Arts & Ideas Episodes Available now

Free Thinking Essay: When Shakespeare Travelled With Me
Islam Issa on arguments about Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop in the 21st century

Are We Afraid of Being Alone?
Sara Maitland, Lionel Shriver, and John-Henry Clay explore solitude.

Free Thinking Essay: A War of Words
Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.

Free Thinking Essay: Doing Nothing
Alastair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.

Has Social Media Cracked the Code to the Crowd?
Julia Hobsbawm, Jamie Bartlett, Laurence Scott and Abeba Birhane with Anne McElvoy.

Free Thinking Essay: Educating Ida
Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Podcast: There Is No I in Team
MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher.

Free Thinking Essay: Does Trusting People Need a Leap of Faith?
Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village & community relations now

Free Thinking Essay:Art for Health's Sake
Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?

The Dance of Nature
Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew McBain and Richard Bevan explore group behaviour