Dina Rezk from the University of Reading looks at politics and the role of humour as she profiles Bassem Youssef, “the Jon Stewart of Egyptian satire”. As protests reverberate around the world, she looks back at the Arab Spring and asks what we can learn from the popular culture that took off during that uprising and asks whether those freedoms remain.

You can hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about filming the Arab Spring https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sjw and in a discussion about Mocking Power past and present https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dzww

You can find of Dina's research https://egyptrevolution2011.ac.uk/

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

leading writers share their secrets of places of inner sanctuary 10.Aida Edemariam

Where can we go when we feel cooped up, shut in, locked down? To mark and alleviate these strange times, Radio 3 has commissioned leading writers to share the secrets of a place of refuge, real or imaginary, to which they escape in times of crisis.

10. Aida Edemariam's father is Ethiopian, her mother Canadian and she lives now in the Oxford, but it is to Addis Ababa that she returns at the start of an evocative celebration of swimming and water;

"A honeycomb of rooms, filled with steam. Tiled steps up to long low baths that in their gracious lines still held remnants of luxury and ease. Stripping, wallowing in water that arrived so hot out of the ground the main job was to cool it, splashing, shouting, setting off echoes. Here where nearly a hundred years before an empress had pitched her tent on a lush plain and turning to her rheumatic husband asked, may I build a house, here? Another, there, under that mimosa tree? And a palace, too? Bathing, here where the city began, because while there was plenty of rain, and the hot springs seeped from the earth as they always had, in the taps in our houses there was no water."

Producer: Beaty Rubens

As a teenager, Stephen K Amos’s family left London for Nigeria. There, for the first time, he saw television situation comedies, imported from America, about black families whose lives he recognised. Here were shows where the ethnicity of the lead characters was not central to the story or the punchline to a joke. One of his favourite shows was Sanford & Son, and for his essay Stephen has chosen one particular episode and its star, Redd Foxx, who took the lead part of Sanford. As he came to know more about Foxx’s life Stephen began to see the possibility of a life of his own in comedy.

Stephen K Amos started in stand up in 1994 taking his first shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1997. His work has taken him all round the world, and his striking ability to connect and talk with his audience, his charm, exuberance, intelligence and warmth have won him huge audiences. He has had his own ‘name above the title’ series on BBC Television, written several series for BBC Radio 4 including the semi-autobiographical What Does the K Stand For and now combines stand up with acting, presenting documentaries and writing. His documentary about homophobia in black communities, based on his own experiences of being a black gay man, won a Royal Television Society award and was nominated for a BAFTA. He took part in the recent BBC TV programme Pilgrimage: Road to Rome in which he got to meet the Pope and talk to him about how he feels that, as a gay man, he is not accepted within the Church.

Written and read by Stephen K Amos Produced by Caroline Raphael for Dora Productions

Turkey wants other governments to close schools and colleges linked to Fethullah Gulen, after this month's coup attempt.

In 2005, the Ivorian national football team - led by Chelsea superstar, Didier Drogba - began campaigning for an end to their country's devastating civil war. The side insisted on playing their matches across Ivory Coast - including an emotional game in the rebel capital of Bouaké. Robert Nicholson talks to Ivory Coast midfielder, Gilles Yapi-Yapo. The programme is a Whistledown Production.

PHOTO: Ivory Coast striker, Didier Drogba, is escorted from the pitch. (Getty Images)

In September 1983, Gerrie Coetzee, nicknamed the Boksburg Bomber, thrilled apartheid South Africa by becoming the country's first world boxing champion. Although an Afrikaner, the mild-mannered Coetzee was popular among all races, and millions stayed up to watch his bout against Michael Dokes of the USA. SABC commentator, Heinrich Marnitz talks to Ashley Byrne. The programme is a Made in Manchester production.

Photo: Gerrie Coetzee (Right) in action. Credit: AP)

The crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between rivals Rwanda and Uganda. A match that had it all - amazing saves, ‘witchcraft’, a mass brawl and a goal that made history. Rob Walker reports.

(Photo: Rwanda's forward Sinzey Sinda fights for the ball during the Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2004. Credit: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)

In the 1960s, the Ghanaian football team dominated Africa, winning tournament after tournament. Known as the Black Stars, they were an exciting attacking force which President Kwame Nkrumah hoped would help promote African unity. But in 1965, the Ghanaians faced an uphill struggle in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunis.Their star striker, Osei Kofi, remembers the match for Witness.

(Photo: Osei Kofi speaking to the BBC)

In 1996, South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations, bringing sporting joy to a country still recovering from apartheid. For the Bafana Bafana team, it was their first - and so far only - victory at an international football tournament. Sporting Witness speaks to two members of the multi-racial side, Phil Masinga and Mark Fish.

Photo: South Africa captain, Neil Tovey, lifting the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996 (Getty Images)

In 1998, a Kenyan farmer called Philip Boit became one of the first Africans to compete in the Winter Olympics. In the 10-kilometre cross-country skiing final he faced the legendary Norwegian, Bjorn Daehlie. It was a race that would unite the two athletes and inspire future Winter Olympians across Africa.

PHOTO: Getty Images.

Africa's Chance: Countries such as Kenya and Mozambique are now among the world's fastest-growing economies. Richard Dowden investigates a possible long-term path to development.