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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New Thinking: Design and health
Sat 1 Jul 2023
From sleeve design to stroke patient recovery and solving malnutrition
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New Thinking: Writing the NHS
Fri 30 Jun 2023
Dr Kim Moore and Dr Kim Wiltshire on how hospital staff have been helped by writing
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Dystopian thinking
Fri 30 Jun 2023
As Kay Dick's They opens at MIF, Matthew Sweet and guests trace the history of dystopias.
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Julian the Apostate
Wed 28 Jun 2023
We examine Rome's last pagan ruler via Ibsen's drama to apostasy in contemporary politics
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Boyhood to manhood
Mon 26 Jun 2023
Chris Harding with Luke Turner, Jeffrey Boakye and Lisa Sugiura discuss growing up now
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Gut instinct
Fri 23 Jun 2023
From gut feelings in your stomach to the language of disgust: Matthew Sweet hosts
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Diva
Wed 21 Jun 2023
As the V&A opens an exhibition about performers, Naomi Paxton discusses what makes a diva
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
Tue 20 Jun 2023
The book of the Sturm und Drang generation: Anne McElvoy explores the ideas behind it
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Life, art and drama in the kitchen
Fri 16 Jun 2023
Sarah Kent, Marianne Hem Eriksen, Melanie Williams and Angela Hui join Matthew Sweet
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Glenda Jackson and Filming Sunday Bloody Sunday
Thu 15 Jun 2023
With the death of Glenda Jackson announced here's a conversation she recorded last year
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Portraits
Wed 14 Jun 2023
As the NPG re-opens we look at portraiture in art, photography, documentary & oral history
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Ideas about health
Tue 13 Jun 2023
Gavin Francis on Thomas Browne, Polly Morland on John Berger, Matt Smith on mental health
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Adam Smith
Thu 8 Jun 2023
From the East India Company to Silicon Valley: the big ideas in his tercentennial year
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Yellowface, AI and Asian stereotypes
Wed 7 Jun 2023
Novelist R F Kuang, Dr Kerry McInerney, Ghislaine Boddington and MIT's Daron Acemoglu
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Michel Piccoli
Tue 6 Jun 2023
Matthew Sweet on the French actor who worked with Buñuel, Varda, Ferreri and Godard.
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Nature Memoirs
Wed 31 May 2023
Rana Mitter looks at fens, flatlands, wild swimming and a little-changed Bulgarian valley
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Europe
Wed 31 May 2023
Ece Temelkuran, Ben Judah, Misha Glenny and Timothy Garton Ash with Rana Mitter at Hay
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The Troubles in Northern Ireland
Fri 26 May 2023
As an Imperial War Museum show opens, Anne McElvoy and guests discuss art and the Troubles
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Sneezing, smells and noses
Fri 26 May 2023
From Montaigne on sneezing to losing the sense of smell & historians using their noses.
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Linda Grant and Jewish history
Thu 25 May 2023
Julia Pascal, Rachel Lichtenstein, Linda Grant and curator Alex Cropper + John Gallagher
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Mermaids, Caribbean tales and copyright
Wed 24 May 2023
Shahidha Bari looks at sea creatures and a Caribbean re-telling of The Little Mermaid.
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Essex
Fri 19 May 2023
Looking beyond the stereotypes of the county that's often described as 'much maligned'.
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Rocky Horror and camp
Wed 17 May 2023
Shahidha Bari is joined by Louise Creechan, Joan Passey and Paul Baker
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Zimbabwean writing
Tue 16 May 2023
NoViolet Bulwayo's We Need New Names on stage plus "enfant terrible" Dambudzo Marechera
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Agoraphobia
Fri 12 May 2023
More than just a fear of going out - the history & lived experience of a phobia explored.
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Mountaineering, Lizzie Le Blond, sport and science
Wed 10 May 2023
Rachel Hewitt has been researching the pioneering Irish climber Mrs Aubrey Le Blond.
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Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe
Mon 8 May 2023
Shahidha Bari hears about two inspirational medieval women mystics who wrote about faith
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Kingship and ceremony
Fri 5 May 2023
Anne McElvoy looks at royalty, pomp and glory in opera, ancient Persia and Tudor England.
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Sidney Poitier
Thu 4 May 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests consider the career of the Bahamian-American actor (1927-2022)
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Sound, conflict and central heating
Tue 2 May 2023
Matthew Sweet finds out how extreme temperatures changed Erland Cooper's music
