Start The Week

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores movements and people that have changed the political landscape. The MP Jesse Norman champions the founder of modern conservatism, the 18th century philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke. Lady Antonia Fraser brings to life the Great Reform Bill of 1832 which transformed the way Britain was governed. And one of the co-founders of the Occupy movement, David Graeber, looks afresh at the idea of democracy. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Carrie Cracknell talks to Jonathan Freedland about her new production of Berg's opera, Wozzeck, and the descent of the central character into madness and despair. The pianist Jonathan Biss looks at whether Schumann's later music reflects the troubled state of his mind. The psychiatrist's diagnostic bible is to be updated later this month, and Tom Burns and Richard Bentall discuss the controversies that continue to dog the world of psychiatry. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Start the Week is at the Brighton Festival. Stephanie Flanders talks to Michael Rosen about why the 1929 children's novel, Emil and the Detectives, is at the heart of the festival, with its city tale of hope, invention and dissent. But the writer and traveller Jay Griffiths criticises a Western risk-averse society for denying children the opportunity to roam free. Stanmer Woods is the setting of Matt Adams's latest theatrical experience which traces the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the artist Mariele Neudecker brings the outside world inside in her transformation of a Regency Town House.Producer; Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine talks to the artist Gavin Turk about the construction of artistic myth and the question of authorship and authenticity. The rare book dealer Rick Gekoski searches for lost treasures amid tales of theft, forgery and destruction, while the curator Paul Roberts reveals the life and culture preserved in the volcanic devastation of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The everyday object - a table - is at the centre of Tanya Ronder's new play of belonging, identity and inheritance.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at the cultural history of Italy. The world renowned film director, Bernardo Bertolucci discusses his latest film Me and You. The journalist and film-maker Annalisa Piras looks back at her country's political, economic and social decline over the last two decades while the English born conductor with Italian roots, Antonio Pappano, talks about the musical soul of Italy. And Tim Parks offers a portrait of his adopted homeland - the 'charmingly irritating dystopian paradise' of Italy - as he travels the country by train.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland journeys from the origin of life to the possibilities of new life-forms with the geneticist Adam Rutherford. Steve Jones updates the Bible from the point of view of modern science and Barbara Sahakian looks at our ability to make decisions, and whether 'smart drugs' should be used to boost our reactions. The artist Susan Aldworth is inspired by neuro-scientific imagery to explore the relationship between mind and body in her portraits of those with epilepsy and in doing so asks how this material corresponds or contrasts with the subject's sense of self.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

On Start the Week Stephanie Flanders talks to the award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about the notion of 'home' in today's globalised world. It's a theme taken up on stage in 'Paper Dolls' directed by Indhu Rubasingham, which follows a Filipino drag act working in Tel Aviv. David Goodhart explores the British Dream and the successes and failures of post war immigration. And from the movement of people, to the trade in powders, salts, paints and cures, the poet Michael Symmons Roberts's latest collection is called Drysalter. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe discusses the 'myth' of progress with James Lasdun, Mary Beard, Mark Ravenhill and John Gray.The poet and novelist James Lasdun talks about his experience of being cyber-stalked and the terrifying opportunities new technology offers. Mary Beard looks back to classical times to see how far the relationship between persecutor and persecuted have changed.Playwright Mark Ravenhill discusses his comic reworking of Voltaire's 'Candide'. But is everything in the 21st century still for 'the best in the best of all possible worlds?' John Gray argues that ethical progress in human civilisation is easily reversible and yet people need to believe in myths to shape their lives and give them meaning.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

On Start the Week Allan Little talks to Pakistani novelist, Mohsin Hamid about 'how to get filthy rich in rising Asia', and his self-help manual of rags to riches. The playwright Bruce Norris dramatises an entrepreneur's quest for wealth with priceless ambition, while Katherine Boo explores the slums of Mumbai to question the impact of the volatility of the market. And the turbulent times of an English village throughout the 20th century is the subject of Peter Moffat's latest television series. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine asks whether the writing of history has been dominated by conflict and difference. The Professor of History, David Cannadine argues against the predominant 'them and us' agenda, and for a common humanity. While the Balkan writer Aleksandar Hemon splits his life between Sarajevo and Chicago. Ed Vulliamy reported on the war in Bosnia and explores a journalist's role in historical events, and Margaret MacMillan discusses the teaching of history. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Jonathan Freedland talks to Ken Loach about post-war Britain, and the spirit of unity which aimed to create a vision of a fairer society. Thirty years on and this culture of cooperation descended into fist fights in the House of Commons, and James Graham's stage imagining of the 1974 hung parliament. David Boyle takes the story on to examine the demise of the middle classes, and Harriet Sergeant looks at Britain's underclass, and the reasons why it's growing.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy explores the state of feminism today. It's fifty years since Betty Friedan's landmark book, The Feminine Mystique, questioned the role of women in society. Anne McElvoy discusses that role today with the Living Dolls author, Natasha Walter, the proponent of erotic capital Catherine Hakim, the radical feminist Finn Mackay and the journalist and academic Shereen El Feki who has been looking at the changing sexual attitudes and behaviour in the Arab world.This programme will be followed by a phone-in edition of Woman's Hour on feminism. If you would like to take part in the programme you can email now via the Woman's Hour website or phone from 0800 on Monday 4th March on 03700 100 444.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Bridget Kendall discusses the role and future of the Commonwealth. As its Secretary-General at the turn of the century, Sir Don McKinnon reveals its inner workings. But the journalist Frances Harrison is critical of the organisation for failing to challenge human rights abuses. The MP Kwasi Kwarteng questions whether the Commonwealth can ever shed the baggage of Empire, and Sir Ronald Sanders asks if it can survive the rise of China. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine discusses how complex maths has broken free of the laboratory and now influences every aspect of our lives. James Owen Weatherall applauds the take-over of the financial world by physicists, Marcus du Sautoy revels in the numbers and Kenneth Cukier explores how big data will change everything from disease control to bargain buys. But the cultural commentator Tiffany Jenkins sounds a note of caution about a world where everything is measurable.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Bridget Kendall discusses the roots and reach of Islamist terrorism from Afghanistan to Africa. The historian William Dalrymple looks back to Britain's First Afghan War where many Afghanis rose in answer to the call for jihad. Nadeem Aslam's latest novel ranges across the Afghan-Pakistan border where the past and the present are locked together. Dr Christina Hellmich explores what has happened to al-Qaeda since Osama bin Laden's death. And as David Cameron calls the response to Islamist terrorism in North Africa a "generational struggle", the political analyst Imad Mesdoua looks at the parallels with Afghanistan.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Start the Week Allan Little explores the legacy of George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. Joan Bakewell, Tim Montgomerie, Chris Mullin and Phil Collins discuss Orwell's warning that evasive language, euphemism and insincerity dominate political writing, and assess the impact of today's political diaries, blogging and tweeting.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week, Tom Sutcliffe talks to Howard Goodall about 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, to chart a history of innovation and entertainment. The composer John Adams contrasts European and American traditions as he conducts two concerts at the LSO. The award-winning writer Stephen Poliakoff brings the true story of a black British jazz band in the 1930s to the small screen. And Barb Jungr's cd of cover versions harks back to a tradition of musical re-interpretation. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the environmental campaigner Tony Juniper about putting a price on nature, and reframing the importance of the natural world in terms of finance. But the writer William Fiennes believes it's the imagination and not discussion of dividends and capital that will inspire the next generation, and Ngaire Woods argues that governments and business should be run by goals and values, and not the balance sheet. The Tory MP, John Penrose, looks at whether we should be doing more to protect city skylines and townscapes. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr begins the new year talking about lies and secrets, and the increasing blurring of public and private. Deborah Cohen charts family secrets and shame from the Victorian times to the present day, while Sarah Dunant and TV producer Alex Graham discuss how confession became entertainment, and the psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz listens to the hidden feelings of his patients. Producer: Katy Hickman.

In a special recording of Start the Week, Andrew Marr explores the power of the human voice. From the emotional intensity of the tenor Rolando Villazón, singing Rodolfo in La Boheme, to the art of writing for the voice with the composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. Mary King trains the voice, and the neuro-psychiatrist Michael Trimble examines our reactions to it.