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 Hard Man in the Call-Centre
Fri 21 Jun 2019
Alistair Fraser on the fates and fortunes of Glaswegian tough guys
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'Bedford, do you call this thing a coat?' The history of the three-piece suit
Thu 20 Jun 2019
Sarah Goldsmith on an immortal trio jacket, waistcoat and trousers
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Catch 22, Recycling fashion, Fred D'Aguiar, Wu Mali
Thu 20 Jun 2019
Anne McElvoy watches George Clooney in Catch-22 on TV and looks at recycling fashion.
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Comrades in Arms
Wed 19 Jun 2019
Tom Smith on the East German Military's fascination with its soldiers' sexuality
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Landmark: Finnegans Wake
Wed 19 Jun 2019
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss James Joyce's experimental novel.
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Sword to Pen. Redcoat and the rise of the military memoir
Tue 18 Jun 2019
Emma Butcher on the publishing phenomenon that was the traumatised 19th c Redcoat
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The well-groomed Georgian
Mon 17 Jun 2019
Alun Withey on what made 18th-century men shave off centuries of manly growth
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Afropean Identities. Filming the Arab Spring.
Fri 14 Jun 2019
Johny Pitts and Caryl Phillips discuss the idea of Afropean identity with Matthew Sweet.
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Michael Rakowitz, Archaeology Now, Epic Journeys and Facial Disfigurement
Wed 12 Jun 2019
Artist, archaeologists, a writer and a historian of the face make the invisible visible
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Breaking Down the Barriers
Tue 11 Jun 2019
The cultural contribution of Muslim women and Rana Mitter talks to artist John Keane
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Orwell's 1984. A Landmark of Culture.
Thu 6 Jun 2019
Matthew Sweet explores what fed into Orwell's future vision & how our own is shaping up.
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Is the Law keeping up with our changing world?
Wed 5 Jun 2019
A panel of researchers share insights into the law and warfare, gender and AI
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AI and creativity: what makes us human?
Tue 4 Jun 2019
A discussion hosted by Matthew Sweet at the Barbican's exhibition AI More Than Human
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Simon Schama, Siri Hustvedt, Catherine Fletcher at Hay.
Thu 30 May 2019
Rana Mitter discusses writing on art from Da Vinci and Rembrandt to Louise Bourgeois.
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Landmark: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Wed 29 May 2019
Rana Mitter hosts a debate at Hay Festival about the rise of the environmental movement
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Stanley Spencer, Domestic Servants, Surrogacy
Wed 22 May 2019
Authors Nicola Upson and Joanne Ramos, and researchers Gulzaar Barn & Ella Parry-Davies.
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Sebald. Anti-semitism. Carolyn Forché
Thu 16 May 2019
The walking & photographs of WG Sebald. An exhibition of money and Jewish history.
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Rivers, different cultures, different values
Wed 15 May 2019
Anthropologist, Poet, Archaeologist and Angler reflect on what a river should be
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Free Thinking:Homi Bhabha: On Memory and Migration
Wed 15 May 2019
Shahidha Bari talks to Professor Bhabha about his influence on postcolonial studies.
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Rivers and geopolitics
Tue 14 May 2019
Global Dams, Ancient Rome & the Tiber: rivers, power and scarcity
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Sergio Leone, Kubrick, Magic & the Mind.
Fri 10 May 2019
Matthew Sweet talks Spaghetti Westerns w/ Christopher Frayling + conjuring tricks & bias
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Chaucer. Bernardine Evaristo.
Wed 8 May 2019
Anne McElvoy reads a new biography of Chaucer and talks to novelist Bernardine Evaristo.
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Wolfson History Prize Discussion.
Wed 8 May 2019
Rana Mitter and the six shortlisted historians with an audience at the British Academy
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Free Thinking: 1819-The American Model
Tue 7 May 2019
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott.
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Learning about love from Kierkegaard & Socrates. The Wellcome Book Prize
Thu 2 May 2019
A philosopher of love and a philosopher in love
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Landmark: Audre Lorde
Tue 30 Apr 2019
Jackie Kay & Selina Thompson discuss the influential US writer & civil rights activist
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Introducing the 2019 New Generation Thinkers
Thu 25 Apr 2019
From German techno music to the Glasgow ‘rag trade’, divisive dams and democracy's bug
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20 Words for Joy ... Feelings Around the World.
Wed 24 Apr 2019
Aatish Taseer, Veronica Strang and Thomas Dixon at the Free Thinking Festival.
