Andrew Marr discusses the state of China with the authors Jonathan Fenby and Martin Jacques. Fenby attempts to draw together the whole of the China story to explore its global significance, but also its inner complexity and complexes. Martin Jacques has updated his bestseller, When China Rules the World, to argue that the country's impact will be as much political and cultural, as economic. But while China's finances make all the headlines, what of its literature? Ou Ning edits China's version of Granta magazine, showcasing the work of contemporary Chinese authors, but must tread a careful path to keep the right side of the censors. And the academic and translator Julia Lovell argues that to understand the new spirit of China, it's vital to read its often contrarian short fiction.

Andrew Marr talks to the prize-winning novelist, Peter Carey about his latest work, The Chemistry of Tears. At its heart is a small clockwork puzzle and Carey muses on how the industrial revolution has changed what it means to be human. The science writer Philip Ball goes back another century to the world of Galileo and Newton, to study the changes in thinking and knowledge embodied by the scientifically curious. And the historian Rebecca Stott rediscovers the first evolutionists, and the collective daring of Darwin's scientific forebears who had the imagination to speculate on the natural world.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr looks back at the political and cultural landscape of the last 20 years with the author Alwyn Turner. In 1992 Margaret Thatcher proclaimed 'the death of socialism' after the Conservative election victory, and Turner argues this moment led to a generation turning away from politics, putting their energy into culture. But Janet Daley believes that it wasn't John Major's victory but the fall of communism that demoralised and destabilised the left, and the lessons of 1989 are still to be learnt. In its defence, the Labour MP Tristram Hunt points to the long history of socialism and believes its death has been much exaggerated. And the political cartoonist Martin Rowson lampoons both left and right. In his latest book he updates Swift's Gulliver's Travels to the late 1990s, targeting the government of Tony Blair, media moguls and Europe.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the filmmaker Werner Herzog about his latest documentary which gazes "into the abyss of the human soul", in its exploration of death row. Liz Mermin delves into the world of particle physics for her latest film venture, spending a year at CERN. While work there continues to try and understand the fundamental laws of nature, Mermin attempts to understand the people behind the experiments. The writer Geoff Dyer obsesses about Tarkovsky's film, Stalker, as a means to look at his own life, and to understand how we discover our deepest wishes. While in his new collection of poetry, Paul Farley, explores 'the art of seeing': weaving the past and the present to highlight those moments glimpsed out of the corner of your eye, and what's hidden in plain sight.

Andrew Marr talks to the Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer. In her latest book she explores the tensions at the heart of a nation struggling to define itself post-apartheid, through the lives of an interracial couple in suburban South Africa. The past and present also collide in the poet Jack Mapanje's attempt to understand why he was arrested by the Malawian secret police, and imprisoned without charge. Richard Dowden looks to the future of Africa to ask whether Chinese investment, an explosion in mobile technology and a growing middle class, means this will be Africa's decade.

Andrew Marr talks to Colm Toibin about the ways writers write about families, and also the impact of their own often dysfunctional relationships - from Thomas Mann and WB Yeats, to the nightmares of John Cheever's journals. In her novel, The Children's Book, AS Byatt explored how far a writing mother can harm her children, and yet she argues that she'd prefer to know nothing about a writer's private life. The novelist Will Eaves mined his own family background for his latest book, but insists it's more a work of imagination, than memoir. And it's these relationships, and culture, that are the key to the success of our species, rather than consciousness, language and intelligence, according to the evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel.

Andrew Marr celebrates middle age with the scientist David Bainbridge, who dismisses any suggestion of mid-life crisis, to argue that there's much more to middle age than just a period between youth and being old. The poet Simon Armitage asks in 'Knowing what we Know Now', whether we'd choose to live our life backwards once we got to the mid point, but the writer Deborah Moggach suggests there's a gender divide to reaching 50. And the psychologist Claudia Hammond discusses perceptions of time, and explores why we're so obsessed with its passing.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr discusses faith and doubt. Richard Holloway started training for the priesthood from the age of 14, but as the former Bishop looks back on his life he reveals a restless spirit, always questioning his beliefs. Karen Armstrong has had similar crises of faith, and asks in a forthcoming talk, 'What is Religion?' For the 17th century Mexican nun, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, faith was wrapped up in her love of writing and poetry - her life is brought to the stage by the playwright Helen Edmundson. And Jonathan Safran Foer celebrates the Jewish text Haggadah which tells the story of the Exodus to the Promised Land.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe looks at how science has shaped our civilisation. Mark Miodownik explores how the discovery of new materials has transformed the way we live, from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age. While the mathematician Ian Stewart argues that calculations made centuries ago have led to untold innovations, and that mathematical equations really have changed our world. The natural world is the starting point for the sculptor, Peter Randall-Page and his abstract geometric form carved in stone. And Jane Rapley from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design considers how far fashion designers are influenced by modern materials and techniques, and inspired by the natural world.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr considers the 'great man' view of history, and how far an age can be represented by its leaders and innovators. Mary Beard looks back to ancient times when history and biography were considered two distinct genres. While John Guy returns to the reign of Elizabeth I, Max Hastings and Lola Young give an overview of the modern Elizabethan age.