Start the Week

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

BBC Radio 4 FM

Start the Week: Sums, stories and musical scores

Sums, stories and musical scores

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Sums, stories and musical scores

Kirsty Wark with Eugenia Cheng, Sarah Hart and Emily Howard.

Eugenia Cheng, Sarah Hart and Emily Howard talk about the joy of maths – in literature and music – with Kirsty Wark.

Kirsty Wark celebrates the artistry of numbers with three mathematicians Eugenia Cheng, Sarah Hart and Emily Howard.

Eugenia Cheng asks Is Maths Real? in her new book, which offers a new way to look at the subject by focusing on the questions, rather than the answers. She explores how asking the simplest of questions – ‘why does 1 + 1 = 2?’ – can get to the very heart of the search for mathematical truth.

Sarah Hart wants to break down the perceived barriers between mathematics and the creative arts. In Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature she reveals the geometry lurking in Moby-Dick, George Eliot’s obsession with statistics, and Jurassic Park’s fractal patterns.

Emily Howard has a dual passion for maths and music. In her compositions she plays with mathematical shapes and processes. Her new record Torus, released on NMC Recordings in April, brings together works including sphere and Compass.

Producer: Katy Hickman

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Start the Week

Sums, stories and musical scores

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4