Start the Week Podcast
Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday
Episodes to download
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Storytelling: Jeanette Winterson, Rory Stewart and Soweto Kinch
Monday
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 鈥� 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 S枚rlin, with Adam Rutherford
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Yanis Varoufakis on Greece鈥檚 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
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Hidden spaces and dangerous places
Mon 9 Jun 2025
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Danny Dorling and Adele Zeynep Walton.
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The uses and abuses of the atom
Mon 2 Jun 2025
Shahidha Bari talks to Frank Close, Tim Gregory and Baroness Natalie Bennett.
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Hay Festival: exposing the secrets of rubbish
Mon 26 May 2025
Tom Sutcliffe at Hay Festival, with Chloe Duckworth, Sarah Gabbott and Saabira Chaudhuri
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Mathematics, Symbiosis and Japanese art
Mon 19 May 2025
Adam Rutherford discusses art, maths and creativity with Marcus du Sautoy.
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History: private, personal and political
Mon 12 May 2025
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Tiffany Jenkins, Geoff Dyer and Lanre Bakare.
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Smell 鈥� the underrated sense
Mon 5 May 2025
Adam Rutherford with Jonas Olofsson, Ally Louks and Alan Chalmers.
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Advocating for nature
Mon 28 Apr 2025
Tom Sutcliffe with Robert Macfarlane, Monica Feria-Tinta and Patrick Galbraith.
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Christianity and British society
Mon 21 Apr 2025
Shahidha Bari with Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley, Bijan Omrani and Lamorna Ash.
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Impunity and fighting for justice
Mon 14 Apr 2025
Tom Sutcliffe talks to Philippe Sands, Kenneth Roth and Lina Sinjab
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Untangling fact from fiction
Mon 7 Apr 2025
Adam Rutherford with Phil Tinline, Rosie Holt and Adam Kucharski.
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Delusions of grandeur and freedom of speech
Mon 31 Mar 2025
Tom Sutcliffe with Grayson Perry, Lionel Shriver and Fara Dabhoiwala
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Abdulrazak Gurnah on family and resistance
Mon 24 Mar 2025
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Samantha Ellis and Jason Allen-Paisant with Shahidha Bari.
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Lockdown and the Covid generation
Mon 17 Mar 2025
Tom Sutcliffe and guests discuss the impact and legacy of Covid lockdown
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How political ideology affects the brain
Mon 10 Mar 2025
Adam Rutherford with Leor Zmigrod, Iain Dale and John Rees.
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The Great Auk meets Victorian explorers, and zombie ponds
Mon 3 Mar 2025
Tom Sutcliffe with Tim Birkhead, Kaliane Bradley and Mark Nowers.
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Community and industrial decline
Mon 24 Feb 2025
Adam Rutherford with Sam Wetherell, Yu Jie and Jack Thorne.
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Writing and rewriting history
Mon 17 Feb 2025
Tom Sutcliffe with Tom Holland, Moudhy Al-Rashid and Gus Casely-Hayford.
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Wages for Housework 鈥� then and now
Mon 10 Feb 2025
Shahidha Bari with Emily Callaci, Rosie Campbell and Victoria Smith
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Manufacturing and sustainability
Mon 3 Feb 2025
Tom Sutcliffe with Tim Minshall, Bernie Bulkin and Fiona Dear.
