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 ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Get Carter
Tue 22 Sep 2020
Digging beneath the surface of the classic Brit noir film with director Mike Hodges
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Family ties and reshaping history
Thu 17 Sep 2020
From Neanderthals to Sikh warriors to the idea of ‘WEIRD’ people, 3 authors look at kin
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New Thinking: The Mayflower and Native American History
Wed 16 Sep 2020
Eleanor Barraclough explores the significance of the much mythologised Pilgrim voyage.
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Piranesi and disturbing archecture
Tue 15 Sep 2020
Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of Matthew Sweet's guests
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The Radiophonic Workshop
Thu 6 Aug 2020
Matthew Sweet meets members of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radiophonic Workshop.
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Greek classics and the sea plus a pair of novels byTolstoy and Dostoevsky
Wed 29 Jul 2020
Pat Barker & Giles Fraser on Russian lit/Edith Hall & Barry Cunliffe on the classical sea
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Wole Soyinka's writing
Wed 29 Jul 2020
Ben Okri, Louisa Egbunike & Oladipo Agboluaje discuss the Nigerian author's life and work
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Bernard-Henri Lévy, Stella Sandford, Homi K Bhabha
Tue 28 Jul 2020
Shahidha Bari talks to Bernard-Henri Lévy, Stella Sandford, Homi K Bhabha
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Anne Applebaum, Ingrid Bergman, Herland
Thu 23 Jul 2020
Politics and friendship and the lives of Ingrid Bergman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
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Dada and the power of Nonsense
Wed 22 Jul 2020
A project to re-imagine the Dada arts movement now, and reflections on satire and nonsense
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Proms Lecture - Daniel Levitin: Music and Our Brains
Wed 22 Jul 2020
Daniel Levitin explores new thinking about the relationship between music and memory
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New Thinking:Nature Writing
Wed 15 Jul 2020
From Gilbert White to lockdown blogs - why we need to spend more time in nature.
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Magic
Tue 14 Jul 2020
Matthew Sweet and guests conjure a conversation about the importance and appeal of magic
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How do we build a new masculinity ?
Mon 13 Jul 2020
Sunil Gupta, CN Lester, Tom Shakespeare & Alona Pardo with Matthew Sweet
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Pogroms and prejudice
Thu 9 Jul 2020
Brendan McGeever looks at anti-semitism from Russian attacks to the present day
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The consolation of philosophy and stories
Thu 9 Jul 2020
Matthew Sweet talks to Kylie Murray, Prof Seth Lerer and former Bishop Richard Holloway
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What does a black history curriculum look like?
Wed 8 Jul 2020
Whose life stories are missing from the British history we write and teach?
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Prison Break
Fri 3 Jul 2020
New Generation Thinker Jeffrey Howard asks is it ever ok to escape from prison?
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Facing Facts
Fri 3 Jul 2020
From duelling injuries to eye patches - Emily Cock asks how we respond to peoples' faces
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Gambling, good leadership and economic history
Fri 3 Jul 2020
Anne McElvoy looks at betting, economics and the leadership of US presidents
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Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Wed 1 Jul 2020
The screenwriter and novelist talks to Matthew Sweet about depicting Britain in his work.
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Dam Fever and The Diaspora
Sun 28 Jun 2020
How do large dam projects attract such adoration, despite lessons of twentieth century?
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Not Quite Jean Muir
Sun 28 Jun 2020
How does sewing a dress add to Jade Halbert's understanding of disappearing skills
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Digging Deep
Sun 28 Jun 2020
Susan Greaney asks whether Neolithic attitudes to the earth could shape our thinking.
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Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music
Sun 28 Jun 2020
Tom Smith looks at the early pioneers of this music scene & arguments about whiteness now
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Coming out Crip and Acts of Care
Sun 28 Jun 2020
Ella Parry-Davies draws on experiences of migrant domestic workers in the UK & Lebanon
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Tudor Virtual Reality
Sun 28 Jun 2020
What is the link between VR dinosaurs & a Tudor wall painting of the Judgement of Solomon?
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Ian Rankin and Tahmima Anam
Fri 26 Jun 2020
A pair of authors due to be at the Bradford Literature Festival compare notes on writing.
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Revisit: Arundhati Roy
Thu 25 Jun 2020
The Man Booker prize winning author and campaigner is in conversation with Philip Dodd.