Start the Week

Tom Tugendhat MP is the Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He tells Andrew Marr that he’s very much focused on British foreign policy priorities after Brexit. But the government’s new Trade Bill is facing opposition from those insisting that human rights abuses must be investigated before any deals are done. The MP for Tonbridge and Malling also highlights the need to be more aware of China’s economic ambitions and global role. Geeta Tharmaratnam is keen that more focus should be placed on Africa. As a venture capitalist and CEO of an investment company she see huge economic possibilities across the continent, especially in relation to African women entrepreneurs. She looks more closely at the African Continental Free Trade Area which was signed by a majority of countries in Kigali, Rwanda in 2018 and came into force this year.But the journalist Michela Wrong questions whether the Rwandan government, and especially its much feted leader President Paul Kagame can be trusted. Following the civil war and genocide in 1994 Kagame became vice-President and then leader of his country. He has prioritised national development and been successful in securing international aid, but Wrong follows the story of his rise to power and argues that he has overseen a regime intent on political repression.Producer: Katy Hickman

Edward St Aubyn is the award-winning author of the Patrick Melrose series. His new novel, Double Blind, also revolves around transformation and the headlong pursuit of knowledge. He tells Tom Sutcliffe that his characters range across the sciences – from genetics to ecology to psychoanalysis. And their investigations into inheritance, freedom and consciousness intertwine with their feelings of love, fear and greed.Isaac Newton is often revered as the scientific genius of the 18th century: an unworldly scholar who abandoned his intellectual life to rescue the country’s finances. But the academic Patricia Fara paints a more complicated picture in Life After Gravity. Here Newton is seen in the last 30 years of his life as he heads both the Royal Mint and the Royal Society – a scientist who revelled in the dirty worlds of money and politics. Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor who has also forged a career presenting health and science programmes on radio and television. With his twin brother Xand he has put competing health theories to the test, and shared his own personal experience of Covid 19. In his new series for Radio 4, The Jump, he investigates the latest scientific evidence looking at how animal viruses spread to humans, and how far human behaviours are causing pandemics.Producer: Katy Hickman

The journalist Matthew d’Ancona attacks the torpor and complacency which has come to dominate the political landscape. In Identity, Ignorance, Innovation he analyses what’s gone wrong in Britain from education and social care, to technological inequality. He tells Andrew Marr that far from demonising identity politics, the right needs to embrace a diversity of voices.But identity politics has become a major battleground in the culture wars in Britain and the US. The writer Kenan Malik has been charting its rise, and focuses his attention on the growing interest in ‘white identity’, and the debate around the so-called ‘left behind’ in traditional working class areas. The economist and Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik argues that societal breakdown and increasing polarisation can only be healed with a new social contract fit for the 21st century. In What We Owe Each Other she draws on evidence from around the world to look at how we can re-evaluate the balance between the individual and society, between rights and responsibilities. Producer: Katy Hickman

400 years ago Robert Burton produced his labyrinthine masterpiece, The Anatomy of Melancholy – a work which was celebrated in the Renaissance for its understanding of the huge variety of causes, symptoms and cures of mental distress. In A User’s Guide To Melancholy the academic Mary Ann Lund looks back to this precursor of the self-help book. She tells Amol Rajan that we have much to learn from those who struggled with melancholy in the past.In Heavy Light, the writer Horatio Clare shares how his mind began to unwind; his growing mania followed by psychosis and his treatment in a psychiatric hospital. But he also details the journey of recovery and healing, and he investigates how society treats acute crises of mental health.The psychiatrist Ahmed Hankir understands only too well what it’s like to feel depressed and hopeless – he suffered from mental health difficulties during his studies. He has used his own experiences to produce The Wounded Healer which seeks to reduce stigma around mental health, blending psychiatry and the performing arts.Producer: Katy Hickman

The deep sea is the last, vast wilderness on Earth. In The Brilliant Abyss the marine biologist Helen Scales dives below the surface to tell the story of our relationship with the ocean floor. With an average depth of 12,000 feet it remains a frontier for new discoveries and extraordinary creatures. But Helen Scales warns Andrew Marr of the unfolding environmental disasters as people seek to exploit this new world, far beyond the public gaze.The writer Philip Hoare explores nature through the work of the artist Albrecht Dürer. From his 15th century prints of the plague-ridden Apocalypse to his leviathans in the deep, Dürer’s works were a revelation. In Albert & the Whale Hoare writes about the enduring quality of his art and its powerful message about the fragile beauty of the natural world.The journalist Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the international bestseller, The Sixth Extinction, which was a clear-eyed account of humanity’s impact on the Earth. In Under A White Sky she asks whether through scientific innovation we can reverse some of the damage done. She meets those re-engineering ‘super coral’ which can withstand hotter waters and those tasked with saving the rarest fish species in the world.Producer: Katy Hickman

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry-Londonderry at the height of the Troubles, to a Catholic mother and Protestant father. In Thin Places she traces a life affected by poverty, loss and violence, and the invisible border that runs through it. But she tells Kirsty Wark how the natural world has helped heal the traumas of childhood.For the writer Sally Bayley it was Shakespeare that brought her solace and ignited her imagination. Growing up in a working class household with no father figures Bayley roamed through his plays looking for companions and escape from her oppressive home. In No Boys Play Here: A Story of Shakespeare & My Family’s Missing Men she explores the crisis of male homelessness and mental illness.The award-winning actress Lisa Dwan has a deep affiliation with the works of Samuel Beckett. But in her latest performance she reaches back to the ancient Greek tragedians reimagined by another acclaimed Irish writer Colm Tóibín. In Pale Sister she recounts Sophocles’ tragedy of Antigone from the viewpoint of her sister, Ismene. Producer: Katy Hickman

What happens when real life collides with your digital existence – the writer and ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter’ Patricia Lockwood talks to Andrew Marr. In her highly original novel, No One is Talking About This, Lockwood’s narrator becomes overwhelmed as drama in the human world encroaches on the life she leads online.Roisin Kiberd is part of the internet generation and believes the line between online and IRL has become so porous as to become meaningless. From the lure of endless scrolling, to the glamour of self-optimisation and the boundless possibility of connectivity, Kiberd explores the ups and downs of this new reality in a series of essays, The Disconnect.In a new series on Radio 4, Sideways, Matthew Syed exploits different ways of seeing the world to connect disparate ideas and offer new insights. He examines the online craze of ‘randonauting’ – in which an app sends people on random adventures – to unpick the misunderstanding of probability using digital and real life examples. Producer: Katy Hickman

Britain is a direct product of its imperial past. So argues the writer Sathnam Sanghera in his latest book, Empireland. He tells Tom Sutcliffe how we need to move beyond simplistic feelings of shame or pride in Britain’s empire if we are to truly understand who we are.It’s not just the story of empire shaping modern Britain but the longer more entrenched history of class. In Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth, the historian Selina Todd explores how class distinctions still prevail today.Class and empire weave their way into the work of the poet Anthony Anaxagorou. His family is from Cyprus - an island deeply divided and with a history of colonisation. He charts his rise as a poet in the pocket-book series, ‘How to… Write it’. And his last collection, After the Formalities, explores the anxieties inherent in his British and Cypriot heritage. Producer: Katy Hickman

He was born into abject poverty in Czechoslovakia, fought for the British and was decorated for his heroism in WWII, and became a successful businessman and press baron courted by political leaders around the world. Yet Robert Maxwell ended his life reviled as the embodiment of greed and corruption. The writer John Preston discusses his book, Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, with Andrew Marr.The journalist Julia Langdon was appointed the political editor of the Daily Mirror in 1984 when Maxwell owned the newspaper. She looks back at his often extraordinary behaviour. But Langdon also examines the difficult and changing relationship between those in power in politics and the media moguls.Maxwell was brash and theatrical working from luxury apartments at his rechristened Maxwell House, complete with Doric columns at the entrance. Emily Bell, formerly a media journalist now academic at Columbia University, sees certain parallels with Trump Tower. But the media landscape since Maxwell’s days has changed dramatically, and it’s now the owners of today’s social media companies who wield the power.Producer: Katy Hickman

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics at University College London, tells Amol Rajan it’s time western governments took a braver approach to the biggest problems of our time – inequality, disease and environmental crisis. In her book, Mission Economy, she argues that capitalism has foundered. Taking inspiration from President Kennedy’s decision in 1962 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, she calls for a greater sense of purpose from governments and a bolder public-private cooperation. The former cabinet minister and Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable looks back over the last 250 years to understand the power politicians have to transform their countries’ fortunes, for better or worse. In Money and Power – The World Leaders who Changed Economics he ranges from Thatcher to Trump, from Lenin to Bismarck to examine the interplay of economics and politics.But what happens when people begin to feel the economy is broken. In Why You Won’t Get Rich the journalist Robert Verkaik aims his ire at capitalism and the failure to treat people fairly. He argues that for too many people hard work is no longer enough to keep them off the breadline. While economic statistics place the UK as the sixth richest economy Verkaik believes too few reap the benefit. Producer: Katy Hickman