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: Soviet Histories: Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Wed 8 Nov 2017
Svetlana Alexeivich on Soviet oral history as literature and Stephen Kotkin on Stalin.
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The pros and cons of Swearing.
Fri 3 Nov 2017
Comedian Janey Godley, historian John Gallagher, author Emma Byrne, poet Bridget Minamore
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Benjamin Britten and Radio
Wed 1 Nov 2017
David Hendy, Glyn Maxwell, Kate Kennedy and Lucy Walker with an audience at Aldeburgh.
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Jonathan Swift at 350. Black and White Art. History of British nature writing.
Tue 31 Oct 2017
Anne McElvoy on art from monochrome religious painting to a yellow light filled room...
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Forgotten authors, cult fiction and The Prisoner
Thu 26 Oct 2017
Director Alex Cox, Christopher Fowler, Clare Walker Gore & Lynda Nead with Matthew Sweet
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Free Thinking: Young Marx, Yanis Varoufakis and Ruth Lea and Tara Bergin
Thu 26 Oct 2017
Yanis Varoufakis with Philip Dodd. Plus the new play from Richard Bean and Clive Coleman
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Harry Potter. Tim O'Reilly. Tove Jansson.
Wed 25 Oct 2017
Web guru Tim O'Reilly; the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson
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Free Thinking: Landmark: Marnie
Wed 18 Oct 2017
Matthew Sweet with an exploration of memory and Winston Graham's novel/Hitchcock's film
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The Man Booker Prize. Mike Bartlett. Is Small Beautiful?
Tue 17 Oct 2017
Dr Foster writer Mike Bartlett on his new play Albion plus the rise of small nations.
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Pacific Rim politics; Ronan Bennett; Sjon
Thu 12 Oct 2017
Rana Mitter hosts a debate on relations between Japan, US and China.
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Jewish history, jokes and contemporary identity. Michael Longley
Wed 11 Oct 2017
Simon Schama and Devorah Baum discuss Jewishness
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Salman Rushdie. Uncertainty
Tue 10 Oct 2017
Novelists Salman Rushdie and Lionel Shriver plus Marcus Chown and Rachel Hewitt.
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Free Thinking - Blade Runner. Ghost Stories
Thu 5 Oct 2017
Matthew Sweet watches a vision of Los Angeles 2049 & visits haunted places in Portsmouth
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Free Thinking - Alan Hollinghurst
Wed 4 Oct 2017
The former Booker Prize winner talks to Anne McElvoy and a Proms Extra audience.
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Free Thinking: The importance of networks; the art of dance.
Tue 3 Oct 2017
Niall Ferguson argues for a less hierarchical history. Degas' images of the human body.
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Landmark: Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress
Thu 28 Sep 2017
Michael Symmons Roberts, Helen Mort and Stewart Mottram join Matthew Sweet in Hull.
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Simon Heffer. Social Conservatism. Sibelius. D'Oyly Carte.
Thu 28 Sep 2017
Rana Mitter and guests look back to Edwardian England and at conservative thinking now.
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Kamila Shamsie: John Kasmin. Dido
Tue 26 Sep 2017
Philip Dodd looks at postcards of beggars, the love and scorn of Dido and radicalisation.
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Free Thinking. Bernard MacLaverty. Immigration. Christian destruction of Classical World
Thu 21 Sep 2017
The Northern Irish author of Cal talks to Anne McElvoy about his new novel Midwinter Break
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Testosterone. The grey zone. Indian science.
Wed 20 Sep 2017
Jahnavi Phalkey, Matt Kimberley, Richard Fortey, Adrian Owen & Cordelia Fine.
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Diplomacy: Sir John Jenkins, Gabrielle Rifkind, Michael Burleigh, Dr Beyza Unal.
Wed 20 Sep 2017
Philip Dodd and guests explore the art of negotiation and discuss JT Rogers' play Oslo.
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Free Thinking: Russian Nationalism. Scythians. Hull and Port Talbot on stage.
Fri 15 Sep 2017
Anne McElvoy talks to Anne Applebaum about Russian and Ukrainian history.
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Free Thinking: Social Conservatism, Kathe Kollwitz and John Ashbery
Thu 14 Sep 2017
Art and irony - Philip Dodd and Joanna Kavenna on the Käthe Kollwitz show in Birmingham
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Free Thinking: Washing in public. Sir Peter Hall (1930 - 2017)
Tue 12 Sep 2017
Public pools, the "steamie" and the Turkish bath are explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
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Free Thinking: Landmark: Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy
Thu 13 Jul 2017
Simon Heffer and Tiffany Jenkins join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Sussex University.
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Free Thinking: Art in the Age of Black Power; History of Racist Ideas in US
Wed 12 Jul 2017
Rana Mitter and Linton Kwesi Johnson and Ibram X Kendi
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Free Thinking - Queer Icons: Plato's Symposium. Part of Gay Britannia.
Tue 11 Jul 2017
Shahidha Bari discusses LGBTQ in the history of philosophy + the Caine Prize winner
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Free Thinking – Writing Love: Jonathan Dollimore, Heer Ranjha. Queer Icons: Sappho. Part of Gay Britannia
Thu 6 Jul 2017
The Punjabi "Romeo and Juliet"; and founding the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence
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Free Thinking – Philip Hoare and Elizabeth Jane Burnett on wild swimming. Jake Arnott on Joe Orton
Wed 5 Jul 2017
Philip Hoare and Elizabeth Jane Burnett swim in the literary and poetic power of the sea
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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
