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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Free Thinking: Artist Tom Phillips at 80; How do we save our plants?
Thu 25 May 2017
Artist Tom Phillips talks to Philip Dodd about his career as he marks his 80th birthday.
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Free Thinking - Japan and Korea. Hokusai
Wed 24 May 2017
Chris Harding discusses the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai
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Free Thinking - Bella Bathurst. Mike Figgis. Birds in British literature. 2017 New Generation Thinker Daisy Fancourt.
Tue 23 May 2017
Matthew Sweet explores deafness, plot twists, birds in books & how music is good for you
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Free Thinking: Fiona Shaw and Mark Ravenhill on Brecht, John Knox, 2017 New Generation Thinker Joanne Paul.
Thu 18 May 2017
Philip Dodd looks at speaking truth to power and the beliefs of John Knox and Galileo.
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Free Thinking: Rachel Seiffert. James Hawes,Richard Nelson. 2017 New Gen Thinker Alistair Fraser on gangs
Wed 17 May 2017
Anne McElvoy explores German Russian history, US electioneering and crime with her guests
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Free Thinking - Artist Taryn Simon. Deglobalisation. 2017 New Generation Thinker Eleanor Lybeck on the circus.
Tue 16 May 2017
Photo London's Master of Photography Taryn Simon on her new exhibition Image Atlas
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Free Thinking: Laurent Binet; the rise of blockchain tech.
Thu 11 May 2017
Anne McElvoy talks to the French novelist about Roland Barthes.
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Free Thinking: Salom茅, Angels in America, Queer British Art
Wed 10 May 2017
Philip Dodd looks at desire & politics as Angels in America runs at the National Theatre
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Free Thinking: The Wolfson Prize
Tue 9 May 2017
Rana Mitter is joined by the 6 shortlisted authors and an audience at the British Academy
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Free Thinking: Breaking Free: Landmark - Paradise Lost
Fri 5 May 2017
John Carey, Islam Issa, Mandy Green and Joe Moshenska with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking: Breaking Free - Martin Luther鈥檚 Revolution. New Research into the Reformation
Wed 3 May 2017
Alec Ryrie, Tom Charlton, Elizabeth Goodwin and Tara Hamling join Rana Mitter.
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Free Thinking - Breaking Free: Martin Luther's Revolution
Tue 2 May 2017
Peter Stanford Ulinka Rublack and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss Martin Luther.
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Free Thinking - Wellcome Book Prize, Civil Wars: Susan Buck-Morss and A.C. Grayling, Louisa Egbunike and Akachi Ezeigbo.
Thu 27 Apr 2017
Anne McElvoy discusses nation states and war with A.C. Grayling and Susan Buck-Morss.
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Free Thinking - What now for environmentalism? With Paul Kingsnorth, James Thornton and Martin Goodman
Wed 26 Apr 2017
Writer Paul Kingsnorth talks about his changing attitude to the environmental movement.
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Free Thinking - Smell: Michele Roberts, A history of dentistry
Tue 25 Apr 2017
Matthew Sweet is joined by writer Michele Roberts, who talks about her latest novel.
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Free Thinking - Landmark: Leaves of Grass
Sun 23 Apr 2017
Poets Mark Doty and Andrew McMillan and Professor Sarah Churchwell on Walt Whitman's poem
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Free Thinking 鈥� John Irving
Sat 22 Apr 2017
The author of The Cider House Rules on religion, Mexico and the USA. With Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking - Writers Writing about Love
Fri 21 Apr 2017
Alain de Botton, Tahmima Anam and AL Kennedy talk to Anne McElvoy about love in prose.
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Free Thinking - Taking the Long View with the Animal Kingdom
Thu 13 Apr 2017
Tim Birkhead and Phyllis Lee on long-lived animal species and their survival strategies.
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Free Thinking - My Body Clock is Broken
Wed 12 Apr 2017
Jay Griffiths, Vincent Deary, Louise Robinson and Matthew Smith discuss our mental health
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Free Thinking Festival: Time, Space and Science
Tue 11 Apr 2017
Carlos Frenk, Eugenia Cheng, Jim Al-Khalili and Louisa Preston debate time and space.
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Free Thinking Festival: Writing Life
Mon 10 Apr 2017
Poet Simon Armitage and writer Alexandra Harris explore time and place in modern Britain.
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Free Thinking at Uproot Festival
Fri 7 Apr 2017
Author David Mark and poet Adelle Stripe join Matthew Sweet and an audience at Hull Truck.
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Free Thinking: An interview with Haemin Sunim
Wed 5 Apr 2017
Haemin Sunim, the Buddhist meditation teacher, on calm in a fast-paced 21st century world
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Free Thinking Festival: New Generation Thinkers 2017
Tue 4 Apr 2017
The 2017 New Generation Thinkers make their first public appearance together.
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Free Thinking Festival: Education Slow and Fast
Mon 3 Apr 2017
Tony Sewell and Mike Grenier on the challenges of education in the 21st century.
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Free Thinking Essay: Killing Time in Imperial Japan
Fri 31 Mar 2017
Christopher Harding explores the Tokyo of a century ago when 'time' was hotly contested.
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Free Thinking Festival: The Time of Your Life
Thu 30 Mar 2017
Edwina Currie, Miranda Sawyer and Lola Okolosie explore the different times of our lives.
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The Essay - Creating Modern India
Thu 30 Mar 2017
Preti Taneja on the architectural links between Letchworth Garden City and New Delhi.
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Free Thinking Essay: England's First European
Wed 29 Mar 2017
John Gallagher marks the 400th anniversary of Fynes Moryson's great travel book.
