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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Landmark: The Yorkshire Feminist Winifred Holtby
Thu 24 Oct 2019
Matthew Sweet is joined by Rachel Reeves MP, Jane Thomas and Katie Cooper in Hull.
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What to Believe
Wed 23 Oct 2019
Rana Mitter and guests have a look at the history of faith, doubt, economics and art.
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New Thinking: First Encounters
Wed 23 Oct 2019
Why we need to rethink the stories we tell of Columbus, Pocahontas & the English in India
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Frieze Free Thinking Museums Debate
Tue 22 Oct 2019
Museum directors from Asia and France join Anne McElvoy and an audience at RIBA.
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2019 Booker Prize, The Power of Ancient Artefacts
Wed 16 Oct 2019
Prehistory with Mike Pitts & Renee So, plus Alex Clark & Tinuke Craig
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East Meets West
Thu 10 Oct 2019
Orientalism now with Fatima Bhutto, Ziauddin Sardar, Tom Holland, and artist Inci Eviner.
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Myth making, satire and Caryl Churchill
Thu 10 Oct 2019
Monsters and myths in the art of Gerald Scarfe and Kiki Smith + Caryl Churchill's plays.
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Modern Dutch Writing
Wed 9 Oct 2019
Laurence Scott looks at the way Dutch writers are addressing history & contemporary life
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The Frieze Masters Free Thinking Conversation about Art
Tue 8 Oct 2019
Michael Govan Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art talks art with Philip Dodd
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Rebecca Solnit, Truth, National Poetry Day.
Thu 3 Oct 2019
Who holds the power? The US activist and author Rebecca Solnit talks to Shahidha Bari.
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New Thinking: Places of Poetry & The Colonial Countryside Project
Thu 3 Oct 2019
Incl a Welsh castle w/ more Mughal Art than India's National Museum - a new UK poem map
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From The Spains to LatinX
Wed 2 Oct 2019
Rana Mitter talks to Jason Webster, Ed Morales, Iain Sinclair and Iwona Blazwick.
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Surveillance, Conspiracy, and Secrets from the Archives
Sun 29 Sep 2019
Matthew Sweet on surveillance capitalism, The Third Man, and Stieg Larsson's obsessions
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Anxiety
Thu 26 Sep 2019
Comedian Sofie Hagen, Colombian novelist Héctor Abad & Isabel Hardman join Shahidha Bari.
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Back to the '80s
Fri 20 Sep 2019
Alexei Sayle and Adam Mars Jones join Matthew Sweet to revisit '80s film, tv and music
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Landmark: Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation
Wed 18 Sep 2019
Lauren Elkin, Lisa Appignanesi and Ben Moser on Susan Sontag's 1966 essay collection.
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Tolerance, censorship and free speech.
Tue 17 Sep 2019
Susan Neiman, Ursula Owen & Christopher Hampton join Anne McElvoy.
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New Thinking: Fashion, AI and Sustainability
Mon 16 Sep 2019
The Future Fashion Factory and changing our attitude to #fastfashion. Plus AI and colours
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Proms Plus: Witches & Witchcraft
Fri 13 Sep 2019
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr Thomas Waters in discussion with Dr Fern Riddell
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Revisit Anxiety, Teenagers, University and Leaving Home
Thu 12 Sep 2019
Psychologist Stephen Briers, student Ceyda Uzun and Durham Univeristy's Caroline Dower
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Proms Plus: Letters
Wed 11 Sep 2019
Ruth Ware and Shaun Usher discuss letter writing in the 21st century
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Proms Plus: Sacrifice
Mon 2 Sep 2019
Why the bible story of Jephtha caused more controversy than your average burnt offering.
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Proms Plus: Landscape
Tue 27 Aug 2019
Horatio Clare and Testament discuss landscape’s power to inspire writers
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Proms Plus: Nina Simone's life and legacy
Thu 22 Aug 2019
Nina Simone’s achievement with Kevin Legendre, Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Zena Edwards
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Proms Plus: Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Seán Williams explores Beethoven’s 9th and Schiller’s accompanying text, An Ode to Joy.
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Proms Plus: Kipling's Jungle Books
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Anindya Raychaudhuri discusses Kipling's Jungle Books with Frances Hardinge and Sue Walsh
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Proms Plus: Russian Folktales
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Marina Warner & Sophie Anderson enter a world of walking huts and fish that grant wishes
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Revisit Slavery Stories, William Melvyn Kelley & Esi Edugyan
Sun 18 Aug 2019
Laurence Scott meets the family of a rediscovered African American writer & 3 historians
