Arts & Ideas

Ruth Scurr discusses her biography of the 17th-century antiquary and biographer John Aubrey - which has appeared on many of the newspaper selections of Books of the Year. Christopher Hampton and actress Adjoa Andoh talk to Anne McElvoy about a new production of Hampton's version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses which opens at London's Donmar Warehouse. New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough reviews a new TV version of Beowulf and how it compares to the poem she teaches. And the science writer and broadcaster, Marcus Chown, will be sharing his thoughts about his close encounter with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Producer: Zahid Warley

Tonight, Philip Dodd and guests reflect on safe cities, past and present - on how literature, technology, law and social engineering imagine safety and its absence in cities - and whether safe cities are in the end an oxymoron. Philip is joined by senior urban fellow at LSE Cities, Adam Greenfield, writer Beatrix Campbell, criminologist Peter Fussey, director of The Runnymede Trust Omar Khan, and historian of London Jerry White, who will be discussing Joseph Conrad's terrorist novel, The Secret Agent.

Long As part of Radio 3's Northern Lights season, Matthew Sweet discusses Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries with the writer Colm Toibin, the film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and the Swedish cultural attache Ellen Wettmark. Released in 1957 and inspired by Bergman's own memories of childhood holidays in a summerhouse in the north of Sweden, Wild Strawberries tells the story of elderly professor Isak Borg, who travels from his home in Stockholm to receive an honorary doctorate. On the way, he's visited by childhood memories. The film stars veteran actor and director Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson and Ingrid Thulin. With additional contributions from the film historian Kevin Brownlow and Jan Holmberg from the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, which administers Bergman's archives.

Matthew Sweet chairs the British Academy of Song Writers, Composers and Authors debate about relevance and the contemporary across art forms. He is joined by Mark Baldwin Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company, Catherine Wood curator at Tate, Jennifer Walshe composer and vocalist, Vayu Naidu storyteller and Sarah Kent art critic and performer. Recorded in front of an audience at the studios of Rambert on London's South Bank.Part of BBC Radio 3's coverage of the BASCA awards which you can hear broadcast on Saturday's Hear and Now. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Margaret Atwood, Arnaldur Indriadason and MJ McGrath talk to Rana Mitter about crime fiction and cold settings as part of Radio 3's Northern Lights Season. It's 100 years since Freud published his seminal paper The Unconscious. Rana Mitter and guests New Generation Thinker Shahidha Bari, psychotherapist Mark Vernon and Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan - author of It's All in Your Head - discuss the role notions of the unconscious have played in psychology and culture ever since. New Generation Thinker Naomi Paxton shares her research. Margaret Atwood is the author of books including Stone Mattress and the MaddAddam trilogy. Arnaldur Indriadason's novels include Strange Shores, The Draining Lake and Oblivion. MJ McGrath's novels include The Bone Seeker, White Heat and The Boy In The Snow. Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Long Joanne Harris, the multi-million selling author of Chocolat, discusses her new novel, The Gospel of Loki, inspired by the Norse god of trickery, mischief and deception, a shape-shifter whose cultural manifestations range from 13th-century legends to Marvel comics and video games. She’s joined by Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough. They debate the enduring power of Norse mythology in conversation with Free Thinking presenter Anne McElvoy recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and broadcast as part of The Northern Lights season.

Anne McElvoy discusses Mein Kampf coming out of copyright with Ben Barkow of the Wiener Library in London, Heinrich von Berenberg – a publisher based in Berlin and Nicholas Stargardt, author of The German War and a professor of Modern European History at Oxford. Photographer Anna Fox and painter Chantal Joffe discuss an exhibition of Julia Margaret Cameron photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. New Yorker journalist Larissa MacFarquhar talks to Anne McElvoy about altruism.

Philip Dodd and New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding review the newly translated novel from Nobel prize winner Kenzaburo Oe; historian Naoko Shimazu and curator Mizuki Takahashi discuss the chequered history of the concept of Cool Japan; British Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam reviews the new exhibition Artist and Empire at Tate Britain. Artist Hew Locke and curator and art historian Sarah Thomas investigate how Empire creates complexity and difficulty around the question of what is British Art. Artist and Empire: Facing Britain's Imperial Past runs at Tate Britain from 25 November 2015 – 10 April 2016 Death By Water written by Kenzaburo Oe is translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm.Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Italian author Umberto Eco is in conversation with Matthew Sweet. Eco is the author of essays, novels, childrens' books and criticism including his best-selling story The Name of the Rose. His new novel Numero Zero explores the lure of conspiracy theories and the power of the media.

Do men and women have different attitudes to rule breaking? With changing ideas about gender, can we say that our minds are wired differently? Helen Fraser, head of the Girls' Day School Trust said recently that 'being the compliant girl is never going to get you anywhere'. What are the rules today for relationships and getting on in society? Is it time to throw out received ideas and challenge the advice given to young people?Free Thinking presenter Rana Mitter chairs a debate with a panel featuring :Sheila Hancock - actress and author of three non-fiction books and a novel Miss Carter's WarJournalist Bim Adewunmi - culture editor at Buzz Feed UK, who writes often about popular culture and how it intersects with gender and raceNeil Bartlett, theatre director and author whose most recent novel is The Disappearance BoyJonny Mitchell, the headmaster in Channel 4's Educating Yorkshire and now the Head of the Co-operative Academy of Leeds.Recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.Producer: Zahid Warley.