Joshua Foer
Rana Mitter talks to American writer, Joshua Foer, about his book on memory Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
In tonight's Night Waves, "Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedonia, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy" opens later this week at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, showcasing the treasures of Aegae, the royal capital of the kingdom of Macedonia. Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History and Culture at Clare College Cambridge discusses this major reassessment of a period when the northern kingdom of Macedon was a major force in Greek culture.
Joshua Foer's new book 'Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything' is the story of a quest that ended in the author becoming the US Memory Champion, able to memorise whole packs of cards and huge lines of numbers and facts. Can any of us achieve these feats, more common in the ages before the beginning of the book? Is it really necessary in this age of the external memory of our computers and smartphones? Foer discusses these matters with Rana Mitter and Catriona Morrison, Senior Lecturer in Experimental Psychology specialising in cognitive psychology at the University of Leeds.
Set on the edges of Heathrow Airport, Wastwater - the new play from Simon Stephens - focuses on three couples who face difficult choices that will shape their future. Critic Michael Coveney will be coming straight from the Jerwood Theatre downstairs at Royal Court theatre for a first night review.
And Esther Freud talks about her seventh novel, Lucky Break, which charts the diverging fortunes of a group of actors who meet as students at drama college.