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Start the Week

start-the-week

Start the Week

Part of BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2019

Sage Two

Tickets available on the day on a first come, first served basis

Duration – 12.15pm - 1.15pm

THIS EVENT HAS PASSED

Tom Sutcliffe presents a special edition of BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week exploring the art and science of communication – from the language of diplomacy, to an emotional outburst, to the power of silence. He’s joined by the award-winning filmmaker and journalist Harriet Shawcross, the former US diplomat William J Burns, the musician Kathryn Tickell and this year’s Free Thinking Festival Lecturer Professor Thomas Dixon.

Harriet Shawcross is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. Her first book Unspeakable reflects on how, as a teenager, she stopped speaking at school for almost a year, communicating only when absolutely necessary. Unspeakableconsiders the limits of language and the power of silence.

William J Burns’ book The Back Channel – American Diplomacy in a Disordered Worldcharts his career as an American diplomat for over three decades. He played a central role in diplomatic episodes from the end of the Cold War to the collapse of relations with Putin’s Russia, to secret nuclear talks with Iran. Now retired from the US Foreign Service, he is President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Kathryn Tickell is the foremost exponent of the Northumbrian pipes, a composer, performer, educator and successful recording artist whose work is deeply rooted in the landscape and people of Northumbria. She is currently touring with her new band The Darkening, and the band’s debut album will be released in March.

Thomas Dixon was the first director of Queen Mary University of London’s pioneering Centre for the History of the Emotions, the first of its kind in the UK. His current research is about the science, philosophy, and experience of anger and previously the history of weeping and the British stiff upper lip. His books include Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears and The Invention of Altruism: Making Moral Meanings in Victorian Britain.


For your information…

  • Phase one tickets will be available from 12noon on Friday 15 February, with phase two tickets available from 12noon on Friday 1 March.
  • Tickets are strictly limited to four per person.
  • To guarantee your ticket book in advance. There will be some tickets available on the day on a first come, first served basis.
  • Please take your seats 10 minutes prior to the event start time otherwise you may lose your place.

Booking Information

To guarantee your ticket, book in advance. There will be some tickets available on the day on a first come, first served basis.

Venue: Sage Two

Tickets: Free, ticketed (Max 4 per person)