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Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    First Encounters

    How do you decipher history when there isn't anything written down?

  2. Gambling, good leadership and economic history

    Anne McElvoy looks at gambling and at lessons from past US presidents.

  3. Frank Cottrell-Boyce

    The screenwriter and novelist talks to Matthew Sweet about depicting Britain in his work.

  4. Ian Rankin and Tahmima Anam

    A pair of authors due to be at the Bradford Literature Festival compare notes on writing.

  5. Rethinking the Curriculum

    Sandeep Parmar, Jade Cuttle, Edith Hall & Seb Falk talk to Rana Mitter about what we teach

  6. Irenosen Okojie and Nadifa Mohamed. Midsummer archaeology

    Shahidha Bari talks to a pair of authors about the writing life. Plus a musical monument.

  7. Refugees

    From building shelters to the language we use to discuss displacement we hear new research

  8. Queer Bloomsbury, Stillness in art and dance

    From Virginia Woolf's writings on art to dance, stillness and movement in lockdown.

  9. The future of theatre debate

    Bertie Carvel & Roy Alexander Weise are amongst Anne McElvoy's guests

  10. Failure and female friendship

    Lara Feigel, Mich猫le Roberts and New Generation Thinker Alexandra Reza with Shahidha Bari.

  11. Dickens

    Mathew Sweet, Linda Grant, Laurence Scott & Lucy Whitehead -150 years since Dickens' death

  12. Tackling Modern Slavery

    Naomi Paxton looks at new research into the effectiveness of the UK act passed in 2015.

  13. Robin Askwith

    The actor talks to Matthew Sweet about a childhood affected by polio and his career.

  14. Sarah Perry

    In a conversation with Mathew Sweet, the gothic author explores writing past and present.

  15. Anne Fine and Romesh Gunesekera. Jarman's Garden

    Shahidha Bari hosts a conversation recorded with the Royal Society of Literature.

  16. Kindness

    Rutger Bregman tells Anne McElvoy why survival of the fittest needs rethinking as an idea.

  17. The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: David Abulafia, Hallie Rubenhold, Prashant Kidambi

    From Indian cricket, a survey of the oceans to Jack the Ripper: 3 shortlisted historians.

  18. A feminist take on medieval history

    How does Chaucer write on rape and consent? What links Kim Kardashian and Margery Kempe?

  19. The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: Toby Green, Marion Turner, John Barton

    New takes on Chaucer, the Bible and African trading from 3 of the historians shortlisted.

  20. Big State and the Industrial Revolution

    Emma Griffin and William Ashworth share new research on Victorian industry.

  21. WWII radio propaganda and French relations

    From a gratitude train to the sinister broadcasts to US soldiers. Matthew Sweet presents.

  22. Neolithic Revelations

    A lack of dental floss in the Neolithic era proves to be a boon for archaeologists.

  23. Cary Grant

    Matthew Sweet and guests imagine an evening in the film star's company.

  24. Shakespeare for the People

    Adrian Lester and Prof Ewan Fernie talk to Islam Issa about Birmingham's first folio.

  25. Alternative Realities

    Shahidha Bari explores the impact of life-changing experiences and the fourth dimension.

  26. Science Fiction and ecological thinking

    Hetta Howes, Amy Butt and Caroline Edwards ask if science fiction is the new realism.

  27. What's so great about EM Forster

    Deborah Levy and Laurence Scott talk to Shahidha Bari about novelist EM Forster's work.

  28. Deep Time and Human History

    Lewis Dartnell, Gaia Vince and David Farrier join Rana Mitter to talk the deepest history.

  29. Belonging

    Philip Dodd talks to actor Christopher Eccleston and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards.

  30. Religion and ordinary lives

    Tom Charlton looks for evidence of belief from samplers to children's scribbles in bibles.

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