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 Festival - Rule Breakers or Rule Makers?
Mon 9 Nov 2015
Simon Heffer, Peter Tatchell and Joyce Quin in a Free Thinking Festival debate.
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The Free Thinking Festival Lecture: Claudia Rankine
Mon 9 Nov 2015
Prize-winning poet Claudia Rankine explores language and racism past and present.
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Claudia Rankine—2015 Festival
Fri 6 Nov 2015
Claudia Rankine gives a lecture exploring language and racism past and present.
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Free Thinking - Peggy Seeger
Wed 4 Nov 2015
Peggy Seeger talks to Philip Dodd about her life. Tomorrow she performs in World on 3.
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Free Thinking - Edna O'Brien
Wed 4 Nov 2015
Irish novelist Edna O'Brien in conversation with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking – Putin & Putinism. Salford Lads Club. ‘No Platforming’. Tribute to Philip French.
Tue 3 Nov 2015
Matthew Sweet talks to Garry Kasparov, Stuart Maconie and Julie Bindel.
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Free Thinking - Medical Surgery Past and Present
Thu 29 Oct 2015
Anne McElvoy looks at healthcare past & present with New Generation Thinker Alun Withey
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Free Thinking - Erica Jong. Richard Jones. Ben Bernanke
Thu 29 Oct 2015
Erica Jong on her book "Fear of Dying". Richard Jones on staging The Hairy Ape
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Free Thinking - Witch finding. Marina Warner.
Tue 27 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet and guests including Marina Warner consider the season of the witch.
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Free Thinking - James Bond in Spectre. Nawal El Saadawi; Lord Browne.
Fri 23 Oct 2015
The Egyptian feminist author Nawal El Saadawi on protest. Lord Browne on business.
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Free Thinking - Home. Marilynne Robinson. Edwin Heathcote. Thomas Harding. Imtiaz Dharker
Wed 21 Oct 2015
Marilynne Robinson, Edwin Heathcote, Thomas Harding, Imtiaz Dharker talk ideas of home
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Free Thinking - Richard Mabey; Andrea Wulf on Humboldt; Stanley Nelson on The Black Panthers
Wed 21 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet with The Invention of Nature, The Cabaret of Plants, and The Black Panthers
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Free Thinking - Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta In Conversation at Birmingham Rep
Thu 15 Oct 2015
Meera Syal and Tanika Gupta discuss with Rana Mitter turning Anita and Me into a play.
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Free Thinking - Salman Rushdie. Niall Ferguson on Henry Kissinger.
Wed 14 Oct 2015
Salman Rushdie talks to Philip Dodd. Also historian Niall Ferguson on Henry Kissinger.
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Free Thinking - Man Booker Winner. Weather and Twilight. The Kibbo Kift.
Tue 13 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet on how weather and twilight can make the world strange.
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Free Thinking - Landmark: Leaves of Grass
Thu 8 Oct 2015
For National Poetry Day, Matthew Sweet explores Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
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Free Thinking - Free Speech on Campus. Acting Arthur Miller
Wed 7 Oct 2015
Zoë Wanamaker, Antony Sher and David Suchet discuss acting Arthur Miller with Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking - Suffragette. Thatcherism and Conservatism now. James Fenton.
Tue 6 Oct 2015
James Fenton on his poetic career. Suffragette reviewed. Mrs Thatcher's legacy discussed.
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Free Thinking - James Shapiro, Macbeth on Film, Barrie Keeffe, East End museum
Thu 1 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet looks at Macbeth on film and talks to Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro.
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Free Thinking - Populism. Romola Garai on Measure for Measure.
Wed 30 Sep 2015
Philip Dodd presents a discussion about populism in politics and culture.
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Free Thinking - Margaret Atwood, Yuval Harari, Celts
Fri 25 Sep 2015
Rana Mitter interviews novelist Margaret Atwood, Professor Yuval Harari and reviews Celts
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Free Thinking - Edmund de Waal, Orhan Pamuk
Thu 24 Sep 2015
Ceramicist Edmund de Waal and author Orhan Pamuk are in conversation with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking - Autism, The Financial Crisis, The Fallen Woman: 22 September 15
Wed 23 Sep 2015
Steve Silberman on attitudes to autism, Gillian Tett on silos, Lynda Nead on fallen woman
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Free Thinking - Everything That You Never Knew About Indian History
Thu 17 Sep 2015
Rana Mitter explores new research into India in the second world war and the British Raj
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Free Thinking - Emotion in Art - Frederick Forsyth: 15 September 15
Wed 16 Sep 2015
Frederick Forsyth discusses spy fiction and fact and Matthew Sweet explores our emotions.
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William Kentridge and William Boyd
Tue 15 Sep 2015
South African artist William Kentridge and novelist William Boyd talk to Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking - Chalke Valley History Festival: 16 July 15
Wed 15 Jul 2015
Anne McElvoy discusses heroic triumph and failure with a trio of eminent historians
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Free Thinking - Bryan Stevenson, Slunglow Camelot, Go Set A Watchman, Utopia at the Roundhouse: 15 July 15
Wed 15 Jul 2015
Philip Dodd discusses Camelot: The Shining City and reviews the new Harper Lee
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Free Thinking - French Thought - The prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer - French rom-com
Thu 9 Jul 2015
Anne McElvoy on French intellectual traditions & rom-com; prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer
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Free Thinking - Legal Aid, Law, Language and Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr: 8 July 15
Wed 8 Jul 2015
Philip Dodd discusses Legal Aid, Law, Language and Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr
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
