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Steven Pinker

The new book by psychologist and writer Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now, is a paean to human progress driven by reason and science. How convincing are his reasons to be cheerful?

The HARDtalk programme, like so many others in the churn of 24/7 news tends to focus on people and places facing problems and challenges. More often than not we hold the powerful to account for things that went wrong, not right. Are we missing the bigger picture about the world we live in? Stephen Sackur speaks to the psychologist and writer, Steven Pinker. His new book, Enlightenment Now, is a paean to human progress driven by reason and science. How convincing are his reasons to be cheerful?

30 minutes

Last on

Tue 3 Apr 201819:30GMT
BBC News except UK & UK HD

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Credits

PresenterStephen Sackur
Interviewed GuestSteven Pinker

Broadcasts

  • Thu 22 Feb 201804:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Thu 22 Feb 201809:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Thu 22 Feb 201815:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Thu 22 Feb 201820:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Fri 23 Feb 201804:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Fri 23 Feb 201809:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Fri 23 Feb 201815:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Sat 24 Feb 201804:30GMT
    BBC News Latin America & North America only
  • Tue 3 Apr 201803:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Tue 3 Apr 201808:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Tue 3 Apr 201814:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD
  • Tue 3 Apr 201819:30GMT
    BBC News except UK & UK HD