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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Power to the People?
Wed 21 Mar 2018
David Runciman, Rod Liddle, Caroline MacFarland Danny Dorling & Anne McElvoy in Gateshead
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Free Thinking Essay: When Shakespeare Travelled With Me
Tue 20 Mar 2018
Islam Issa on arguments about Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop in the 21st century
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Are We Afraid of Being Alone?
Tue 20 Mar 2018
Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver, and John-Henry Clay explore solitude.
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Free Thinking Essay: A War of Words
Mon 19 Mar 2018
Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.
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Free Thinking Essay: Doing Nothing
Fri 16 Mar 2018
Alastair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.
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Has Social Media Cracked the Code to the Crowd?
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Julia Hobsbawm, Jamie Bartlett, Laurence Scott and Abeba Birhane with Anne McElvoy.
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Free Thinking Essay: Educating Ida
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Podcast: There Is No I in Team
Thu 15 Mar 2018
MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.
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Free Thinking Essay: Does Trusting People Need a Leap of Faith?
Thu 15 Mar 2018
Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village & community relations now
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Free Thinking Essay:Art for Health's Sake
Wed 14 Mar 2018
Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?
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The Dance of Nature
Wed 14 Mar 2018
Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew McBain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour
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Free Thinking Essay: Welling Up: Women & Water in the Middle Ages
Tue 13 Mar 2018
Hetta Howes looks at male fears + why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying & bleeding.
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The Population Bomb
Mon 12 Mar 2018
Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.
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The Free Thinking Lecture: Linda Yueh on Globalisation
Fri 9 Mar 2018
Economist Linda Yueh delivers her vision for restoring faith in the free market.
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New Research into the UK Women's Suffrage Movement.
Thu 8 Mar 2018
With Helen Pankhurst, Jane Robinson, Shahida Rahman, Fern Riddell and Miranda Garrett
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The Golden Notebook
Wed 7 Mar 2018
Lara Feigel, Xiaolu Guo, Melissa Benn + David Aaronovitch on Doris Lessing's 1962 novel.
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A Sentimental Journey
Thu 1 Mar 2018
Se谩n Williams rereads Laurence Sterne's subjective travel book & talks to Philip Hensher
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What Lies Beneath; Neanderthal Cave Art to Fatbergs
Wed 28 Feb 2018
Poetic and archaeological trip round our fascination with what comes up when we dig down.
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The Joy of Bureaucracy
Thu 22 Feb 2018
Matthew Sweet with guests including Lord Butler, Andr茅 Spicer and Eliane Glaser
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Steven Pinker on Progress
Thu 22 Feb 2018
Steven Pinker explains to Philip Dodd why we should ignore headlines & be more optimistic
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Napoleon in Fact & Fiction
Wed 21 Feb 2018
Napoleon impersonators, ballads and what if he didn't die in exile?
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Reflecting Rural Life
Thu 15 Feb 2018
Film maker Clio Barnard and novelist Amanda Craig on rural life. Matthew Sweet presents.
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Free Thinking: Mark Dion; Colour, Insects, Virginia Woolf
Wed 14 Feb 2018
Human Beings are part of Natural History discuss: via art, science and the Bloosmbury set
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How Big Should the State Be?
Wed 14 Feb 2018
David Willetts, Polly Toynbee, Simone Finn, Julia Black & Adrian Wooldridge at LSE.
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Michael Ignatieff and Central Europe
Tue 13 Feb 2018
Philip Dodd talks to Michael Ignatieff about the political landscape of central Europe.
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Tariq Ali
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Rana Mitter talks to Tariq Ali, novelist, historian & political activist about 1968.
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Celebrating Buchi Emecheta
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Single motherhood, child slavery & parallels w/ Grenfell in the books of Buchi Emecheta
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Trade, Davos, Ocean travel and Mermaids
Fri 2 Feb 2018
Anne McElvoy on Davos discussions, Ocean liner style at the V&A and mermaids in fiction.
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The Working Class in Culture
Thu 1 Feb 2018
Philip Dodd and guests ask has culture forgotten the working class?
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Landmark: Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries
Tue 30 Jan 2018
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
