''The Forum'', the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

's flagship discussion programme, brings together prominent thinkers from different disciplines and different parts of the world with the aim of creating stimulating discussion informed by highly distinct academic, artistic, and cultural perspectives. The World Service broadcasts the programme on Saturdays at 2106 GMT and repeats it on Sundays at 0906 GMT and on Mondays at 0206 GMT. BBC Radio 4 also broadcasts an edited 30-minute version of the programme.

Format

Each episode of ''The Forum'' brings together three thinkers, leading figures from different academic and artistic disciplines. A typical line-up might include a scientist, a writer or other artist, and a philosopher or cultural thinker. Each guest is questioned by the presenter about their latest big idea, a topic area that is of particular interest to them and in which they are a particular expert. During the course of each section the other guests are invited to contribute with criticisms, insights and support of their own.

Sixty Second Idea

Each week one of the guests is invited to present an idea in sixty seconds that they believe will make the world a better place. These ideas are not always practicable, but they are frequently entertaining and insightful. The 60 Second Idea and the discussion it produces is released as a podcast.

History

The first episode of the show was broadcast on the BBC World Service on 6 April 2008. It has been broadcast every week since then. The Forum was founded by Emily Kasriel, who was the program's Executive Producer for the show's first four years and occasionally presented it, as well as painting illustrations for The Forum's website.

Presenters

The programme's presenter, who has been part of the show since its inception, is former BBC diplomatic correspondent

Bridget Kendall Bridget Kendall (born 27 April 1956) is an English journalist who was the BBC's Diplomatic correspondent working for the corporation's radio and television networks. Since July 2016, she has been Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge: the first woman ...

Guest presenters

Zeinab Badawi Zeinab Badawi ( ar, زينب بدوي; born October 1959) is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ''ITV Morning News'' (later known as '' ITV News at 5:30''), and co-presented ''Channel 4 News'' ...

Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

* Rana Mitter * Tim Marlow * Angie Hobbs *

Marcus du Sautoy Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy (; born 26 August 1965) is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popu ...

Ritula Shah Ritula Shah (born 1967) is a journalist and news presenter on BBC Radio. She is the main presenter of ''The World Tonight'' on BBC Radio 4. Previously Shah presented ''Woman's Hour'' on Radio 4 and was a launch presenter for '' The World Today'' ...

Distribution

''The Forum'' is broadcast through the BBC World Service and its international broadcasting partners. The show is also available online, to download and as a podcast. All previous shows are archived online.

Previous guests

Previous guests include: *Nobel Prize–winning biologist

John Sulston Sir John Edward Sulston (27 March 1942 – 6 March 2018) was a British biologist and academic who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the cell lineage and genome of the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' in 2002 with ...

*Political scientist

Joseph Nye Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book ''Power and Interdependence''. Togethe ...

*Former Afghan finance minister

Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban. Born in ...

*British astrophysicist Lord Martin Rees *Nigerian novelist

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She was described in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "the most prominent" of a "procession of criticall ...

*Canadian writer

Naomi Klein Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...

*Egyptian writer

Alaa Al Aswany Alaa Al Aswany ( ar, علاء الأسواني, ; born 26 May 1957) is an Egyptian writer, novelist, and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya. Early life and career Al Aswany was born on 26 May 1957 in Cairo. His mother, Zaina ...

*Ghanaian philosopher

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah w ...

*Argentinian architect

Cesar Pelli Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ces ...

*US psychologist

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...

*South African judge

Albie Sachs Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs (born 30 January 1935) is a South African lawyer, activist, writer, and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa by Nelson Mandela. Early life and education Albie Sachs was born on ...

*Polish Canadian writer

Eva Hoffman Eva Hoffman (born Ewa Wydra on 1 July 1945) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning writer and academic. Early life and education Eva Hoffman was born in Kraków, Poland, shortly after World War II. Her parents, Boris and Maria Wydra, surv ...

*British philosopher John Gray *Mathematician

Marcus du Sautoy's appearance on the 27/04/2008 episode of ''The Forum''
retrieved on 28 October 2009.

Notes and references

External links

*
''The Forum'' Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forum (Bbc World Service) BBC World Service programmes British podcasts Science podcasts