Start the Week Podcast
Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday
Episodes to download
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Growing Up
Monday
Naomi Alderman with Booker prize-winner David Szalay, Penny Woolcock and Laura Tisdall.
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Consciousness and Identity
Mon 16 Mar 2026
Tom Sutcliffe with Michael Pollan, Fay Bound-Alberti and Mary Costello.
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Under the sea
Mon 9 Mar 2026
Adam Rutherford discusses the sea with Julian Sancton, Joan Passey and Samanth Subramanian
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Thinking about war
Mon 23 Feb 2026
Sir Lawrence Freedman on strategy, art curator Rebecca Newell and historian Jane Rogoyska.
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Breakage and repair
Mon 16 Feb 2026
Tom Sutcliffe's guests include Booker Prize-winner George Saunders on his new novel, Vigil
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Censorship
Mon 2 Feb 2026
Tom Sutcliffe talks to the artist Ai Weiwei about censorship and being held for 81 days.
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Biology, technology and the future
Mon 26 Jan 2026
Adam Rutherford asks what it might mean if we can build human bodies and minds.
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The arts and health
Mon 12 Jan 2026
Adam Rutherford and guests explore the connection between body and soul.
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Animals and Meaning
Mon 29 Dec 2025
Naomi Alderman with Justin Gregg, Peter Fretwell and Marianne Hem Eriksen
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Poetry - reading, writing, editing and translating
Mon 22 Dec 2025
Nick Makoha, Miles Leeson and Karen Leeder.
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The Dark
Mon 15 Dec 2025
Shadows in art, photography and poetry: Adam Rutherford's guests discuss darkness.
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Space, Quantum Frontiers and Cosmic Clues
Mon 1 Dec 2025
Tom Sutcliffe looks to the stars with Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Paul Davies and Caroline Smith
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Genes and hands: mapping character and health
Mon 24 Nov 2025
Alison Bashford, Matthew Cobb and Charlotte Houldcroft with Adam Rutherford.
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Digital Futures and Information Crises
Mon 17 Nov 2025
Cory Doctorow, Naomi Alderman and Oliver Moody with Tom Sutcliffe.
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Saving Tigers, Green Crime and Cli-fi
Mon 10 Nov 2025
Jonathan Slaght, Juhea Kim and Julia Shaw in conversation with Adam Rutherford.
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Storytelling: Jeanette Winterson, Rory Stewart and Soweto Kinch
Mon 3 Nov 2025
Jeanette Winterson, Soweto Kinch and Rory Stewart, with Tom Sutcliffe.
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Crossing genres with Wayne McGregor
Mon 27 Oct 2025
Wayne McGregor, Anne Enright and Tanika Gupta talk to Shahidha Bari.
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Maps – lost, secret and revealing
Mon 20 Oct 2025
James Cheshire, Jerry Brotton and Jenny Uglow, with Tom Sutcliffe.
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Endangered languages and vanishing landscapes
Mon 13 Oct 2025
Mandana Seyfeddinipur, Klaus Dodds and Sverker Sörlin, with Adam Rutherford
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Yanis Varoufakis on Greece’s civil war
Mon 6 Oct 2025
Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis and historians Paul Cartledge and Mary Vincent.
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Steven Pinker on common knowledge
Mon 29 Sep 2025
Steven Pinker, Aleks Krotoski and David Edmonds, with Adam Rutherford.
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Contains Strong Language Festival, Bradford
Mon 22 Sep 2025
Saima Mir, Andrew McMillan and Catherine Clarke at the CSL Festival in Bradford.
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Afghanistan and the DRC
Mon 15 Sep 2025
Lyse Doucet, Michela Wrong and Ashleigh Percival-Borley talk to Shahidha Bari.
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Arundhati Roy and maternal inheritance
Mon 8 Sep 2025
Arundhati Roy, Lea Ypi and Sarah Howe talk to Tom Sutcliffe.
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Sanctuary, refuge and exile
Mon 23 Jun 2025
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Marina Warner, Oliver Basciano and Fergus Butler-Gallie.
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The Idea of Genius
Mon 16 Jun 2025
Adam Rutherford talks to Helen Lewis, Francesca Wade and Dean Van Nguyen
