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
-
![]()
Free Thinking - The Oscars
Thu 14 Jan 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at the revival of Westerns and reports on the 2016 Oscar contenders
-
![]()
Free Thinking - French thought and politics.
Thu 14 Jan 2016
Is France ceasing to be French - Philip Dodd and his guests investigate
-
![]()
Free Thinking - TS Eliot poetry prize winner. Lisa Randall on dark matter.
Tue 12 Jan 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to the winner of this year's TS Eliot poetry prize Sarah Howe.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Velasquez; John Bratby; Pan Haggerty
Fri 8 Jan 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to Laura Cumming about a C19 court case involving a Vel谩zquez portrait
-
![]()
Free Thinking 鈥� Landmark: Lorraine Hansberry
Thu 7 Jan 2016
With two plays by Lorraine Hansberry being staged Philip Dodd examines her achievement
-
![]()
Free Thinking -Teenage life: David and Ben Aaronovitch, Viv Albertine, Iroise Dumontheil, Simon Stephens
Tue 5 Jan 2016
Matthew Sweet, David & Ben Aaronovitch, Viv Albertine, Iroise Dumontheil, Simon Stephens
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Star Wars. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Ruth Scurr on John Aubrey. Beowulf.
Thu 17 Dec 2015
Anne McElvoy talks to Christopher Hampton & Adjoa Andoh about Les Liaisons Dangereuses
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Cities and Safety
Wed 16 Dec 2015
Philip Dodd rereads Conrad's The Secret Agent and considers what a safe city means now.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Northern Lights Landmark: Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries
Tue 15 Dec 2015
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Must The Arts Be Relevant?
Thu 10 Dec 2015
Mark Baldwin, Catherine Wood, Jennifer Walshe, Sarah Kent and Vayu Naidu debate the arts.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Northern Lights: crime fiction and cold settings
Wed 9 Dec 2015
Margaret Atwood, Arnaldur Indriadason and MJ McGrath talk about crime fiction and cold.
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival: Northern Lights: Joanne Harris on the Norse god Loki
Tue 8 Dec 2015
Joanne Harris and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough discuss the god Loki and Norse beliefs.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Mein Kampf; Larissa MacFarquhar; Julia Margaret Cameron
Mon 7 Dec 2015
Anna Fox and Chantal Joffe discuss Julia Margaret Cameron plus altruism's wilder shores.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Kenzaburo Oe, Artist and Empire at Tate Britain, Japan and Cool Now
Wed 2 Dec 2015
Philip Dodd reviews the newly translated novel from Nobel prize winner Kenzaburo Oe.
-
![]()
Free Thinking - Umberto Eco
Tue 1 Dec 2015
Italian author Umberto Eco talks to Matthew Sweet about conspiracy theories and war.
-
![]()
Rule Making and Rule Breaking for Women and Men.
Thu 26 Nov 2015
Sheila Hancock, Neil Bartlett, Bim Adewunmi and head teacher Jonny Mitchell debate rules.
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits or a Drain on Society?
Wed 25 Nov 2015
David Yelland, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, Dr Sally Marlow and Prof Barry Smith on alcohol
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - Work Available: No Humans Need Apply
Wed 25 Nov 2015
Paul Mason, Lucy Armstrong and Richard and Daniel Susskind debate the future of work
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - Stage Directions
Wed 25 Nov 2015
A discussion of the actor/director relationship and are there rules for good theatre?
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - The Family Is Dead! Long Live the Family!
Tue 24 Nov 2015
Anne Fine, Tobias Jones, Tom Shakespeare and Professor Sarah Cunningham Burley debate.
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival 鈥� Landmark: Angela Carter
Mon 23 Nov 2015
Joanna Kavenna, Natasha Pulley, Susannah Clapp and Christopher Frayling on Angela Carter
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay : Sculpture and Seduction in the 18th Century
Fri 20 Nov 2015
Danielle Thom looks at the links between bawdy prints and classical sculpture.
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay : Jews in Occupied France: Coexistence with the Enemy?
Thu 19 Nov 2015
Daniel Lee revisits Vichy France to uncover a different history of Jewish life there.
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Beer and the British Empire
Wed 18 Nov 2015
Sam Goodman looks at the way beer was used as both beverage and medicine in Colonial India
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - The Rules Of Good Science
Tue 17 Nov 2015
Jim al-Khalili, Carlos Frenk, Katy Price and Tom Shakespeare debate scientific discovery
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Inside a Pirate鈥檚 Cookbook: A Culinary Journey through the 17th Century
Tue 17 Nov 2015
Joe Moshenska on Sir Kenelm Digby - alchemist, astrologer, diplomat and recipe collector.
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay: The Medieval Scottish Dream State
Mon 16 Nov 2015
Kylie Murray explores visions of Scottishness in The Wallace and The Scotichronicon.
-
![]()
Free Thinking Festival - Old Ways, New Directions.
Mon 16 Nov 2015
"Tweeting" shepherd James Rebanks and Professor Veronica Strang on traditional thinking.
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Kilts, Celts and Clearances in World War One
Fri 13 Nov 2015
Peter Mackay on what kilt wearing meant for some soldiers fighting World War One
-
![]()
The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Nancy Cunard: The Rebellious Heiress
Thu 12 Nov 2015
Sandeep Parmar on the life of the anti racist campaigner, modernist muse and heiress
