Free Thinking

Neil Bartlett discusses Victorian cross-dressing performer Ernest Boulton with Matthew Sweet. Thomas Thwaites explains why he decided to try to live as a goat to explore the difference between humans and animals. Colin Gale from the Bethlem Museum of the Mind and historian Sarah Wise talk about perceptions of mental illness in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Poet Fiona Sampson on the relationship between poetry and health.

The world premiere of Neil Bartlett's play Stella is at the Brighton Festival on May 27th and 28th.

Crime writer and former newspaper editor Volker Kutscher's Babylon Berlin is being made into a TV series by Tom Tykwer. Neil MacGregor has now left the British Museum to work with the Humboldt Forum to create a new German cultural centre in Berlin. Simon Stephens has written a new translation of Brecht's Threepenny Opera for the National Theatre. The production will star Haydn Gwynne. Philippe Sands has written about the Nuremberg Trials - as has A.T. Williams. They join Anne McElvoy for a programme exploring diverse aspects of German culture.

Neil MacGregor's book Germany: Memories of a Nation is now out in paperback.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Rana Mitter is joined by the historians Frank Dikötter, Patricia Thornton and Kerry Brown, and by the writers Xinran and Xiaolu Guo, to revisit the Cultural Revolution 50 years on.

On 16th May 1966, Mao Zedong initiated a mass movement aimed at purging all "capitalist" and "traditional elements" from the Chinese Communist Party, and from Chinese society as a whole. This initiated the 10 years of social and political turmoil known as the Cultural Revolution.

Frank Dikötter is the author of The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962-1976, the final instalment in the People's Trilogy

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Journalist Paul Mason and graphic novelists Mary and Bryan Talbot discuss Louise Michel, the revolutionary feminist anarchist dubbed 'The Red Virgin of Montmartre', who fought on the barricades defending the Paris Commune in 1871. UC Berkeley psychologist Dr Dacher Keltner explores what he calls the power paradox.

The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia by Bryan and Mary Talbot is out now.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Anne McElvoy invites three novelists into the studio to discuss Love - the theme of each of their new novels. A L Kennedy's Serious Sweet examines love in later life, Tahmima Anam explores different aspects of young love in The Bones of Grace and Alain de Botton says no-one lives happy ever after, we should talk a lot more about what comes next - hence the title of his book The Course of Love.

Presenter: Anne McElvoy

Guests: A L Kennedy 'Serious Sweet' is out at the end of May 2016

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Philip Dodd talks to the artist Olafur Eliasson who famously created artificial sunlight in the Weather Project at Tate Modern. He's also been responsible for engineering four man-made waterfalls in New York, founded a company producing solar powered LED lights, and has just published a cook book.

The Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov discusses his latest, The Bickford Fuse, an allegorical study of the Soviet soul set between the end of World War 2 and the fall of communism.

And to consider the Russian soul today, Philip is joined by columnist and Russian commentator, Mary Dejevsky, and novelist Zinovy Zinik.

The Kitchen by Studio Olafur Eliasson and Unspoken Spaces by Olafur Eliasson are out now.

Producer: Craig Smith

Author Marina Lewycka discusses Lubetkin's social housing with Matthew Sweet in a programme which considers concrete homes past and present. Curator Helen Pheby describes transporting a former council house which has been turned into a kind of blue grotto by artist Roger Hiorns as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park hosts an exhibition on the theme of Home. Lynsey Hanley talks about the experience of growing up on a Birmingham council estate and the powerful connections between concrete and class. And architecture historian Barnabas Calder invites us to look again at the beauty of brutalism.

Marina Lewycka's novel is called The Lubetkin Legacy

Producer: Ruth Watts

Playwright Howard Brenton and director Adrian Noble discuss stage plays drawing on the life of TE Lawrence. Journalist John Preston has explored MP Jeremy Thorpe's downfall. And Philip Dodd is joined by Chris Bryant for a wider discussion about privacy in public life. And Mary Beard joins us to discuss another imperial endeavour, Rome.

Howard Brenton's new play Lawrence After Arabia runs at the Hampstead Theatre from April 28th to June 4th.

Producer: Ruth Watts

“To unpathed waters, undreamed shores”

The Winter's Tale is being broadcast as the Drama on 3 this Sunday May 1st.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Rana Mitter is joined by Edith Hall, Nandini Das and Beatrice Groves to explore the books which inspired Shakespeare from the Bible and classical stories to the writing of some of Shakespeare's contemporaries.

Edith Hall is Professor in the Classics Department and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College London. Her most recent book is Introducing The Ancient Greeks.

Nandini Das is Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool. She is also a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Beatrice Groves is Research Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at the University of Oxford and her books include Texts and Traditions: Religion in Shakespeare 1592-1604

The programme was recorded in front of an audience in BBC Radio 3's pop-up studio as part of Radio 3's Stratford residency at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod