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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The mermaid-like Mélusine
Fri 3 Feb 2023
The fish-tailed woman of medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
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The English Civil War
Tue 31 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter talks about politics, religion and divisions in 17th-century England.
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Holocaust Memorial Day 2023
Thu 26 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet looks at the experiences of Portuguese Jewish and Roma communities.
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William Stukeley
Wed 25 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter considers the life and legacy of the first person to survey Stonehenge
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Aztecs and Otherness
Tue 24 Jan 2023
Caroline Dodds Pennock discusses how Aztecs, Inuit, Mayans and others discovered Europe.
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Audrey Hepburn
Thu 19 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet marks the 30th anniversary of the death of this icon of film and fashion.
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Higher Education for women and working class students
Wed 18 Jan 2023
Anne McElvoy hosts a conversation about higher education and the history of its expansion
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The Wife of Bath
Tue 17 Jan 2023
Marion Turner talks to Shahidha Bari about different versions of Chaucer's heroine
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Phillis Wheatley
Thu 12 Jan 2023
The enslaved African American woman, Phillis Wheatley who became a celebrated poet.
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Anna Kavan
Wed 11 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet reads Ice and other works of this experimental writer who died in 1968
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Katherine Mansfield & Mavis Gallant
Fri 6 Jan 2023
Claire Harman, Kirsty Gunn, Laurence Scott and Shahidha Bari discuss short story writing
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Amílcar Cabral
Fri 6 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter and guests discuss the pan-Africanist poet and anti-colonial leader.
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Wilkie Collins & disability
Thu 5 Jan 2023
How the Victorian author’s own pain and drug dependency fed into his sensational novels.
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Landladies
Fri 16 Dec 2022
Historical accounts and fictional depictions of the women who ran boarding houses.
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Depicting AIDS in Drama
Thu 8 Dec 2022
Russell T Davies, Jill Nalder, Sabina Dosani and Matthew Sweet recorded with an audience
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Trapeze acts and circus celebrities
Wed 7 Dec 2022
Shahidha Bari hears about the aerialists Lillian Leitzel and Pablo Fanque.
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New Thinking: Language, the Victorians and Us
Tue 6 Dec 2022
From Lancashire dialect protest poetry to Hardy's Dorset vowels. John Gallagher hosts.
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How do we look at Art?
Wed 30 Nov 2022
Catherine Fletcher with Vid Simoniti; Cleo Hanaway-Oakley; Lamin Fofana and Sally Booth
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Soil, Chickens and City Farms
Tue 29 Nov 2022
Ahead of world soil day, Anne McElvoy looks at changes to both rural and urban farming.
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Star Trek
Fri 25 Nov 2022
Matthew Sweet with George Takei, Naomi Alderman, Una McCormack and José-Antonio Orosco
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Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment
Thu 24 Nov 2022
Stephen Frears, Matthew Reisz & Lucy Bolton join Matthew Sweet to look at this 1966 film.
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Arabian queens, Bangladeshi mothers and women's tales
Wed 23 Nov 2022
From the Arabian nights to refugee stories - female voices fictional and real
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St Teresa/Vivekananda/Nietzsche
Tue 22 Nov 2022
Rana Mitter discusses three major theorists of religion and self-development
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Going Underground
Tue 22 Nov 2022
Shahidha Bari and guests discuss caves: from Nottingham to Borneo, in art and stories.
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Experimental writing
Tue 22 Nov 2022
Shahidha Bari, Matthew Herbert, the Goldsmith Prize winners and poet Stephen Sexton
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New Thinking: Breakthroughs at Being Human 2022
Tue 22 Nov 2022
Benjamin Franklin in the Lakes, the former slave who invented light bulbs, ganzflicker
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Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu
Fri 18 Nov 2022
Jane Smiley, Christopher Prendergast, Jayne Haynes, Marie Darrieussecq with Matthew Sweet
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
