Tom Sutcliffe looks at the role of the expert. The curator Irving Finkel decodes the symbols on a 4,000 year old clay tablet and discovers the instructions for the building of an ark. Harry Collins asks why attitudes towards scientific expertise have changed and looks to reassert the special status of science. Colin Blakemore is an expert in neuroscience and vision and he reflects on his part in the documentary, Tim's Vermeer, which explores the relationship between art and science. The playwright Hattie Naylor tells the story of an astronomer going blind who learns to see the wonder of the universe in a different way. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Last year The Guardian ran a series of scoops about the extent of mass surveillance by the security services here and in the USA. Anne McElvoy talks to the journalist Luke Harding about the inside story on the whistle-blower Edward Snowden and what motivated him to commit one of the biggest intelligence leaks in history. The former director of GCHQ, Sir David Omand, fears the leaks have done untold damage and endangered state security. Claims that America hacked the phone of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel caused uproar in Germany, and the journalist Annette Dittert argues that the memory of the Stasi's spying machine is still raw. There has been little outcry among the British public and the philosopher Alain de Botton explores the nature of news and the 'noise' it generates. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the celebrated composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies on the eve of the premier of his tenth symphony. His latest work creates a musical structure based on architectural proportions, inspired by the 17th century architect Francesco Borromini. Waldemar Januszczak turns to the 18th century and Rococo for his inspiration, and looks at how this artistic movement spread from painting and interior design, to music and theatre. The environment, both built and natural, is key to Trevor Cox's study of sound as he listens intently to the cacophony around us. While the psychologist Victoria Williamson explores our relationship with music, including why we're prone to earworms, certain rhythms repeating endlessly in our heads.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the neuroscientist Dick Swaab who argues that everything we do and don't do is determined by our brain. He explains why 'we are our brains'. The philosopher Julian Baggini doesn't dispute the pre-eminence of brain processes but believes it doesn't tell the whole story. As a writer Helen Dunmore must get into the minds of her characters - the latest a war-damaged soldier from the trenches. Natalie Abrahami only has the heads of her characters to play with as she directs Samuel Beckett's Happy Days about the amazing ability of a woman to survive by denying her ever-diminishing world. Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to Linda Colley about the history of the United Kingdom - what has brought it together, and what is driving it apart. David Pilling offers a contrasting island story, with his study of modern Japan. Europe is watching with interest the coming Scottish Independence Referendum, and the correspondent David Charter, looks at what 2014 holds for Britain's relationship with the EU. Maria Delgado explores how far culture, especially theatre, has shaped, and been shaped by, identity politics.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses the teaching of history with the Government's Education Secretary Michael Gove. The new history curriculum for schools has been hotly contested and the Minister explains his views on whether facts and dates trump historical analysis. He's joined by Margaret MacMillan who will present a real-time countdown to the outbreak of WWI in the coming year, the academic and tv historian Simon Schama, and Tom Holland who has recently translated Herodotus, considered to be 'the Father of History'.Producer: Katy Hickman.

In a special programme Andrew Marr looks back over the long career of Clive James. Even at the height of his fame as the star of weekend television, Clive James was always writing: poetry, essays and a series of memoirs. Now in his 70s and suffering from serious illness, he has been nominated for an award for his translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy. James explains how this last phase of his life has brought him a new seriousness; 'a late sublime'.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to Josie Rourke about her production of Coriolanus, the story of the war hero destroyed by his own pride and the forces of realpolitik. His battle strategy fails on the streets of Rome as the masses get their first taste of democracy. David Runciman asks whether democracy breeds complacency rather than wisdom or reform, and in his study of Strategy, Lawrence Freedman asks why great military strategists often make such poor political leaders. Dominic Lawson tries to keep his moves hidden, as he enthuses about the world of chess.Producer: Katy Hickman.

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the geneticist Alison Woollard about the extraordinary developments in biological science in the last decade, and how switching on and off certain genes could improve and extend life. The psychologist Kathryn Asbury studies the vexed question of nature and nurture, and whether a better understanding of genetic influence can improve children's education. Professor Roger Kneebone explains the role of jazz improvisation in the operating theatre, and what recreating surgery from the 1980s can teach modern clinicians. Raiding the past for hidden gems fascinates the conductor Sir Mark Elder as he prepares to bring operatic rarities to a new audience.Producer: Katy Hickman.

Bridget Kendall talks to Patrick Keiller about the relationship between film, cities and landscape. Victoria Henshaw is interested in what our cities smell like, and what we lose when we sterilise our environment. The poet Robin Robertston has written about the bleak, remote island of St Kilda and how the remnants of its close-knit community left together in 1930. The importance and difficulty of creating a sense of community is at the heart of Giles Fraser's new series which asks whether we've become merely nostalgic for a bygone age of close neighbourhoods, or whether it's possible to reconstruct them.Producer: Natalia Fernandez.