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 - Sheryl Sandberg
Thu 18 Apr 2013
Anne McElvoy and Susannah Clapp review the west-end play Doktor Glas, starring Krister...
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Night Waves - Rick Gekoski
Wed 17 Apr 2013
Rana Mitter discusses the allure of the missing work of art with the writer Rick Gekoski.
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Night Waves - Howard Brenton
Tue 16 Apr 2013
Howard Brenton discusses his new play The Arrest of Ai Wei Wei with Philip Dodd.
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Night Waves - Desertion in the armed forces
Mon 15 Apr 2013
Matthew Sweet asks historian Charles Glass, author of a new book on deserters in World...
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Night Waves: Margaret Thatcher
Thu 11 Apr 2013
Since her death on the 8th April, Baroness Thatcher has been lauded as the greatest of...
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Night Waves - Oliver Stone
Wed 10 Apr 2013
Samira Ahmed talks to American film director Oliver Stone about his documentary which...
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Night Waves - Landmark: Rijksmuseum
Tue 9 Apr 2013
Matthew Sweet visits Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, home to Rembrandt's The Night Watch, to...
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Night Waves - Landmarks: The Making of the English Working Class
Mon 8 Apr 2013
Philip Dodd explores one of the classics of social history, The Making of the English...
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Night Waves - Diarmaid Macculloch
Thu 4 Apr 2013
Church Historian Diarmaid Macculloch joins Anne McElvoy to discuss the role that has...
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Night Waves - Nostalgia and the NHS
Wed 3 Apr 2013
Is nostalgia for an idea of the NHS is inhibiting clear-eyed debate? Samira Ahmed is...
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Night Waves - History at school
Tue 2 Apr 2013
What history should children learn and be able to contextualise? And what do they Rana...
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Night Waves - Nicholas Hytner
Thu 28 Mar 2013
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner looks back at his time as the head of the National Theatre...
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Night Waves - Mohsin Hamid
Wed 27 Mar 2013
Samira Ahmed talks to international best selling author Mohsin Hamid about his new How...
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Night Waves - James Wood
Tue 26 Mar 2013
Matthew Sweet talks to acclaimed literary critic James Wood, visits an exhibition on &...
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Night Waves - Constitutions and press regulation
Thu 21 Mar 2013
As Zimbabwe votes in favour of a new constitution, Anne McElvoy is joined by Albie to...
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Night Waves - Baroque Spring
Wed 20 Mar 2013
Rana Mitter hosts a special edition of Night Waves as part of Radio 3’s Baroque a to...
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Night Waves - Noam Chomsky
Tue 19 Mar 2013
Philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky joins Philip Dodd for an extended conversation a...
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Night Waves - Javier Marias
Mon 18 Mar 2013
Matthew Sweet talks to the Spanish novelist Javier Marias about his new book 'The...
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Night Waves - Aleksandar Hemon
Thu 14 Mar 2013
Anne McElvoy talks to Aleksandar Hemon, the Bosnian-born writer who some have been to...
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Night Waves - Ken Loach
Wed 13 Mar 2013
Ken Loach talks to Philip Dodd about his new documentary Spirit of '45, which the of...
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Night Waves - John Agard
Tue 12 Mar 2013
What does a nineteenth century Swedish play have to say about post-apartheid South to...
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Night Waves - Julia O'Faolain
Mon 11 Mar 2013
Matthew Sweet talks to Booker-nominated novelist Julia O’Faolain about her new and a...
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Night Waves - Hilary Mantel defends her comments on the Duchess 07 Mar
Fri 8 Mar 2013
Anne McElvoy meets Hilary Mantel, the winner of the David Cohen Prize for literature.
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Night Waves - Danny Boyle
Wed 6 Mar 2013
The Olympics ceremony master Danny Boyle joins Rana Mitter to discuss the British film...
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Night Waves - Heritage
Tue 5 Mar 2013
With Matthew Sweet. A first night review, by Susannah Clapp, of Peter Morgan's new The...
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Night Waves - Sex and the Arab World
Mon 4 Mar 2013
Shereen El Feki, author of Sex and the Citadel, joins Philip Dodd to explore how the a...
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Night Waves - Anarcho-Capitalists
Thu 28 Feb 2013
As extreme libertarian thought is on the rise in right-wing politics, Anne McElvoy is...
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Night Waves - Mandarin Finnegans Wake
Wed 27 Feb 2013
Samira Ahmed examines why James Joyce's experimental and 'difficult' work Finnegans a...
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Night Waves - Paul Foot Award
Tue 26 Feb 2013
As the winner of the Paul Foot award for investigative and campaigning journalism is a...
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Night Waves - Compassion
Mon 25 Feb 2013
Does compassion inhibit rational political debate? To discuss, Philip Dodd is joined 3...
