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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Tin cans, cutlery and sewing
Tue 28 Feb 2023
New research into the history of stainless steel cutlery, tinned food and sewing machines
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Ghosts of Caribbean History
Fri 24 Feb 2023
New writing by Colin Grant and Kevin Jared Hosein; art by Mary Evans and Michael Elliott
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Climate change and empire building
Thu 23 Feb 2023
The long history of climate change and empire: historians Nandini Das and Peter Frankopan
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Phaedra, Cretan palaces and the minotaur
Tue 21 Feb 2023
Knossos - birthplace of myths and tragedies - explored by Rana Mitter and Natalie Haynes
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Idrissa OuΓ©draogo
Thu 16 Feb 2023
The work of the BurkinabΓ© filmmaker explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.
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Stories of Love
Tue 14 Feb 2023
Romeo and Juliet reworked, Proust and Rita Mae Brown's coming of age tale Rubyfruit Jungle
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Donkeys
Thu 9 Feb 2023
From Aesop and the bible to the film EO which looks at a donkey born in a Polish circus.
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The Heir of Redclyffe
Thu 9 Feb 2023
Clare Walker-Gore revisits Charlotte M. Yonge's best-selling novel from 1853.
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Lady Macbeth
Wed 8 Feb 2023
From Kurosawa and Shostakovich to Zinnie Harris. New takes on the Scottish play.
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Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills
Wed 8 Feb 2023
Sarah Jilani on Latife Tekin’s magical realist novel about 1960’s Istanbul shanty towns.
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Gwendolyn Brooks
Tue 7 Feb 2023
Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of the Pulitzer prize winning American poet 1917-2000
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The mermaid-like MΓ©lusine
Fri 3 Feb 2023
The fish-tailed woman of medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
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The English Civil War
Tue 31 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter talks about politics, religion and divisions in 17th-century England.
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Holocaust Memorial Day 2023
Thu 26 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet looks at the experiences of Portuguese Jewish and Roma communities.
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William Stukeley
Wed 25 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter considers the life and legacy of the first person to survey Stonehenge
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Audrey Hepburn
Thu 19 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet marks the 30th anniversary of the death of this icon of film and fashion.
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Higher Education for women and working class students
Wed 18 Jan 2023
Anne McElvoy hosts a conversation about higher education and the history of its expansion
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The Wife of Bath
Tue 17 Jan 2023
Marion Turner talks to Shahidha Bari about different versions of Chaucer's heroine
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New Thinking: Language Loss and revival
Fri 13 Jan 2023
John Gallagher is joined by Gwenno, who writes and sings in Cornish, and others
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Phillis Wheatley
Thu 12 Jan 2023
The enslaved African American woman, Phillis Wheatley who became a celebrated poet.
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Anna Kavan
Wed 11 Jan 2023
Matthew Sweet reads Ice and other works of this experimental writer who died in 1968
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Katherine Mansfield & Mavis Gallant
Fri 6 Jan 2023
Claire Harman, Kirsty Gunn, Laurence Scott and Shahidha Bari discuss short story writing
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AmΓlcar Cabral
Fri 6 Jan 2023
Rana Mitter and guests discuss the pan-Africanist poet and anti-colonial leader.
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Wilkie Collins & disability
Thu 5 Jan 2023
How the Victorian author’s own pain and drug dependency fed into his sensational novels.
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1922: Wimbledon and tennis fashions
Thu 22 Dec 2022
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough finds out about the All England Club's move to a new home
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1922: Leisure and Sport
Thu 22 Dec 2022
From Agatha Christie surfing to weight-lifting '20s style. John Gallagher looks at sports
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1922: The Hollywood Bowl
Thu 22 Dec 2022
From a series of starlit concerts in the 20s to America's principle outdoor concert venue
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1922:Food fads
Thu 22 Dec 2022
John Gallagher talks to Annie Gray and Elsa Richardson about iguana soup and protein bars
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1922: Reader's Digest
Thu 22 Dec 2022
The "agreggator" of stories - we look at how it launched and revolutionised reading
