Arts & Ideas Podcast
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives 鈥� looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Surveillance, Conspiracy, and Secrets from the Archives
Sun 29 Sep 2019
Matthew Sweet on surveillance capitalism, The Third Man, and Stieg Larsson's obsessions
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Anxiety
Thu 26 Sep 2019
Comedian Sofie Hagen, Colombian novelist H茅ctor Abad & Isabel Hardman join Shahidha Bari.
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Back to the '80s
Fri 20 Sep 2019
Alexei Sayle and Adam Mars Jones join Matthew Sweet to revisit '80s film, tv and music
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Landmark: Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation
Wed 18 Sep 2019
Lauren Elkin, Lisa Appignanesi and Ben Moser on Susan Sontag's 1966 essay collection.
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Tolerance, censorship and free speech.
Tue 17 Sep 2019
Susan Neiman, Ursula Owen & Christopher Hampton join Anne McElvoy.
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New Thinking: Fashion, AI and Sustainability
Mon 16 Sep 2019
The Future Fashion Factory and changing our attitude to #fastfashion. Plus AI and colours
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Proms Plus: Witches & Witchcraft
Fri 13 Sep 2019
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr Thomas Waters in discussion with Dr Fern Riddell
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Revisit Anxiety, Teenagers, University and Leaving 蜜芽传媒
Thu 12 Sep 2019
Psychologist Stephen Briers, student Ceyda Uzun and Durham Univeristy's Caroline Dower
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Proms Plus: Letters
Wed 11 Sep 2019
Ruth Ware and Shaun Usher discuss letter writing in the 21st century
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Proms Plus: Sacrifice
Mon 2 Sep 2019
Why the bible story of Jephtha caused more controversy than your average burnt offering.
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Proms Plus: Landscape
Tue 27 Aug 2019
Horatio Clare and Testament discuss landscape鈥檚 power to inspire writers
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Proms Plus: Nina Simone's life and legacy
Thu 22 Aug 2019
Nina Simone鈥檚 achievement with Kevin Legendre, Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Zena Edwards
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Proms Plus: Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Se谩n Williams explores Beethoven鈥檚 9th and Schiller鈥檚 accompanying text, An Ode to Joy.
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Proms Plus: Kipling's Jungle Books
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Anindya Raychaudhuri discusses Kipling's Jungle Books with Frances Hardinge and Sue Walsh
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Proms Plus: Russian Folktales
Wed 21 Aug 2019
Marina Warner & Sophie Anderson enter a world of walking huts and fish that grant wishes
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Revisit Slavery Stories, William Melvyn Kelley & Esi Edugyan
Sun 18 Aug 2019
Laurence Scott meets the family of a rediscovered African American writer & 3 historians
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Prom Plus: What Victorians Did For Fun
Fri 16 Aug 2019
Historians Kathryn Hughes & Lee Jackson discuss 19th century entertainment.
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Proms Plus: Literary Hoaxes
Fri 16 Aug 2019
Shahidha Bari and Nick Groom on invented monks, fake Shakespeare and a "discovered" diary
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Revisit Napoleon in Fact and Fiction
Thu 15 Aug 2019
Anne McElvoy looks at Napoleon's biography, caricatures and professional impersonators.
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Revisit Mike Leigh in Conversation about Peterloo, politics and his Salford upbringing.
Wed 14 Aug 2019
The film-maker talks to Matthew Sweet about depicting history and politics on film.
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Proms Plus: Childhood, innocence and experience
Tue 13 Aug 2019
Books for children and children in books from Romanticism via the Victorians to now.
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Proms Plus: 'Queering' Tchaikovsky
Mon 12 Aug 2019
Shahidha Bari and Rolf Hind discuss Tchaikovsky鈥檚 letters, with readings from Tom Stuart
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Proms Plus: Tragedy
Thu 8 Aug 2019
Tragedy ancient and modern with Clare Pollard and Jennifer Wallace
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Proms Plus: Swans
Mon 5 Aug 2019
Sacha Dench & Sarah Crompton discuss swans in the natural world & on the ballet stage.
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Revisit Spike Lee in Conversation on Free Thinking
Mon 5 Aug 2019
The film-maker talks to Matthew Sweet about BlacKkKlansman & his 2000 film Bamboozled
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Proms Plus: Nordic Summers Light and Dark
Sun 4 Aug 2019
The legends and landscapes that inspire composers from Finland and Russia
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Proms Plus: 1969 The Sound of a Summer
Fri 26 Jul 2019
Poets Rachael Allen & Jacob Polley join Preti Taneja to reflect on the summer of 1969.
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Proms Plus: Music and Health
Wed 24 Jul 2019
Naomi Paxton discusses the latest science and clinical practice
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Proms Plus: Moon Landing
Mon 22 Jul 2019
Richard Wiseman and Melanie Vandenbrouck discuss the impact of the first Moon landing
