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 - Thom Gunn & Michael Cunningham
Thu 1 May 2014
Samira Ahmed is joined by poets Paul Farley, Fiona Sampson and Clive Wilmer to discuss...
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Free Thinking, BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Wed 30 Apr 2014
The BBC Radiophonic workshop,opened in 1958 with an aim to experiment and produce for...
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Free Thinking - Arianna Huffington & Richard Hytner
Tue 29 Apr 2014
Arianna Huffington talks to Anne McElvoy about measuring success using The Third Metric.
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Free Thinking - 18th Century Sexual Politics
Tue 29 Apr 2014
Philip Dodd explores the sexual mores of eighteenth-century England talking to of of...
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Free Thinking - Banksy + Chris Marker
Thu 24 Apr 2014
Samira Ahmed discusses the ownership of street art with Mary McCarthy, Director of MM...
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Free Thinking - Dame Janet Suzman
Wed 23 Apr 2014
In extended conversation with Philip Dodd, Dame Janet Suzman talks about her acting in...
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Free Thinking - 18th Century Crime and Punishment
Thu 17 Apr 2014
Philip Dodd explores 18th century attitudes to the law, crime and punishment with S QC...
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Free Thinking - 18th Century Economics - Bernard de Mandeville
Wed 16 Apr 2014
In 1714 Bernard de Mandeville published his provocative Fable of the Bees, in which he...
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Free Thinking - 18th Century Power Politics
Tue 15 Apr 2014
Anne McElvoy talks to Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Amanda...
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Free Thinking - 18th Century
Thu 10 Apr 2014
If Mrs Thatcher thought she was living again through Victorian England, we are now the...
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Free Thinking - Originality
Wed 9 Apr 2014
Naomi Alderman, Geoff Mulgan and Lionel Bently join Philip Dodd to explore the meaning...
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Free Thinking - Betty Balfour
Tue 8 Apr 2014
Matthew Sweet discusses the silent film star Betty Balfour with BFI curator Byony and...
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Free Thinking - Is War Good for Us?
Thu 3 Apr 2014
Anne McElvoy looks at the impact of war, the Afghan elections and childhood violence.
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Free Thinking - Policing
Tue 1 Apr 2014
Matthew Sweet explores the idea of the police with the playwright Roy Williams, the of...
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Free Thinking - Contemporary Curating
Thu 27 Mar 2014
Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Victoria Walsh...
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Free Thinking - EM Forster
Wed 26 Mar 2014
Damon Galgut's new book Arctic Summer evokes EM Forster's experiences in India and the...
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Free Thinking - Landmarks: Seven Samurai
Tue 25 Mar 2014
Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai traces the story of a group of Samurai who to...
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Free Thinking - Charm
Thu 20 Mar 2014
Author and design consultant Stephen Bayley has written an e-book called Charm: A...
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Free Thinking - Childhood
Wed 19 Mar 2014
Frank Field MP, child psychiarist Dickon Bevington and authors Meg Rosoff and Philip a...
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Free Thinking - Leadership and Military Intervention
Tue 18 Mar 2014
Historian Archie Brown and military expert Frank Ledwidge join Samira Ahmed to discuss...
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Free Thinking - Jonathan Lethem & Gary Shteyngart
Thu 13 Mar 2014
American authors Jonathan Lethem and Gary Shteyngart discuss radicalism, belonging and...
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Free Thinking - The Brits Who Built the Modern World
Wed 12 Mar 2014
Philip Dodd chairs a discussion between Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Nicholas Michael...
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Free Thinking - David Grossman
Tue 11 Mar 2014
David Grossman's new book Falling Out of Time mixes poetry, drama and fiction to grief...
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Free Thinking - Flora Thompson & Ruins
Thu 6 Mar 2014
Richard Mabey discusses his biography of Flora Thompson, author of Lark Rise to and on...
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Free Thinking - Julian Schnabel
Wed 5 Mar 2014
Philip Dodd in conversation with artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel, best known for...
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Free Thinking - Vikings
Tue 4 Mar 2014
Matthew Sweet visits the British Museum's Vikings exhibition with the curator Gareth 3...
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Free Thinking - Spitting Image
Thu 27 Feb 2014
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld talk about the impact of education and religion on success...
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Free Thinking - Wim Wenders on Peace
Thu 27 Feb 2014
Film director Wim Wenders and Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi explain why they we...
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Free Thinking - Paul Foot Award
Tue 25 Feb 2014
As Dirty Rotten Scoundrels becomes a musical, Samira Ahmed considers the scoundrel of...
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Free Thinking - France & Algeria
Thu 20 Feb 2014
Anne McElvoy looks at the relationship between France and its former colonies, talking...
