Start the Week - The Rise of Islamic State

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the journalist Patrick Cockburn about the rise of the Islamic State and the failure of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East. The academic Katherine Brown looks at the long-term strategy of IS by focusing on how it has persuaded Muslim women in the West to join its cause. While Leena Hoffman turns to the workings of another Islamist group - Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. Gerard Russell is a former British diplomat in the Middle East and he recounts the demise of religious tolerance and the fate of some ancient faiths, now disappearing - from the Mandaeans to the Yazidis.

Start the Week - The Rise of Islamic State

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the journalist Patrick Cockburn about the rise of the Islamic State and the failure of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East. The academic Katherine Brown looks at the long-term strategy of IS by focusing on how it has persuaded Muslim women in the West to join its cause. While Leena Hoffman turns to the workings of another Islamist group - Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. Gerard Russell is a former British diplomat in the Middle East and he recounts the demise of religious tolerance and the fate of some ancient faiths, now disappearing - from the Mandaeans to the Yazidis.

Serious Inquiries Only - AS107: Dr. Steve Sentenced to Catholic Mass

Joining me in today’s episode is Anonymous Steve, who you might remember from a previous episode. Steve was oddly sentenced to Catholic Mass by a crazy judge in the UK. You may have seen the story making the rounds lately, retweeted by even Ricky Gervais and Richard Dawkins. Here are some links from the show, … Continue reading AS107: Dr. Steve Sentenced to Catholic Mass →

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World Book Club - William Gibson

This month World Book Club talks to cult American-Canadian writer William Gibson about his much garlanded novel that launched the cyberpunk generation with one of the last century’s most potent visions of the cyberspace future.

The first winner of the science fiction ‘triple crown’ of awards for the genre, Neuromancer conjures a nightmare world of concrete megacities trapped under geodesic domes and run by shadowy megacorps. Washed-up computer hacker Case longs to escape by jacking into the technicolour but terrifying virtual reality of the Matrix, and is glad to be hired by a mysterious employer and his alluring sidekick Molly to pull off the ultimate hack.