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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Night Waves - Turner Prize, Candide, Letters
Mon 2 Dec 2013
Art critic for The Times Rachel Campbell-Johnston profiles the work of Laure Prouvost,...
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Night Waves - Amy Tan, Strange Blooms, François Mitterrand
Thu 28 Nov 2013
Bestselling writer Amy Tan joins Anne McElvoy to discuss her new novel, The Valley of...
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Night Waves - Gandhi
Wed 27 Nov 2013
Rana Mitter looks forward to an Age of the Happy City with innovative urban scholar,...
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Night Waves - Orwell & Stoicism
Tue 26 Nov 2013
As Scotland and England consider the future of the United Kingdom, Philip Dodd what of...
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Night Waves - Tony Benn, PL Travers, Guy Debord
Mon 25 Nov 2013
Veteran politician Tony Benn talks to Matthew Sweet about his final volume of diaries,...
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Night Waves - Britten 100, Theatre Uncut, John F Kennedy
Thu 21 Nov 2013
With the return of the Young Vic's Theatre Uncut season, Anne McElvoy is joined by and...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Penny Woolcock
Wed 20 Nov 2013
Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's of...
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Night Waves - Doctor Who at 50
Tue 19 Nov 2013
50 years of Dr Who is celebrated this weekend by the BBC. Matthew Sweet discusses the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Whose Strife
Thu 14 Nov 2013
Whose Strife Is It Anyway? Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan of the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Audiences
Tue 12 Nov 2013
In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Who's Got Hold of Children's Imaginations?
Fri 8 Nov 2013
As we strive to protect our children’s imaginations from negative influences, are we...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Therapy Versus Prayer
Fri 8 Nov 2013
Is the idea of counselling as non-judgmental listening flawed? New Generation Thinker...
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Free Thinking 2013 - The Countryside
Thu 7 Nov 2013
Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Science and Sensibility
Wed 6 Nov 2013
Today many scientists are engaged in exploring the interaction between logical and of...
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Free Thinking - John Waters
Wed 6 Nov 2013
John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His "Trash Trilogy" involved with...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Alice Hall
Tue 5 Nov 2013
Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and phone apps have changed the way we share our lives, to an...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Controlling Moods and Minds
Mon 4 Nov 2013
What is the neuroscience of depression, how does it affect decision-making, and what a...
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Free Thinking 2013 - How on Earth
Thu 31 Oct 2013
In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant on we...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Power to the People
Wed 30 Oct 2013
Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public and...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Sarah Peverley
Tue 29 Oct 2013
A 15th-century English monarch was appointed by God and had absolute supremacy but how...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Zamyatin's We
Tue 29 Oct 2013
Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable was...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Are We at a Tipping Point? Controlling Infection and Combatting Disea
Mon 28 Oct 2013
Increasing resistance to antibiotics is a threat to Britain which could be as as...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Boneless, Bloodaxe and Hairy Breeches: What Did the Vikings Ever Do f
Mon 28 Oct 2013
When Lindisfarne monastery was attacked in 793AD the monk Alcuin described the church...
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Free Thinking 2013 - Twenty Minutes - An Interview with Neil Tennant
Fri 25 Oct 2013
Neil Tennant, singer of pop duo Pet Shop Boys, grew up in the fishing port of North to...
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R3 Arts: Free Thinking 2013 - Michael Marmot
Fri 25 Oct 2013
Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking 2013,...
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Night Waves - The Common Reader
Thu 24 Oct 2013
Matthew Sweet leads an elite party of literary explorers - Linda Grant, Aminatta Naomi...
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Night Waves - Landmark: Le Grand Meaulnes
Wed 23 Oct 2013
A Landmark edition in which Anne McElvoy and guests look at Alain-Fournier's and tale...
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Free Thinking - Michael Grigsby
Tue 22 Oct 2013
In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet examines...
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Free Thinking in the Summer - Derry-Londonderry
Mon 21 Oct 2013
BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity...
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Night Waves - Eric Schlosser, Richard II
Thu 17 Oct 2013
Susannah Clapp joins Anne McElvoy for the very first review of David Tennant’s much...
