18/05/2009
Andrew Marr talks to John Micklethwait on the return of God, Maggie Gee on cruelty, Richard Eyre on his new play, Robert Shiller on the animal spirits driving our financial system.
God is back, according to John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist. He argues that religion is resurgent around the world, driven by consumerism, globalisation and the failure of secular politics such as communism. God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World, co-written with Adrian Wooldridge, is published by Allen Lane.
The novelist Maggie Gee questions whether, despite anti-discrimination laws, we are crueller today in the era of reality TV and celebrity-bashing than we have been in the past. Maggie's article, The Cruelty of Strangers, is in the June edition of Prospect magazine.
Richard Eyre directs a new play set in West Africa that looks at the consequences when one country imposes its ideals on another. The Observer is at the National Theatre.
Economist Robert J Shiller argues that finances are not led by mathematical formulae but by our 'animal spirits'. Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, co-written with George A Akerlof, is published by Princeton University Press.
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