Arts & Ideas Folgen

Samira Ahmed talks to Joss Whedon, creator of the cult TV hit Buffy The Vampire Slayer, whose new film is a modern dress version of Much Ado About Nothing. Marianne Elliott talks about her new production of Tennessee Williams's play Sweet Bird of Youth, starring Kim Cattrall as a Hollywood leading lady whose youth is fading. Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Greg Tate looks back to a famous debate on Education between Matthew Arnold and T.H. Huxley which throws an interesting light on the current over-heated discussions about what our children should be taught.

A first night review of the National Theatre's revival of James Baldwin's drama The Amen Corner, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Matthew Sweet along with Susannah Clapp and Lindsay Johns review. Are conspiracy theories the sign of a decayed or thriving democracy? Discussing are Professor Sir Richard Evans, David Aaronovitch and Eliane Glaser. New Generation Thinker John Gallagher meditates on the pleasures and pitfalls of disguise for the sixteenth century traveller. And Matthew interviews Rachel Kushner whose latest novel, The Flamethrowers is about the art and radicalism of the 1970's.

Philip Dodd examines A Crisis of Brilliance a new exhibition at London's Dulwich Picture gallery with the curator David Boyd-Haycock. As Turkey's anti-government protest continues, Elif Shafak, Karl Sharro and Professor Benjamin Fortna, explore the underlying reasons for civil society's dissatisfactions. Sarah Dillon is one of this year's New Generation Thinkers and her column is on the role of analogy in science. Søren Kierkegaard, the grandfather of existentialism, was also a sophisticated humourist. Philip is joined by theologian George Pattison and the Danish comedian Claus Damgaard for a Kierkegaardian lesson in freedom.