Start the Week

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

Radio 4,762 episodes

Episodes

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Saving Tigers, Green Crime and Cli-fi
Jonathan Slaght, Juhea Kim and Julia Shaw in conversation with Adam Rutherford.
10 Nov 2025,41 mins
Storytelling: Jeanette Winterson, Rory Stewart and Soweto Kinch
Jeanette Winterson, Soweto Kinch and Rory Stewart, with Tom Sutcliffe.
03 Nov 2025,42 mins
Crossing genres with Wayne McGregor
Wayne McGregor, Anne Enright and Tanika Gupta talk to Shahidha Bari.
27 Oct 2025,41 mins
Maps – lost, secret and revealing
James Cheshire, Jerry Brotton and Jenny Uglow, with Tom Sutcliffe.
20 Oct 2025,41 mins
Endangered languages and vanishing landscapes
Mandana Seyfeddinipur, Klaus Dodds and Sverker Sörlin, with Adam Rutherford
13 Oct 2025,41 mins
Yanis Varoufakis on Greece’s civil war
Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis and historians Paul Cartledge and Mary Vincent.
06 Oct 2025,41 mins
Steven Pinker on common knowledge
Steven Pinker, Aleks Krotoski and David Edmonds, with Adam Rutherford.
29 Sep 2025,42 mins
Contains Strong Language Festival, Bradford
Saima Mir, Andrew McMillan and Catherine Clarke at the CSL Festival in Bradford.
22 Sep 2025,42 mins
Afghanistan and the DRC
Lyse Doucet, Michela Wrong and Ashleigh Percival-Borley talk to Shahidha Bari.
15 Sep 2025,41 mins
Arundhati Roy and maternal inheritance
Arundhati Roy, Lea Ypi and Sarah Howe talk to Tom Sutcliffe.
08 Sep 2025,42 mins
Sanctuary, refuge and exile
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Marina Warner, Oliver Basciano and Fergus Butler-Gallie.
23 Jun 2025,41 mins
The Idea of Genius
Adam Rutherford talks to Helen Lewis, Francesca Wade and Dean Van Nguyen
16 Jun 2025,41 mins
Hidden spaces and dangerous places
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Danny Dorling and Adele Zeynep Walton.
09 Jun 2025,41 mins
The uses and abuses of the atom
Shahidha Bari talks to Frank Close, Tim Gregory and Baroness Natalie Bennett.
02 Jun 2025,41 mins
Hay Festival: exposing the secrets of rubbish
Tom Sutcliffe at Hay Festival, with Chloe Duckworth, Sarah Gabbott and Saabira Chaudhuri
26 May 2025,42 mins
Mathematics, Symbiosis and Japanese art
Adam Rutherford discusses art, maths and creativity with Marcus du Sautoy.
19 May 2025,42 mins
History: private, personal and political
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Tiffany Jenkins, Geoff Dyer and Lanre Bakare.
12 May 2025,41 mins
Smell – the underrated sense
Adam Rutherford with Jonas Olofsson, Ally Louks and Alan Chalmers.
05 May 2025,42 mins
Advocating for nature
Tom Sutcliffe with Robert Macfarlane, Monica Feria-Tinta and Patrick Galbraith.
28 Apr 2025,41 mins
Christianity and British society
Shahidha Bari with Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, Bijan Omrani and Lamorna Ash.
21 Apr 2025,42 mins
Impunity and fighting for justice
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Philippe Sands, Kenneth Roth and Lina Sinjab
14 Apr 2025,41 mins
Untangling fact from fiction
Adam Rutherford with Phil Tinline, Rosie Holt and Adam Kucharski.
07 Apr 2025,41 mins
Delusions of grandeur and freedom of speech
Tom Sutcliffe with Grayson Perry, Lionel Shriver and Fara Dabhoiwala
31 Mar 2025,41 mins
Abdulrazak Gurnah on family and resistance
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Samantha Ellis and Jason Allen-Paisant with Shahidha Bari.
24 Mar 2025,41 mins
Lockdown and the Covid generation
Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss the impact and legacy of Covid lockdown
17 Mar 2025,42 mins
How political ideology affects the brain
Adam Rutherford with Leor Zmigrod, Iain Dale and John Rees.
10 Mar 2025,41 mins
The Great Auk meets Victorian explorers, and zombie ponds
Tom Sutcliffe with Tim Birkhead, Kaliane Bradley and Mark Nowers.
03 Mar 2025,41 mins
Community and industrial decline
Adam Rutherford with Sam Wetherell, Yu Jie and Jack Thorne.
24 Feb 2025,41 mins
Writing and rewriting history
Tom Sutcliffe with Tom Holland, Moudhy Al-Rashid and Gus Casely-Hayford.
17 Feb 2025,42 mins
Wages for Housework – then and now
Shahidha Bari with Emily Callaci, Rosie Campbell and Victoria Smith
10 Feb 2025,41 mins