer and visionary who foresaw its power and marketability worldwide. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Anne McElvoy talks to the novelist Adam Thirlwell about his latest book, described as 'suburban noir'; its setting "a kind of absence, without a focus or centre". The academic Nick Hubble takes issue with the cultural representation of suburbia and the snobbery surrounding it. When Richard McGuire created his graphic masterpiece 'Here' he collapsed millennia of history into the corner of one suburban house, and the photographer Hannah Starkey looks back at photos from the end of the twentieth century to see what they say about changing Britain.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the journalist Patrick Cockburn about the rise of the Islamic State and the failure of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East. The academic Katherine Brown looks at the long-term strategy of IS by focusing on how it has persuaded Muslim women in the West to join its cause. While Leena Hoffman turns to the workings of another Islamist group - Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. Gerard Russell is a former British diplomat in the Middle East and he recounts the demise of religious tolerance and the fate of some ancient faiths, now disappearing - from the Mandaeans to the Yazidis.

Tom Sutcliffe is joined in the studio by Daniel Levitin, author of New York Times bestseller 'The Organized Mind'. Levitin dismisses the idea of multi-tasking and explores how we can counter information overload. But the poet Frances Leviston with her latest collection, Disinformation, believes her best work is conceived in disorganisation. The cognitive scientist Maggie Boden puts forward the idea that computers can be highly creative, and the conductor Ian Page celebrates the genius of Mozart who wrote his first symphony in London at the age of eight.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe's joined in the studio by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, Oxford professor of Russian Catriona Kelly, Philip Schofield who is a professor at UCL and director of The Bentham Project and by Canadian blogger and science fiction writer Cory Doctorow. How do we respond, creatively, when people or algorithms put our physical and virtual worlds under surveillance?Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses the connection between the Tudors and modern times with author Lady Antonia Fraser, composer Claire van Kampen, director Peter Kosminsky and historian Dan Jones.Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Andrew Marr discusses why we react so strongly to some places, look for meaning in them and build up stories about them over time. Joining him in the studio are author and travel writer Philip Marsden who has been exploring Cornwall with Sense of Place in mind; Scottish artist Victoria Crowe who's been returning to paint the Pentland Hills for thirty years; singer Ian Bostridge who's performing and analysing Schubert's Winterreise; and lecturer Joanne Parker on the maps we make in our minds, as we draw together places that have the most meaning to us.Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses hedonism, from the ultra-hedonists in ancient Greece to the seasonal impulse to indulge. Tom's joined by RSC artistic director Greg Doran who's looking at hedonism in Shakespeare, from Toby Belch to Falstaff; by Prof Julia Twigg who assesses hedonism and asceticism in the contemporary world; by writer Zoe Cormier who's explored the science of hedonism and the hedonism of science; and by Kurt Lampe from Bristol University on the philosophical hedonists of Cyrene, an ancient city in modern day Libya.Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses invention and reinvention in science. He is joined in the studio by Danielle George of the University of Manchester, where she is Professor in the Microwave and Communications Systems research group; by John Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge; by Professor Armand Marie Leroi of Imperial College London; and by Misbah Arif from UCL Institute of Education. Prof George is giving this year's Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution, Prof Barrow's been looking at the link between maths and creativity; Prof Leroi has been reassessing Aristotle's role as inventor of science; and Misbah Arif's been inspiring children in the science classroom.Producer: Simon Tillotson.