Start the Week

David Runciman, a Cambridge political historian, examines the Suez Crisis and Hungarian Revolution as the end of imperial illusion. Financial Times commentator Gideon Rachman explores nuclear deterrence, Ukraine, Taiwan, and the risk of interconnected wars. Journalist Kim Ghattas traces Lebanon’s turmoil through Malcolm Kerr’s assassination, foreign intervention, and the rise of Hezbollah.

Tom Overton, writer and archivist of John Berger’s archive, explores Berger’s radical approach to art and ordinary lives. Maryam Aslany, author of Peasants: Makers of the Modern World, examines peasant communities, global commodities and agricultural precarity. Rowan Bain, curator of the William Morris Gallery, discusses Morris, radical homes and art as a force for social change.

Michael Lewis, bestselling author of Moneyball, examines Trump’s drive to turn America’s civil service into a loyalty-based operation. Jill Rutter, a former senior government official, explores Britain’s “blob” and the fragile bond between ministers and officials. Historian Andrew Roberts reveals how Napoleon’s strained relationships with his marshals, micromanagement and betrayal helped bring down his empire.

Gillian Slovo, novelist exploring memory and political violence, discusses family secrets and apartheid’s legacy in Inheritance. Edith Hall, a classics scholar, reimagines Medea and the ancient roots of rage, revenge and maternal violence. Geneticist Pontus Skoglund reveals how ancient DNA traces migration, disease, Neanderthal ancestry and forgotten lives. Together, they explore what the past leaves in our stories, bodies and families.

Jon Ronson, investigative journalist and author, explores men searching for purpose amid collapsing identities, internet drama and public shaming. Writer Roisín Kiberd examines beauty rituals, Botox, masking and the pressure to appear normal. Artist Michael Landy discusses drawing faces, aging and imagined architectural ruins. Together, they consider belonging, social structures, capitalism and the allure of decay.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage explores Gilgamesh, grief and mortality through his vivid new translation. Poet and academic Jade Cuttle delves into cuneiform, mudlarking, mysterious objects and the earthy power of language. Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox reveals how spaces shape hearing, why quiet matters, and how Stonehenge may have amplified ancient voices. Poetry, archaeology and sound collide in Salford.

Theoretical physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli explores reality through physics, philosophy and competing perspectives. Poet Lavinia Greenlaw considers why difficult poetry, specialist language and metaphor reward sustained attention. Playwright James Graham discusses John Maynard Keynes, economics, art and the ingredients of a good life. Their wide-ranging conversation connects complexity, disagreement, imagination and value.

Psychiatrist and novelist Daniel Mason, philosopher Lani Watson, and physician and broadcaster Xand van Tulleken explore life without easy answers. They examine wellness marketing, collagen and supplements, menopause care, and the value of asking better questions. Mason discusses folklore, false beliefs, and his novel Country People, while the group considers how fiction and curiosity can make uncertainty more bearable.

Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, joins political scientist Francis Fukuyama and Bronwen Maddox, Chatham House director, to explore democracy’s retreat and the future of global order. They discuss China’s rise, America’s strategic missteps, populist anger, civic renewal, online isolation, Britain’s choices, digital regulation and whether liberal democracy can adapt to a multipolar world.

Katherine Dunn, business journalist who probes GPS's ubiquity and fragility. Meena Kandasamy, novelist and poet who tackles caste, gender and online misogyny. Baroness Beeban Kidron, filmmaker and campaigner for children’s online safety and tech accountability. They discuss how platforms captured the internet, attention-driven harms, deepfakes and digital mob violence, and the hidden risks in everyday GPS dependence.