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 - Everyman
Wed 29 Apr 2015
Philip Dodd reports on the first night of Carol Ann Duffy's new adaptation of Everyman...
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Free Thinking - Alberto Manguel
Tue 28 Apr 2015
Matthew Sweet interviews Alberto Manguel about his new book, Curiosity.
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Free Thinking - English Civil War
Thu 23 Apr 2015
As Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is revived at The National's how...
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Free Thinking - Global Shakespeare
Wed 22 Apr 2015
Philip Dodd explores what a world view of Shakespeare means. Guests include Globe from...
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Free Thinking - Caryl Phillips
Tue 21 Apr 2015
Caryl Phillips talks to Matthew Sweet about his new novel The Lost Child which...
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Free Thinking Landmark - The Tin Drum
Thu 16 Apr 2015
Anne McElvoy is joined by the German novelist Eugen Ruge, British author Lawrence the...
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Free Thinking - Violence in Culture
Wed 15 Apr 2015
Philip Dodd considers violence in culture with crime writer Frances Fyfield, historian...
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Free Thinking - Mexico in Words
Tue 14 Apr 2015
As Mexico takes centre stage at London's Book Fair Matthew Sweet speaks to two of the...
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Free Thinking - Neuroscience
Thu 9 Apr 2015
Rana Mitter discusses a new model for understanding the brain, with researcher and...
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Free Thinking - The Way We Live Now
Wed 8 Apr 2015
This evening Free Thinking is devoted to one of the pinnacles of Victorian England –...
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Free Thinking - Nick Broomfield
Tue 7 Apr 2015
With the publication of the widest survey of sexual behaviour since the Kinsey Report,...
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Free Thinking - Patricia Duncker
Thu 2 Apr 2015
Patricia Duncker talks to Anne McElvoy about her new novel which imagines George with...
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Free Thinking - Public and private art
Wed 1 Apr 2015
In this programme about private and public art, Philip Dodd talks to Nicholas Penny,...
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Free Thinking - Blade Runner
Tue 31 Mar 2015
As Ridley Scott's science fiction extravaganza, Blade Runner is re-released, Matthew...
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Free Thinking - Cosmopolitanism/Nation State
Thu 26 Mar 2015
Philip Dodd continues his exploration of the culture wars by investigating the tension...
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Free Thinking - Peggy Seeger
Wed 25 Mar 2015
Philip Dodd talks to one of the icons of what used to be called the counter-culture,...
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Free Thinking - Secularism & Religion
Tue 24 Mar 2015
In the first of three programmes exploring fractures and faultlines in contemporary...
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Free Thinking - School Report
Thu 19 Mar 2015
Anne McElvoy hears from young people involved in the BBC's School Report Day.
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Free Thinking - Sociology in the 21 century
Wed 18 Mar 2015
Does the discipline of Sociology still have a role to play in the 21st century?To we...
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Free Thinking - Madness/Civilisation
Tue 17 Mar 2015
Matthew Sweet talks to Andrew Scull, author of Madness in Civilisation and Lisa about...
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Free Thinking - Tom McCarthy
Thu 12 Mar 2015
Anne McElvoy looks at what we mean by the idea of fairness. She also talks to novelist...
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Free Thinking - Hanif Kureishi
Wed 11 Mar 2015
An extended interview in which Philip Dodd is joined by novelist, screenwriter and...
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Free Thinking - Age of Earthquakes
Tue 10 Mar 2015
Douglas Coupland, Shumon Basar and Hans Ulrich Obrist explain the Extreme Present to...
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Free Thinking - Kazuo Ishiguro
Thu 5 Mar 2015
Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro talks to Anne McElvoy about his latest book – The Buried Giant.
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Free Thinking - Against Democracy
Wed 4 Mar 2015
Churchill famously commented that ‘democracy is the worst form of government, except...
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Free Thinking - John Gray
Tue 3 Mar 2015
John Gray talks to Matthew Sweet about why the Aztecs might have had a better of than...
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Free Thinking - David Cohen prize
Thu 26 Feb 2015
Rana Mitter talks to Tony Harrison, the winner of the biennial David Cohen prize - one...
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Free Thinking - Social Identity
Wed 25 Feb 2015
Philip Dodd looks at the value of the arts with the former Chief Scientific Advisor to...
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Free Thinking - Paul Foot Award
Tue 24 Feb 2015
As this year's Paul Foot Awards are announced for campaigning and investigative Anne...
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Free Thinking - David Grossman
Thu 19 Feb 2015
Matthew Sweet talks to the Israeli novelist David Grossman about his book Falling Out...
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
