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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Free Thinking - Walter Benjamin; A cultural history of the body; Edvard Munch; Soviet Superwoman
Thu 23 Jun 2016
Anne McElvoy evaluates the fiction of Walter Benjamin and the Soviet superwoman.
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Free Thinking - Universities: Therapy or Learning?
Wed 22 Jun 2016
Philip Dodd debates "Universities - therapy or learning?". Dr Seán Williams on Nietzsche
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Free Thinking: Hands - The Anatomical Venus
Tue 21 Jun 2016
Matthew Sweet discuses hands with Darian Leader plus New Generation Thinker Seb Falk.
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Free Thinking - Nottingham Contemporary Art Debate: Elizabeth Price, Alice Channer.
Thu 16 Jun 2016
Anne McElvoy is joined by curators and artists and an audience at Nottingham Contemporary
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Free Thinking - Jane Mayer Dark Money - Money & US Politics - Flora Nwapa's Efuru - African Literature - Emma Cline The Girls
Wed 15 Jun 2016
Emma Cline on cults and teenage girls, and we reread Flora Nwapa's pioneering novel Efuru
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Free Thinking - Mystics and Reality: Joanna Kavenna, Dorothy Cross, Jo Dunkley, New Generation Thinker Edmund Richardson.
Tue 14 Jun 2016
Matthew Sweet investigates various paths to reality with artist, writer and cosmologist
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Free Thinking - Archaelogy: Alexandra Sofroniew, Damian Robinson, Raimund Karl, Susan Greaney.
Thu 9 Jun 2016
Rana Mitter hears about archaeology underwater at home and abroad, at the BM & Ashmoleum
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Free Thinking - Peter Singer
Wed 8 Jun 2016
Moral philosopher Peter Singer is in conversation with Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking - Sjón, Winifred Knights. Katie Roiphe. New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson.
Tue 7 Jun 2016
Icelandic writer Sjón, the career of Winifred Knights and New Generation Thinker on touch
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Free Thinking - Bhupen Khakhar. The City State of London? Saskia Sassen, Jane Morris, David Anderson and Pat Kane.
Thu 2 Jun 2016
Philip Dodd explores the art of Bhupen Khakhar as a retrospective opens at Tate Modern.
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Free Thinking: Hay Festival: Inheritance - Steve Jones, Lionel Shriver, Marlon James
Wed 1 Jun 2016
Lionel Shriver, Marlon James and Steve Jones join Rana Mitter to debate inheritance
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Free Thinking - Hay Festival: New Generation Thinkers 2016
Tue 31 May 2016
The 10 New Generation Thinkers 2016 join Rana Mitter to discuss their research.
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Free Thinking - Tale of Genji. Algorithms.
Thu 26 May 2016
Rana Mitter rereads The Tale of Genji sometimes called the world's first novel.
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Free Thinking - Latin America: Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Claudia Pineiro, Eric Hobsbawm.
Wed 25 May 2016
Philip Dodd looks at Latin America with writers Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Claudia Pineiro.
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Free Thinking - Photographers Dorothy Bohm, Wolfgang Suschitzky, Neil Libbert. Carry On Films.
Tue 24 May 2016
The Carry On film as social history and a photography show charting the 20th century.
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Free Thinking - Beauty: Dame Fiona Reynolds. The Bowes Museum. David Willetts on The State.
Thu 19 May 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to Dame Fiona Reynolds about preserving beauty in the countryside.
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Free Thinking - Landmark: In Parenthesis, by David Jones
Thu 19 May 2016
Writer Iain Sinclair librettist Emma Jenkins composer Paul Hills art historian Iain Bell
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Free Thinking - Transformations: Becoming a Goat, Neil Bartlett
Tue 17 May 2016
Neil Bartlett on Victorian performer Ernest Boulton. Thomas Thwaites on becoming a goat.
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Free Thinking - Germany: Neil MacGregor. A.T. Williams & Philippe Sands. Threepenny Opera. Volker Kutscher.
Thu 12 May 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to Neil MacGregor, Volker Kutscher, Hadyn Gwynne.
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Free Thinking - The Cultural Revolution
Wed 11 May 2016
Frank Dikötter, Xiaolu and Xinran join Rana Mitter to revisit the Cultural Revolution
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Free Thinking - Revolutionary thinking: Paul Mason, Bryan and Mary Talbot, Dacher Keltner.
Wed 11 May 2016
Paul Mason and Bryan and Mary Talbot discuss Louise Michel with Matthew Sweet.
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Free Thinking - Writers Writing about Love
Thu 5 May 2016
Anne McElvoy with novelists A L Kennedy, Tahmima Anam and Alain de Botton talking Love
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Free Thinking - Olafur Eliasson. Andrey Kurkov. Mary Dejevsky and Zinovy Zinik on Soviet Culture.
Wed 4 May 2016
Philip Dodd talks to the artist Olafur Eliasson and novelist Andrey Kurkov.
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Free Thinking - Concrete: Marina Lewycka, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Lynsey Hanley
Tue 3 May 2016
Matthew Sweet explores concrete homes with Marina Lewycka and looks at art at the YSP
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Free Thinking - TE Lawrence on stage. Jeremy Thorpe. Privacy.
Thu 28 Apr 2016
Playwright Howard Brenton and director Adrian Noble discuss dramas depicting TE Lawrence.
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Free Thinking - The Winter's Tale Landmark
Wed 27 Apr 2016
Samuel West, Carol Rutter, Michael Dobson and Matthew Sweet discuss The Winter's Tale.
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Free Thinking - Sounds of Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Bookshelf
Tue 26 Apr 2016
Edith Hall, Nandini Das and Beatrice Groves on the books which inspired Shakespeare
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Free Thinking - Sicily. John Hardyng's Chronicle. The London Library
Thu 21 Apr 2016
Anne McElvoy on Sicily plus the London Library at 175 with Tom Stoppard.
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Free Thinking - Slavoj Zizek.
Thu 21 Apr 2016
Philip Dodd debates migration, global solidarity with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek
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Free Thinking - Landmark: Tarkovsky's Stalker.
Tue 19 Apr 2016
Konstantin von Eggert, Sophie Fiennes and Geoff Dyer discuss Tarkovsky's 1979 film.