Can we still be idealistic about childhood? How do we square the impact of war, stories of sexual abuse, the impact of time spent on screens with the idea of children's experiences being about play, learning to be social, listening and creating stories ? Anne McElvoy's guests include: Katherine Rundell, author of the Waterstones book of 2023 Impossible Creatures, her series about children's literature is on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds next week. It's called The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder. Emily Baughan, Senior Lecturer in 19th/20th Century British History at the University of Sheffield and author of Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism and Empire. She is a New Generation Thinker working with BBC Radio 4 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share her research on radio. Miriam Cates former Conservative MP who is now Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Justice. Andrew Cooper, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick who teaches courses on philosophy of nature, philosophy of mind, and existentialism. Grace Lockrobin who is Co-Director of SAPERE - a UK charity that works to realise the benefits of a philosophical education as widely and equitably as possible.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson