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Start the Week

Tom Sutcliffe talks to John Gray and Mary Beard

Duration: 43 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

Tom Sutcliffe discusses the 'myth' of progress with James Lasdun, Mary Beard, Mark Ravenhill and John Gray. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Tom Sutcliffe
Interviewed Guest:
Mary Beard
Interviewed Guest:
Mark Ravenhill
Interviewed Guest:
John Gray

Free Thinking

John Gray, Paul Durand Ruel and Inventing Impressionism

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Presented by Matthew Sweet. Including political philosopher John Gray discussing the notion of free will and an exploration of how artistic movements become successful. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
John Gray
Interviewed Guest:
Christopher Riopelle
Interviewed Guest:
Godfrey Barker
Interviewed Guest:
Jacky Klein

A Point of View

The Limits of Materialism

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray draws on a story by Walter de la Mare to argue that the prevailing creed of scientific materialism is a 'simple-minded philosophy' too limited for an unknowable world. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

A Point of View

Isis: A modern revolutionary force?

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray argues that the Sunni extremist group Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) is actually a revolutionary force, not a reactionary one. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Interviewed Guest:
Arlene Gregorius

Genres

A Point of View

Why Dickens Endures

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FM

Available for over a year

A weekly reflection on a topical issue. John Gray gives his own theory for the cultural longevity of Charles Dickens, celebrating his view of life as a theatre of the absurd. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

A Point of View

Two Cheers for Human Rights

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray gives only two cheers for human rights. Rather than imposing them like a religious creed, he says we should see them as useful devices that quite often don't work. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

A Point of View

The Doors of Perception

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray argues for another way of perceiving the world, inspired by the fantasy fiction writer Arthur Machen. Human fulfilment does not lie only in action but in awareness. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

A Point of View

Gatsby: The Perfect Fake

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray finds new resonance for our own age in the story of 'The Great Gatsby'. 'Just like Gatsby, we want to return to a world that was conjured into being from dreams'. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

Start the Week

The Amazons

Duration: 43 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

Tom Sutcliffe discusses wilderness and freedom with Sarah Hall, Adrienne Mayor and John Gray. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Tom Sutcliffe
Interviewed Guest:
Adrienne Mayor
Interviewed Guest:
Sarah Hall
Interviewed Guest:
John Gray
Producer:
Katy Hickman

A Point of View

John Gray: Euro Despair

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray sees the European currency as a misconceived project from the outset and thinks the austerity policies imposed on Greece are destructive and self-defeating. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres

A Point of View

Capitalism and the Myth of Social Evolution

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LWLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray reflects on why the advance of capitalism is not, as is widely believed, inevitable. He argues that the 'seemingly unstoppable advance of market forces' is often random. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray

Genres

A Point of View

Soylent and the Charm of the Fast Lane

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

The new food substitute Soylent allows you to give up eating meals in order to have more free time. But John Gray argues that human beings crave busy lives. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray

Genres

A Point of View

Dostoevsky and Dangerous Ideas

Duration: 10 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

John Gray points to lessons from the novels of Dostoevsky about the danger of ideas, such as misguided idealism sweeping away tyrannies without regard for the risks of anarchy. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
John Gray
Producer:
Sheila Cook

Genres