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Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    Edward Said's thinking

    Rana Mitter reads the first biography of the Palestinian academic, pianist and negotiator

  2. The Vietnam-Paris Connection

    Author Viet Thanh Nguyen, film critic Phuong Le and Peter Salmon join Matthew Sweet.

  3. From Life on Mars to Dangerous Space Junk

    Seb Falk talks to researchers about attitudes to Mars, seeing colour and Skylab's crash.

  4. Speech, Voice, Accents and AI

    Sadie Ryan, Lynda Clark and Allison Koenecke talk about their research with Matthew Sweet.

  5. Breakdown: Horatio Clare, Stevie Smith

    Horatio Clare talks to Laurence Scott about mania and healing. Plus Stevie Smith.

  6. Girls

    Shahidha Bari looks at research into girls in film and fiction to Malawi health projects.

  7. Foucault: The History of Sexuality 4

    Shahidha Bari reads a new English translation by Robert Hurley.

  8. Humans, Animals, Ecologies

    Matthew Sweet talks to Joanna Bourke and Anna Tsing about the human and the non human.

  9. Saint John Henry Newman

    Kate Kennedy, Tim Stanley, Catherine Pepinster and Dafydd Mills Daniel on Newman's thought

  10. Adoption, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ren茅e Vivien and Violette Leduc

    Fiona Sampson, Peggy Reynolds and Anne McElvoy talk poetry and writing personal stories

  11. Turkey: Adnan Menderes, populism, and history

    Having survived a plane crash, the Turkish prime minister 1950-60 died in an execution.

  12. Pakistan Politics, Water Supplies

    Samira Shackle, Ejaz Haider and Majed Akhter talk about Karachi, power, crime and energy.

  13. Coins, going cashless and the magic money tree

    In February 1971, the UK went decimal. Anne McElvoy and guests look at money old and new.

  14. Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871)

    Matthew Sweet and guests assess Darwin's arguments about the human species, sex and race.

  15. Fashion Stories in Museums

    Claire Wilcox, fashion curator of the V&A, talks to Shahidha Bari and other researchers.

  16. Class and Social Mobility

    Selina Todd, David Goodhart, Timandra Harkness and Sadie Ryan talk with Matthew Sweet.

  17. Patricia Lockwood and Andr茅 Aciman

    Two American authors talk to Laurence Scott about their sense of time, place and self.

  18. Eco-Criticism

    Who are the best writers past and present who give us an insight into the natural world?

  19. What Makes a Good Lecture?

    Ted talks, zoom and lectures :Mary Beard, Homi Bhabha and Se谩n Williams join Shahidha Bari

  20. Yiddish and Rotwelsch Languages, Nazi France

    Michael Rosen and Martin Puchner talk to Matthew Sweet about languages, codes and secrecy.

  21. Food, the Environment and Richard Flanagan

    Bush fires in novelist Richard Flanagan's new book, and Anne McElvoy looks at veganism.

  22. John Rawls's A Theory of Justice

    Anne McElvoy and guests re-read this 1971 work of political philosophy about inequality.

  23. James Baldwin and Race in the USA

    Rana Mitter and guests re-read James Baldwin as a new US president is inaugurated.

  24. Harlots and 18th-century working women

    Hallie Rubenhold, Moira Buffini and Laura Lammasniemi discuss the TV series Harlots.

  25. Witchcraft, Werewolves and Writing the Devil

    New novels from Jenni Fagan and Salena Godden depict Mrs Death and the devil's daughter.

  26. Women and Slavery

    New research into female slave owners in Britain to women on Caribbean plantations.

  27. Autism, Film and Patterns

    From Rain Man to Atypical. Matthew Sweet looks at autism on screen and in everyday life.

  28. Aphra Behn

    John Gallagher's guests decode changes in Behn's loyalties from her plays and dedications.

  29. Dostoevsky

    Rana Mitter reads from a new biography of Dostoevsky, 200 years after his birth.

  30. Mildred Pierce

    Matthew Sweet and guests discuss James M Cain's classic novel and its film adaptation.

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