Arts & Ideas Podcast
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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New Thinking: Dead Languages
Wed 26 Oct 2022
John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of Ancient Pompeii
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Oliver Postgate
Fri 21 Oct 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests on the creator of children's TV classics including The Clangers.
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British Academy Book Prize 2022
Tue 18 Oct 2022
Rana Mitter meets six authors shortlisted for the prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
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Romanticism Revisited
Thu 13 Oct 2022
Coleridge, Fuseli and Emily Bronte under the spotlight as a new film and exhibition open
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The Frieze/Radio 3 Museum Directors Debate 2022
Wed 12 Oct 2022
Anne McElvoy is joined by the directors of three institutions from around the world.
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New Thinking: Accents
Wed 12 Oct 2022
From variations of Mancunian to descriptions of the Geordie voice
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Miles Davis and On The Corner
Tue 11 Oct 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore this genre-stretching album released on 11th Oct 1972
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How We Read
Fri 7 Oct 2022
Our surprisingly complex and mysterious relationship with text explored by Matthew Sweet.
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Female power and influence past and present
Wed 5 Oct 2022
Anne McElvoy talks to novelist Kamila Shamsie and playwright Rona Munro
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My Neighbour Totoro
Tue 4 Oct 2022
Christopher Harding looks at the background and influence of Studio Ghibli's 1988 film
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John Cowper Powys
Thu 29 Sep 2022
John Gray, Iain Sinclair, Margaret Drabble and Kevan Manwaring on 'the Dorset Proust'
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Claude McKay and the Harlem Renaissance
Wed 28 Sep 2022
Authors Nadifa Mohamed, Johny Pitts and Pearl Cleage join Shahidha Bari.
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Ibsen
Mon 26 Sep 2022
New interpretations of the Norwegian dramatist's plays from Lucinda Coxon & Steve Waters.
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The Black Country - past and present
Fri 23 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "the Black Country" region
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The Black Country - past and present
Thu 22 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "The Black Country" region
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The Normans
Wed 21 Sep 2022
Rana Mitter and guests look at Norman history, misconceptions and echoes heard today
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Cuba, cold war and RAF Fylingdales
Tue 20 Sep 2022
Novelist Ian McEwan and researchers into early warning system archives join Anne McElvoy
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Immortality
Fri 16 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet & guests explore ideas about never ending life in literature, film and myth
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The Lindisfarne Gospels and new discoveries
Wed 14 Sep 2022
An archaeologist, a historian and a poet join Shahidha Bari as the gospels return North.
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New Thinking: What language did Columbus speak?
Tue 13 Sep 2022
John Gallagher and guests explore language in the 15th century age of exploration
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1922: The Hollywood Bowl
Tue 6 Sep 2022
From a season of starlit concerts in 1922 to the USA’s principal outdoor concert venue
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1922: The Lincoln Memorial
Fri 2 Sep 2022
Why was Lincoln the president the nation chose to commemorate in 1922?
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Pogroms and Prejudice
Wed 31 Aug 2022
Brendan McGeever looks at anti-Semitism from Russian history to the present day
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Facing Facts
Tue 30 Aug 2022
From duelling injuries to eye patches - Emily Cock asks how we respond to people's faces
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Dam Fever and the Diaspora
Mon 29 Aug 2022
How do large dam projects gain widespread support despite past examples asks Majed Akhter
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Prison Break
Fri 26 Aug 2022
New Generation Thinker Jeffery Howard asks if it is ever ok to escape from prison
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1922: Nanook of the North
Wed 17 Aug 2022
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough looks at this ground-breaking documentary about Arctic life.
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