Free Thinking

Nick Payne talks to Anne McElvoy about his play Incognito and the man who stole Einstein's brain. New Generation Thinker Fern Riddell reviews Sky Atlantic's Penny Dreadful and our fascination with Victorian Gothic. Helen McCarthy and Pauline Neville-Jones discuss female diplomats. Plus another New Generation Thinker, Jules Evans, reports on the Reader Organisation's Conference at the British Library, the recent campaigns against the prison book ban and our relationship with reading.

Interview with the prominent Czech writer who has just published memoir, My Crazy Century, followed by a discussion debating whether Europe will always need an East. And why are we interested in science fiction film and theatre.

MJ Hyland reviews Simon Armitage's The Last Days of Troy at the Royal Exchange Manchester starring Lily Cole. Chris Harding looks at Japanese fears in Godzilla and The Wind Rises. Dr Philip Roscoe and Professor Geoffrey Wood on whether academia needs to change the focus of studies into financial systems. Plus Zoe Norridge discusses Deutsche Borse prize winner Richard Mosse and depictions of African countries affected by war.

Anne McElvoy looks at the benefits and challenges of cities pooling resources. Michael Wynne and Rachel De-lahay discuss their plays opening in Liverpool and Birmingham this week. Plus New Generation Thinkers Matthew Smith, from the University of Strathclyde, and Charlotte Blease, from University College Dublin, have been working on philosophy and psychiatric diagnosis, depression and ADHD.

David Henry Hwang tells Philip about his 2007 drama Yellow Face, reflecting life of Asian American and now showing in London;

As a musical version of The Water Babies opens Simon Heffer and New Generation Thinker Corin Throsby discuss the ideas of Charles Kingsley. Matthew Sweet talks about literary satire with novelist Edward St Aubyn. Plus we mark today's anniversary of Roger Bannister's 4 minute mile by talking to documentary maker Sally McLean about her current film project which profiles the Viennese running coach Franz Stampfl.

Samira Ahmed is joined by poets Paul Farley, Fiona Sampson and Clive Wilmer to discuss Thom Gunn, who died ten years ago. An interview with Michael Cunningham, about his new novel The Snow Queen. Plus historians Charlie Laderman and Umit Ungor discuss Turkish Armenian relations.

The BBC Radiophonic workshop,opened in 1958 with an aim to experiment and produce original music for various iconic BBC programmes. It was shut down 40 years later by Director General John Birt.

Philip Dodd explores the sexual mores of eighteenth-century England talking to Faramerz Dabhoiwala of Exeter College, Oxford, Joanne Bailey of Oxford Brookes University, David Turner of Swansea University, author and broadcaster Hallie Rubenhold and Judith Hawley of Royal Holloway College.

Samira Ahmed discusses the ownership of street art with Mary McCarthy, Director of MM Contemporary Arts; Professor Lionel Bently, barrister and copyright expert on intellectual property, and street artist and gallery owner, Pure Evil. Ex-ITV CEO Stewart Purvis on the rise of indie news organisation Vice. Plus artist Jeremy Millar, film critic Chris Darke and Habda Rashid, Assistant Curator at The Whitechapel Gallery discuss French film maker Chris Marker's life and work.