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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Discrimination
Thu 11 Oct 2018
The lawyer Helena Kennedy joins Shahidha Bari to discuss how British justice fails women.
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Greed and Landownership Past, Present, Future
Thu 11 Oct 2018
Historian Tom Devine, Colombian novelist, Hector Abad and economist Paul Collier
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Drugs and Consciousness
Wed 10 Oct 2018
Does LSD open the doors of perception or just mess with your head?
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A Feminist Take on Medieval History
Sat 6 Oct 2018
How does Chaucer write about rape and consent ? Shahidha Bari with new academic research.
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The Frieze Debate: Museums in the 21st Century
Thu 4 Oct 2018
Michael Govan, Sabine Haag & Hartwig Fischer at the Royal Institution, London.
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Sarah Perry’s Melmoth, Spookiness and Fear.
Wed 3 Oct 2018
The Essex Serpent's author talks to Matthew Sweet about re-imagining the Melmoth myth.
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Gandhi's power, portable citizenship & Indian writing - China's missing film star
Tue 2 Oct 2018
Gandhi's power, portable citizenship & Indian writing with Rana Mitter & Amit Chaudhuri.
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Loss, Grief and Anger
Thu 27 Sep 2018
Lisa Appignanesi; Heather O'Neill; Cherie Dimaline; Pacific Arts Adviser, Jo Walsh
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Slavoj Žižek, Camille Paglia, Flemming Rose
Wed 26 Sep 2018
Philip Dodd and guests explore the value of causing offence.
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The Goodies
Tue 25 Sep 2018
Matthew Sweet meets the trio behind the '70s and early '80s TV comedy show
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What Nietzsche teaches us
Thu 20 Sep 2018
Biographer Sue Prideaux and others discuss Nietzsche's relevance today
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What Camus and Claude Lévi-Strauss teach us
Wed 19 Sep 2018
Being an outsider and learning to think like an outsider
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What St Augustine teaches us
Tue 18 Sep 2018
Anne McElvoy and guests explore ideas of tyranny, martyrdom, sin and grace
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Sebastian Faulks
Thu 13 Sep 2018
The author of Birdsong in conversation with Anne McElvoy about his new novel Paris Echo.
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Women Finding a Voice
Wed 12 Sep 2018
Deborah Frances-White host of The Guilty Feminist pod, Natalie Haynes, Michèle Roberts
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Design
Wed 12 Sep 2018
Including a report from the London Design Biennale and film historian Peter Biskind.
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Landmark Jaws: Sharks and Whales
Mon 20 Aug 2018
Matthew Sweet talks Jaws with shark expert Gareth Fraser and novelist Will Self.
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Howard Jacobson
Thu 12 Jul 2018
Writer Howard Jacobson with a keynote lecture on why we need the novel.
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Helaine Blumenfeld, Dale Harding; Stella Tillyard
Thu 12 Jul 2018
Anne McElvoy and sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld, artist Dale Harding, writer Stella Tillyard
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Philosophical tennis, hidden beaches and Eleanor Marx.
Tue 10 Jul 2018
Matthew Sweet takes a walk around Eleanor Marx's old neighborhood.
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From C18 automata to Superheroes and Digital Living
Fri 6 Jul 2018
Matthew Sweet visits The Marvellous Mechanical Museum at Compton Verney.
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Renzo Piano
Wed 4 Jul 2018
The Italian architect talks to Philip Dodd about his career from the Pompidou to the Shard
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What do you call a stranger? The Caine Prize. NHS ideals.
Wed 4 Jul 2018
Nandini Das and John Gallagher look at words for strangers in Tudor and Stuart England.
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Fun Home, Olivia Laing, Oscar Wilde, The Deer Hunter
Thu 28 Jun 2018
Alison Bechdel's memoir on stage, a novel inspired by Kathy Acker, Oscar Wilde in the USA
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The body, past and present
Thu 28 Jun 2018
Beauty - Renaissance to the present. Chantal Joffe & Heather Widdows with Anne McElvoy
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The Working Lunch and Food in History
Wed 27 Jun 2018
How the Victorians changed lunch, Elsa Richardson and Chris Kissane join Rana Mitter.
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Oliver Rackham and Wildwood Ideas
Thu 21 Jun 2018
The man who loved our trees and woods and new ideas of what they were and might become
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Windrush. Forests in Art. South African Jazz
Thu 21 Jun 2018
Colin Grant Hannah Lowe and Jay Bernard discuss writing about Windrush with Shahidha Bari
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The Word For World Is Forest
Tue 19 Jun 2018
Matthew Sweet reads Ursula Le Guin's novel + Paul Foot Award.
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The Piano and Love
Thu 14 Jun 2018
Debbie Wiseman, Fern Riddell, Frank Tallis and Tiffany Watt Smith join Matthew Sweet.
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
