Free Thinking

The journey Sir George Grove made to Vienna by train was one of vision and passion. He went in pursuit of the lost works of a neglected composer, Franz Schubert, and his pilgrimage resulted in the discovery of the score of Rosamunde. Travel writer Simon Calder explores the journey of anticipation and what drove the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians to seek out the work of a relatively unpopular composer.

Philip Dodd and Susan Hitch review the world premier of Jonathan Dove's opera, Life is a Dream and also Paul Allen reviews Complicite's The Master and Margarita. Night Waves also discusses the world out of which Tarkovsky's imagination came and the romance of the past and the essentials of the future of engineering.

Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Anne McElvoy about why he believes that Christianity offers the best way to understand how and why the English are as they are. Anne discusses the new documentary, 'Four Horsemen' with its director, Ross Ashcroft and the financial analyst Louise Cooper. Richard Cork visits the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to review the first major exhibition of Joan Miro's works of sculpture. And Gabrielle Walker talks about her new book which maps the intricate histories of the world's most uninhabitable territory: Antarctica.

Matthew Sweet discusses "Turner Inspired" at the National Gallery in London and Sue Prideaux's new biography of Strindberg. Also on the programme, an examination of Kony 2012, a campaigning You Tube video now seen by over 76 million people and the award winning novelist Marilynne Robinson on her new book of essays.

Matthew Sweet meets James Robinson who offers a new way of understanding wealth and poverty. Peter Gill one of Britain's most important directors of the last thirty years talks about adapting A Provincial Life based on a Chekhov short story. And The Patagonian Hare is Claude Lanzmann's memoir of his life as a writer, thinker, film director and witness to the twentieth century.

The historian Jon Agar and the science writer, Marcus Chown consider the achievements of science in the 20th century. DJ Taylor and Justin Cartwright reflect on how the world of money and finance is represented in fiction. Sarah Kent will be assessing the first major retropsective of the Italian artist, Alighiero Boetti. And Professor of Historical Geography Christopher Withers reflects on whether it's time to switch from Greenwich Mean Time to the atomic clock.

With Matthew Sweet. Artist Brad Lochore reviews a new exhibition at Tate Britain: Picasso and Modern British Art. Phil Agland talks about his new documentary about the Baka people in Cameroon. An audience goes speed-dating with a New Generation Thinker from the Free Thinking Festival last year. And Josie Rourke talks about her new appointment as Creative Director of London's Donmar Warehouse theatre.

Philip Dodd talks to Cullen Murphy about his new book, God's Jury. Matthew Sweet takes a new look at Lawrence Durrell. And Anne McElvoy talks to Kate Grenville about her books on Australian Colonialism and also interviews Gene Sharp about non-violent protests.

Throughout this week, Night Waves examines some of the major cultural forces shaping the 21st century. Anne McElvoy and guests discuss mega-cities, sustainability and the ethics of living together.

In a special edition of the podcast, we mark the passing of both Christopher Hitchens and Vaclav Havel, with interviews, reviews and analysis from the Night Waves archives.