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 - Mark Rylance
Mon 24 Sep 2012
Philip Dodd talks to Mark Rylance, the former artistic director of the Globe.
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Night Waves - Ryszard Kapuscinski
Thu 20 Sep 2012
As a new biography of Ryszard Kapuscinski is released, the author Artur Domoslawski 4...
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Night Waves - Howard Jacobson
Wed 19 Sep 2012
Philip Dodd talks to Howard Jacobson and discusses Zoo Time, his first novel since the...
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Night Waves - Sir John Major
Tue 18 Sep 2012
Sir John Major talks to Matthew Sweet and is joined by comedian Roy Hudd to discuss of...
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Night Waves - Sebastian Faulks
Mon 17 Sep 2012
Award-winning author Sebastian Faulks speaks to Rana Mitter about his new novel, A the...
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Night Waves - Amartya Sen
Thu 13 Sep 2012
Philip Dodd talks to the Nobel prize winning economist, Amartya Sen in the concluding...
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Night Waves: The Pursuit Of Happiness
Wed 12 Sep 2012
Anne McElvoy examines whether we place too much weight on happiness as a measure of of...
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Night Waves - Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot'
Wed 12 Sep 2012
Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot' (1869) raises 'the good life' as an existential question that...
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Proms Plus Literary - Proms Poetry Competition
Mon 10 Sep 2012
Ian McMillan is joined by poet Wendy Cope and actor Juliet Stevenson as he announces...
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Night Waves - What is 'Enough
Mon 10 Sep 2012
What is the good life? Philip is joined in the studio by the commentators Robert Owen...
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Proms Plus Literary - Desert Island
Mon 3 Sep 2012
Which literary works make the most entries into celebrity choices on Radio 4’s is by...
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Proms Plus Literary - Mendelssohn
Sat 1 Sep 2012
Musicologist John Deathridge, introduces an anthology of unexpected readings about...
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Proms Plus Literary - Edward Elgar
Wed 29 Aug 2012
Award-winning film-maker John Bridcut introduces a selection of fascinating and about...
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Proms Plus Literary - Lyrics
Mon 27 Aug 2012
Tell Me on a Sunday lyricist Don Black and singer-songwriter Barb Jungr discuss the as...
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Proms Plus Literary - Ken Russell
Thu 23 Aug 2012
Glenda Jackson MP and film critic Mark Kermode celebrate the work of the late Ken the...
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Proms Plus Literary - Russian Classics
Tue 21 Aug 2012
Novelist Pat Barker and Revd Giles Fraser discuss with presenter Ian McMillan what can...
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Proms Plus Literary: Vaughan Williams
Thu 16 Aug 2012
Composer Anthony Payne introduces readings about and by one of the great composers in...
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Proms Plus Literary - Edward Gardner
Wed 8 Aug 2012
The Music Director of the ENO Edward Gardner, who will be conducting a concert of in...
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Proms Plus Literary - The Handmaid's Tale
Mon 6 Aug 2012
Veteran war reporter Kate Adie and novelist Aminatta Forna discuss Margaret Atwood's a...
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Proms Plus Literary - Sunset Song
Fri 3 Aug 2012
Poet Jackie Kay and novelist Ali Smith discuss one of the great Scottish novels, Song...
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Proms Plus Literary - David Hill
Mon 30 Jul 2012
Conductor David Hill continues the series in which leading musicians from this Proms...
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Proms Plus Literary - Arab Spring
Tue 24 Jul 2012
BBC correspondent Ed Stourton is joined by Ahdaf Soueif & Karl Sharro to explore the...
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Proms Plus Literary - Jane Glover
Wed 18 Jul 2012
Conductor Jane Glover begins a new four part series in which musicians from this Proms...
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Proms Plus Literary - Christine Rice
Wed 18 Jul 2012
Christine Rice with presenter Matthew Sweet, conclude the series of events in which of...
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Proms Plus Literary - Pygmalion
Sat 14 Jul 2012
George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, the inspiration for My Fair Lady, is discussed...
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Night Waves - Lowry & Kuhn
Thu 12 Jul 2012
Philip Dodd casts an irreverent eye over the reputations of two figures who loom large...
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Night Waves - James Fenton
Wed 11 Jul 2012
James Fenton joins Rana Mitter to talk about his latest poetry collection, Yellow and...
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Night Waves - London
Tue 10 Jul 2012
In a year when all eyes are on London, Matthew Sweet explores London's place as a and...
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Night Waves - Titian
Mon 9 Jul 2012
Titian, who ruled the Venetian art world for over 60 years, is the subject of this of...
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Night Waves - Maajid Nawaz
Thu 5 Jul 2012
Former radical, Maajid Nawaz, speaks of his journey from Islamist extremism to a he is...
