Alain Robbe-Grillet

Guests including author Tom McCarthy join Matthew Sweet to discuss the French 'new novel'.

• 44 mins

Connecting with Nature

Music from thunder, art inspired by a dog walk; essays about a city wood and a rural field

• 44 mins

Bette Davis

As the BFI prepares a season of films, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star

• 44 mins

Dante's Visions

Art historian Martin Kemp and painter Emma Safe, parallels with Proust and a Dante website

• 44 mins

The Glitch

Novelist Tom McCarthy joins Matthew Sweet to explore glitches and what they tell us.

• 44 mins

Belonging

A teacher's view, a Frankenstein-inspired ballet, outsider status and circus paintings.

• 44 mins

Hannah Arendt's exploration of totalitarianism

Why do Hannah Arendt's ideas continue to fire the imaginations of artists and thinkers?

• 44 mins

Dirk Bogarde

As The Servant is released on DVD, Matthew Sweet and guests explore Dirk Bogarde's career.

• 44 mins

Punk

Punk often caused offence. Shahidha Bari asks if that idea of rebellion resonates today.

• 44 mins

The continuing appeal of Tudor history

Philippa Gregory, Nandini Das, Susan Doran and Adam Roberts with Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins

Thomas Mann

Novelist Colm Toibin joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the German author's life and struggles.

• 44 mins

Order and Chaos

A history of indexes and ideas about tidiness, clutter and archiving in Ruth Ozeki's novel

• 44 mins

Breakfast

Literally "breaking the fast" - Matthew Sweet moves from the Full English to Tiffany's.

• 44 mins

The British Academy Book Prize 2021

New ways of thinking about global problems - Rana Mitter reads this year's shortlist.

• 44 mins

Choice

Do poets choose their words or are they predetermined?

• 44 mins

Frieze: Museums in the 21st century

Anne McElvoy talks to the directors at London's National Gallery, Yale and New York's Met.

• 44 mins

Colour

Artist Lubna Chowdhary, author Michèle Roberts, art historians James Fox and Kelly Grovier

• 44 mins

Sugar

Matthew Sweet examines how sugar built the modern world.

• 44 mins

Black British theatre archives and an Afro-Cuban star

From an 18th-century Black Juliet to Ira Aldridge’s daughter Amanda. Plus, Rita Montaner.

• 44 mins

Rationality and Tradition

Tim Stanley on tradition and Steven Pinker on rationality. Anne McElvoy hosts.

• 44 mins

The Language of Flowers

Rebecca Solnit's new book on George Orwell explores his interest in gardening and the land

• 44 mins

Twilight

Poet Pascale Petit, photographer Jasper Goodall, Alexandra Harris, composer Sally Beamish.

• 44 mins

Time

As the clocks go back, Matthew Sweet and guests host a party for time travellers.

• 44 mins

Oceans, art and pacific poetry

Tania Kovats describes her sculptures from bleached coral and concrete moulded wetsuits.

• 44 mins

Caesar, Hogarth and images of power

Rana Mitter talks to Professor Mary Beard, artist Ali Cherri and looks at Hogarth's art.

• 44 mins

God's Body

Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Hetta Howes and Mark Vernon join Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins

The Imperial War Museum Remembrance Discussion 2021

How do we define a war? Anne McElvoy and guests look at how language changes attitudes.

• 44 mins

Dogs

Labradors Olive and Mabel became a Covid internet hit - can we know what a dog thinks?

• 44 mins

Being Human 2021

Reseach into covid comics, codes in Dickens, projecting books onto hospital ceilings.

• 44 mins

Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex

One of the key French existentialists in the 50s, how does Simone de Beauvoir read today?

• 44 mins