Arts & Ideas

Rana Mitter looks at the ideologies surrounding climate disaster with guests including Rupert Read of Extinction Rebellion, investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed, professor of psychosocial theory Lisa Baraitser, and lawyer Tessa Khan. How do we make sense of the idea of ecological collapse, and what are the assumptions hidden in the way we discuss climate disaster? Producer: Luke Mulhall

The annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year competition with its different categories presents a very different picture from the newspaper reports studied by Dr Fiona Skillen, which congratulated sportswomen in past times by linking their success to the achievements of their fathers or brothers. And Professor Matthew Smith from the University of Strathclyde has run a project called "Out on the pitch, sport and mental health in LGBT people" which looks at both the positive side of sport and mental health, and the pressures. They talk to John Gallagher about why we need new stories about sports. The book written by Dr Fiona Skillen from the Glasgow Caledonian University is called Women, Sport and Modernity in Interwar Britain. She is now starting a project looking at women's experiences of playing golf.You can find a BBC Radio 4 Archive Hour presented by Matthew Sweet called PE - A History of Violence on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002g6z This episode is one of a series of conversations - New Thinking - produced in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research & Innovation.Further podcasts are available on the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking website under the playlist New Research https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90Producer: Robyn Read

Matthew Sweet asks how did the English language grow & what are the key election phrases? He's joined by historian John Gallagher who's written about language in Shakespeare's time and how refugees and migrants to England learnt English. In 1578, the Anglo-Italian writer, teacher, and translator John Florio said of English that it was ‘a language that will do you good in England, but past Dover, it is worth nothing’. Other guests in the studio include researcher Stephanie Hare who writes on technology ethics, research and development expert Mathieu Triay; and Kate Maltby who writes about theatre, politics and culture.John Gallagher has published Learning Languages in Early Modern England. He teaches at the University of Leeds and is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to promote research on the radio.

Laurence Scott, Sarah Churchwell, Francesca Segal and Alice Kelly re-read Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence. First published in 1920, it depicts new money in 1870s New York and limited choices for women.Francesca Segal's novel The Innocents, inspired by Edith Wharton's book, won the Costa First Novel Award in 2012. Her latest novel is Mother Ship.Behold America by Sarah Churchwell was published last year.Readings by Florence Roberts. Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Nana Oforiatta Ayim is creating an encyclopedia of online images of Africa to challenge the way it is seen, has curated Ghana's first art pavilion at the Venice Biennale, toured a mobile museum round the country to gather a grass roots history and published her first novel.The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim is out now. Cultural Encyclopaedia is an online resource that includes an A-to-Z index and vertices of clickable images for entries about Africa https://www.culturalencyclopaedia.org/ She has been named as one of the Apollo magazine "40 under 40" and Africa Report's 50 Trailblazers.Poet and playwright Inua Ellams has re-interpreted Chekhov's Three Sisters. The play is set in Biafra in the 1960s at the time of the civil war in Nigeria and raises questions of class, race, religion and education in the context of independence and the colonial legacy. Three Sisters is running at the National Theatre until 19 February 2020The Mauritanian/French film director and actor Med Hondo died earlier in 2019. Considered by many to be the first pan-African réalisateur his films like Soleil Ô, Sarraounia an African Queen and West Indies explore the nature of being African, both within the continent and abroad. Kunle Olulode of the organisation Voice4Change talks about Med Hondo and his legacy. Med Hondo: Africa from the Seine is part of the BFI African Odysseys programme and continues until 15 December.Marika Sherwood has written extensively on Africa including The Origins of Pan-Africanism, and Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War. Louisa Egbunike is a writer and lecturer on African literature. With the other guests they discuss whether pan-Africanism implies homogeneity to the detriment of the diversity of African culture.You can find Free Thinking discussions Celebrating Buchi Emecheta https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r89gt Caine Prize 2019 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006mtb Caine Prize 2018 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b89ssp Caine Prize 2017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xcx1f Louisa Ebunike on Afrofuturism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bx5l1 Afropean identities https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sjwPresenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Harry Parker

Historian William Dalrymple, Wasafiri editor Susheila Nasta and novelist Romesh Gunesekera join Rana Mitter for a conversation looking at the East India company, the socialist economic policies and language battles in Ceylon in the 1960s before it became Sri Lanka and the way writing from around the world has reflected changes of attitude to post colonial history.Sri Lankan-born British author Romesh Gunesekera has just published his ninth novel, Suncatcher, depicting two boys, Jay and Kairo, growing up in 1964, who overcome their different backgrounds to become friends at a time when Ceylon is on the brink of change.Wasafiri, the magazine of international contemporary writing, has just published its 100th edition, which includes an interview with Romesh Gunesekera. The publication derives its name from a KiSwahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word "safari". Susheila Nasta, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures at QMUL, was the founding editor, the recipient of the 2019 Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and is now handing over the reins to Malachi McIntosh. She has just edited a collection of essays called Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now and has completed compiling, with Mark Stein, The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing, due out in 2020.William Dalrymple has published The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company which you can find as a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b4pz He has curated an exhibition at the Wallace Collection in London, Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, which runs from Dec 4th to April 19th 2020Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Author Priya Basil and curator Victoria Avery look at food, fasting and feeding guests. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is their host as the FitzWilliam Museum in Cambridge opens an exhibition and Priya Basil publishes reflections on hospitality which link the free meals offered to all which is part of Sikhism to food clubs in Germany which have welcomed refugees. Maia Elliott of the UK's Global Food Security programme, describes her work to try to make future food supply more reliable for all. She describes her own food habits and the possible ways all of our diets might have to change in the future. Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community and the Meaning of Generosity is out now. Feast & Fast: The art of food in Europe, 1500 –1800 runs at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until April 26th 2020 and features food creations and sugarwork from food historian Ivan Day. Global Food Security publish their research here: https://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/ You can hear more discussions about food by searching for Free Thinking Food to hear philosopher Barry Smith and critic Alex Clark with Matthew Sweet https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wn51y The Working Lunch and Food in History https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7my5n New Generation Thinkers Food: We Are What We Eat a Radio 3 Essay from Christopher Kissane which looks at Spanish Inquisition stews & Reformation sausages to pork in French school meals https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xhr60 Healthy Eating Edwardian Style - an Essay from Elsa Richardson https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p075d3hy Producer: Alex Mansfield

Nam June Paik made art with TV sets and imagined an information superhighway before the internet was invented. John Giorno organised multi-media and dial-a-poem events. Poet and New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson joins Matthew Sweet to look at the visions of the future conjured up by these artists who were both interested in the influence of mass media and Buddhism. She's joined by artist Haroon Mirza and Tate curator Achim Borchardt-Hume. We dial a poet Vahni Capildeo and hear from Vytautus Landbergis, former Lithuanian Head of State and former comrade of Nam June Paik as a Fluxus artist.John Giorno (December 4, 1936 – October 11, 2019) Nam June Paik (20 July 1932, Gyeongseong - Died: 29 January 2006) Tate Modern's exhibition of Nam June Paik's art runs until 9 February 2020.Haroon Mirza's work is on show in an exhibition called Waves and Forms at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton until January 11th 2020. Vahni Capildeo's most recent collection is called Skin Can Hold. Sarah Jackson's poety collection is called Pelt. You can hear Sarah Jackson exploring the human voice in a short feature if you look up this programme called New Generation Thinkers: Edmund Richardson and Sarah Jackson https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05pspzx and Sarah Jackson delivers a short talk about the history of the telephone in a programme called The Essay Telephone Terrors https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wrlf4Or you might be interested in Matthew Sweet's Free Thinking discussion about future visions and technology in the TV series Quatermass https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b03y or our Free Thinking the Future collection of programmes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zwn4dProducer: Caitlin Benedict

Should we take more breaks at during the working day? Claudia Hammond, Matthew Smith, Sarah Cook and Ayesha Nathoo discuss the art of rest and concentration with Anne McElvoy.

Economist Larry Summers, former President of Harvard lays out his view of a university and Philip Dodd debates with the OU's Josie Fraser, classicist Justin Stover and NESTA's Geoff Mulgan. Has new technology and globalisation signed the death knell for traditional courses in humanities subjects like English literature and philosophy ? You can find Philip talking to academic Camille Paglia here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006t8t to Niall Fergusson about the importance of networks here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096gv0d to David Willetts here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09gsxhq about Nietsche's views of a university education in University Therapy or Learning? here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gnj1bProducer: Eliane Glaser.