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 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Secrets, Lies & Irish History
Tue 30 Jan 2024
Clair Wills, Martin Doyle, Scott McKendry & Louise Brangan discuss secrets and conflict
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Holocaust history
Fri 26 Jan 2024
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan 27) Anne McElvoy hears testimony and new research
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The Kyoto School
Wed 24 Jan 2024
Chris Harding investigates the flourishing of Japanese philosophy in the 1930s and beyond
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Heidegger & Antisemitism
Tue 23 Jan 2024
Matthew Sweet discusses the influential German philosopher's relationship with Nazism
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What is normal?
Fri 19 Jan 2024
Sarah Chaney, Louise Creechan and Robert Chapman on neurodiversity, with Matthew Sweet
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Shakespeare's Women
Wed 17 Jan 2024
The women who crop up in Shakespeare's life, his plays and who helped conserve his legacy
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Dust, dirt and domesticity
Tue 16 Jan 2024
From mould to desertification Naomi Paxton and guests on the impact of dirt,heat and damp
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Octavia Butler's Kindred
Thu 11 Jan 2024
A novel from 1979 which uses time travel to explore race, slavery and trauma
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Essay writing
Wed 10 Jan 2024
From Montaigne to modern Scottish writing - Rana Mitter discusses what makes a good Essay
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Travel, pleasure and peril
Wed 3 Jan 2024
From preventing strangulation on the railways to guide maps and the art of travel posters
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Dickens, Disney and copyright
Thu 21 Dec 2023
Matthew Sweet looks at copyright rules for Mickey Mouse & Dickens in C19th America
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New Thinking: Carols and Convents
Wed 20 Dec 2023
English Nuns abroad, and are carols just for Christmas?
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Greek myth, goddesses and art
Wed 20 Dec 2023
From classic myths rewritten by Natalie Haynes to the art of John Craxton in Crete
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Prize Winners 2023
Tue 19 Dec 2023
Nandini Das, Tania Branigan, Halik Kochanski, Ed Yong, John Vallaint talk to Rana Mitter
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Harry Belafonte
Fri 15 Dec 2023
The long career of the American singer, film star & activist with Matthew Sweet & guests
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Margaret Cavendish
Wed 13 Dec 2023
Nandini Das and guests discuss the Duchess of Newcastle - philosopher, poet and scientist
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Narnia and CS Lewis
Wed 6 Dec 2023
Exploring the literary and theological terrain of C.S. Lewis's Narnia
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Humboldt, soil, gardens and Frank Walter
Tue 5 Dec 2023
For World Soil Day, a celebration of art, research and ideas to revive the earth
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New Thinking: Disability in Music and Theatre
Fri 1 Dec 2023
Dr Louise Creechan and guests discuss adaptive music technology & musical theatre roles
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Kadare, Gospodinov, Kafka and Dickens
Fri 1 Dec 2023
Bureaucracies of the soul satirised in novels. Matthew Sweet's guests include Lea Ypi.
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Libraries
Wed 29 Nov 2023
From Alexandria to Mid Wales, Laurence Scott and guests look at library history.
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Lorca
Tue 28 Nov 2023
As the National Theatre stages The House of Bernarda Alba, Rana Mitter discusses Lorca
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AS Byatt and The Children's Book
Fri 24 Nov 2023
AS Byatt discussed her writing life with Matthew Sweet as she published a novel in 2009
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Post-War Germany
Wed 22 Nov 2023
Forging the modern German nation from the moral and material ruins of WW2
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Sam Selvon and The Lonely Londoners
Tue 21 Nov 2023
Selvon's evocative 1956 novel discussed at the British Library by Shahidha Bari & guests.
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New Thinking: Rediscovering women making film and sculpture
Fri 17 Nov 2023
Kathleen Collins’ film scripts and women sculptors working in wax
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Ursula Le Guin and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Thu 16 Nov 2023
Naomi Alderman, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and others discuss the politics of this 1973 fable
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Women, art and activism
Wed 15 Nov 2023
Naomi Paxton and guests on exhibitions at Tate Britain, the Barbican and Modern Art Oxford
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Shakespeare as inspiration
Wed 8 Nov 2023
From Bollywood films and Pre-Raphaelite art to productions of Shakespeare in places at war
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New Thinking: The Box Office Bears project
Wed 8 Nov 2023
From digging for bones to the connection between bear baiting and Elizabethan theatre