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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Free Thinking - Breaking Free: Karl Kraus - Jonathan Franzen.
Thu 15 Dec 2016
Philip Dodd looks at the biting satire and contemporary relevance of Austrian Karl Kraus
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Free Thinking: John Simpson on the death of the war correspondent.
Wed 14 Dec 2016
Philip Dodd and guests consider what we mean by 'news' in 2016.
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Free Thinking - Patriotism: China, Russia, Japan, Latin America.
Tue 13 Dec 2016
Xiaolu Guo, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Michael Auslin and David Priestland join Rana Mitter
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Free Thinking - Patriotism: Alain Finkielkraut, Karim Miské
Tue 13 Dec 2016
Philip Dodd talks to Alain Finkielkraut and Karim Miské about French identity
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Free Thinking - A Brexit reading list.
Tue 13 Dec 2016
Edith Hall, Chris Kissane + Matthew Sweet consider what might be on a Brexit reading list
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Our Relationship with Animals: Will Abberley, Chris Packham, Helen Pilcher, Alan Hook
Thu 8 Dec 2016
Shahidha Bari looks at computing for cats, de-extinction and an animal symphony.
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Maths: Alex Bellos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Serafina Cuomo, Vicky Neale
Thu 8 Dec 2016
As a newly designed Maths gallery opens at the Science Museum,why we need better numeracy
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Free Thinking - Voices in Our Ears: Colin Grant, Josie Rourke, Charles Fernyhough, Clare Walker Gore
Tue 6 Dec 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at epilepsy considering Joan of Arc, Wilkie Collins & hearing voices
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Free Thinking - Rauschenberg - performance, identity and the writings of Erving Goffman.
Thu 1 Dec 2016
What price the self in the 21st century? with Dexter Dalwood, Susie Scott + Tom McCarthy
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Elites.
Wed 30 Nov 2016
Douglas Carswell, David Runciman and Eliane Glaser join Matthew Sweet to discuss elites.
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The Weird. Science and Art at FACT. Japanese film Your Name.
Tue 29 Nov 2016
Rana Mitter on science and art on show at Liverpool's FACT and what we mean by the weird.
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Schiller's Mary Stuart; Günter Grass. Preti Taneja on translated fiction, Rachel Reeves.
Thu 24 Nov 2016
Anne McElvoy on Robert Icke's version of Mary Stuart and the last novel from Günter Grass
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Zadie Smith
Wed 23 Nov 2016
Zadie Smith talks dance, depicting teenage friends and US/UK differences with Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking - Beards. Listening. Masculinity.
Tue 22 Nov 2016
Alun Withey on beards, Josh Appignanesi & Devorah Baum on fatherhood, with Matthew Sweet
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Free Thinking: Being Human: What the Archives Reveal
Thu 17 Nov 2016
Matthew Sweet visits the London Survey, Kew, a cemetery and a hut used by Anzac soldiers.
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Free Thinking - Being Human: New Generation Thinkers explore Escape, Lying and Fear.
Wed 16 Nov 2016
Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott on Vernon Lee, Harvey Matusow and wartime Senate House
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Free Thinking - Art Spiegelman. Marina Abramovic. American Pastoral.
Thu 10 Nov 2016
Naomi Alderman reports on a version of Maus which puts music alongside the images.
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Free Thinking - Being Human Debate at FACT, Liverpool: Man and Animals
Wed 9 Nov 2016
From mermaids to robots via monkeys and men and zoos for humans and animals.
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Free Thinking - Black British History.
Wed 9 Nov 2016
Bernardine Evaristo, Keith Piper, Miranda Kaufmann and Kehinde Andrews on Black Britain
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Free Thinking: Still Loving Victoriana Jokes and All
Tue 8 Nov 2016
Matthew Sweet with novelists Sarah Perry and Carol Birch and some Victorian jokes
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Free Thinking - Stephen Poliakoff and Linda Grant; Yuval Noah Harari.
Wed 2 Nov 2016
Post second world war Britain is discussed by the TV dramatist, novelist and Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking - Landmark: Sir Walter Scott's Waverley
Mon 31 Oct 2016
Rana Mitter on the first historical novel, one that invented Scotland and built Britain
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Free Thinking - Whose Book Is It Anyway?
Thu 27 Oct 2016
Anne McElvoy discusses new research into how, when and why Britons got the reading habit.
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Free Thinking: Enoch Powell; US Supreme Court; War & Art
Thu 27 Oct 2016
Birmingham Rep stages a play about Enoch Powell; John Keane & Jananne Al-Ani on war art.
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Free Thinking- William Kentridge, Vivienne Koorland and Gavin Jantjes discuss South Africa and art.
Thu 27 Oct 2016
South Africa and art with William Kentridge, Vivienne Koorland and Gavin Jantjes .
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Free Thinking - Richard Hakluyt; Man Booker Prize; Chickens in the Anthropocene; Shirley Jackson.
Tue 25 Oct 2016
Why chickens are man's best friend, Richard Hakluyt's voyages to America & parallels now
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Free Thinking: Artes Mundi Prize. Harriet Walter. Amitav Ghosh. Edmund Richardson
Thu 20 Oct 2016
Harriet Walter prepares to play Prospero, a review of the bi-ennial art prize in Cardiff.
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Free Thinking - Paul Nash; George Szirtes; Hungary 1956 and now.
Wed 19 Oct 2016
A graphic novel inspired by Paul Nash's dreams. Religion & revolution in Hungary debated
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Free Thinking: Kevin Brownlow
Tue 18 Oct 2016
Kevin Brownlow talks to Matthew Sweet about documenting and restoring silent classics.
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Free Thinking: Caravaggio; Bob Dylan; Dario Fo; Lenin's train journey.
Thu 13 Oct 2016
Caravaggio's art explored by Letizia Treves, Joe Moshenska and Anders Lustgarten.
