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 麻豆约拍 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 鈥� 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.
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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 鈥�
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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 鈥� Putin & Putinism. Salford Lads Club. 鈥楴o Platforming鈥�. 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 - 麻豆约拍. 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.
