Start the Week - 30/03/2009

With Andrew Marr. If we think we are living ethically good lives, we should think again. This is the message of Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, who argues in his latest book, The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, that giving a certain proportion of our income to fight world poverty should be an obligation, not an option. Lord Stern was chief economist and senior vice-president of the World Bank from 2000 to 2003 and is currently the IG Patel Chair at the London School of Economics, heading the new India Observatory within the Asia Research Centre. He is optimistic about climate change and believes that if we act now, countries can unite to create a cleaner, safer world with less poverty. Barack Obama has reinvigorated the art of oratory. Alan Yentob examines the history of rhetoric and investigates Obama's influences, from Cicero to the African-American Church. Susan J Smith, director of the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Durham, talks about the risky business of the housing market and how best to manage it. The majority of us hold most of our wealth in our homes and secure the majority of debts against property. But as the current crisis has shown, this comes with risks - house prices have fallen and repossessions are up. Should we simply try to repair the damage or are there more imaginative ways to handle housing systems?