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 - Martin Amis
Wed 17 Sep 2014
Martin Amis talks to Philip Dodd about his reputation for courting controversy and his...
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Free Thinking - Lenny Henry
Tue 16 Sep 2014
Rudy's Rare Records stars Lenny Henry as the son who works alongside his father in a...
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Free Thinking - Culloden
Mon 15 Sep 2014
Peter Watkins' film Culloden is 50, and in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Sweet...
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Proms Poetry Competition
Fri 12 Sep 2014
The poet Daljit Nagra and Radio 3 presenter Ian McMillan introduce the winning entries...
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Proms Plus Literary - Robert Frost
Mon 8 Sep 2014
In 1914 the American poet Robert Frost published his collection 'North of Boston'.co.
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Prom Plus Literary - Philip Larkin
Fri 5 Sep 2014
Poets Andrew Motion and Kate Clanchy discuss the writing of Philip Larkin and his was...
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Proms Plus Literary: Martin Amis
Fri 29 Aug 2014
Novelist Martin Amis discusses 'The Zone of Interest', his 14th novel, in which he the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Wombs on Legs?
Fri 29 Aug 2014
From HG Wells and Margaret Atwood to Battlestar Galactica, science fiction texts and a...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Ecstatic
Thu 28 Aug 2014
The audience at a rock concert adoring the star; a Pentecostalist congregation God; an...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Language Wars
Wed 27 Aug 2014
Defenders of traditional English language and grammar often present themselves as but...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Cutting Tradition
Tue 26 Aug 2014
What do recent debates among medical ethicists and lawyers over male infant reveal the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - False Conception
Tue 26 Aug 2014
Annie Besant promoted contraceptive advice to the Victorian working classes.
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Free Thinking 2013 - What's Eating You?
Sat 23 Aug 2014
What is the place of food and body image in contemporary culture? Lionel Shriver is of...
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Prom Plus Literary - Iceland
Fri 22 Aug 2014
As the Iceland Symphony Orchestra appear at the Proms, Radio 3's New Generation and in...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Sugata Mitra
Thu 21 Aug 2014
Professor Sugata Mitra's pioneering experiments gave children in India access to to...
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Prom Plus Literary – Wilfred Owen
Thu 21 Aug 2014
Wilfred Owen is one of the greatest First World War writers. The poets Fred d'Aguiar...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Why Are Maps Still So Powerful?
Tue 19 Aug 2014
Can a map reveal too much? How do they direct our thinking? From ancient atlases to to...
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Proms Plus Literary - Melbourne
Tue 19 Aug 2014
Melbourne prides itself on being the 'cultural and sporting capital of Australia'.co.
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Proms Plus Literary - WW1's Lost Generation
Sun 17 Aug 2014
Award-winning novelist and poet Helen Dunmore and the writer Simon Heffer discuss the...
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PROMS PLUS LITERARY - Gavin Maxwell
Fri 15 Aug 2014
Nature writers Miriam Darlington and Horatio Clare join Rana Mitter to discuss the of...
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Proms Plus Literary - Dylan Thomas
Mon 11 Aug 2014
The current National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke and the painter Peter Blake the of...
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Proms Plus Literary - Tony Harrison
Thu 7 Aug 2014
The poet and playwright Tony Harrison talks to Matthew Sweet about his passionate to...
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Proms Plus Literary - Craig Raine
Tue 5 Aug 2014
The poet Craig Raine discusses the ways in which borrowing and reshaping existing is a...
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Proms Plus Literary - Poetry from WW1
Mon 4 Aug 2014
On the centenary of Britain's entry into the First World War Dame Shirley Williams and...
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Proms Plus Literary - The Taming of the Shrew
Sat 2 Aug 2014
Rana Mitter talks to the actors Janet Suzman and Alexandra Gilbreath about The Taming...
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Proms Plus Literary - John Tavener
Wed 23 Jul 2014
Poet and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles on...
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Proms Plus Literary - Responses to War
Sun 20 Jul 2014
The Booker prize winning novelist Pat Barker, author of the Regeneration Trilogy on of...
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Proms Plus Literary - Chinese Culture Today
Sat 19 Jul 2014
Professor Rana Mitter discusses contemporary Chinese culture with a novelist and film...
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Free Thinking - Decision Making in the Money Markets
Thu 17 Jul 2014
Does emotion or reason dictate the financial markets? Anne McElvoy is joined by Global...
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Free Thinking - Politics and writing in Kenya
Wed 16 Jul 2014
Billy Kahora, one of the writers nominated for this year's Caine Prize for African to...
