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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Does My Pet Love Me?
Tue 23 Apr 2019
A Free Thinking Festival discussion with Nicky Clayton, Erica Fudge & Kim Bard
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The New Age of Sentimentality
Thu 18 Apr 2019
Lisa Appignanesi,Rachel Hewitt & Irenosen Okojie w/ Rana Mitter at Free Thinking Festival
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Why We Need Weepies
Wed 17 Apr 2019
From Bambi and Titanic to EastEnders - Matthew Sweet asks what makes us cry and why?
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The Spirit of a Place: A Free Thinking Royal Society of Literature Discussion
Wed 17 Apr 2019
Alan Johnson, Pascale Petit, Hisham Matar & Peter Pomerantsev join Eleanor Barraclough
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Should Doctors Cry?
Tue 16 Apr 2019
Does emotion have any place in relationships with patients in a more open age?
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Where Do Human Rights Come From?
Fri 12 Apr 2019
Dafydd Mills Daniel looks at links between the UN, Richard III and Disney's Jiminy Cricket
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The Essay: The Ottoman Empire, Power and the Sea
Thu 11 Apr 2019
New Generation Thinker Michael Talbot's Essay from the Free Thinking Festival
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Should Salman Rushdie Live and Let Die ?
Wed 10 Apr 2019
What the BBFC archives tell us about censorship debates & a film depicting Salman Rushdie
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The Way We Used To Feel
Wed 10 Apr 2019
From Neanderthals, via Tudor England to Chartists - 4 historians on emotion in the past
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Who Wrote Animal Farm?
Tue 9 Apr 2019
Lisa Mullen looks at the contribution of Orwell's wife Eileen to his writing.
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How They Manipulate Our Emotions
Tue 9 Apr 2019
Ad execs, game designers and VR creatives are all toying with our feelings - is that OK?
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Start the Week gets emotional at the Free Thinking Festival
Tue 9 Apr 2019
Tom Sutcliffe with BBC Radio 4's conversation programme & an audience at Sage Gateshead
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Marble, Muscle and Manly Bodies in the 18th Century
Mon 8 Apr 2019
Sarah Goldsmith explores the C18th aristocratic craze for pumping iron
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Healthy Eating Edwardian Style
Fri 5 Apr 2019
Elsa Richardson on the diet guru who set up a Covent Garden café and sold health products.
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'Calm Down Dear' - How Angry Should Politics Get?
Fri 5 Apr 2019
Dr Fern Riddell, Kehinde Andrews, Will Davies & Jo Ann Nadler join Shahidha Bari
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Shopping Around the Baby Market
Thu 4 Apr 2019
Gulzaar Barn asks questions about commercial surrogacy and the way we view our bodies.
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Why Trespassing Is the Right Way To Go
Wed 3 Apr 2019
Ben Anderson looks at fights over land rights, access to nature & care of the environment
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Being Diplomatic
Wed 3 Apr 2019
How much emotion should a diplomat, a news reporter or a conciliation expert show?
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Crimes of Passion: Sophie Hannah, Michael Hughes and David Wilson
Wed 3 Apr 2019
A crime writer, novelist from Northern Ireland and former prison governor compare notes.
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The Essay: Cooking and Eating God in Medieval Drama
Tue 2 Apr 2019
Daisy Black conjures up images of breaking bread and cannibalism in mystery plays
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Anxiety and the Teenage Brain
Tue 2 Apr 2019
Stephen Briers, Caroline Dower and Ceyda Uzun join Anne McElvoy at Sage Gateshead.
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A city is not a park but should it be?
Tue 2 Apr 2019
A short talk at the Free Thinking Festival from New Generation Thinker Des Fitzgerald.
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Feelings, and Feelings, and Feelings. The Free Thinking Festival Lecture
Mon 1 Apr 2019
Historian of emotions Professor Thomas Dixon, Matthew Sweet & the Sage Gateshead audience
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Whatever happened to Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais?
Wed 27 Mar 2019
Matthew Sweet meets the TV writers of The Likely Lads, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
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Childhood faces and fears
Thu 21 Mar 2019
A history of orphans, fears about brainwashing and portraits on show at Compton Verney
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Empathy
Wed 20 Mar 2019
Authors Max Porter, Samantha Harvey & AK Benjamin discuss empathy with Chris Harding.
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George Szirtes, Valeria Luiselli, Jhumpa Lahiri
Tue 19 Mar 2019
One poet and two writers in conversation about language, migrants and personhood
