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 - Le Grand Meaulnes
Thu 21 Feb 2013
A Landmark edition in which Anne McElvoy and guests look at Alain-Fournier's and tale...
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Night Waves - Ray Kurzweil
Wed 20 Feb 2013
Ray Kurzweil, renowned American inventor, thinker and futurist, joins Rana Mitter to a...
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Night Waves - Shlomo Sand
Tue 19 Feb 2013
Adam Mars-Jones reviews the first West End revival of the nine Tony award winning; A...
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Free Thinking 2012 - Aliens
Mon 18 Feb 2013
Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think it...
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Night Waves - Andrew Soloman
Thu 14 Feb 2013
Geoffrey Robertson QC joins Anne McElvoy to pay tribute to American philosopher and on...
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Night Waves - Sylvia Plath
Wed 13 Feb 2013
Matthew Sweet discusses the legacy of Sylvia Plath, who died 50 years ago this week,...
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Night Waves - A Life Of Galileo 12 Feb
Wed 13 Feb 2013
Mark Ravenhill on translating Bertolt Brecht's A Life of Galileo; the value of the is...
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Night Waves - Amit Chaudhuri
Mon 11 Feb 2013
Novelist, poet and musician Amit Chaudhuri joins Samira Ahmed to discuss his latest on...
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Night Waves – William Dalrymple
Thu 7 Feb 2013
Anne McElvoy talks to William Dalrymple about his new book Return of A King - an of in...
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Night Waves - Nadeem Aslam
Wed 6 Feb 2013
Samira Ahmed visits the British Museum to see its new show about Ice Age art.
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Night Waves - Biotechnology
Tue 5 Feb 2013
Philip Dodd talks to psychologist Bertolt Meyer, the model for the world's first human...
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Night Waves - Richard III's Bones
Mon 4 Feb 2013
The King in the car park: what is the significance of the University of Leicester’s...
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Night Waves - Timbuktu and Beyond
Thu 31 Jan 2013
Anne McElvoy discusses the libraries of Timbuktu, and what they teach us about and in...
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Night Waves - Shame
Wed 30 Jan 2013
Philip Dodd along with Dr Tim Stanley and Paul Glastris review the American version of...
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Night Waves - China's Silent Army
Tue 29 Jan 2013
Rana Mitter & Susannah Clapp review a new production of Simon Gray's Quartermaine's...
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Night Waves - Kurt Schwitters
Mon 28 Jan 2013
As the Tate Britain opens a new exhibition of the work of Kurt Schwitters, art critic...
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Night Waves - The Rotten Heart of Europe
Thu 24 Jan 2013
With the publication of a new, updated version of The Rotten Heart of Europe, a book...
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Night Waves - British Social Realism in Film
Wed 23 Jan 2013
This Night Waves special explores ‘kitchen sink realism’, the cultural movement to...
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Night Waves - Manet & Sherlock
Tue 22 Jan 2013
Matthew Sweet with a review, from Lynda Neade, of the UK's first ever retrospective to...
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Night Waves - Lincoln
Mon 21 Jan 2013
This Night Waves special is devoted to Abraham Lincoln. As Steven Spielberg's new of a...
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Night Waves - Landmark: Pride & Prejudice
Thu 17 Jan 2013
Anne McElvoy settles decorously into Regency England to celebrate the bicentenary of...
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Night Waves - David Hare
Wed 16 Jan 2013
Philip Dodd is joined by the playwright David Hare whose play, The Judas Kiss, is to...
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Night Waves - Jude Kelly
Tue 15 Jan 2013
Matthew Sweet talks to the Artistic Director of the South Bank Centre, Jude Kelly and...
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Night Waves - Django Unchained
Mon 14 Jan 2013
Django Unchained, the newest Quentin Tarantino film causing controversy, is reviewed...
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Night Waves - Weekly highlights: 7
Thu 10 Jan 2013
In this edition of weekly highlights, David Benedict reviews the New Year Blockbuster...
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Night Waves - Philosophical Investigations
Wed 9 Jan 2013
To mark the 60th anniversary of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations,...
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Night Waves - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Tue 8 Jan 2013
Fiona Shaw takes to the stage with Samuel Coleridge’s epic The Rime of the Ancient...
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Night Waves - The Profumo Affair
Mon 7 Jan 2013
Matthew Sweet picks over the bones of the Profumo affair with the historian Richard of...
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Free Thinking - Philippa Gregory
Thu 20 Dec 2012
Best-selling novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Rana Mitter about writing historical...
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Night Waves - Bernard Rose, Public Inquiries, TB, Mughal India
Wed 19 Dec 2012
Bernard Rose, whose new film Boxing Day is a modern rework of Tolstoy’s Master and...
