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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The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: David Abulafia, Hallie Rubenhold, Prashant Kidambi
Mon 18 May 2020
From Indian cricket, a survey of the oceans to Jack the Ripper: 3 shortlisted historians.
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Revisit: 2019 Wolfson History Prize Discussion
Thu 14 May 2020
Rana Mitter with the 6 shortlisted historians and an audience at the British Academy
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The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: Toby Green, Marion Turner, John Barton
Wed 13 May 2020
New takes on Chaucer, the Bible and African trading from 3 of the historians shortlisted.
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WW II radio propaganda & French relations
Wed 6 May 2020
From a gratitude train to the sinister broadcasts to US soldiers. Matthew Sweet presents.
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Revisit: Encylopedias and Knowledge from Diderot to Wikipedia
Mon 4 May 2020
Jimmy Wales talks Diderot & collecting knowledge + Tariq Godard on Mark Fisher aka k-punk
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Revisit: Mark Haddon
Wed 29 Apr 2020
As it comes out in paperback, Mark Haddon talks to Anne McElvoy about The Porpoise.
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Cary Grant
Wed 29 Apr 2020
Matthew Sweet talks to Pamela Hutchinson, Charlotte Crofts & Mark Glancy.
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Revisit: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Wed 22 Apr 2020
Tony Juniper, Emily Shuckburgh, Dieter Helm and Kapka Kassabova join Rana Mitter at Hay
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Alternative Realities
Tue 21 Apr 2020
Shahidha Bari explores the impact of life changing experiences & the fourth dimension
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Revisit: Shakespeare's Bookshelf
Thu 16 Apr 2020
Edith Hall, Nandini Das and Beatrice Groves on the books Shakespeare would have read.
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Deep Time and the Earth
Thu 9 Apr 2020
Lewis Dartnell, Gaia Vince and David Farrier join Rana Mitter to look at deep ecology.
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Belonging
Wed 8 Apr 2020
Philip Dodd talks to actor Christopher Eccleston and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards
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New Thinking: Religion and ordinary lives
Tue 7 Apr 2020
Tom Charlton looks for evidence of belief from samplers to children's scribbles in bibles
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Revisit: What does game playing teach us
Sat 4 Apr 2020
From a Mesopotamian game to Scrabble, Shahidha Bari discusses competition and gaming.
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New Thinking: Wordsworth
Tue 31 Mar 2020
Professors Sally Bushell & Simon Bainbridge talk to New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson
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The Declaration Of Arbroath
Wed 25 Mar 2020
Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the early medieval document and Scottish politics today
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How do we build a new masculinity ?
Tue 24 Mar 2020
Sunil Gupta, CN Lester, Tom Shakespeare & Alona Pardo with Matthew Sweet
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What's so great about EM Forster
Mon 23 Mar 2020
Deborah Levy and Laurence Scott talk to Shahidha Bari about the English novelist's work.
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Future Thinking
Fri 20 Mar 2020
Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen, Riel Miller, Sarah Dillon & Rupert Read with Matthew Sweet
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Contagion and Viruses
Thu 19 Mar 2020
Matthew Sweet talks to John Dupré , Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen & Matt Adams
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Shoes
Thu 19 Mar 2020
From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos - Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade
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New Thinking: Science Fiction
Wed 18 Mar 2020
Hetta Howes, Caroline Edwards & Amy Butt ask is science fiction the new realism?
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Does Growth Matter?
Tue 17 Mar 2020
Is the economic future all about growth? Danny Dorling discusses Slowdown.
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Slebs: Warhol, Beaton and celebrity culture
Thu 12 Mar 2020
Lisa Mullen, Caroline Frost and historian & podcast host Greg Jenner join Matthew Sweet
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Advertising & Artemisia
Wed 11 Mar 2020
Considering how women have shaped art and advertising and new feminist writing in Korea.
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Fighting Women
Tue 10 Mar 2020
How women have fought on the frontline from antiquity to the present day
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Jewish Identity in 2020
Fri 6 Mar 2020
Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman, and Jonathan Freedland join Matthew Sweet.
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Storm Jameson - women writers to put back on the bookshelf
Thu 5 Mar 2020
Yorkshire-born writer with a European outlook who campaigned for World War Two refugees.
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