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
-
![]()
Pankaj Mishra, research into Indian history
Thu 24 Feb 2022
Pankaj Mishra discusses his new novel about friends in an age of upheaval
-
![]()
Artists' models and fame
Wed 23 Feb 2022
Egon Schiele's women, Whistler's woman in white, new radio ballads : Shahidha Bari hosts.
-
![]()
Pankaj Mishra, Research into Indian history
Tue 22 Feb 2022
Pankaj Mishra discusses his new novel about four friends in an age of upheaval.
-
![]()
Hitchhiking
Thu 17 Feb 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests consider hitchiking in culture and around the globe.
-
![]()
China, Freud, war and sci fi
Wed 16 Feb 2022
From AI & fan fiction to 1930s replica antiquities: new ways of thinking about China.
-
![]()
Stonehenge history
Tue 15 Feb 2022
Anne McElvoy is joined by Neil Wilkin, Mike Pitts, Susan Greaney and Seren Griffiths
-
![]()
Existential Risk
Thu 10 Feb 2022
Planning and creating in the shadow of the doomsday clock with Shahidha Bari and guests
-
![]()
Whale watching
Wed 9 Feb 2022
Rana Mitter dives into the world of whales and examines our relationship to marine life.
-
![]()
Whale-watching
Wed 9 Feb 2022
Philip Hoare, Rachel Murray, Peter Riley and Edward Sugden explore marine life.
-
![]()
Diverse Classical Music II
Tue 8 Feb 2022
Christienna Fryar speaks to four researchers whose work is expanding the musical canon
-
![]()
Futurism
Thu 3 Feb 2022
Matthew Sweet explores into the movement that celebrated technology, vitality, violence
-
![]()
Modernism Around The World
Wed 2 Feb 2022
The Bauhaus in Deli, Japanese and South African novels, and poetry and art in Mexico
-
![]()
Paper
Wed 2 Feb 2022
From the Chinese Han Dynasty in 105 AD to the 20th-century workplace, art and rubbish.
-
![]()
How To Make A Modernist Masterpiece
Tue 1 Feb 2022
Will Self, Alexandra Harris, Kevin LeGendre & Owen Hatherley build up a Manifesto
-
![]()
Asta Nielsen
Thu 27 Jan 2022
Matthew Sweet on the life of Danish film star Asta Nielsen, one of cinema's first icons.
-
![]()
Yishai Sarid; marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2022
Wed 26 Jan 2022
Anne McElvoy talks to Israeli novelist Yishai Sarid & hears about new historical research
-
![]()
New Thinking: Diverse Classical Music
Mon 24 Jan 2022
Digging into the music of composers Joseph Bologne, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry.
-
![]()
Touki Bouki
Fri 21 Jan 2022
A close look at Djibril Diop Mambéty's classic 1973 film with Matthew Sweet and guests
-
![]()
Writing Love: Sarah Hall, Monica Ali, Adam Mars-Jones
Tue 18 Jan 2022
Shahidha Bari is joined by three writers to discuss love and the contemporary novel.
-
![]()
-
![]()
Mélusine
Tue 11 Jan 2022
The mermaid-like figure from medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
-
![]()
Adapting Molière
Tue 11 Jan 2022
Liz Lochead is one of Anne McElvoy's guests discussing how to update the French dramatist
-
![]()
Appeasement
Thu 6 Jan 2022
How does Neville Chamberlain's capitulation to Hitler in 1938 affect politics in 2022?
-
![]()
Gloves
Wed 5 Jan 2022
From python skin to digital worlds, PPE to vegan materials: how gloves are evolving.
-
![]()
Jean-Paul Belmondo and the French New Wave
Tue 4 Jan 2022
The French film star who burst onto the scene in 1960 in Godard's Breathless
-
![]()
Fungi: An Alien Encounter
Thu 16 Dec 2021
Are fungi out to get us or here to help? A look at mushrooms in art, food and psychology.
-
![]()
Colm Toibin; Dullness as a virtue
Wed 15 Dec 2021
Is it a good thing to stand out? Anne McElvoy and guests explore the virtue of being dull
-
![]()
Early Buddhism; Sheila Rowbotham
Tue 14 Dec 2021
Two Buddhist scholars and the socialist feminist historian join Rana Mitter
-
![]()
Witchcraft and Margaret Murray
Thu 9 Dec 2021
Matthew Sweet and guests look at The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921) and witches now
-
![]()
The TV Debate
Wed 8 Dec 2021
Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr, Germaine Greer v Norman Mailer: Have debates changed?
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
