Free Thinking Podcast
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives - looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Mental Health
Fri 6 May 2022
Anne McElvoy looks at ASMR, clean air, loneliness and a memoir exploring mental health.
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Odessa Stories
Thu 5 May 2022
Matthew Sweet explores the work of Soviet Ukrainian writer Isaac Babel
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Windows
Wed 4 May 2022
From Rear Window to stained glass, TB to paintings at Dulwich: Shahidha Bari hosts.
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Kawanabe Kyōsai and Yukio Mishima
Tue 3 May 2022
Japanese cultural experimentation: painter, Kyōsai 1831-1889 & writer, Mishima 1925-1970
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May Day rituals
Fri 29 Apr 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore ideas about community, collective action and May revels.
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Teaching and Inspiration
Thu 21 Apr 2022
Novelist Julian Barnes, historian Daisy Hay and New Generation Thinker Louise Creechan.
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Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound
Wed 20 Apr 2022
Shahidha Bari on a new staging of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Why is Warwick a key figure?
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New Thinking: Preserving Our Heritage
Tue 19 Apr 2022
From knitting patterns to greetings cards: Naomi Paxton looks at a series of UK archives
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Housework
Fri 15 Apr 2022
Gender, class & domestic tasks-Matthew Sweet pulls on his rubber gloves and gets stuck in
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Ships and History
Wed 13 Apr 2022
Artist Hew Locke plus historians Sarah Caputo, Jake Subryan Richards, and Tom Nancollas
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Grief
Fri 8 Apr 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the role of ritual, laments and how we express grief.
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China: world politics, ink art & insomnia
Wed 6 Apr 2022
Kevin Rudd talks about avoiding catastrophic conflict between China and the USA
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Bridgerton and Georgian Entertainment
Wed 6 Apr 2022
Shahidha Bari with Ian Kelly, Sophie Coulombeau, Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, Hannah Greig
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New Generation Thinkers 2022
Thu 31 Mar 2022
Laurence Scott introduces the ten academics chosen to share their research on radio
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Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's Hand in the Trap
Wed 30 Mar 2022
Confronting the man who jilted you is the plot of this 1960s Argentine expressionist film
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Bruce Lee and Enter The Dragon
Tue 29 Mar 2022
Matthew Sweet watches the 1973 film that made Bruce Lee an international star
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After Dark Festival: Dark Places
Fri 25 Mar 2022
A poet, crime writer, theologian & marine biologist join Matthew Sweet to explore darkness
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After Dark Festival: Equinox
Fri 25 Mar 2022
Matthew Sweet looks for meaning in the moment when the length of day and night is equal.
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John Maynard Keynes
Tue 22 Mar 2022
From HM Treasury to Versailles and Bloomsbury: a look at the life and legacy of JM Keynes
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Vikings
Thu 17 Mar 2022
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to scholars with new insights on the Viking period
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The Stasi poetry circle, Nazi schools and German culture
Wed 16 Mar 2022
How an East German creative writing class fought the cold war: was their poetry any good?
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Blackmail & Shame
Thu 10 Mar 2022
Mark Ravenhill talks about staging the play on which Hitchcock based his film
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New Thinking: Women’s history
Wed 9 Mar 2022
The Clean Break theatre company, sex strikes, East European feminism: Naomi Paxton hosts
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New Thinking: Women’s history
Tue 8 Mar 2022
The Clean Break theatre company, sex strikes, East European feminism: Naomi Paxton hosts
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Sisters
Sun 6 Mar 2022
The Unthank sisters, Sally Alexander, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Lucy Holland and Shahidha Bari
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The Generation Gap
Thu 3 Mar 2022
Writer Howard Jacobson, photographer Ruth Sutoyé talk family histories with Matthew Sweet
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The Barbican, art and writing in 50s Britain
Wed 2 Mar 2022
Leading artists, writers, thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives.
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Climate change, nature and art
Wed 2 Mar 2022
Leading artists, writers, thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives.
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Perfecting The Body
Thu 24 Feb 2022
Eugenics to cyborgs: Adam Rutherford, Clare Chambers, Harry Parker & Xine Yao discuss
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life
