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 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.
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Free Thinking Festival – Landmark: Angela Carter
Mon 23 Nov 2015
Joanna Kavenna, Natasha Pulley, Susannah Clapp and Christopher Frayling on Angela Carter
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Inside a Pirate’s Cookbook: A Culinary Journey through the 17th Century
Tue 17 Nov 2015
Joe Moshenska on Sir Kenelm Digby - alchemist, astrologer, diplomat and recipe collector.
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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.
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Free Thinking Festival - Old Ways, New Directions.
Mon 16 Nov 2015
"Tweeting" shepherd James Rebanks and Professor Veronica Strang on traditional thinking.
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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
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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
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Free Thinking Festival - Putting Competition to the Test
Thu 12 Nov 2015
Margaret Heffernan, Matthew Syed, Cath Bishop and Christopher Frayling explore success.
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The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Women on Their Own: Widows in Britain, Now and Then
Wed 11 Nov 2015
Nadine Muller on the status of the widow in fact and fiction “
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Free Thinking Festival - In Conversation With Richard Dawkins
Wed 11 Nov 2015
Richard Dawkins explores religion, culture and science talking to Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking Festival - Breaking News - Telling Stories in Fact and Fiction
Tue 10 Nov 2015
Bim Adewunmi John Yorke Emily Woof and Allan Little join Matthew Sweet at Sage Gateshead
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The Free Thinking Festival Essay - Politician and Pioneer: Writing the Life of Arthur Kavanagh
Tue 10 Nov 2015
Clare Walker Gore on what a C19th MP without hands and feet tells us about stereotypes.
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The Free Thinking Festival Essay - The Moor of Florence A Medici Mystery
Mon 9 Nov 2015
Catherine Fletcher on claims that the first Medici Duke of Florence was mixed race
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Free Thinking Festival - Rule Breakers or Rule Makers?
Mon 9 Nov 2015
Simon Heffer, Peter Tatchell and Joyce Quin in a Free Thinking Festival debate.
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The Free Thinking Festival Lecture: Claudia Rankine
Mon 9 Nov 2015
Prize-winning poet Claudia Rankine explores language and racism past and present.
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Free Thinking - Peggy Seeger
Thu 5 Nov 2015
Peggy Seeger talks to Philip Dodd about her life. Tomorrow she performs in World on 3.
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Free Thinking - Edna O'Brien
Wed 4 Nov 2015
Irish novelist Edna O'Brien in conversation with Philip Dodd.
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Free Thinking – Putin & Putinism. Salford Lads Club. ‘No Platforming’. Tribute to Philip French.
Tue 3 Nov 2015
Matthew Sweet talks to Garry Kasparov, Stuart Maconie and Julie Bindel.
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Free Thinking - Feature: Bamburgh Castle
Thu 29 Oct 2015
Dr Alun Withey researches an 18th C healthcare scheme at Bamburg Castle in Northumberland
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Free Thinking - Medical Surgery Past and Present
Thu 29 Oct 2015
Anne McElvoy looks at healthcare past & present with New Generation Thinker Alun Withey
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Free Thinking - Erica Jong. Richard Jones. Ben Bernanke
Thu 29 Oct 2015
Erica Jong on her book "Fear of Dying". Richard Jones on staging The Hairy Ape
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Free Thinking - Witch finding. Marina Warner.
Tue 27 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet and guests including Marina Warner consider the season of the witch.
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Free Thinking - James Bond in Spectre. Nawal El Saadawi; Lord Browne.
Fri 23 Oct 2015
The Egyptian feminist author Nawal El Saadawi on protest. Lord Browne on business.
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Free Thinking - ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. Marilynne Robinson. Edwin Heathcote. Thomas Harding. Imtiaz Dharker
Wed 21 Oct 2015
Marilynne Robinson, Edwin Heathcote, Thomas Harding, Imtiaz Dharker talk ideas of home
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Free Thinking - Richard Mabey; Andrea Wulf on Humboldt; Stanley Nelson on The Black Panthers
Wed 21 Oct 2015
Matthew Sweet with The Invention of Nature, The Cabaret of Plants, and The Black Panthers
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Free Thinking - Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta In Conversation at Birmingham Rep
Thu 15 Oct 2015
Meera Syal and Tanika Gupta discuss with Rana Mitter turning Anita and Me into a play.