Free Thinking Episodes Episode guide
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Amia Srinivasan and Philosophical Genealogy
The Right to Sex is the title of Amia Srinivasan's new book. Christopher Harding hosts.
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Oceans and the Sea
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Emily Shuckburgh and Joan Passey join Rana Mitter at Hay Festival.
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Tudor families
Tangled bloodlines, executions and a big, gold inflatable thing belonging to Henry VIII.
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The Tudor Mind
Donne, Hamlet, mathematics and the Tudor portraits composed by Vaughan Williams.
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Tattoos
Shahidha Bari traces the move from markings on convicts and aristos to today's body art.
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Goddesses
Christopher Harding investigates the feminine divine with Ronald Hutton and others.
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Gandhi, Indian architecture
Rana Mitter looks at a new play at the National Theatre about the man who murdered Gandhi.
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Soho
Matthew Sweet is joined by Jingan Young, Benjamin Halligan and David McGillivray.
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Soil
John Gallagher and guests dig deep into the significance of soil.
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Mental Health
Anne McElvoy looks at ASMR, clean air, loneliness and a memoir exploring mental health.
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Odessa Stories
Linda Grant and Boris Dralyuk discuss the writer Isaac Babel with Matthew Sweet.
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Windows
From Rear Window to stained glass, TB to paintings at Dulwich. Shahidha Bari hosts.
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Kawanabe Kyōsai and Yukio Mishima
Japanese cultural experimentation: painter Kyōsai 1831-1889 and writer Mishima 1925-1970.
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May Day Rituals
Matthew Sweet and guests explore ideas about community, collective action and May revels.
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Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne McElvoy discusses the visionary poet with a composer and two literature experts.
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Speaking Welsh
Catherine Fletcher explores the relationship between Cymru and Cymraeg - Wales and Welsh.
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Teaching and Inspiration
Novelist Julian Barnes, historian Daisy Hay and New Generation Thinker Louise Creechan.
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Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound
Shahidha Bari on a new staging of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Why is Warwick a key figure?
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Preserving our heritage
From knitting patterns to greetings cards: Naomi Paxton looks at a series of UK archives
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Housework
Gender, class and domestic tasks. Matthew pulls on his rubber gloves and gets stuck in.
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Ships and History
Artist Hew Locke plus historians Sarah Caputo, Jake Subryan Richards and Tom Nancollas.
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Grief
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the role of ritual, laments and how we express grief.
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China: World Politics, Ink Art and Insomnia
Kevin Rudd talks about avoiding catastrophic conflict between China and the USA.
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Bridgerton and Georgian Entertainment
Shahidha Bari with Ian Kelly, Hannah Greig, Sophie Coulombeau, Brianna Kirkland-Robertson.
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New Generation Thinkers 2022
Laurence Scott introduces the ten academics chosen to share their research on radio.
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Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's Hand in the Trap
Confronting the man who jilted you is the plot of this 1960s Argentine expressionist film
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Enter the Dragon and Bruce Lee
Matthew Sweet watches the 1973 martial arts film made before Bruce Lee's death aged 32.
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Dark Places
A poet, crime writer, theologian and marine biologist explore darkness.
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After Dark Festival: Equinox
Finding meaning in the moment when the length of day and night is equal.
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John Maynard Keynes
From HM Treasury to Versailles and Bloomsbury: a look at the life and legacy of JM Keynes.