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Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    Punk

    Punk often caused offence. Shahidha Bari asks if that idea of rebellion resonates today.

  2. Dirk Bogarde

    As The Servant is released on DVD, Matthew Sweet and guests explore Dirk Bogarde's career.

  3. Hannah Arendt's exploration of totalitarianism

    Why do Hannah Arendt's ideas continue to fire the imaginations of artists and thinkers?

  4. Belonging

    A teacher's view, a Frankenstein-inspired ballet, outsider status and circus paintings.

  5. The Glitch

    Novelist Tom McCarthy joins Matthew Sweet to explore glitches and what they tell us.

  6. Dante's Visions

    Art historian Martin Kemp and painter Emma Safe, parallels with Proust and a Dante website

  7. Bette Davis

    As the BFI prepares a season of films, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star

  8. Connecting with Nature

    Music from thunder, art inspired by a dog walk; essays about a city wood and a rural field

  9. Alain Robbe-Grillet

    Guests including author Tom McCarthy join Matthew Sweet to discuss the French 'new novel'.

  10. Breathe

    Writer James Nestor, musician Soweto Kinch, Forensic Architecture's Imani Jacqueline Brown

  11. Mining, Coal and DH Lawrence

    Matthew Sweet looks at the connections between the arts and coal mining communities.

  12. Epic Iran, Lost Cities and Proust

    Rana Mitter and guests explore the art and culture of Iran, and why people abandon cities.

  13. The English country house party

    Why does the grand country house party hold such power over the English imagination?

  14. Glenda Jackson on filming Sunday Bloody Sunday

    Matthew Sweet and guests including Glenda Jackson on John Schlesinger's love triangle film

  15. The Innovative Shape of Poems

    Sandeep Parmar talks to poets Kayo Chingonyi, Paisley Rekdal and Dr Nasser Hussain.

  16. Cornwall and Coastal Gothic

    From crumbling tin mine towers to second homes: Laurence Scott on art, fiction and film.

  17. World's Fairs and the Future

    Owen Hatherley, Emily MacGregor and Paul Greenhalgh go back to the future.

  18. Mid Century Modern

    Shahidha Bari and guests look at labour saving devices and revamping the 1950s home.

  19. Building London

    Eric Parry and Alison Brooks; writers Fiona Mozley and SI Martin and pianist Belle Chen.

  20. Masks

    The role of masks in African traditions, Greek tragedy and Covid conspiracies

  21. Displacement

    Edmund de Waal and Frances Stonor Saunders discuss uncovering Jewish family stories.

  22. Nadifa Mohamed, Gentle/Radical, Dylan Thomas

    The work of Turner prize nominees, a Tiger Bay murder story, Under Milk Wood on stage.

  23. How anthropology helps us understand the world

    Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.

  24. Beryl Vertue

    Matthew Sweet meets the Sherlock producer and ex-agent of Tony Hancock who has turned 90.

  25. Women's Art

    Jennifer Higgie, Adjoa Osei, Veronica Ryan, and Lydia Yee talk to Shahidha Bari.

  26. Can Artists Help Save the Planet?

    From ice photos by Wayne Binitie to 140 ideas from artists collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist

  27. Alice and Dreaming

    Salman Rushdie is one of Matthew Sweet's guests for a conversation about the imagination.

  28. The Botanical Past

    From paintings to the gardens of Kew, how a new plant collecting history is being written.

  29. Wittgenstein's Tractatus at 100

    Can you solve all the problems of philosophy in one book? Shahidha Bari and guests debate.

  30. Fashion, Art and the Body

    Olivia Laing, Charlie Porter and Ekow Eshun join Shahidha Bari.

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