Free Thinking - Jane Mayer Dark Money - Money & US Politics - Flora Nwapa's Efuru - African Literature - Emma Cline The Girls

Philip Dodd talks to Emma Cline whose first novel about teenage girls and the Charles Manson cult and our third 2016 New Generation Thinker Louisa Uchum Egbunike marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Efuru by Flora Nwapa - the first novel written by a Nigerian woman to be published. She's joined by editor and critic Ellah Allfrey to look at African writing today. Plus Dark Money - New Yorker writer, Jane Mayer examines how money has changed American politics. And she's joined by Professor Gary Gerstle and Dr James Boys to discuss the tensions between free speech and big donors, populists and libertarians.

Emma Cline's first novel The Girls is out now.

Jane Mayer's book is called Dark Money: How a Secretive Group of Billionaires is trying to buy political control in the US

Louisa Uchum Egbunike is at Manchester Metropolitan University. Louisa co-convenes an annual Igbo conference at SOAS

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio programmes. Find out more from our website and hear them introducing their research in the programme which broadcast on May 31st - available as an arts and ideas podcast.

Producer: Ruth Watts