Arts & Ideas Folgen

Award-winning author Sebastian Faulks speaks to Rana Mitter about his new multi-layered novel, A Possible Life, which explores the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. Sir John Elliott’s book History In The Making tracks the course of the discipline in relation to national and transnational histories. And with a look at China, Rana talks to filmmaker Sun Shuyun about Transcendence, the 3D film about rock star Cui Jian, and author Hsiao-Hung Pai tells Rana the stories from China’s rural migrants.

Philip Dodd talks to the Nobel prize winning economist, Amartya Sen in the concluding programme in Night Waves' examination of the "good life" and what we mean by it.

Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot' (1869) raises 'the good life' as an existential question that everybody must answer for themselves. The novel has been read as both an over-the-top melodrama, and as a profound exploration of the ambiguity of goodness. Matthew Sweet is joined by the theologian Giles Fraser, Russian specialist Sarah Young and the novelist Zinovy Zinik to discuss.