Are academics and the media friends or foes? Is the media really the fabled opportunity for academics to reach millions beyond the lecture hall that it is meant to be? Or, in reality, does it involve compromises that reduce scholarship to little more than glorified story-telling?

This evening Professor Rick Rylance, the Chief Executive of the AHRC joins Rana Mitter, Night Waves presenter from Oxford University’s Oriental Institute and Professor of the History of Modern China, former Channel 4 commissioning editor Tim Kirby and the historian of academics on TV Jon Conlin to debate this tricky relationship.

The panellists will also be discussing New Generation Thinkers, a talent scheme for emerging academics with a passion for communicating the excitement of modern scholarship to a wider audience. BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC are joining forces to find the next generation of public intellectuals through the scheme that has attracted over 1,000 applicants.

This programme was recorded in front of an audience at the Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival of ideas.

The programme airs at 9.15 pm on Radio 3 on Wednesday the 26th January.

You can listen again via the BBC website.