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 - Stuart Hall
Mon 17 Feb 2014
To mark the death of cultural historian Stuart Hall, another chance to hear his with...
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Free Thinking - Literary Heroines
Thu 13 Feb 2014
Ofsted chair Sally Morgan and Tim Montgomerie debate Ed Miliband's speech about parent...
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Free Thinking - Atheism and Belief
Wed 12 Feb 2014
Two books published this month include the idea of "the death of God" in their titles:...
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Free Thinking - Spike Jonze's Her
Tue 11 Feb 2014
Spike Jonze's new film Her depicts a writer developing a relationship with his system...
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Free Thinking - Hanif Kureishi
Thu 6 Feb 2014
Hanif Kureishi's career has included screenplays My Beautiful Launderette, Venus, Me...
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Free Thinking - First World War, Empathy
Wed 5 Feb 2014
Matthew Sweet revisits Alan Bleasdale's 1986 World War One TV series The Monocled by...
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Free Thinking - Christine Lagarde
Tue 4 Feb 2014
As International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde gives this year’s Anne...
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Free Thinking - Ukraine and Russia
Thu 30 Jan 2014
Anne McElvoy on unrest in Ukraine and the state of dissent in Russia today with Boris...
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Free Thinking - Australia
Tue 28 Jan 2014
Christos Tsiolkas, Germaine Greer and the Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson talk about the...
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Free Thinking - Feminism in Theatre
Tue 28 Jan 2014
American novelist Jonathan Lethem discusses the singer Pete Seeger, whose death has...
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Free Thinking - Derek Jarman
Thu 23 Jan 2014
The actor Simon Russell Beale discusses playing the role of King Lear.
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Free Thinking: Japanese History, Chinese Democarcy
Wed 22 Jan 2014
Zhang Weiwei, one of China's foremost public intellectuals, talks to Rana Mitter about...
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Free Thinking - Suicide discussion
Tue 21 Jan 2014
Matthew Sweet discusses the way we talk about suicide with Jennifer Michael Hecht, of...
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Free Thinking - Steve McQueen
Thu 16 Jan 2014
Matthew Sweet talks to director Steve McQueen about his new film '12 Years A Slave' of...
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Free Thinking - Girls & Constitution
Wed 15 Jan 2014
Samira Ahmed looks at the appeal of Lena Dunham's US TV series Girls with comedian and...
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Free Thinking - T S Eliot prize
Tue 14 Jan 2014
Sinead Morrissey is the winner of this year's T S Eliot Prize for her anthology Parallax.
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Free Thinking - Liberal England
Thu 9 Jan 2014
As part of BBC Radio 3's Music on the Brink season Professor Roy Foster, the and Nick...
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Free Thinking - Robert Musil
Wed 8 Jan 2014
Joining Matthew Sweet for a Landmark discussion about Robert Musil's book, The Man its...
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Free Thinking - Brink of War
Tue 7 Jan 2014
As part of Radio 3's Music on the Brink, Free Thinking takes the cultural temperature...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Penny Woolcock
Wed 20 Nov 2013
Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's of...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Whose Strife
Thu 14 Nov 2013
Whose Strife Is It Anyway? Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan of the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Audiences
Tue 12 Nov 2013
In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Who's Got Hold of Children's Imaginations?
Fri 8 Nov 2013
As we strive to protect our children’s imaginations from negative influences, are we...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Therapy Versus Prayer
Fri 8 Nov 2013
Is the idea of counselling as non-judgmental listening flawed? New Generation Thinker...
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Free Thinking 2013 - The Countryside
Thu 7 Nov 2013
Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Science and Sensibility
Wed 6 Nov 2013
Today many scientists are engaged in exploring the interaction between logical and of...
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Free Thinking - John Waters
Wed 6 Nov 2013
John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His "Trash Trilogy" involved with...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Alice Hall
Tue 5 Nov 2013
Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and phone apps have changed the way we share our lives, to an...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Controlling Moods and Minds
Mon 4 Nov 2013
What is the neuroscience of depression, how does it affect decision-making, and what a...
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Free Thinking 2013 - How on Earth
Thu 31 Oct 2013
In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant on we...
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
