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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Queen Charlotte, fashion and music
Tue 25 Apr 2023
Shahidha Bari and guests on a Royal Collection exhibition and the new Bridgerton spin off
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Hilma af Klint
Thu 20 Apr 2023
The spiritual paintings of the Swedish artist are discussed by Matthew Sweet and guests
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Tartan, Kidnapped and Highland writing
Wed 19 Apr 2023
Tartan at V&A Dundee, RL Stevenson's Kidnapped on stage, the Highland Book prize 2022
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Galatea and Shakespeare
Tue 18 Apr 2023
Trans narratives in pre-Shakespearian drama plus Twelfth Night and the First Folio.
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Caruso, Elsie Houston, Peter Brathwaite
Thu 13 Apr 2023
Exploring the flow of cultural influences in both directions across the Atlantic.
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Ginger Rogers
Wed 12 Apr 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star's dancing, comic timing and "sass".
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Pirates
Tue 11 Apr 2023
From Treasure Island to Kynance Cove, Anne Bonney to Captain Pugwash: Anne McElvoy hosts
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The Rossettis and Walter Pater
Wed 5 Apr 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests visit a Tate Britain show and look at Pater's Renaissance ideas
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Introducing New Generation Thinkers 2023
Tue 4 Apr 2023
Chris Harding meets the 10 academics who will make programmes from their research in 2023
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Translating Cultures
Tue 28 Mar 2023
Composer Alex Ho, novelist Xiaolu Guo, curator George Young and director Anthony Lau
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East Germany
Tue 28 Mar 2023
Katja Hoyer on East Germany, behind the Berlin Wall and the Cold War caricature
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The culture of Albania
Thu 23 Mar 2023
Matthew Sweet is joined by Lea Ypi, Adela Demetja, Ani Kokobobo and Aurel Qirjo
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Busking and Billy Waters
Tue 21 Mar 2023
The early 19th century street performer Billy Waters, Streetwise Opera and street ballads
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The wicked? stepmother
Thu 16 Mar 2023
Ahead of Mother's Day Matthew Sweet and guests discuss new ways of looking at stepmothers
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Decadent Art
Wed 15 Mar 2023
New research into ideas about decadence and connections with France, England and Iran.
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Debt
Tue 14 Mar 2023
As Budget day approaches, Anne McElvoy looks at debt from the South Sea Bubble to Sunak
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Making Your Voice Heard
Wed 8 Mar 2023
Shahidha Bari is joined by Dina Nayeri, Kirsty Sedgman, Michelle Assay and Alberta Whittle
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Anarchism and David Graeber
Tue 7 Mar 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the ideas of American anthropologist (1961-2020).
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Dom Sylvester Houédard
Thu 2 Mar 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests on the career of the C20th concrete poet and Catholic mystic
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Sesame Street and Soviet culture
Thu 2 Mar 2023
Anne McElvoy looks at Russian punk protest + a version of US TV's Big Bird, Bert and Ernie
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Tin cans, cutlery and sewing
Tue 28 Feb 2023
New research into the history of stainless steel cutlery, tinned food and sewing machines
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Ghosts of Caribbean History
Fri 24 Feb 2023
New writing by Colin Grant and Kevin Jared Hosein; art by Mary Evans and Michael Elliott
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Climate change and empire building
Thu 23 Feb 2023
The long history of climate change and empire: historians Nandini Das and Peter Frankopan
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Phaedra, Cretan palaces and the minotaur
Tue 21 Feb 2023
Knossos - birthplace of myths and tragedies - explored by Rana Mitter and Natalie Haynes
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Idrissa Ouédraogo
Thu 16 Feb 2023
The work of the Burkinabé filmmaker explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
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Stories of Love
Tue 14 Feb 2023
Romeo and Juliet reworked, Proust and Rita Mae Brown's coming of age tale Rubyfruit Jungle
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Donkeys
Thu 9 Feb 2023
From Aesop and the bible to the film EO which looks at a donkey born in a Polish circus.
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Lady Macbeth
Wed 8 Feb 2023
From Kurosawa and Shostakovich to Zinnie Harris. New takes on the Scottish play.
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Gwendolyn Brooks
Tue 7 Feb 2023
Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of the Pulitzer prize winning American poet 1917-2000
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
