HARDtalk

Whatever happened to the protest song and why do so few of today's popular musicians dare to tackle political and social themes? Richard Thompson, the English folk-rock singer has through his critically acclaimed songs explored politics, religion and the personal, but has rarely achieved large record sales. Can musical traditions adapt to modern tastes and survive?

In a HARDtalk interview broadcast on 24 March 2009, Stephen Sackur talks to French socialist philospher Alain Badiou. As the world's richest economies plunge deeper into recession could there be a whiff of revolution in the air? Alain Badiou has been an intellectual hero of France's anti-capitalist left since the Paris street protests of 1968. His recent book 'The Meaning of Sarkozy', in which he attacked the French President, has caused a storm in France. But does anyone beyond Parisian caf society believe communism is the answer to the current crisis? Alain Badiou talks to Stephen Sackur.

Chris Costner Sizemore has been called the most famous psychological case study in history. Growing up, her young mind was inhabited by a host of different personalities. Her extraordinary experiences gave rise to a newly defined mental illness, multiple personality disorder, and her story was turned into an Oscar-winning movie. Five decades after the first diagnosis are we any closer to understanding the mysterious rise of the alter ego? Chris Costner Sizemore talks to Stephen Sackur.

Noam Chomsky is one of the world's most prominent and controversial public intellectuals. He is an internationally renowned professor of linguistics, but he is also a longstanding critic of US foreign policy and the influence of big business over the US government. When he published his first political critique 40 years ago, he was fired up by the war in Vietnam. Today he is still highlighting America's malign influence and calls the war in Afghanistan 'immoral'. He talks to Stephen Sackur.