Beirut39

Catch up with the twinning projects involving local teachers, doctors and artisans. Films, stories and chat. Chaired by Paul Blezard and introduced by the Mayor of Hay.

David Hendy talks to Rosie Goldsmith about the makers, myths and treasures of the world’s greatest talk-radio station.

After Darwin, Utopia evolved. From Eden to Erewhon, society changed but people stayed much the same. The geneticist argues that the agents of evolution have lost their power and that—whatever happens to society— humans are stuck with what we are.

A billion people live in sixty-odd states where terrorism, ethnic conflict, disease, poverty and trafficking thrive. What do we do now? Dr Ghani was Afghan Finance Minister 2002–04.

The sociologist pursues a philosophical enquiry into why people work hard and take pride in what they do.

The biographer celebrates the 400th anniversary of the author of Paradise Lost, probably the most politically and religiously engaged poet in the English language. Chaired by author and SBC Literature & Spoken Word director Rachel Holmes.

The Matrix Chambers QC specialising in Employment and Human Rights lectures on Women’s Equality: Making your way in a man’s world. Chaired by Francine Stock.

In his arcadian exploration, the historian takes a single great family, the Earls of Pembroke - their wives, children, estates, tenants and allies - and follows their high and glamorous trajectory across three generations of change, nostalgia, ambition, resistance and war from the 1520s to the 1640s.

The novelist explores the complexities, the sabotages, and the shifting currents of female friendship in Friday Nights.

The iconic images that embody our understanding of the natural world and the universe from Robert Hooke’s microscope to Hubble, and from human anatomy to Hiroshima.