BBC World Service radio will broadcast live from the grounds of Worcester College at the Oxford Literary Festival. As part of the BBC’s Life Stories season, presenters Anu Anand, John Simpson and Sahar Zand explore questions about the natural world and our own human nature with international authors and thinkers, performers and festival audiences.

Highlights include:

- Is human nature fixed – or is it ever changing? John Simpson will discuss with geneticist Adam Rutherford, psychoanalyst Coline Covington and philosopher Luciano Floridi.

- World renowned Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri in conversation with John Simpson.

- Anu Anand will be looking at how our environment shapes our natures with shepherdess Amanda Owen, Mexican poet Alberto Alvaro Ross and American urban planner Jonathan Rose.

- Global environmental expert Achim Steiner and writer and Provost of Worcester College Jonathan Bate will be discussing how we shape our environments – for better or worse.

- Sahar Zand will be exploring issues of loneliness, sociability and freedom for children to play in our public spaces with George Monbiot and Scottish folk singer Ewan McLennan.

- And Syrian musician Maya Youssef will be performing the kanun – and talking about her work with Syrian child refugees.

(Photo: Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri. Credit: Getty Images) Show less