Radio and PodcastRadio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Start the Week cover
Society & Culture

Start the Week

BBC

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

Start the Week Podcast Guide

Listen to Start the Week, a Society & Culture podcast by BBC. Stream 654 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.

Show Topic

Browse this show under Society & Culture podcasts.

Episodes

20 episodes are loaded now from a catalog of 654. More episodes can be opened from this page.

Episodes

20 of 654 episodes

Life Online: Power, Risk and Resistance

How has life online reshaped society in real life? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by 3 guests who are inv...

42:19Jun 22, 2026

Scientific discovery and misunderstanding

How have we made discoveries about the world around us and how has our understanding changed when we got it wrong? Adam Rutherford hosts Rad...

42:01Jun 8, 2026

Searching for economic solutions

What are the biggest problems facing the economy - and how might we set about dealing with them - from inequality to inflation, domestic gro...

42:01Jun 1, 2026

Mythmaking at Hay: from Medea to Rasputin

In front of an audience at the Hay Festival, Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, bringing together thr...

42:24May 25, 2026

Farming, food production and rural life

What is the future of farming and rural life? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which starts the week, asking about the f...

42:34May 18, 2026

German history

What can an art exhibition, a concert hall and Classical town tell us about twentieth century German history? On Radio 4's weekly discussion...

40:40May 11, 2026

Chemical Reactions

What can chemistry reveal about what it means to be human? On Radio 4’s weekly conversation programme, Tom Sutcliffe leads a conversation th...

42:07Apr 27, 2026

Challenges and solutions

Is radical change possible to solve some of today’s most intractable problems? In Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is jo...

41:48Apr 13, 2026

Zoos, sex and conservation

How have the evolutionary forces that shaped animal sex and behaviour influenced the ways humans conserve, study and coexist with other spec...

41:27Apr 6, 2026

Growing Up

How do the stories we inherit, and the ones we tell, shape our journey from childhood into adulthood? In Radio 4's weekly discussion program...

41:46Mar 23, 2026

Consciousness and Identity

What makes us who we are? In Radio 4's discussion programme to start off the week, Tom Sutcliffe and guests explore consciousness and identi...

41:54Mar 16, 2026

Under the sea

What lies beneath the world's oceans? From the phenomenal infrastructure of telecoms cables to shipwrecked galleons and treasure and the sea...

41:51Mar 9, 2026

Reading and storytelling

The UK government has declared 2026, the National Year of Reading. The numbers suggest that reading needs all the public relations it can ge...

41:43Mar 2, 2026

Thinking about war

How do we think about war? How do we imagine it, picture it and explain it? Adam Rutherford hosts Radio 4's discussion programme which start...

41:52Feb 23, 2026

Breakage and repair

When society, financial systems and human beings fall short, how can we repair the damage? Tom Sutcliffe hosts Radio 4's discussion programm...

41:39Feb 16, 2026

Fun and games

Games are supposed to be fun — so what happens when the logic of games, points and competition escapes the playground and starts reshaping e...

41:37Feb 9, 2026