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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Ken Burns – Flash photography - Joy
Thu 30 Nov 2017
The Vietnam War, poetry and flash photography with Ken Burns, Sasha Dugdale & Kate Flint.
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Gentrification
Thu 30 Nov 2017
Essayist Adam Gopnik talks to Shahidha Bari about city living. + artist Lucinda Rogers
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Free Thinking – David Willetts plus does scandal drive social change?
Tue 28 Nov 2017
The Rt Hon Lord David Willetts talks to Philip Dodd about universities in the UK
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Free Thinking – Religious Belief
Thu 23 Nov 2017
Philip Dodd looks at 2000 years of Arab Christians and the modern rise of Pentecostalism.
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Improving or Ruining the Future? Kevin Rudd. Finland 100.
Wed 22 Nov 2017
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith share visions of the future with Rana Mitter. Plus Kevin Rudd.
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Free Thinking – Being Human: Lost and Found in the Archives
Tue 21 Nov 2017
New Generation Thinkers Shahidha Bari & Laurence Scott report on the Being Human Festival
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Being Human: The Lost Luggage Office, Ghosts and Warrior Poets.
Fri 17 Nov 2017
Matthew Sweet in Canterbury and Portsmouth uncovering stories of the lost and the found.
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Network, Jaron Lanier, Reputations.
Wed 15 Nov 2017
BBC Head of News James Harding reviews a stage version of Paddy Chayefsky's Network.
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Free Thinking: Poetry and Protest Newcastle
Wed 15 Nov 2017
Poetry and protest -Jackie Kay, Fred D'Aguiar and Major Jackson at Newcastle University.
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Russian Art and Exile. Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Mon 13 Nov 2017
Author Boris Akunin and broadcaster and writer Zinovy Zinik talk to Anne McElvoy.
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Landmark – Man with a Movie Camera
Thu 9 Nov 2017
Michael Nyman, Alexei Popogrebsky, Ian Christie and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh on Dziga Vertov
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Free Thinking: Soviet Histories: Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture
Wed 8 Nov 2017
Svetlana Alexeivich on Soviet oral history as literature and Stephen Kotkin on Stalin.
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The pros and cons of Swearing.
Fri 3 Nov 2017
Comedian Janey Godley, historian John Gallagher, author Emma Byrne, poet Bridget Minamore
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Benjamin Britten and Radio
Wed 1 Nov 2017
David Hendy, Glyn Maxwell, Kate Kennedy and Lucy Walker with an audience at Aldeburgh.
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Jonathan Swift at 350. Black and White Art. History of British nature writing.
Tue 31 Oct 2017
Anne McElvoy on art from monochrome religious painting to a yellow light filled room...
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Forgotten authors, cult fiction and The Prisoner
Thu 26 Oct 2017
Director Alex Cox, Christopher Fowler, Clare Walker Gore & Lynda Nead with Matthew Sweet
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Free Thinking: Young Marx, Yanis Varoufakis and Ruth Lea and Tara Bergin
Thu 26 Oct 2017
Yanis Varoufakis with Philip Dodd. Plus the new play from Richard Bean and Clive Coleman
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Harry Potter. Tim O'Reilly. Tove Jansson.
Wed 25 Oct 2017
Web guru Tim O'Reilly; the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson
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Free Thinking: Landmark: Marnie
Wed 18 Oct 2017
Matthew Sweet with an exploration of memory and Winston Graham's novel/Hitchcock's film
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The Man Booker Prize. Mike Bartlett. Is Small Beautiful?
Tue 17 Oct 2017
Dr Foster writer Mike Bartlett on his new play Albion plus the rise of small nations.
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Pacific Rim politics; Ronan Bennett; Sjon
Thu 12 Oct 2017
Rana Mitter hosts a debate on relations between Japan, US and China.
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Jewish history, jokes and contemporary identity. Michael Longley
Wed 11 Oct 2017
Simon Schama and Devorah Baum discuss Jewishness
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Salman Rushdie. Uncertainty
Tue 10 Oct 2017
Novelists Salman Rushdie and Lionel Shriver plus Marcus Chown and Rachel Hewitt.
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Free Thinking - Blade Runner. Ghost Stories
Thu 5 Oct 2017
Matthew Sweet watches a vision of Los Angeles 2049 & visits haunted places in Portsmouth
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Free Thinking - Alan Hollinghurst
Wed 4 Oct 2017
The former Booker Prize winner talks to Anne McElvoy and a Proms Extra audience.
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Free Thinking: The importance of networks; the art of dance.
Tue 3 Oct 2017
Niall Ferguson argues for a less hierarchical history. Degas' images of the human body.
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Landmark: Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress
Thu 28 Sep 2017
Michael Symmons Roberts, Helen Mort and Stewart Mottram join Matthew Sweet in Hull.
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Simon Heffer. Social Conservatism. Sibelius. D'Oyly Carte.
Thu 28 Sep 2017
Rana Mitter and guests look back to Edwardian England and at conservative thinking now.
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Kamila Shamsie: John Kasmin. Dido
Tue 26 Sep 2017
Philip Dodd looks at postcards of beggars, the love and scorn of Dido and radicalisation.
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Free Thinking. Bernard MacLaverty. Immigration. Christian destruction of Classical World
Thu 21 Sep 2017
The Northern Irish author of Cal talks to Anne McElvoy about his new novel Midwinter Break
