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 2013 - Power to the People
Wed 30 Oct 2013
Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public and...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Sarah Peverley
Tue 29 Oct 2013
A 15th-century English monarch was appointed by God and had absolute supremacy but how...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Zamyatin's We
Tue 29 Oct 2013
Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable was...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Are We at a Tipping Point? Controlling Infection and Combatting Disea
Mon 28 Oct 2013
Increasing resistance to antibiotics is a threat to Britain which could be as as...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Boneless, Bloodaxe and Hairy Breeches: What Did the Vikings Ever Do f
Mon 28 Oct 2013
When Lindisfarne monastery was attacked in 793AD the monk Alcuin described the church...
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R3 Arts: Free Thinking 2013 - Michael Marmot
Fri 25 Oct 2013
Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking 2013,...
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Free Thinking - Michael Grigsby
Tue 22 Oct 2013
In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet examines...
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Free Thinking in the Summer - Derry-Londonderry
Mon 21 Oct 2013
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity...
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Free Thinking in the Summer
Wed 10 Jul 2013
Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on whether we can afford...
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Free Thinking in the Summer - Chalke
Thu 4 Jul 2013
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity...
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Free Thinking in the Summer - Hay
Wed 3 Jul 2013
Philip Dodd discusses the Problem with Love with behavioural scientist Dylan Evans, AL...
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Free Thinking in the Summer
Wed 26 Jun 2013
Rana Mitter chairs a Free Thinking debate from the annual 12-hour My Night With at the...
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Free Thinking in the Summer
Tue 18 Jun 2013
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas hits the road this summer as it...
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Night Waves - Peter Brook
Wed 15 May 2013
Matthew Sweet talks to Peter Brook. The theatre director has had a lifelong with which...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Aliens
Mon 18 Feb 2013
Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think it...
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Free Thinking - Philippa Gregory
Thu 20 Dec 2012
Best-selling novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Rana Mitter about writing historical...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Lindsay Johns
Thu 13 Dec 2012
Columnist and youth worker Lindsay Johns argues that we should stop listening to the a...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Colm Tóibín
Thu 6 Dec 2012
Colm Toibin is one of Ireland's finest writers, whose books explore issues such as and...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Ian Goldin
Thu 29 Nov 2012
Economist Ian Goldin gives a talk on Globalisation and the Future at Radio 3's Free...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Revolution and Democracy
Thu 22 Nov 2012
What kind of societies will the Arab Spring give birth to? Democratic, Capitalist, or...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Aliens
Wed 21 Nov 2012
Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think it...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Julie Bindel
Tue 20 Nov 2012
Julie Bindel gives a talk arguing that sexuality is a choice at the Radio 3 Free...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Mark Pagel
Fri 16 Nov 2012
Why have humans evolved to speak so many incomprehensible languages? Why do we work by...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Matthew Smith
Fri 16 Nov 2012
Matthew Smith, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers, explores why the simple has...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Sue-Ann Harding
Thu 15 Nov 2012
Sue-Ann Harding, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk in which she...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Immigration and the Challenge to Belonging
Thu 15 Nov 2012
What does it mean to belong? Multiculturalism, integration and social division are of...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Joshua Nall
Wed 14 Nov 2012
Joshua Nall, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the Victorian 3...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Vicky Featherstone
Wed 14 Nov 2012
As Scotland heads towards a referendum on independence, Vicky Featherstone discusses a...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Nandini Das
Tue 13 Nov 2012
Nandini Das, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the 16th craze...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Rewriting World History
Tue 13 Nov 2012
Does World History still mean Western History, or do we need a radical new of the To...
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
