At the end of a year which has seen Britain vote for Brexit, the rise of political parties claiming patriotism in other European countries and a sense of national pride being invoked by politicians in Russia and China - Free Thinking hears from some of the key thinkers exploring these current debates.

Our week long focus begins in France where Philip Dodd talks to the public intellectual, Alain Finkielkraut and the novelist and film-maker Karim Miské.

Karim Miské is the author of the award winning novel, Arab Jazz, and of an essay, N'Appartenir which charts his search for a sense of belonging in contemporary France.

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Are public enquiries good government? At the end of a year where we have seen the Hillsborough and Chilcot reports are these the best way of calling to account? Margaret Hodge and Bronwen Maddox join Anne McElvoy to discuss. Plus, Matthew Parris considers the concept of scorn and those who are best at pouring it.

Matthew Parris has written an updated version of Scorn: The Wittiest and Wickedest Insults in Human History

Producer: Craig Smith.

John Simpson joins Philip Dodd to discuss fifty years of reporting from around the world for the BBC and what the future holds for foreign correspondents.

Once our news came from three primary sources: newspapers, radio and TV. But in a digital world which offers a proliferation of 'news' how do we separate fact from opinion or even fakery? Former director general of the BBC and current CEO of The New York Times Company, Mark Thompson, journalist Susie Boniface (aka Fleet Street Fox), author and TV producer, Peter Pomerantsev, and academic, Martin Moore, consider what we mean by news in 2016.

We Chose to Speak of War and Strife: The World of the Foreign Correspondent is by John Simpson.

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia is by Peter Pomerantsev

Enough Said: What's gone wrong with the language of politics? is by Mark Thompson.

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

Classicist Professor Edith Hall, New Generation Thinker Chris Kissane, novelist Elif Shafak, and Dr Alan Mendoza from the Henry Jackson Society join Matthew Sweet to consider what might be on a reading list to prepare for a post Brexit world.

Reading List:

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Shahidha Bari and guests look at our relationship with animals.

Anne McElvoy meets David Rooney curator of the Winton Mathematics gallery at the Science Museum which has been redesigned by Zaha Hadid architects and explores the way maths skills are increasingly needed for jobs. She discusses the changing attitudes to mathematics in history and the present day with Alex Bellos, writer on maths puzzles, maths historian Serafina Cuomo and maths lecturer Vicky Neale. They are joined by astro-physicist Neil de Grasse Tyson who is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

Alex Bellos is the author of Alex Through The Looking Glass and his latest book called Can You Solve My Problems.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Colin Grant, author of a book exploring his brother's epilepsy, joins presenter Matthew Sweet, New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore who writes about Wilkie Collins and Charles Fernyhough - who studies hearing voices. Plus director Josie Rourke on Joan of Arc on stage at the Donmar Warehouse and theatre critic David Benedict.

St Joan by George Bernard Shaw starring Gemma Arterton is at the Donmar Warehouse in London from December 9th - January 18th. It will be broadcast

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

What price the self in the 21st century? We may be living in the age of the "selfie" and of social media narcissism but is there anything fixed about the self? Philip Dodd and his guests, the novelist, Tom McCarthy, the sociologist, Susie Scott, the neuroscientist, Daniel Glaser and the painter, Dexter Dalwood explore the notion of identity today taking in the major Rauschenberg retrospective at Tate Modern, Erving Goffman's seminal work of sociology, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life and the way we all use words to constantly make and remake our selves.

Robert Rauschenberg runs at Tate Modern from December 1st until April 2nd 2017.

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Matthew Sweet discusses elites and their role in contemporary politics, with Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton;Professor David Runciman, Head of the Department of Politics & International Studies at the University of Cambridge; Eliane Glaser, writer and Senior Lecturer at Bath Spa University; and Lynsey Hanley, visiting Fellow in Cultural Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Wierd fiction presents the universe as an irrational place, totally indifferent to human concerns. Is 'the wierd' a more general approach that can bextended beyond fiction to encompass the other arts, or even politics and science? Rana Mitter discusses the idea of the wierd with literary scholar Nick Freeman of the University of Loughborough, cultural theorist Caroline Edwards of Birkbeck, University of London, and astronomer Marek Kukula of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

Producer: Luke Mulhall