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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Proms Plus: Moon Landing
Mon 22 Jul 2019
Richard Wiseman and Melanie Vandenbrouck discuss the impact of the first Moon landing
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Book Parts and Difficulty
Fri 19 Jul 2019
Matthew Sweet looks at frontispieces, titles and marginalia, and hard texts.
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New angles on post-war Germany and Austria
Wed 17 Jul 2019
Anne McElvoy with Florian Huber, Sophie Hardach, Adam Scovell, Tom Smith
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New Thinking: Neolithic Revelations
Wed 17 Jul 2019
A lack of Neolithic dental floss proves to be a boon for archaeologists,
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New Thinking: Shakespeare's Language
Wed 17 Jul 2019
From Juliet's uncertainty, to finding a phrase for descending the stairs
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New Thinking: City Talk
Wed 17 Jul 2019
Mapping the accents of Greater Manchester with a camper van and a laptop
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Camille Paglia
Tue 16 Jul 2019
Camille Paglia in conversation with Philip Dodd about free speech and feminism
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An insider's view of war
Thu 11 Jul 2019
Ex-Marine & journalist Elliot Ackerman on Al Qaeda and the Iraq War. Rana Mitter presents
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Caine Prize. Ivo van Hove. Female Desire.
Wed 10 Jul 2019
Shahidha Bari looks at staging Ayn Rand's ideas and meets the 2019 Caine Prize winner.
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Landmark: Iris Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good
Wed 10 Jul 2019
Matthew Sweet discusses Iris Murdoch's philosophical essay of 1970
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Reinventing the 'Mistake on the Lake'.
Thu 4 Jul 2019
Philip Dodd visits the US rust belt city of Cleveland.
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Russia and Fear.
Thu 4 Jul 2019
Rana Mitter considers fearing Russia past & present with Mark B Smith & Tamar Koplatadze.
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Free Thinking: Language and Belonging
Wed 3 Jul 2019
Preti Taneja with Guy Gunaratne,Dina Nayeri, Michael Rosen, Momtaza Mehri & Deena Mohamed
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Amitav Ghosh. Layla and Majnun. Islam Issa.
Fri 28 Jun 2019
Amitav Ghosh on linking refugees, climate change, Venice & Bengali forests in his fiction
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Cindy Sherman, Laura Cumming
Wed 26 Jun 2019
The art of Cindy Sherman plus art critic Laura Cumming on the days her mother disappeared
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The Hard Man in the Call-Centre
Fri 21 Jun 2019
Alistair Fraser on the fates and fortunes of Glaswegian tough guys
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'Bedford, do you call this thing a coat?' The history of the three-piece suit
Thu 20 Jun 2019
Sarah Goldsmith on an immortal trio jacket, waistcoat and trousers
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Catch 22, Recycling fashion, Fred D'Aguiar, Wu Mali
Thu 20 Jun 2019
Anne McElvoy watches George Clooney in Catch-22 on TV and looks at recycling fashion.
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Comrades in Arms
Wed 19 Jun 2019
Tom Smith on the East German Military's fascination with its soldiers' sexuality
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Landmark: Finnegans Wake
Wed 19 Jun 2019
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss James Joyce's experimental novel.
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Sword to Pen. Redcoat and the rise of the military memoir
Tue 18 Jun 2019
Emma Butcher on the publishing phenomenon that was the traumatised 19th c Redcoat
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The well-groomed Georgian
Mon 17 Jun 2019
Alun Withey on what made 18th-century men shave off centuries of manly growth
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Afropean Identities. Filming the Arab Spring.
Fri 14 Jun 2019
Johny Pitts and Caryl Phillips discuss the idea of Afropean identity with Matthew Sweet.
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Michael Rakowitz, Archaeology Now, Epic Journeys and Facial Disfigurement
Wed 12 Jun 2019
Artist, archaeologists, a writer and a historian of the face make the invisible visible
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Breaking Down the Barriers
Tue 11 Jun 2019
The cultural contribution of Muslim women and Rana Mitter talks to artist John Keane
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Orwell's 1984. A Landmark of Culture.
Thu 6 Jun 2019
Matthew Sweet explores what fed into Orwell's future vision & how our own is shaping up.
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Is the Law keeping up with our changing world?
Wed 5 Jun 2019
A panel of researchers share insights into the law and warfare, gender and AI
