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 Joy of Bureaucracy
Thu 22 Feb 2018
Matthew Sweet with guests including Lord Butler, André Spicer and Eliane Glaser
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Steven Pinker on Progress
Thu 22 Feb 2018
Steven Pinker explains to Philip Dodd why we should ignore headlines & be more optimistic
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Napoleon in Fact & Fiction
Wed 21 Feb 2018
Napoleon impersonators, ballads and what if he didn't die in exile?
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Reflecting Rural Life
Thu 15 Feb 2018
Film maker Clio Barnard and novelist Amanda Craig on rural life. Matthew Sweet presents.
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Free Thinking: Mark Dion; Colour, Insects, Virginia Woolf
Wed 14 Feb 2018
Human Beings are part of Natural History discuss: via art, science and the Bloosmbury set
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How Big Should the State Be?
Wed 14 Feb 2018
David Willetts, Polly Toynbee, Simone Finn, Julia Black & Adrian Wooldridge at LSE.
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Michael Ignatieff and Central Europe
Tue 13 Feb 2018
Philip Dodd talks to Michael Ignatieff about the political landscape of central Europe.
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Tariq Ali
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Rana Mitter talks to Tariq Ali, novelist, historian & political activist about 1968.
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Celebrating Buchi Emecheta
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Single motherhood, child slavery & parallels w/ Grenfell in the books of Buchi Emecheta
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Trade, Davos, Ocean travel and Mermaids
Fri 2 Feb 2018
Anne McElvoy on Davos discussions, Ocean liner style at the V&A and mermaids in fiction.
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The Working Class in Culture
Thu 1 Feb 2018
Philip Dodd and guests ask has culture forgotten the working class?
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Landmark: Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries
Tue 30 Jan 2018
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
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Burns the Radical; Exploration
Thu 25 Jan 2018
Humboldt as Ecuadorian explorer, plus the territory between Scotland and England.
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Royalty, art and patronage.
Wed 24 Jan 2018
Craig Brown, Afua Hirsch, Robert Jobson, Joe Moshenska, AN Wilson, Philip Dodd on royalty
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Oscar Contenders, Movie Moguls and Silent Film Stars
Tue 23 Jan 2018
Lucy Porter & Steve Massa on women of the silent era, Vanda Krefft on William Fox's life
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Frankenstein and AI now.
Thu 18 Jan 2018
Fiona Sampson, Daisy Hay, Christopher Frayling and David H. Guston with Matthew Sweet.
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French writing and politics
Wed 17 Jan 2018
Leïla Slimani, President Macron's champion of French culture and language, is interviewed
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Australian novelist Peter Carey.
Tue 16 Jan 2018
A car race around Australia is fictionalised in Peter Carey's latest novel + Ovid's tales
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Counterculture and Protest
Thu 11 Jan 2018
Matthew Sweet with Paul Hartnoll, Tony White, Tessa DeCarlo & Paul Cronin on uprisings.
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The In Between
Wed 10 Jan 2018
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough considers airport lounges railway stations and liminal spaces
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Landmark: The Odyssey
Tue 9 Jan 2018
Amit Chaudhuri, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Daniel Mendelsohn and Emily Wilson join Philip Dodd
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The Invention of the Circus Ring
Wed 3 Jan 2018
Matthew Sweet looks at the career of impresario Philip Astley and 250 years of circus
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Rethinking Tradition
Tue 2 Jan 2018
Roger Scruton, Kevin Davey, Kirsty Gunn & Haroon Mirza on tradition & experiment
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A Literary Salon.
Thu 14 Dec 2017
Malika Booker, Neil Brand, Katherine Cooper and Jake Arnott join Matthew Sweet.
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Should We Keep Pets?
Wed 13 Dec 2017
John Bradshaw, Jessica Pierce, Philip Howell and Laura Purcell with Anne McElvoy.
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Landmark - This Sporting Life
Tue 12 Dec 2017
Philip Dodd and his guests on David Storey's 1960 novel set in the world of rugby league
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Many faces of Eve?
Thu 7 Dec 2017
Catherine Fletcher with Stephen Greenblatt, Islam Issa, Jennifer Evans and Sara Read.
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The Joy of Bad Films
Wed 6 Dec 2017
Weathermen member Jonathan Lerner on underground protest & The Disaster Artist reviewed.
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Russia: Totalitarianism and Punishment
Tue 5 Dec 2017
Masha Gessen talks to Philip Dodd about tracing Russian history through four lives.
