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: Sound Frontiers - Teju Cole
Wed 12 Oct 2016
From Baldwin to Black Lives Matter. Philip Dodd talks to Teju Cole
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Free Thinking: Outsiders and Colin Wilson. Norse sagas. The Vulgar.
Tue 11 Oct 2016
Gary Lachman discusses Colin Wilson's ideas about alienation with Matthew Sweet.
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Free Thinking: Sound Frontiers: Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman
Thu 6 Oct 2016
The authors talk electric shocks, Shakespeare and the power of women with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking: Wells' Women
Thu 6 Oct 2016
As the London Literature Festival opens, HG Wells: women, politics and four dimensions.
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Free Thinking - Sound Frontiers: Kamila Shamsie, Nikesh Shukla, Drugs in the German Reich. Board Games.
Wed 5 Oct 2016
Rana Mitter debates refugees, what is a good immigrant? Hitler's drug addiction and games
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Free Thinking - Sound Frontiers: Success debated by Peter Frankopan, Edith Hall, Kwame Kwei-Armah
Thu 29 Sep 2016
Anne McElvoy & guests on Success, subject for debate on the Third Programme back in 1967
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Free Thinking: Sound Frontiers: People Power
Thu 29 Sep 2016
Philip Dodd and guests discuss Clement Attlee's legacy, people power and cultural tastes.
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Free Thinking - Sound Frontiers: Books of 1946
Tue 27 Sep 2016
Benjamin Markovits, Lara Feigel and Kevin Jackson discuss the best fiction of 1946
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Free Thinking: Medieval Manuscripts. Emma Donoghue.
Wed 21 Sep 2016
Author of Room talks to Matthew Sweet about starvation and sainthood in her new novel
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Free Thinking: American Power? Suzan-Lori Parks. Gary Younge. Abstract Expressionism.
Wed 21 Sep 2016
Pulitzer prize winning American dramatist Suzan-Lori Parks. William Boyd on American art.
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Free Thinking: Shelina Janmohamed. Edward Ardizzone's Art. Jewish identity in fiction
Tue 20 Sep 2016
Shelina Janmohamed explores "Generation M". Plus Edward Ardizzone's daughter on his art.
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Free Thinking: Energy and Landscape: Edward Burtynsky, Ella Hickson
Thu 15 Sep 2016
Photographer Edward Burtynsky, playwright Ella Hickson & experts on energy policy debate.
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Free Thinking - Thames Estuary Festival, Jatinder Verma, Arne Næss
Wed 14 Sep 2016
From Dickens, wartime defences to Doctor Who - Matthew Sweet explores the Thames Estuary.
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Proms Poetry Competition
Wed 14 Sep 2016
Judges Ian McMillan, Jackie Kay & Judith Palmer are joined on stage by the winning poets.
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Free Thinking - Aphra Behn. 1066 and the South Coast. Mark Thompson
Tue 13 Sep 2016
Playwright, poet, spy. Anne McElvoy on Aphra Behn at the RSC. And a festival marking 1066
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Proms Extra: Capability Brown: Anna Pavord
Wed 7 Sep 2016
Anna Pavord considers the landscapes created by 'Capability' Brown - born 300 years ago
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Proms Extra: The Great Fire of London
Wed 7 Sep 2016
Historians Adrian Tinniswood and Tom Charlton look at London in ruins in September 1666.
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Proms Extra: Tagore
Thu 1 Sep 2016
Novelist Tahmima Anam and Preti Taneja join Rana Mitter to explore the writing of Tagore.
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Proms Extra: Germany East and West
Tue 30 Aug 2016
Novelist Philip Kerr and historian Karen Leeder look at Leipzig in 1989 and Germany now.
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Proms Extra: Devils and Paganini
Wed 24 Aug 2016
Rev Richard Coles and poet Imtiaz Dharker on the Devil in Christian and Islamic cultures.
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare – Actors and Acting
Tue 23 Aug 2016
Actor Michael Pennington continues our series on professions in Shakespeare's plays.
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare - Sheep and Shepherds
Mon 22 Aug 2016
Shakespeare's depiction of shepherds discussed by James Rebanks and Dr Emma Smith.
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Proms Extra: HG Wells: Stephen Baxter and Dr Sarah Dillon
Tue 9 Aug 2016
Author Stephen Baxter and Sarah Dillon on space and time in HG Wells, born 150 years ago.
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare - Shipwrecks and Sea Captains
Wed 3 Aug 2016
The sea and shipwrecks in Shakespeare discussed by sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
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Proms Extra: George Eliot in Germany
Wed 3 Aug 2016
Novelist Patricia Duncker and Clare Walker-Gore on George Eliot and German culture.
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare - Law and Lawyers
Tue 2 Aug 2016
What did Shakespeare know of the law? Geoffrey Robertson QC talks to Anne McElvoy.
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare - Religion and Clerics
Mon 1 Aug 2016
Religion and clerics in Shakespeare considered by Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London.
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Proms Interval: What's In A Name?
Thu 28 Jul 2016
Sophie Coulombeau reflects on what history can tell us about Naming the Baby
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Proms Extra: Shakespeare - Soldiers and War
Thu 28 Jul 2016
Colonel Tim Collins & Professor Emma Smith consider Soldiers & War in Shakespeare's plays
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Proms Extra: The Politics of Shaving with Shahidah Bari,
Tue 26 Jul 2016
Facial Fuzz: A short back-and-sided history with Kathryn Hughes and Alun Withey
