Free Thinking Folgen

Commentator Douglas Murray, journalist Bari Weiss and writer Ed Husain join Philip Dodd to explore the 'Intellectual Dark Web'. Their YouTube videos and podcasts receive millions of views and downloads. They sell out theatres across the US. But these aren't rock stars or the latest pop sensation. They are a collection of public intellectuals, scientists, political columnists, and stand up-comedians who are at the front line of the raging 'culture wars'. As two of its leading figures, neuroscience Sam Harris and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, prepare for a UK tour, Philip Dodd finds out more about this popular movement. The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray is out now. The House of Islam: A Global History by Ed Husain is out now. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Mark Lilla could be called the conscience of liberal America. He talks to Anne McElvoy about life after identity politics. 2018 New Generation Thinker Gulzaar Barn discusses whether paying people for taking part in medical trials is different from other forms of "labour". Plus Owen Hatherley's latest book is called Trans-Europe Express: Tours of a Lost Continent. He discusses what makes a European city and who should take responsibility for shaping our urban environment whether its Hull or Thessaloniki with Deborah Saunt from DSDHA - who are working on new plans for the West End of London following the opening of Crossrail stations.Mark Lilla's new book, The Once and Future Liberal, is a ferocious analysis of the American left’s abdication as well as a call to arms. The time for evangelism - of speaking truth to power is over, he says, now it’s all about seizing power to defend truth. Gulzaar Barn lectures in philosophy at the University of Birmingham working on moral, political, and feminist philosophy. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 with the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics at the start of their careers who can turn their research into radio. You can find a collection of short columns reflecting their research on bbc.co.uk/FreeThinking Producer: Zahid Warley

Matthew Sweet meets with physician, anthropologist, author and Jimmy Carter's former 'drugs czar', Peter Bourne. Comparing his life to the title character in the film Forrest Gump, the trained psychiatrist and Vietnam veteran looks back on an eclectic career spanning six decades. He talks about his involvement in the civil rights movement, his close relationship with Jimmy Carter (and how he convinced him to run for president), serving as an Assistant Secretary-General at the UN, and his awkward encounter with Saddam Hussein. The author of a Fidel Castro biography, Bourne also caught the attention of the author Robert Ludlum. Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.