Mary Robinson delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2012, arguing that women leaders are better placed than men to sort out the crises of the 21st Century. Presented by Matthew Sweet and recorded on Friday 2 November 2012 in front of a live audience at The Sage, Gateshead.

Rana Mitter discusses two new shows of the painter, Frank Auerbach's work with the critic, Bill Feaver and explores the vexed terrain of surveillance with the philosopher, Zygmunt Bauman and the journalist, Nick Cohen. There's also a review of a DVD release of Die Nibelungen, one of Fritz Lang's great films and the playwright Christopher Hampton talks about his new play, Appomattox and shares his enthusiasm for a neglected masterpiece of European literature, Odon von Horvath's The Age of the Fish.

Philip Dodd presents a Landmark edition examining Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. It's a fierce assault on the smug, joyless and sexless quality of Edinburgh middle-class life in the 1930s. Philip is joined by novelists Ian Rankin, Louise Welsh and former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway to examine this acclaimed and disturbing portrait of adolescent trauma and lost innocence.

Matthew Sweet talks to the comedian Ken Dodd about his life and career. Seventy seven years after he made his debut as a ventriloquist in Liverpool Dodd is still touring the country with his Happiness show. In the 1960s he broke box office records at the London Palladium where he played twice nightly for 42 weeks and has sold almost as many records as the Beatles. He talks to Matthew about why he will never stop performing and his interest in the theories of humour and comedy.

Phil Redmond, the creator of ground-breaking series such as Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks, joins Philip Dodd to discuss his new autobiography which charts his journey of success from being a working class lad in Liverpool. Michael Goldfarb, journalist and broadcaster, and Colleen Graffy, professor of law at Pepperdine University, join Philip to consider the concept of Them and Us, and whether the social and culture wars in America are rendering its people ever more divided. And film critic Nigel Floyd joins Michael Goldfarb to review The Master, the new film by Paul Thomas Anderson which is tipped for Oscar nominations.

Thomas Keneally joins Anne McElvoy to discuss his new novel The Daughters of Mars, which examines the hidden wounds of two nurses as they confront the horrors of Gallipoli. Richard Cork and Juliet Gardiner review Barbara Hepworth’s hospital drawings, exhibited at the Hepworth Wakefield, sketched during her hours observing hospital procedures between 1947 and 1949. And Anne talks to David Byrne, musician, artist and essayist, about his new book How Music Works.

In a special edition Samira Ahmed examines the importance of Norse and Greek mythology to Wagner and how the tales of ancient heroism influenced his work and in particular the Ring Cycle, with novelist A.S. Byatt, philosopher Roger Scruton and lecturer in music and European history Mark Berry.

Philip Dodd talks to Playwright Howard Brenton discussing his new play, 55 days, focusing on Cromwell and Charles 1st. The life of traveller and writer Paddy Leigh Fermor often appears to have been one great adventure. Biographer Artemis Cooper is joined by acclaimed travel writer Colin Thubron to discuss who the great travel writer really was. Corin Throsby reviews Elena, the Russian film which won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year. And Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian writer and economist, reflects on his novel The Bat, as the first of the Harry Hole detective novels is finally translated into English.

Malu Halasa, curator of the Culture in Defiance exhibition in Amsterdam, joins Matthew to discuss how the struggle for freedom in Syria has given birth to a whole new generation of artists. In the wake of the recent allegations about Jimmy Savile's abuse of young women and boys, Matthew Sweet asks criminologist David Wilson and priest Giles Fraser why institutions find it so difficult to respond to cases of abuse. And film critic David Thomson discusses his latest book The Big Screen: the Story of the Movies and What they Did to Us.

The friendship that developed between Wagner and Nietzsche is documented in a vast collection of letters and writings, reflecting one of the most resonant cultural and philosophical scenes of 19th century Europe. In a special edition Anne McElvoy with Nick Seddon, John Deathridge and Michael Tanner map this intellectual development which informed Wagner's work. With readings by Andrew Fallaize.