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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Partition, colonial power and the voices of C16th women
Thu 14 Mar 2019
Artist Hew Locke and historians Suzannah Lipscomb, Aanchal Malhotra & Anindya Raychaudhuri
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The Council Estate in Culture
Wed 13 Mar 2019
Why are estates so often portrayed as incubators of social deprivation and criminality?
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Women, relationships and the law past and present
Thu 7 Mar 2019
Novelists Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Layla AlAmmar & historians Jennifer Aston + Jessica Malay
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The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Wed 6 Mar 2019
Lara Feigel, David Aaronovitch, Melissa Benn, Xiaolu Guo & Matthew Sweet on Doris Lessing.
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Is British Culture Getting Wierder?
Tue 5 Mar 2019
Gazelle Twin, Julia Bardsley, Hannah Catherine Jones, Luke Turner & William Fowler.
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David Bailey, Don McCullin
Tue 5 Mar 2019
Philip Dodd goes to David Bailey's studio and talks to Don McCullin about his Tate show.
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The joy of sewing, poet Fatimah Asghar, Painting in miniature.
Mon 4 Mar 2019
Shahidha Bari talks poetry and the web series Brown Girls, and the history of sewing.
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Skeuomorphs, Design and Modern Craft
Thu 28 Feb 2019
Laurence Scott & Will Self on redundant features in design + a visit to Collect Craft Show
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Jack the Ripper and women as victims
Tue 26 Feb 2019
Rescuing the Ripper's victims from the shadows of history
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Authority in the Era of Populism
Thu 21 Feb 2019
Louise Casey, Mary Kaldor, Jamie Bartlett, Heather Rabbatts & Rupert Reid w/ Anne McElvoy
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The joy of sewing, poet Fatimah Asghar, Painting in miniature
Wed 20 Feb 2019
Shahidha Bari talks poetry and the web series Brown Girls, plus the history of sewing.
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Patti LuPone
Tue 19 Feb 2019
The musicals star on politics, performing, #Me Too and her Italian-American roots.
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Scented gloves and gossip: civility and news in the Renaissance
Fri 15 Feb 2019
Shahidha Bari discusses new research on the the ins and outs of Renaissance culture
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Love
Thu 14 Feb 2019
Andrew McMillan, Lavinia Greenlaw, Elanor Dymott, Laura Mucha- the science & art of love.
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Spike Lee
Tue 12 Feb 2019
The film-maker talks black power, blackface and Academy Awards with Matthew Sweet.
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Self Knowledge, Global Catastrophe and Simulated Worlds
Thu 7 Feb 2019
Quassim Cassam & Simon Beard with Matthew Sweet + RW Fassbinder's '70s TV sci-fi series
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Encylopedias and Knowledge: from Diderot to Wikipedia.
Wed 6 Feb 2019
Jimmy Wales talks Diderot & collecting knowledge + Tariq Godard on Mark Fisher aka k-punk
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Street Culture, Protests, Food.
Tue 5 Feb 2019
Philip Dodd talks to gilet jaune and novelist Edouard Louis about streets and culture.
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Sea Goings
Thu 31 Jan 2019
Rana Mitter with Katie Paterson Julia Blackburn Charlotte Runcie and Cutty Sark
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Slavoj Zizek, Camille Paglia, Flemming Rose
Wed 30 Jan 2019
Philip Dodd and guests explore the value of causing offence
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Art & Refugees from Nazi Germany.
Tue 29 Jan 2019
Writing about the Holocaust + the shock of Modernism in 1930s Britain
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Consent
Thu 24 Jan 2019
How we deal with unwanted sexual advances and changing depictions on stage are debated.
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Slow Looking at Art
Wed 23 Jan 2019
Ways of Seeing with Michael Craig Martin, Aura Satz, Kelly Grovier & Daniel Glaser.
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Oscars 2019
Tue 22 Jan 2019
Matthew Sweet & guests look at films making waves as the Academy announces its shortlists
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Icons.
Thu 17 Jan 2019
Do our heroes and heroines have to be perfect? We look at ikons, film idols & politicians.
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Tourism past and present
Wed 16 Jan 2019
The must see sights for Post Napoleonic war tourists, cold war travellers & hot spots now
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Walls
Tue 15 Jan 2019
Novelist John Lanchester, historians David Frye, Kylie Murray and journalist Tim Marshall
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