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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Free Thinking:Homi Bhabha: On Memory and Migration
Wed 15 May 2019
Shahidha Bari talks to Professor Bhabha about his influence on postcolonial studies.
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Rivers and geopolitics
Tue 14 May 2019
Global Dams, Ancient Rome & the Tiber: rivers, power and scarcity
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Sergio Leone, Kubrick, Magic & the Mind.
Fri 10 May 2019
Matthew Sweet talks Spaghetti Westerns w/ Christopher Frayling + conjuring tricks & bias
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Chaucer. Bernardine Evaristo.
Wed 8 May 2019
Anne McElvoy reads a new biography of Chaucer and talks to novelist Bernardine Evaristo.
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Wolfson History Prize Discussion.
Wed 8 May 2019
Rana Mitter and the six shortlisted historians with an audience at the British Academy
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Free Thinking: 1819-The American Model
Tue 7 May 2019
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott.
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Learning about love from Kierkegaard & Socrates. The Wellcome Book Prize
Thu 2 May 2019
A philosopher of love and a philosopher in love
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Landmark: Audre Lorde
Tue 30 Apr 2019
Jackie Kay & Selina Thompson discuss the influential US writer & civil rights activist
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Introducing the 2019 New Generation Thinkers
Thu 25 Apr 2019
From German techno music to the Glasgow ‘rag trade’, divisive dams and democracy's bug
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20 Words for Joy ... Feelings Around the World.
Wed 24 Apr 2019
Aatish Taseer, Veronica Strang and Thomas Dixon at the Free Thinking Festival.
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Does My Pet Love Me?
Tue 23 Apr 2019
A Free Thinking Festival discussion with Nicky Clayton, Erica Fudge & Kim Bard
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The New Age of Sentimentality
Thu 18 Apr 2019
Lisa Appignanesi,Rachel Hewitt & Irenosen Okojie w/ Rana Mitter at Free Thinking Festival
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Why We Need Weepies
Wed 17 Apr 2019
From Bambi and Titanic to EastEnders - Matthew Sweet asks what makes us cry and why?
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The Spirit of a Place: A Free Thinking Royal Society of Literature Discussion
Wed 17 Apr 2019
Alan Johnson, Pascale Petit, Hisham Matar & Peter Pomerantsev join Eleanor Barraclough
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Should Doctors Cry?
Tue 16 Apr 2019
Does emotion have any place in relationships with patients in a more open age?
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The Way We Used To Feel
Wed 10 Apr 2019
From Neanderthals, via Tudor England to Chartists - 4 historians on emotion in the past
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How They Manipulate Our Emotions
Tue 9 Apr 2019
Ad execs, game designers and VR creatives are all toying with our feelings - is that OK?
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'Calm Down Dear' - How Angry Should Politics Get?
Fri 5 Apr 2019
Dr Fern Riddell, Kehinde Andrews, Will Davies & Jo Ann Nadler join Shahidha Bari
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Being Diplomatic
Wed 3 Apr 2019
How much emotion should a diplomat, a news reporter or a conciliation expert show?
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Crimes of Passion: Sophie Hannah, Michael Hughes and David Wilson
Wed 3 Apr 2019
A crime writer, novelist from Northern Ireland and former prison governor compare notes.
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Anxiety and the Teenage Brain
Tue 2 Apr 2019
Stephen Briers, Caroline Dower and Ceyda Uzun join Anne McElvoy at Sage Gateshead.
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Feelings, and Feelings, and Feelings. The Free Thinking Festival Lecture
Mon 1 Apr 2019
Historian of emotions Professor Thomas Dixon, Matthew Sweet & the Sage Gateshead audience
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Whatever happened to Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais?
Wed 27 Mar 2019
Matthew Sweet meets the TV writers of The Likely Lads, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
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Childhood faces and fears
Thu 21 Mar 2019
A history of orphans, fears about brainwashing and portraits on show at Compton Verney
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Empathy
Wed 20 Mar 2019
Authors Max Porter, Samantha Harvey & AK Benjamin discuss empathy with Chris Harding.
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George Szirtes, Valeria Luiselli, Jhumpa Lahiri
Tue 19 Mar 2019
One poet and two writers in conversation about language, migrants and personhood
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Partition, colonial power and the voices of C16th women
Thu 14 Mar 2019
Artist Hew Locke and historians Suzannah Lipscomb, Aanchal Malhotra & Anindya Raychaudhuri
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
