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 ±«Óãtv Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Scottish Kingship
Wed 20 Mar 2024
Medieval myth-making, the kings of Scotland and the Stone of Destiny
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Free speech, censorship and modern China
Tue 19 Mar 2024
The writings of Chinese women, from Ding Ling to coming of age in the 1990s
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Call Me Mother
Mon 18 Mar 2024
How the shape of words for mother helps babies eat their food. Rebecca Woods explains
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Edward Bond
Fri 15 Mar 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the playwright Edward Bond (18 July 1934 – 3 March 2024)
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Sleep justice and sleeplessness
Wed 13 Mar 2024
Laurence Scott talks to researchers exploring how we sleep and the idea of sleep justice
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Images of Persia
Tue 12 Mar 2024
Poetry by Hafez, Nowruz (New Year) and the Haft Sin table, the Mongol invasion, music
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Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation
Thu 7 Mar 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the 1974 Gene Hackman film about surveillance and murder
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Muses and women's creativity
Wed 6 Mar 2024
From Pre-Raphaelite models to the daughter of Maud Gonne: Naomi Paxton with new research
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Sarah Maldoror, Storm Jameson, the Hague Congress
Tue 5 Mar 2024
Ahead of International Women's Day Shahidha Bari hears stories linking women with war
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The Dutch Connection
Thu 29 Feb 2024
John Gallagher hears about new research into Anglo-Dutch trade and early publishing
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Hitchhiking
Wed 28 Feb 2024
Matthew Sweet considers examples from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to a system of Polish tokens
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New Thinking: Stitching Stories
Tue 27 Feb 2024
Shahidha Bari visits a textile art show + research on embroidery, stage outfits, vintage
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Can - Future Days
Thu 22 Feb 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests take a deep dive into the influential German group's 1973 album.
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Myths, ships and history
Tue 20 Feb 2024
Anna McKay, Lloyd Belton and Oliver Finnegan delve in the deep for seafaring histories
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The Condom and V.D.
Thu 15 Feb 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests talk about sexual health, VD clinics, sex work and condoms
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The Greenwich Outrage
Fri 9 Feb 2024
The attempt by an anarchist to blow up the Royal Observatory in 1894 and its consequences
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Iris Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good
Mon 5 Feb 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests on Iris Murdoch's thought and writing (15 July 1919-8 Feb 1999)
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On The Silver Globe
Fri 2 Feb 2024
Take a mind-bending trip to a distant planet with Andrzej Zulawski's cult 1987 SF film
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East West religious connections
Wed 31 Jan 2024
Authors Rowan Williams & Christopher Harding and artist Gayle Chong Kwan join Rana Mitter
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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
