Stories of Love

Is democracy in crisis? From anarchic social media to the rise of authoritarianism, Mathew Sweet and guests give our political system a full MOT, from the basics of democratic theory to questions about how it should run from day-to-day. With:Hugo Drochon is an Associate Professor ...  Show more

The 'bread of life', your 'bread and butter', bread riots and 'let them eat cake', gentrification and bakeries: Shahidha Bari hosts the round-table discussion programme about ideas and, as part of Radio 4's Farming Tomorrow season of programmes, our topic is bread. Shahidha's gue ...  Show more

A brand new interpretation of the classical story The Oresteia begins a Greek Season at London's Almeida Theatre. How well does it bring an ancient story up-to-date? Czech writer Milan Kundera has just published his first novel for 12 years The Festival of InsignificanceIain Bank ...  Show more

LOVE & ROMANCE – Laurie Taylor unpacks different conceptions of love. He’s joined by Raksha Pande, Senior Lecturer in Social Geography at Newcastle University, whose latest research explores arranged marriages amongst people in the British-Indian diaspora. She finds that they hav ...  Show more

George Eliot was a leading novelist who scandalised Victorian society by eloping to Germany with a married man and living in unlawful conjugal bliss. She dedicated her books to ‘her husband’ and wrote of 'this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength' ...