Start the Week

Tom Sutcliffe talks to Josie Rourke about her production of Coriolanus; whilst 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.

Anne McElvoy talks to the geneticist Alison Woollard about her Royal Institution Christmas Lecture; the psychologist Kathryn Asbury about the connections between genes and education; Professor Roger Kneebone about surgery; and the conductor Sir Mark Elder about rediscovering lost operas.

Bridget Kendall talks to Patrick Keiller about the relationship between film, cities and landscape; whilst academic and smell expert Victoria Henshaw is interested in what our cities smell like, and what we lose when we sterilise our environment. The poet Robin Robertson talks about remote communities and parish priest Giles Fraser considers whether we've become merely nostalgic for a bygone age of close neighbourhoods, or whether it's possible to reconstruct them.

Tom Sutcliffe looks at the future of human rights with the campaigner Bianca Jagger and academic Stephen Hopgood. Pakistan's Tribal Area close to Afghanistan is the setting for Fatima Bhutto's debut novel, and the playwright Howard Brenton examines the chaos of the partition of India in his latest production, Drawing The Line.

Bridget Kendall looks back at the formative years of Gandhi with the historian Ramachandra Guha and opera director Phelim McDermott. International historian David Reynolds looks at the legacy of the Great War and its impact on the decision-makers of the future whilst the Editor of Prospect Magazine, Bronwen Maddox, explores its legacy.

Andrew Marr presents Start the Week for a special programme on the early 17th century poet George Herbert with his latest biographer John Drury; while the composer Sir John Tavener and the writer Jeanette Winterson discuss prayer in a secular age, and the power of music and words to soothe the soul.

Stephanie Flanders contemplates nothing with the Science Editor Jeremy Webb and the astronomer Carolin Crawford. Director Simon McBurney looks to reveal all in his production of the Magic Flute and Fiona Shaw talks about her new production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.

Anne McElvoy at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival in Gateshead with the historian Catherine Merridale; the head of English Heritage, Simon Thurley; and the writers Amit Chaudhuri and Michael Chaplin.

Stephanie Flanders discusses the concept of neutrality in a conflict situation with the head of the British Red Cross, Sir Nick Young and the journalist Lindsey Hilsum; whilst the thorny issue of immigration is considered with the economist Paul Collier and the Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses the role and place of contemporary art in today's global, digital world with the artist Grayson Perry and business guru Nicholas Lovell. Director of Tate Britain, Penelope Curtis, looks back to a time when images held such power that they had to be destroyed, in an exhibition on iconoclasm; and writer Philip Davis offers a defence of the value of reading serious literature.

Anne McElvoy looks back to the Victorian age with the writers Simon Heffer and DJ Taylor and curator Sonia Solicari; whilst Professor Anthony King considers if the blunders of today's parliamentarians has anything on the antics of Gladstone and Disraeli.

Stephanie Flanders talks to the Canadian poet Anne Carson about updating a three thousand year old myth; Daljit Nagra takes inspiration from poets across Asia for his own version of the ancient text, Ramayana; the director Richard Eyre on his new adapation and production of Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and author Graham Robb on the Celts.

Stephanie Flanders considers the impact of new technology on 'digital natives' with film and TV director Beeban Kidron; entrepreneur Jamal Edwards; online gaming expert Adrian Hon; and academic Farida Vis.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the author Margaret Atwood about her vision of the future. There's more man-made corruption and savagery in Vicky Featherstone's first production as the new Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre: "The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas". And the philosopher A C Grayling goes back to the Greeks to explore the best of humanity - friendship.

Sue MacGregor asks what happens when the world's population reaches ten billion. Her guests are: the computer scientist Stephen Emmott; the geographer Danny Dorling; the policy advisor Jill Rutter; and the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.