Festival 2018 - The One And The Many [Free Thinking]

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

Are We Afraid Of Being Alone?

20180319

20180821 (R3)

Author of A Book of Silence Sara Maitland, medievalist John-Henry Clay, and writer Lionel Shriver face the crowd to contemplate the many sides to solitude. Chaired by Rana Mitter with an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.

If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company'. Was Jean Paul Sartre right or are we just hot-wired to prefer the company of others? Is it even possible - as the famous hermit St Cuthbert once did - to experience true seclusion in our age of hyperconnectivity? And as we flock to cities in increasing numbers why do so many of us feel so isolated and alone?

Sara Maitland has lived by herself for the last twenty years on an isolated moor in northern Galloway, taking pleasure in silence and solitude. She is the author of numerous short stories, novels and non-fiction books including A Book of Silence.

Lionel Shriver's novels include The Standing Chandelier, The Mandibles, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her forthcoming collection of stories Property, explores how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves.

John-Henry Clay is associate Professor in the Department of History at Durham University whose main research interests are in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon history and archaeology, and the themes of conversion and religious identity. John is also the author of historical fiction including The Lion and the Lamb and At the Ruin of the World.

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver and John-Henry Clay explore solitude

Mass Hysterics

20180327

20180822 (R3)

Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister and Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet to offer a masterclass in making the many laugh. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead.

Jen Brister is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor. She is a regular performer on the UK and international comedy circuits. She has written for BBC Scotland, presented for BBC 6 Music and Juice FM, and has been a regular contributor to magazines and online sites including Diva and The Huffington Post.

Sanjeev Kohli is a comedian, writer, actor and broadcaster. Sanjeev co-writes the Radio 4 sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags and has appeared in Cold Feet, River City and as shopkeeper Navid Harrid in the long running Scottish sitcom, Still Game.

Alexei Sayle was a central figure in the alternative comedy movement in the 1980s

and original MC of London's first modern comedy club, the Comedy Store. As well as writing and performing stand-up and on TV sitcoms, Alexei has also had a hit single, written short stories, novels and non-fiction including Thatcher Stole My Trousers and his series for BBC Radio 4, Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar.

Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister and Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead

What Do We Mean, By 'working Class Writing'?

20180404

20180823 (R3)

Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin join Shahidha Bari to examine what we mean by 'working class writing'. Crowd funding has helped bring a new generation of authors into print but is this because mainstream publishing has neglected diverse voices? What experiences do we want to see on the page and stage? Recorded at Sage Gateshead.

Kit de Waal's short stories include 'Crushing Big', 'I am the Painter's Daughter' and 'The Beautiful Thing' - which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was shortlisted for the Costa First Book Award 2016. De Waal used some of her advance for My Name Is Leon to found the Kit de Waal Creative Writing Fellowship to improve working-class representation in the arts. Her new novel is called The Trick To Time.

Darren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari, is also known as Loki, a Scottish hip-hop artist, writer and community activist. Darren was rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit.

Adelle Stripe and written 3 collections of poetry and her debut novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is inspired by the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. It was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and received the K Blundell Trust Award for Fiction.

Michael Chaplin has written extensively for TV, radio and theatre. A journalist, TV documentary producer and executive and now full time writer, he created the TV series Grafters and Monarch of the Glen and has written 8 theatre plays and numerous works for radio including Two Pipe Problems and Tommies. He is also the editor of Hame, a collection of essays, short stories and poems by his father Sid Chaplin, the acclaimed writer whose works are mostly set in the North East.

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin with Shahidha Bari.

The Free Thinking Lecture: Linda Yueh On Globalisation

20180309

Leading economic expert, Linda Yueh, delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market to an audience at Sage Gateshead. Chaired by Philip Dodd.

We live in a world where experts of all stripes are struggling to win over the confidence of the general population. Last year, the Bank of England said it was stepping up its efforts to minimise a 'twin deficit' of public understanding and trust in an area that has come under particular fire recently: economics. In a timely defence of her profession, and by drawing on ideas put forward by several titans of economic theory, Linda Yueh, the former Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News, opens the Free Thinking festival 2018 with a unique take on how we fix the globalised free market to benefit the one and the many.

Linda Yueh is Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School and Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University as well Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics IDEAS research centre. She is the author of The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today.

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Economist Linda Yueh delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market.

The One And The Many

20180311

Celebrated artists including cellist Paul Watkins, violinist Vadim Gluzman, soprano Ailish Tynan and pianist Christian Blackshaw, introduce their recordings of great works for soloists by giving candid glimpses into their world as the one amongst the many. With music by Elgar, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.

Celebrated artists from Paul Watkins to Vadim Gluzman introduce great works for soloists.

The Population Bomb

20180312

20180820 (R3)

The geographer Danny Dorling; Lionel Shriver, the author and patron of Population Matters; and Stephen Emmott, author of 10 Billion, join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Sage Gateshead to debate whether we should have fewer children.

In 1968 a Stanford university professor, Dr Paul E. Ehrlich, published The Population Bomb. This call to arms became a global bestseller, influenced public policy and made its author a celebrity. It predicted mass starvation in the US and an England underwater by the year 2000. It also suggested adding 'temporary sterilants' to the water supply as a way to stem the ensuing crisis. For decades it has come under fire for its alarmist tone and laughable foresight but with global population set to hit ten billion by 2050, will Ehrlich eventually be proved right?

Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at Oxford University and the author of Population 10 Billion. His research focuses on housing, health, employment, education and poverty. His recent books include Do We Need Economic Inequality? The Equality Effect, and he co-wrote Why Demography Matters.

Lionel Shriver's novels include The Standing Chandelier, The Mandibles, and the award-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin. Lionel is a regular columnist at The Spectator and has written for numerous other publications including for The Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, and The Economist. She is a patron of Population Matters.

Stephen Emmott is the author of Ten Billion, which he performed as a drama at the Royal Court Theatre. He is a Professor at Cambridge. His work develops new computational methods and ways of thinking about complex living systems.

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.

The Dance Of Nature

20180313

From schools of fish to starlings to atomic particles. what does group behaviour look like in nature ? Rana Mitter is joined by BBC Radio 4's presenter of The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew Mcbain and Richard Bevan. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead for the 2018 Free Thinking Festival.

Jim Al-Khalili is Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific and TV documentaries including Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes Our Lives and The Beginning and End of the Universe. His books include Paradox: the Nine Greatest Enigmas in Science, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, Quantum: a Guide for the Perplexed and he's edited What's Next ? What Science Can Tell Us About Our Future.

Melissa Bateson is Professor of Ethology at Newcastle University, an expert in behavioural biology who has studied the behaviour of starlings, hummingbirds and humans.

Andrew Mcbain is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the responses of biofilms to antimicrobial treatments and the interaction of microorganisms colonising the skin, nasopharynx, oral cavity and intestine with the human host in health and disease

Richard Bevan is a lecturer in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. His research interests are in animal ecophysiology; the way that animals interact with their environment both physiologically and behaviourally and how this is vital in understanding and interpreting their biology.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew Mcbain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour.

There Is No I In Team

20180314

Army captain turned MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher compare notes on leadership and teamwork - presented by Rana Mitter with an audience at Sage Gateshead. There is no I in Team .. but there's a ME if you look hard enough', joked David Brent in the BBC sitcom, The Office. But for individuals with a proven track record in leadership, how do you get the best from your group while handling the demands of the individual?

Johnny Mercer served three tours of Afghanistan during his military career before retiring from the army to pursue a future in politics. He was elected Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View in 2015.

Elizabeth Newman is the artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Previously she was an associate director at Southwark Playhouse. In 2014, she was awarded the David Fraser/Andrea Wonfor Television Directors' Bursary for experienced theatre directors to work with top UK broadcasters and production companies and has recently completed filming an episode of Doctors for the BBC. In 2017 she was named 'Bolton's Woman of the Year'.

Paul Fletcher played as a striker playing for Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and the England Under 23 team before leg injuries put paid to his playing career. He has been Chief Executive at Huddersfield Town masterminding the building of the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, at Bolton Wanderers when the Reebok Stadium was built, and CEO of Burnley. He has just collaborated with the writer Alastair Campbell on a novel depicting a football manager called Saturday Bloody Saturday and with Ken Sharp he has written The Seven Golden Secrets of a Successful Stadium

Producer: Zahid Warley.

MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.

Has Social Media Cracked The Code To The Crowd?

20180315

Author of Fully Connected Julia Hobsbawm, Social Media director at DEMOS Jamie Bartlett, writer Laurence Scott and tech blogger Abeba Birhane switch off their phones to focus on the impact of tech on the way we behave. Social media has allowed us to express our individuality and at the same time to interact like never before. But as the forces behind our digital lives become more sophisticated and powerful, are we in danger of succumbing to mass manipulation? Presented by Anne McElvoy with an audience at Sage Gateshead.

Julia Hobsbawm's most recent book Fully Connected explores how to cope in an age of data and deadline overload by proposing new ways to develop healthy connectedness with and without technology. She writes and speaks about Social Health and about how to form satisfying interpersonal relationships with each other.

Jamie Bartlett is Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos with the University of Sussex. His book The Dark Net describes underground and emerging internet subcultures and his forthcoming Radicals looks at how the influence of radical groups on the political fringes is growing.

Laurence Scott teaches at Arcadia University and became a Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2011. In his book, The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World, Laurence explores how life is being reframed in a digital age.

Abeba Birhane is pursuing a PhD in cognitive science at University College Dublin. She blogs regularly about the evolution of algorithms and the ethical considerations around such technology.

Producer Craig Smith.

Anne McElvoy discusses the impact of tech on the way we behave with guests.

Power To The People?

20180320

Anne McElvoy hosts Rod Liddle, associate editor of The Spectator; David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends; Caroline MacFarland, the head of a think tank promoting the interests of 'millennials' and geographer Danny Dorling in an assessment of the influence of people power. Democracy was the most successful political idea of the last century but can it survive the digital age? Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead.

David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University currently working on a project about the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories in the twenty-first century. David's books include Politics: Ideas in Profile, The Confidence Trap, and the forthcoming, How Democracy Ends.

Caroline MacFarland is the founder and director of Common Vision (CoVi), an independent think tank with a mission to 'inspire civic engagement and policy understanding amongst the millennial generation'. Previously, she was managing director at the think tank ResPublica, one of the founding team members of the foundation Power to Change, and a special advisor to the Big Lottery Fund.

Rod Liddle is an associate editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Sunday Times and The Sun. The author of Selfish Whining Monkeys: How we Ended Up Greedy, Narcissistic and Unhappy, Liddle is a former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at Oxford University and the author of Population 10 Billion. His research focuses on housing, health, employment, education and poverty. His recent books include Do We Need Economic Inequality?, The Equality Effect and he co -wrote Why Demography Matters.

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Anne McElvoy and others assess the influence of people power in Sage, Gateshead.

Gangs: The Usual Suspects

20180321

From Brighton Rock and Goodfellas to the streets of Glasgow, London's East End and Chicago, what's it really like to be part of a gang and do gangs lead to organised crime? Matthew Sweet calls a meeting with Criminologist Alistair Fraser, journalist Symeon Brown and James Docherty of Scotland's Violent Reduction Unit

Symeon Brown describes himself as an 'activist/writer on youth, justice and urbanism' and is a journalist for Channel 4 News. He was senior researcher for The Guardian's investigation team on their in-house study, Reading the Riots about the English riots of 2011.

Alistair Fraser researches gang culture with a particular focus on youth 'gangs', street-based teenagers involved in criminal activity in Glasgow, Chicago and Hong Kong. His book Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City, was awarded the British Society of Criminology Book Prize.

James Docherty has worked with a leading children's charity helping young people on the cusp of organised crime and with the 'Violence Reduction Unit' in Glasgow. He advocates for change in the way we address the hidden cost of untreated trauma in our communities.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Symeon Brown, James Docherty and Alistair Fraser chaired by Matthew Sweet.

Rethinking Civilisations

20180322

As the BBC screens its new arts series, Civilisations, one of the presenters, David Olusoga, joins presenter Philip Dodd, anthropologist Kit Davis and the historian Kenan Malik to consider our different notions of world history from the dawn of human civilisation to the present day.

David Olusoga is a historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented several TV documentaries including A House Through Time; The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire and the BAFTA award-winning Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners. His most recent book is Black and British: A Forgotten History.

Dr Kit Davis is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies who has written about travels across Europe and about Rwanda. She is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review.

Kenan Malik's books include From Fatwa to Jihad and The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics. Kenan is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster who presented Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 and has written and presented radio and TV documentaries including Disunited Kingdom, Are Muslims Hated?, Islam, and Mullahs and the Media.

Producer: Fiona McLean.

David Olusoga, Kit Davies and Kenan Malik debate what civilisation means with Philip Dodd.

Can There Be Multiple Versions Of Me?

20180326

Anne McElvoy enlists the help of Diversify author June Sarpong, doctor and medical historian Gavin Francis, performer and transgender activist Emma Frankland and philosopher Julian Baggini to tackle contemporary ideas about the ever changing notions of the self. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead.

June Sarpong is the author of Diversify, a celebration of those who are often marginalised in our society including women, those living with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. A successful TV presenter and an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, June is also the co-founder of the Women:Inspiration and Enterprise Network.

Emma Frankland is an international performance and theatre artist. She is the director of None of Us is Yet a Robot, a contemporary performance company that creates work based on 'transgender identities & the politics of transition'.

Gavin Francis is a GP, explorer and author whose Adventures in Being Human considered the landscapes, history and myths of the body. His new book, Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change examines the impact of constant change on our minds and bodies.

Julian Baggini is a philosopher. His books include his latest A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World, plus The Edge of Reason: A Rational Skeptic in an Irrational World and Freedom Regained: The Possibility of Free Will.

Producer: Fiona McLean.

With June Sarpong, Emma Frankland, Gavin Francis and Julian Baggini.

#speaking Up

20180328

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Afua Hirsch and Tarjinder Wilkinson debate activism, social change and Britishness with Philip Dodd.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist and broadcaster who regularly comments on immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism. She's a founding member of British Muslims for Secular Democracy and the author of books including, Exotic England: The Making of A Curious Nation and Refusing The Veil.

Afua Hirsch is a writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a barrister, as the West Africa correspondent for the Guardian, and as social affairs editor for Sky news. Brit(ish) is her first book and was awarded a RSL Jerwood Prize for Nonfiction.

Tarjinder Wilkinson is a primary school teacher working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Birmingham, Leicester and London. She blogs on race, culture and identity at All In Britain and writes on the failure of left-wing progressive methods in education, making the case for a more traditional, academic approach for all.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Afua Hirsch and Tarjinder Wilkinson on activism and Britishness.

Building Bridges And Other Megastructures

20180329

In a space of less than a mile, seven bridges link Newcastle with Gateshead including the distinctive shape of the Tyne Bridge. But what kind of human endeavour goes into imagining and realising such man-made wonders? Newcastle University's Sean Wilkinson, Erica Wagner author of Chief Engineer, and architect Simon Roberts look at the bond between the visionaries and the grafters with Rana Mitter and an audience at Sage Gateshead.

Erica Wagner is the author of Chief Engineer: The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, a biography of civil engineer Washington Roebling. Erica is former literary editor of The Times, the author of several books and is a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Goldsmith's University of London.

Sean Wilkinson is a Reader in Structural Engineering at Newcastle University whose research includes work on resilient communities, the design of high rise buildings and earthquakes.

Architect Simon Roberts works for Wilkinson Eyre who designed the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and has worked solely on bridge projects for the past decade

Producer: Debbie Kilbride.

Writer Erica Wagner, engineer Sean Wilkinson and architect Simon Roberts with Rana Mitter.

Introducing The New Generation Thinkers 2018

20180403

The 10 academics chosen to turn their research into radio. This year's specialisms include explorations into 18th-century masculinity and the medical history of George Orwell, early 20th-century vegetarianism in Britain, and how the Ottoman Empire dealt with piracy. Others in the new intake are exploring more contemporary issues, such as the way globalisation is impacting how films are made around the world, or how the ethics of commercial surrogacy in India can be understood.

The New Generation Thinkers is an annual competition run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In this event, recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead, the 2018 selection make their first public appearance together. Hosted by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough of Durham University a New Generation Thinker class of 2013.

Dr Ben Anderson Lecturer in Twentieth-Century European History, School of Humanities, Keele University.

Dr Gulzaar Barn Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Birmingham, where she is also a member of the Centre for Global Ethics.

Dr Daisy Black Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton, who also works as a freelance theatre director, storyteller, writer and arts advisor

Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel McDonald Departmental Lecturer in Christian Ethics and Lecturer in Theology Jesus College, University of Oxford

Dr Des Fitzgerald a sociologist working at Cardiff university, where he teaches courses on the sociology of science and the sociology of health and illness

Dr Sarah Goldsmith Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Centre for Urban History and School of History, University of Leicester

Dr Lisa J Mullen Steven Isenberg Junior Research Fellow Worcester College, University of Oxford is writing a book on the novels & journalism of George Orwell

Dr Elsa Richardson Chancellor's Fellow Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare Strathclyde University, Glasgow

Dr Iain Smith King's College London His research investigates the impact of globalisation on popular films made around the world.

Dr Michael Talbot Lecturer in the History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Middle East Department of History, Politics and Social Sciences, University of Greenwich

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

From piracy to vegetarianism, George Orwell to surrogacy, Newton's alchemy to C18 fitness.

Death Comes To Us All

20180405

Former Bishop Richard Holloway, author of My Father's Wake Kevin Toolis and palliative care consultant Kathryn Mannix join Philip Dodd to consider mortality. 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes' Benjamin Franklin once wrote, but as we face the final curtain what can death teach us about ourselves and the ones we love?

Richard Holloway is a writer, broadcaster and cleric, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh. His books include A Little History of Religion and Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt.

Kathryn Mannix is a pioneer of palliative medicine, who has worked in hospices, hospitals and patients' homes, helping enhance people's quality of life as they near death. Kathryn started the UK's first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients. Her new book With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial explores the process of dying.

Kevin Toolis is a BAFTA winning filmmaker who has encountered death often in his work as a foreign correspondent in places of famine, war and plague all around the world. In his memoir My Father's Wake: How the Irish Teach us to Live, Love and Die Kevin asks 'Why have we lost our way with death?' He offers both an intimate account of his father's death and a history of the Irish way of dying.

Producer: Debbie Kilbride.

Richard Holloway, Kathryn Mannix and Kevin Toolis debate the end of life with Philip Dodd.

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
	Are We Afraid Of Being Alone?	20180319	20180821 (R3)	Author of A Book of Silence Sara Maitland, medievalist John-Henry Clay, and writer Lionel Shriver face the crowd to contemplate the many sides to solitude. Chaired by Rana Mitter with an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company'. Was Jean Paul Sartre right or are we just hot-wired to prefer the company of others? Is it even possible - as the famous hermit St Cuthbert once did - to experience true seclusion in our age of hyperconnectivity? And as we flock to cities in increasing numbers why do so many of us feel so isolated and alone? Sara Maitland has lived by herself for the last twenty years on an isolated moor in northern Galloway, taking pleasure in silence and solitude. She is the author of numerous short stories, novels and non-fiction books including A Book of Silence. Lionel Shriver's novels include The Standing Chandelier, The Mandibles, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her forthcoming collection of stories Property, explores how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves. John-Henry Clay is associate Professor in the Department of History at Durham University whose main research interests are in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon history and archaeology, and the themes of conversion and religious identity. John is also the author of historical fiction including The Lion and the Lamb and At the Ruin of the World. Producer: Luke Mulhall. Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver and John-Henry Clay explore solitude
	Mass Hysterics	20180327	20180822 (R3)	Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister and Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet to offer a masterclass in making the many laugh. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead. Jen Brister is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor. She is a regular performer on the UK and international comedy circuits. She has written for BBC Scotland, presented for BBC 6 Music and Juice FM, and has been a regular contributor to magazines and online sites including Diva and The Huffington Post. Sanjeev Kohli is a comedian, writer, actor and broadcaster. Sanjeev co-writes the Radio 4 sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags and has appeared in Cold Feet, River City and as shopkeeper Navid Harrid in the long running Scottish sitcom, Still Game. Alexei Sayle was a central figure in the alternative comedy movement in the 1980s and original MC of London's first modern comedy club, the Comedy Store. As well as writing and performing stand-up and on TV sitcoms, Alexei has also had a hit single, written short stories, novels and non-fiction including Thatcher Stole My Trousers and his series for BBC Radio 4, Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar. Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister and Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead
	What Do We Mean, By 'working Class Writing'?	20180404	20180823 (R3)	Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin join Shahidha Bari to examine what we mean by 'working class writing'. Crowd funding has helped bring a new generation of authors into print but is this because mainstream publishing has neglected diverse voices? What experiences do we want to see on the page and stage? Recorded at Sage Gateshead. Kit de Waal's short stories include 'Crushing Big', 'I am the Painter's Daughter' and 'The Beautiful Thing' - which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was shortlisted for the Costa First Book Award 2016. De Waal used some of her advance for My Name Is Leon to found the Kit de Waal Creative Writing Fellowship to improve working-class representation in the arts. Her new novel is called The Trick To Time. Darren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari, is also known as Loki, a Scottish hip-hop artist, writer and community activist. Darren was rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit. Adelle Stripe and written 3 collections of poetry and her debut novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile is inspired by the life and work of Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. It was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and received the K Blundell Trust Award for Fiction. Michael Chaplin has written extensively for TV, radio and theatre. A journalist, TV documentary producer and executive and now full time writer, he created the TV series Grafters and Monarch of the Glen and has written 8 theatre plays and numerous works for radio including Two Pipe Problems and Tommies. He is also the editor of Hame, a collection of essays, short stories and poems by his father Sid Chaplin, the acclaimed writer whose works are mostly set in the North East. Producer: Zahid Warley. Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin with Shahidha Bari.
01	The Free Thinking Lecture: Linda Yueh On Globalisation	20180309		Leading economic expert, Linda Yueh, delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market to an audience at Sage Gateshead. Chaired by Philip Dodd. We live in a world where experts of all stripes are struggling to win over the confidence of the general population. Last year, the Bank of England said it was stepping up its efforts to minimise a 'twin deficit' of public understanding and trust in an area that has come under particular fire recently: economics. In a timely defence of her profession, and by drawing on ideas put forward by several titans of economic theory, Linda Yueh, the former Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News, opens the Free Thinking festival 2018 with a unique take on how we fix the globalised free market to benefit the one and the many. Linda Yueh is Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School and Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University as well Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics IDEAS research centre. She is the author of The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith. Economist Linda Yueh delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market.
02	The One And The Many	20180311		Celebrated artists including cellist Paul Watkins, violinist Vadim Gluzman, soprano Ailish Tynan and pianist Christian Blackshaw, introduce their recordings of great works for soloists by giving candid glimpses into their world as the one amongst the many. With music by Elgar, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Celebrated artists from Paul Watkins to Vadim Gluzman introduce great works for soloists.
03	The Population Bomb	20180312	20180820 (R3)	The geographer Danny Dorling; Lionel Shriver, the author and patron of Population Matters; and Stephen Emmott, author of 10 Billion, join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Sage Gateshead to debate whether we should have fewer children. In 1968 a Stanford university professor, Dr Paul E. Ehrlich, published The Population Bomb. This call to arms became a global bestseller, influenced public policy and made its author a celebrity. It predicted mass starvation in the US and an England underwater by the year 2000. It also suggested adding 'temporary sterilants' to the water supply as a way to stem the ensuing crisis. For decades it has come under fire for its alarmist tone and laughable foresight but with global population set to hit ten billion by 2050, will Ehrlich eventually be proved right? Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at Oxford University and the author of Population 10 Billion. His research focuses on housing, health, employment, education and poverty. His recent books include Do We Need Economic Inequality? The Equality Effect, and he co-wrote Why Demography Matters. Lionel Shriver's novels include The Standing Chandelier, The Mandibles, and the award-winning We Need to Talk About Kevin. Lionel is a regular columnist at The Spectator and has written for numerous other publications including for The Wall Street Journal, New Statesman, and The Economist. She is a patron of Population Matters. Stephen Emmott is the author of Ten Billion, which he performed as a drama at the Royal Court Theatre. He is a Professor at Cambridge. His work develops new computational methods and ways of thinking about complex living systems. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith. Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.
04	The Dance Of Nature	20180313		From schools of fish to starlings to atomic particles. what does group behaviour look like in nature ? Rana Mitter is joined by BBC Radio 4's presenter of The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew Mcbain and Richard Bevan. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead for the 2018 Free Thinking Festival. Jim Al-Khalili is Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific and TV documentaries including Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes Our Lives and The Beginning and End of the Universe. His books include Paradox: the Nine Greatest Enigmas in Science, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, Quantum: a Guide for the Perplexed and he's edited What's Next ? What Science Can Tell Us About Our Future. Melissa Bateson is Professor of Ethology at Newcastle University, an expert in behavioural biology who has studied the behaviour of starlings, hummingbirds and humans. Andrew Mcbain is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the responses of biofilms to antimicrobial treatments and the interaction of microorganisms colonising the skin, nasopharynx, oral cavity and intestine with the human host in health and disease Richard Bevan is a lecturer in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. His research interests are in animal ecophysiology; the way that animals interact with their environment both physiologically and behaviourally and how this is vital in understanding and interpreting their biology. Producer: Torquil MacLeod. Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew Mcbain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour.
05	There Is No I In Team	20180314		Army captain turned MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher compare notes on leadership and teamwork - presented by Rana Mitter with an audience at Sage Gateshead. There is no I in Team .. but there's a ME if you look hard enough', joked David Brent in the BBC sitcom, The Office. But for individuals with a proven track record in leadership, how do you get the best from your group while handling the demands of the individual? Johnny Mercer served three tours of Afghanistan during his military career before retiring from the army to pursue a future in politics. He was elected Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View in 2015. Elizabeth Newman is the artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Previously she was an associate director at Southwark Playhouse. In 2014, she was awarded the David Fraser/Andrea Wonfor Television Directors' Bursary for experienced theatre directors to work with top UK broadcasters and production companies and has recently completed filming an episode of Doctors for the BBC. In 2017 she was named 'Bolton's Woman of the Year'. Paul Fletcher played as a striker playing for Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and the England Under 23 team before leg injuries put paid to his playing career. He has been Chief Executive at Huddersfield Town masterminding the building of the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, at Bolton Wanderers when the Reebok Stadium was built, and CEO of Burnley. He has just collaborated with the writer Alastair Campbell on a novel depicting a football manager called Saturday Bloody Saturday and with Ken Sharp he has written The Seven Golden Secrets of a Successful Stadium Producer: Zahid Warley. MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.
06	Has Social Media Cracked The Code To The Crowd?	20180315		Author of Fully Connected Julia Hobsbawm, Social Media director at DEMOS Jamie Bartlett, writer Laurence Scott and tech blogger Abeba Birhane switch off their phones to focus on the impact of tech on the way we behave. Social media has allowed us to express our individuality and at the same time to interact like never before. But as the forces behind our digital lives become more sophisticated and powerful, are we in danger of succumbing to mass manipulation? Presented by Anne McElvoy with an audience at Sage Gateshead. Julia Hobsbawm's most recent book Fully Connected explores how to cope in an age of data and deadline overload by proposing new ways to develop healthy connectedness with and without technology. She writes and speaks about Social Health and about how to form satisfying interpersonal relationships with each other. Jamie Bartlett is Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos with the University of Sussex. His book The Dark Net describes underground and emerging internet subcultures and his forthcoming Radicals looks at how the influence of radical groups on the political fringes is growing. Laurence Scott teaches at Arcadia University and became a Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2011. In his book, The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World, Laurence explores how life is being reframed in a digital age. Abeba Birhane is pursuing a PhD in cognitive science at University College Dublin. She blogs regularly about the evolution of algorithms and the ethical considerations around such technology. Producer Craig Smith. Anne McElvoy discusses the impact of tech on the way we behave with guests.
08	Power To The People?	20180320		Anne McElvoy hosts Rod Liddle, associate editor of The Spectator; David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends; Caroline MacFarland, the head of a think tank promoting the interests of 'millennials' and geographer Danny Dorling in an assessment of the influence of people power. Democracy was the most successful political idea of the last century but can it survive the digital age? Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead. David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University currently working on a project about the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories in the twenty-first century. David's books include Politics: Ideas in Profile, The Confidence Trap, and the forthcoming, How Democracy Ends. Caroline MacFarland is the founder and director of Common Vision (CoVi), an independent think tank with a mission to 'inspire civic engagement and policy understanding amongst the millennial generation'. Previously, she was managing director at the think tank ResPublica, one of the founding team members of the foundation Power to Change, and a special advisor to the Big Lottery Fund. Rod Liddle is an associate editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Sunday Times and The Sun. The author of Selfish Whining Monkeys: How we Ended Up Greedy, Narcissistic and Unhappy, Liddle is a former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at Oxford University and the author of Population 10 Billion. His research focuses on housing, health, employment, education and poverty. His recent books include Do We Need Economic Inequality?, The Equality Effect and he co -wrote Why Demography Matters. Producer: Luke Mulhall. Anne McElvoy and others assess the influence of people power in Sage, Gateshead.
09	Gangs: The Usual Suspects	20180321		From Brighton Rock and Goodfellas to the streets of Glasgow, London's East End and Chicago, what's it really like to be part of a gang and do gangs lead to organised crime? Matthew Sweet calls a meeting with Criminologist Alistair Fraser, journalist Symeon Brown and James Docherty of Scotland's Violent Reduction Unit Symeon Brown describes himself as an 'activist/writer on youth, justice and urbanism' and is a journalist for Channel 4 News. He was senior researcher for The Guardian's investigation team on their in-house study, Reading the Riots about the English riots of 2011. Alistair Fraser researches gang culture with a particular focus on youth 'gangs', street-based teenagers involved in criminal activity in Glasgow, Chicago and Hong Kong. His book Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City, was awarded the British Society of Criminology Book Prize. James Docherty has worked with a leading children's charity helping young people on the cusp of organised crime and with the 'Violence Reduction Unit' in Glasgow. He advocates for change in the way we address the hidden cost of untreated trauma in our communities. Producer: Jacqueline Smith. Symeon Brown, James Docherty and Alistair Fraser chaired by Matthew Sweet.
10	Rethinking Civilisations	20180322		As the BBC screens its new arts series, Civilisations, one of the presenters, David Olusoga, joins presenter Philip Dodd, anthropologist Kit Davis and the historian Kenan Malik to consider our different notions of world history from the dawn of human civilisation to the present day. David Olusoga is a historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented several TV documentaries including A House Through Time; The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire and the BAFTA award-winning Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners. His most recent book is Black and British: A Forgotten History. Dr Kit Davis is a lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies who has written about travels across Europe and about Rwanda. She is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Review. Kenan Malik's books include From Fatwa to Jihad and The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics. Kenan is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster who presented Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 and has written and presented radio and TV documentaries including Disunited Kingdom, Are Muslims Hated?, Islam, and Mullahs and the Media. Producer: Fiona McLean. David Olusoga, Kit Davies and Kenan Malik debate what civilisation means with Philip Dodd.
11	Can There Be Multiple Versions Of Me?	20180326		Anne McElvoy enlists the help of Diversify author June Sarpong, doctor and medical historian Gavin Francis, performer and transgender activist Emma Frankland and philosopher Julian Baggini to tackle contemporary ideas about the ever changing notions of the self. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead. June Sarpong is the author of Diversify, a celebration of those who are often marginalised in our society including women, those living with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. A successful TV presenter and an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, June is also the co-founder of the Women:Inspiration and Enterprise Network. Emma Frankland is an international performance and theatre artist. She is the director of None of Us is Yet a Robot, a contemporary performance company that creates work based on 'transgender identities & the politics of transition'. Gavin Francis is a GP, explorer and author whose Adventures in Being Human considered the landscapes, history and myths of the body. His new book, Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change examines the impact of constant change on our minds and bodies. Julian Baggini is a philosopher. His books include his latest A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World, plus The Edge of Reason: A Rational Skeptic in an Irrational World and Freedom Regained: The Possibility of Free Will. Producer: Fiona McLean. With June Sarpong, Emma Frankland, Gavin Francis and Julian Baggini.
13	#speaking Up	20180328		Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Afua Hirsch and Tarjinder Wilkinson debate activism, social change and Britishness with Philip Dodd. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist and broadcaster who regularly comments on immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism. She's a founding member of British Muslims for Secular Democracy and the author of books including, Exotic England: The Making of A Curious Nation and Refusing The Veil. Afua Hirsch is a writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a barrister, as the West Africa correspondent for the Guardian, and as social affairs editor for Sky news. Brit(ish) is her first book and was awarded a RSL Jerwood Prize for Nonfiction. Tarjinder Wilkinson is a primary school teacher working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Birmingham, Leicester and London. She blogs on race, culture and identity at All In Britain and writes on the failure of left-wing progressive methods in education, making the case for a more traditional, academic approach for all. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Afua Hirsch and Tarjinder Wilkinson on activism and Britishness.
14	Building Bridges And Other Megastructures	20180329		In a space of less than a mile, seven bridges link Newcastle with Gateshead including the distinctive shape of the Tyne Bridge. But what kind of human endeavour goes into imagining and realising such man-made wonders? Newcastle University's Sean Wilkinson, Erica Wagner author of Chief Engineer, and architect Simon Roberts look at the bond between the visionaries and the grafters with Rana Mitter and an audience at Sage Gateshead. Erica Wagner is the author of Chief Engineer: The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, a biography of civil engineer Washington Roebling. Erica is former literary editor of The Times, the author of several books and is a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Goldsmith's University of London. Sean Wilkinson is a Reader in Structural Engineering at Newcastle University whose research includes work on resilient communities, the design of high rise buildings and earthquakes. Architect Simon Roberts works for Wilkinson Eyre who designed the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and has worked solely on bridge projects for the past decade Producer: Debbie Kilbride. Writer Erica Wagner, engineer Sean Wilkinson and architect Simon Roberts with Rana Mitter.
15	Introducing The New Generation Thinkers 2018	20180403		The 10 academics chosen to turn their research into radio. This year's specialisms include explorations into 18th-century masculinity and the medical history of George Orwell, early 20th-century vegetarianism in Britain, and how the Ottoman Empire dealt with piracy. Others in the new intake are exploring more contemporary issues, such as the way globalisation is impacting how films are made around the world, or how the ethics of commercial surrogacy in India can be understood. The New Generation Thinkers is an annual competition run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In this event, recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead, the 2018 selection make their first public appearance together. Hosted by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough of Durham University a New Generation Thinker class of 2013. Dr Ben Anderson Lecturer in Twentieth-Century European History, School of Humanities, Keele University. Dr Gulzaar Barn Lecturer in philosophy at the University of Birmingham, where she is also a member of the Centre for Global Ethics. Dr Daisy Black Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton, who also works as a freelance theatre director, storyteller, writer and arts advisor Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel McDonald Departmental Lecturer in Christian Ethics and Lecturer in Theology Jesus College, University of Oxford Dr Des Fitzgerald a sociologist working at Cardiff university, where he teaches courses on the sociology of science and the sociology of health and illness Dr Sarah Goldsmith Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Centre for Urban History and School of History, University of Leicester Dr Lisa J Mullen Steven Isenberg Junior Research Fellow Worcester College, University of Oxford is writing a book on the novels & journalism of George Orwell Dr Elsa Richardson Chancellor's Fellow Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare Strathclyde University, Glasgow Dr Iain Smith King's College London His research investigates the impact of globalisation on popular films made around the world. Dr Michael Talbot Lecturer in the History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Middle East Department of History, Politics and Social Sciences, University of Greenwich Producer: Jacqueline Smith. From piracy to vegetarianism, George Orwell to surrogacy, Newton's alchemy to C18 fitness.
17	Death Comes To Us All	20180405		Former Bishop Richard Holloway, author of My Father's Wake Kevin Toolis and palliative care consultant Kathryn Mannix join Philip Dodd to consider mortality. 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes' Benjamin Franklin once wrote, but as we face the final curtain what can death teach us about ourselves and the ones we love? Richard Holloway is a writer, broadcaster and cleric, formerly Bishop of Edinburgh. His books include A Little History of Religion and Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt. Kathryn Mannix is a pioneer of palliative medicine, who has worked in hospices, hospitals and patients' homes, helping enhance people's quality of life as they near death. Kathryn started the UK's first CBT clinic exclusively for palliative care patients. Her new book With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial explores the process of dying. Kevin Toolis is a BAFTA winning filmmaker who has encountered death often in his work as a foreign correspondent in places of famine, war and plague all around the world. In his memoir My Father's Wake: How the Irish Teach us to Live, Love and Die Kevin asks 'Why have we lost our way with death?' He offers both an intimate account of his father's death and a history of the Irish way of dying. Producer: Debbie Kilbride. Richard Holloway, Kathryn Mannix and Kevin Toolis debate the end of life with Philip Dodd.