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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Landmark: Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries
Tue 30 Jan 2018
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
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Burns the Radical; Exploration
Thu 25 Jan 2018
Humboldt as Ecuadorian explorer, plus the territory between Scotland and England.
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Royalty, art and patronage.
Wed 24 Jan 2018
Craig Brown, Afua Hirsch, Robert Jobson, Joe Moshenska, AN Wilson, Philip Dodd on royalty
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Oscar Contenders, Movie Moguls and Silent Film Stars
Tue 23 Jan 2018
Lucy Porter & Steve Massa on women of the silent era, Vanda Krefft on William Fox's life
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Frankenstein and AI now.
Thu 18 Jan 2018
Fiona Sampson, Daisy Hay, Christopher Frayling and David H. Guston with Matthew Sweet.
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French writing and politics
Wed 17 Jan 2018
Leïla Slimani, President Macron's champion of French culture and language, is interviewed
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Australian novelist Peter Carey.
Tue 16 Jan 2018
A car race around Australia is fictionalised in Peter Carey's latest novel + Ovid's tales
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Counterculture and Protest
Thu 11 Jan 2018
Matthew Sweet with Paul Hartnoll, Tony White, Tessa DeCarlo & Paul Cronin on uprisings.
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The In Between
Wed 10 Jan 2018
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough considers airport lounges railway stations and liminal spaces
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Landmark: The Odyssey
Tue 9 Jan 2018
Amit Chaudhuri, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Daniel Mendelsohn and Emily Wilson join Philip Dodd
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The Invention of the Circus Ring
Wed 3 Jan 2018
Matthew Sweet looks at the career of impresario Philip Astley and 250 years of circus
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Rethinking Tradition
Tue 2 Jan 2018
Roger Scruton, Kevin Davey, Kirsty Gunn & Haroon Mirza on tradition & experiment
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A Literary Salon.
Thu 14 Dec 2017
Malika Booker, Neil Brand, Katherine Cooper and Jake Arnott join Matthew Sweet.
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Should We Keep Pets?
Wed 13 Dec 2017
John Bradshaw, Jessica Pierce, Philip Howell and Laura Purcell with Anne McElvoy.
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Landmark - This Sporting Life
Tue 12 Dec 2017
Philip Dodd and his guests on David Storey's 1960 novel set in the world of rugby league
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Many faces of Eve?
Thu 7 Dec 2017
Catherine Fletcher with Stephen Greenblatt, Islam Issa, Jennifer Evans and Sara Read.
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The Joy of Bad Films
Wed 6 Dec 2017
Weathermen member Jonathan Lerner on underground protest & The Disaster Artist reviewed.
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Russia: Totalitarianism and Punishment
Tue 5 Dec 2017
Masha Gessen talks to Philip Dodd about tracing Russian history through four lives.
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Ken Burns – Flash photography - Joy
Thu 30 Nov 2017
The Vietnam War, poetry and flash photography with Ken Burns, Sasha Dugdale & Kate Flint.
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Gentrification
Thu 30 Nov 2017
Essayist Adam Gopnik talks to Shahidha Bari about city living. + artist Lucinda Rogers
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Free Thinking – David Willetts plus does scandal drive social change?
Tue 28 Nov 2017
The Rt Hon Lord David Willetts talks to Philip Dodd about universities in the UK
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Free Thinking – Religious Belief
Thu 23 Nov 2017
Philip Dodd looks at 2000 years of Arab Christians and the modern rise of Pentecostalism.
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Improving or Ruining the Future? Kevin Rudd. Finland 100.
Wed 22 Nov 2017
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith share visions of the future with Rana Mitter. Plus Kevin Rudd.
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Free Thinking – Being Human: Lost and Found in the Archives
Tue 21 Nov 2017
New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari & Laurence Scott report on the Being Human Festival
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Being Human: The Lost Luggage Office, Ghosts and Warrior Poets.
Fri 17 Nov 2017
Matthew Sweet in Canterbury and Portsmouth uncovering stories of the lost and the found.
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Network, Jaron Lanier, Reputations.
Wed 15 Nov 2017
BBC Head of News James Harding reviews a stage version of Paddy Chayefsky's Network.
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Free Thinking: Poetry and Protest Newcastle
Wed 15 Nov 2017
Poetry and protest -Jackie Kay, Fred D'Aguiar and Major Jackson at Newcastle University.
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Russian Art and Exile. Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Mon 13 Nov 2017
Author Boris Akunin and broadcaster and writer Zinovy Zinik talk to Anne McElvoy.
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Landmark – Man with a Movie Camera
Thu 9 Nov 2017
Michael Nyman, Alexei Popogrebsky, Ian Christie and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh on Dziga Vertov
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
