Free Thinking Folgen

Anne McElvoy meets David Rooney curator of the Winton Mathematics gallery at the Science Museum which has been redesigned by Zaha Hadid architects and explores the way maths skills are increasingly needed for jobs. She discusses the changing attitudes to mathematics in history and the present day with Alex Bellos, writer on maths puzzles, maths historian Serafina Cuomo and maths lecturer Vicky Neale. They are joined by astro-physicist Neil de Grasse Tyson who is director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. Alex Bellos is the author of Alex Through The Looking Glass and his latest book called Can You Solve My Problems. Neil de Grasse Tyson is the author of many books including Welcome to the Universe co-written with J Richard Gott and Michael A Strauss. Vicky Neale is Whitehead Lecturer at the Mathematical Institute and Balliol College at Oxford University. Serafina Cuomo is Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Producer: Harry Parker.

Colin Grant, author of a book exploring his brother's epilepsy, joins presenter Matthew Sweet, New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore who writes about Wilkie Collins and Charles Fernyhough - who studies hearing voices. Plus director Josie Rourke on Joan of Arc on stage at the Donmar Warehouse and theatre critic David Benedict.St Joan by George Bernard Shaw starring Gemma Arterton is at the Donmar Warehouse in London from December 9th - January 18th. It will be broadcast live in cinemas in partnership with National Theatre Live on Thursday 16 February 2017 Charles Fernyhough is a Professor of Psychology at Durham University who has published The Voices Within: The history and science of how we talk to ourselves. Colin Grant's book exploring epilepsy is called A Smell of Burning. Clare Walker Gore is a New Generation Thinker researching Victorian literature at the University of Cambridge. New Generation Thinker is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find people who can turn research into radio programmes.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

What price the self in the 21st century? We may be living in the age of the "selfie" and of social media narcissism but is there anything fixed about the self? Philip Dodd and his guests, the novelist, Tom McCarthy, the sociologist, Susie Scott, the neuroscientist, Daniel Glaser and the painter, Dexter Dalwood explore the notion of identity today taking in the major Rauschenberg retrospective at Tate Modern, Erving Goffman's seminal work of sociology, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life and the way we all use words to constantly make and remake our selves. Robert Rauschenberg runs at Tate Modern from December 1st until April 2nd 2017. Dexter Dalwood's art is on show at the Saatchi Gallery in an exhibition called Painters' Painters which runs from 30 Nov 2016 - 28 Feb 2017. Tom McCarthy's novels include C and Satin Island Producer: Zahid Warley.