BBC Radio 3 - The Essay - Available now

Speaking Truth to Power in the Past and Present—The Free Thinking Essay

8/10 Joanne Paul on satire, flattery and document leaks in the C16 and C17 centuries and now.

5/5 New Generation Thinker Islam Issa looks at Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop songs.

6/10 Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.

5/10 Alistair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.

4/10 Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.

3/10 Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village and community relations now

2/10 Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?

1/10 Hetta Howes looks at male fears + why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying and bleeding

5/5 In her final essay, writer Madeleine Bunting asks whether we are in a crisis of attention.

4/5 Writer Madeleine Bunting explores some key moments in the history of attention.