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 - Landmark: Leaves of Grass
Sun 23 Apr 2017
Poets Mark Doty and Andrew McMillan and Professor Sarah Churchwell on Walt Whitman's poem
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Free Thinking – John Irving
Sat 22 Apr 2017
The author of The Cider House Rules on religion, Mexico and the USA. With Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking - Writers Writing about Love
Fri 21 Apr 2017
Alain de Botton, Tahmima Anam and AL Kennedy talk to Anne McElvoy about love in prose.
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Free Thinking - Taking the Long View with the Animal Kingdom
Thu 13 Apr 2017
Tim Birkhead and Phyllis Lee on long-lived animal species and their survival strategies.
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Free Thinking - My Body Clock is Broken
Wed 12 Apr 2017
Jay Griffiths, Vincent Deary, Louise Robinson and Matthew Smith discuss our mental health
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Free Thinking Festival: Time, Space and Science
Tue 11 Apr 2017
Carlos Frenk, Eugenia Cheng, Jim Al-Khalili and Louisa Preston debate time and space.
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Free Thinking Festival: Writing Life
Mon 10 Apr 2017
Poet Simon Armitage and writer Alexandra Harris explore time and place in modern Britain.
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Free Thinking at Uproot Festival
Fri 7 Apr 2017
Author David Mark and poet Adelle Stripe join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Hull Truck.
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Free Thinking: An interview with Haemin Sunim
Wed 5 Apr 2017
Haemin Sunim, the Buddhist meditation teacher, on calm in a fast-paced 21st century world
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Free Thinking Festival: New Generation Thinkers 2017
Tue 4 Apr 2017
The 2017 New Generation Thinkers make their first public appearance together.
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Free Thinking Festival: Education Slow and Fast
Mon 3 Apr 2017
Tony Sewell and Mike Grenier on the challenges of education in the 21st century.
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Free Thinking Festival: The Time of Your Life
Thu 30 Mar 2017
Edwina Currie, Miranda Sawyer and Lola Okolosie explore the different times of our lives.
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Free Thinking Festival: The Never-Ending Workday
Wed 29 Mar 2017
Sathnam Sanghera, Judy Wajcman, Griselda Togobo and Robert Colvile on time and working.
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Free Thinking Festival: The Speed of Revolution
Tue 28 Mar 2017
Bettany Hughes, Richard J Evans and John Hall join Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage
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Free Thinking Festival: Doing Time/Confinement
Mon 27 Mar 2017
Terry Waite, Erwin James and Cleo Van Velsen on the experience of isolation.
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Free Thinking Festival: Quick Reactions
Thu 23 Mar 2017
Damon Hill,Tanni Grey-Thompson and Lincoln Jopp on pressured decision-making at top speed
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Free Thinking Festival: How Short is a Short Story?
Wed 22 Mar 2017
George Saunders, Kirsty Logan, Jenn Ashworth and Paul McVeigh on writing short fiction.
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Free Thinking Festival: Harriet Harman - Politics Fast and Slow
Tue 21 Mar 2017
Labour MP Harriet Harman on sustaining her career in a fast-changing political world.
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Free Thinking Festival: Faster, Faster, Faster?
Tue 21 Mar 2017
Pinky Lilani, Denise Mina, Jay Griffiths and John Gallagher debate the speed of life.
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Free Thinking: Sleep - Freedom to Think
Fri 17 Mar 2017
Russell Foster, leading neuroscientist, with the Free Thinking lecture, The Speed of Life
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Free Thinking - Rodney Graham at BALTIC, The Amber Collective.
Fri 17 Mar 2017
New Generation Thinker Shahidha Bari visits exhibitions opening in Gateshead and Newcastle
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Free Thinking: Images of America
Wed 15 Mar 2017
As London hosts 2 exhibitions of American art, Anne McElvoy discusses the American Dream.
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Free Thinking - Michael Lewis.
Thu 9 Mar 2017
The New York Times bestselling author is in conversation with Matthew Sweet.
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Free Thinking: Neglected Women: Lady Mary Wroth, Margaret Cavendish, Charlotte Robinson.
Wed 8 Mar 2017
Author Tracy Chevalier and new academic research into women forgotten from history.
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Free Thinking: Landmark: Machiavelli's The Prince
Tue 7 Mar 2017
Sarah Dunant, Erica Benner, MP Gisela Stuart and Catherine Fletcher with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking - Neil Jordan, Flat Time House, Teletubbies
Thu 2 Mar 2017
Author Neil Jordan in a hall of mirrors and artist Laure Prouvost on Flat Time House
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Free Thinking: India/Pakistan: Mohsin Hamid. Gurinder Chadha's Viceroy's House. Preti Taneja and Sam Goodman
Wed 1 Mar 2017
Anne McElvoy and guests look back at 1947, the end of empire and refugees travelling now.
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Free Thinking - Japan Now Festival at the British Library.
Tue 28 Feb 2017
Christopher Harding talks to writers Alex Kerr, Yoko Tawada and filmmaker Momoko Ando.
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Free Thinking: 'Play' in urban design, Gillian Allnutt
Thu 23 Feb 2017
Philip Dodd considers the importance of 'play' in the way our city centres are designed.
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Soil Stories Old and New
Wed 22 Feb 2017
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Jules Pretty, Andrew Scott, Philip Coupland, Matthew Kelly
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
