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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Death Comes to Us All
Thu 5 Apr 2018
Richard Holloway, Kathryn Mannix and Kevin Toolis debate the end of life with Philip Dodd
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What Do We Mean by "Working Class Writing"?
Wed 4 Apr 2018
Kit de Waal, Darren McGarvey, Adelle Stripe and Michael Chaplin with Shahidha Bari.
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Introducing the New Generation Thinkers 2018
Tue 3 Apr 2018
From piracy to vegetarianism, George Orwell to surrogacy, Newton's alchemy to C18 fitness
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Building Bridges and Other Megastructures
Thu 29 Mar 2018
Writer Erica Wagner, engineer Sean Wilkinson & architect Simon Roberts with Rana Mitter.
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#Speaking Up
Wed 28 Mar 2018
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown,Afua Hirsch & Tarjinder Gill debate identity with Philip Dodd.
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Mass Hysterics
Tue 27 Mar 2018
Comedians Alexei Sayle, Jen Brister & Sanjeev Kohli join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead
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Can There Be Multiple Versions of Me?
Mon 26 Mar 2018
June Sarpong, Emma Frankland, Gavin Francis and Julian Baggini chaired by Anne McElvoy.
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Free Thinking Essay: What Do You Do If You Are a Manically Depressed Robot?
Fri 23 Mar 2018
Simon Beard, from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, on AI and Douglas Adams.
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Free Thinking Essay: Kids With Guns
Thu 22 Mar 2018
Emma Butcher looks at the view of war in the childhood writings of the Bronte family.
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Rethinking Civilisations
Thu 22 Mar 2018
David Olusoga, Kit Davies and Kenan Malik debate what civilisation means with Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking Essay: Speaking Truth to Power in the Past and Present
Wed 21 Mar 2018
Joanne Paul on satire, flattery and document leaks in the C16 and C17 centuries and now.
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Gangs, the Usual Suspects
Wed 21 Mar 2018
Symeon Brown, James Docherty, Alistair Fraser chaired by Matthew Sweet.
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Power to the People?
Wed 21 Mar 2018
David Runciman, Rod Liddle, Caroline MacFarland Danny Dorling & Anne McElvoy in Gateshead
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Free Thinking Essay: When Shakespeare Travelled With Me
Tue 20 Mar 2018
Islam Issa on arguments about Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop in the 21st century
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Are We Afraid of Being Alone?
Tue 20 Mar 2018
Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver, and John-Henry Clay explore solitude.
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Free Thinking Essay: A War of Words
Mon 19 Mar 2018
Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.
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Free Thinking Essay: Doing Nothing
Fri 16 Mar 2018
Alastair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.
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Has Social Media Cracked the Code to the Crowd?
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Julia Hobsbawm, Jamie Bartlett, Laurence Scott and Abeba Birhane with Anne McElvoy.
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Free Thinking Essay: Educating Ida
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Podcast: There Is No I in Team
Thu 15 Mar 2018
MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.
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Free Thinking Essay: Does Trusting People Need a Leap of Faith?
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village & community relations now
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Free Thinking Essay:Art for Health's Sake
Wed 14 Mar 2018
Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?
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The Dance of Nature
Wed 14 Mar 2018
Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew McBain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour
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Free Thinking Essay: Welling Up: Women & Water in the Middle Ages
Tue 13 Mar 2018
Hetta Howes looks at male fears + why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying & bleeding.
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The Population Bomb
Mon 12 Mar 2018
Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.
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The Free Thinking Lecture: Linda Yueh on Globalisation
Fri 9 Mar 2018
Economist Linda Yueh delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market.
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New Research into the UK Women's Suffrage Movement.
Thu 8 Mar 2018
With Helen Pankhurst, Jane Robinson, Shahida Rahman, Fern Riddell and Miranda Garrett
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The Golden Notebook
Wed 7 Mar 2018
Lara Feigel, Xiaolu Guo, Melissa Benn + David Aaronovitch on Doris Lessing's 1962 novel.
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A Sentimental Journey
Thu 1 Mar 2018
Seán Williams rereads Laurence Sterne's subjective travel book & talks to Philip Hensher
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What Lies Beneath; Neanderthal Cave Art to Fatbergs
Wed 28 Feb 2018
Poetic and archaeological trip round our fascination with what comes up when we dig down.
