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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Hannah Arendt's exploration of Totalitarianism
Tue 21 Sep 2021
Why do Hannah Arendt's ideas continue to fire the imaginations of artists and thinkers?
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Belonging
Thu 16 Sep 2021
A teacher's view, a Frankenstein-inspired ballet, outside status and circus paintings
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Glitches
Wed 15 Sep 2021
Novelist Tom McCarthy joins Matthew Sweet to explore glitches and what they tell us
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Dante's visions
Tue 14 Sep 2021
Art historian Martin Kemp, painter Emma Safe, parallels with Proust and a Dante website
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Saint John Henry Newman
Thu 29 Jul 2021
Kate Kennedy, Tim Stanley, Catherine Pepinster, Dafydd Mills Daniel on Newman's thought
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Revisit Shoes
Wed 28 Jul 2021
From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos, Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade
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Revisit The influence of the British black arts movement
Tue 27 Jul 2021
Sonia Boyce, Harold Offeh, Isaac Julien and Eddie Chambers talk to Anne McElvoy
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Revisit: Tokyo Idols and Urban Life
Fri 23 Jul 2021
The weird world of teenage girls seeking fame, plus the city in fiction and photography.
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Revisit Rashōmon
Thu 22 Jul 2021
David Peace, Natasha Pulley, Jasper Sharp & Yuna Tasaka on the film + the book behind it
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Bette Davis
Tue 20 Jul 2021
As the BFI prepares a season of films, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star
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Connecting with nature
Mon 19 Jul 2021
Music from thunder, art inspired by a dog walk,essays about a rural wood and a city field
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Alain Robbe-Grillet
Wed 14 Jul 2021
Tom McCarthy and others join Matthew Sweet to discuss the French 'new novel'
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Breathe
Tue 13 Jul 2021
Soweto Kinch, James Nestor, and Imani Jacqueline Brown of Forensic Architecture
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Mining, Coal and DH Lawrence
Thu 8 Jul 2021
Matthew Sweet looks at the connections between mining, the arts, and culture
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Epic Iran, lost cities and Proust
Wed 7 Jul 2021
Rana Mitter and guests explore the art and culture of Iran + why people abandon cities.
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The English country house party
Tue 6 Jul 2021
Why does the grand country house party hold such power over the English imagination?
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Filming Sunday Bloody Sunday
Thu 1 Jul 2021
Glenda Jackson talks to Matthew Sweet about John Schlesinger's 1971 love triangle drama
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New Thinking:The Innovative Shape of Poems
Wed 30 Jun 2021
Sandeep Parmar talks to poets Kayo Chingonyi, Paisley Rekdal and Nasser Hussain
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Cornwall and the Coastal Gothic
Tue 29 Jun 2021
Laurence Scott investigates what's lurking in the rock pools
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World's Fairs and the future
Thu 24 Jun 2021
Visions of the future shaped by empire, politics and unfaltering faith in progress
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Building London
Tue 22 Jun 2021
Eric Parry & Alison Brooks; writers Fiona Mozley & SI Martin; pianist Belle Chen
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Displacement
Wed 16 Jun 2021
Edmund de Waal and Frances Stonor Saunders discuss uncovering Jewish family stories.
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Nadifa Mohamed, Gentle/Radical, Dylan Thomas
Tue 15 Jun 2021
The work of Turner Prize nominees, a Tiger Bay murder story, Under Milk Wood on stage
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How anthropology helps us understand the world
Fri 11 Jun 2021
Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.
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How anthropology helps us understand the world
Fri 11 Jun 2021
Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.
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Beryl Vertue
Wed 9 Jun 2021
Matthew Sweet meets the Sherlock producer and ex agent of Tony Hancock who has turned 90
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
