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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Free Thinking - Holes in the Ground
Wed 20 Jan 2016
Rana Mitter explores Holes in the Ground and their emotional and practical uses.
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Free Thinking Landmark: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Tue 19 Jan 2016
Merlin Holland, Will Self and Fiona Shaw join Matthew Sweet to discuss Wilde's novel
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Free Thinking - The Oscars
Thu 14 Jan 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at the revival of Westerns and reports on the 2016 Oscar contenders
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Free Thinking - French thought and politics.
Thu 14 Jan 2016
Is France ceasing to be French - Philip Dodd and his guests investigate
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Free Thinking - TS Eliot poetry prize winner. Lisa Randall on dark matter.
Tue 12 Jan 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to the winner of this year's TS Eliot poetry prize Sarah Howe.
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Free Thinking - Velasquez; John Bratby; Pan Haggerty
Fri 8 Jan 2016
Anne McElvoy talks to Laura Cumming about a C19 court case involving a Velázquez portrait
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Free Thinking – Landmark: Lorraine Hansberry
Thu 7 Jan 2016
With two plays by Lorraine Hansberry being staged Philip Dodd examines her achievement
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Free Thinking -Teenage life: David and Ben Aaronovitch, Viv Albertine, Iroise Dumontheil, Simon Stephens
Tue 5 Jan 2016
Matthew Sweet, David & Ben Aaronovitch, Viv Albertine, Iroise Dumontheil, Simon Stephens
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Free Thinking - Star Wars. Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Ruth Scurr on John Aubrey. Beowulf.
Thu 17 Dec 2015
Anne McElvoy talks to Christopher Hampton & Adjoa Andoh about Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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Free Thinking - Cities and Safety
Wed 16 Dec 2015
Philip Dodd rereads Conrad's The Secret Agent and considers what a safe city means now.
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Free Thinking - Northern Lights Landmark: Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries
Tue 15 Dec 2015
Colm Toibin, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Ellen Wettmark join Matthew Sweet.
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Free Thinking - Must The Arts Be Relevant?
Thu 10 Dec 2015
Mark Baldwin, Catherine Wood, Jennifer Walshe, Sarah Kent and Vayu Naidu debate the arts.
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Free Thinking - Northern Lights: crime fiction and cold settings
Wed 9 Dec 2015
Margaret Atwood, Arnaldur Indriadason and MJ McGrath talk about crime fiction and cold.
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Free Thinking Festival: Northern Lights: Joanne Harris on the Norse god Loki
Tue 8 Dec 2015
Joanne Harris and Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough discuss the god Loki and Norse beliefs.
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Free Thinking - Mein Kampf; Larissa MacFarquhar; Julia Margaret Cameron
Mon 7 Dec 2015
Anna Fox and Chantal Joffe discuss Julia Margaret Cameron plus altruism's wilder shores.
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Free Thinking - Kenzaburo Oe, Artist and Empire at Tate Britain, Japan and Cool Now
Wed 2 Dec 2015
Philip Dodd reviews the newly translated novel from Nobel prize winner Kenzaburo Oe.
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Free Thinking - Umberto Eco
Tue 1 Dec 2015
Italian author Umberto Eco talks to Matthew Sweet about conspiracy theories and war.
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Rule Making and Rule Breaking for Women and Men.
Thu 26 Nov 2015
Sheila Hancock, Neil Bartlett, Bim Adewunmi and head teacher Jonny Mitchell debate rules.
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Free Thinking Festival - Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits or a Drain on Society?
Wed 25 Nov 2015
David Yelland, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, Dr Sally Marlow and Prof Barry Smith on alcohol
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Free Thinking Festival - Work Available: No Humans Need Apply
Wed 25 Nov 2015
Paul Mason, Lucy Armstrong and Richard and Daniel Susskind debate the future of work
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Free Thinking Festival - Stage Directions
Wed 25 Nov 2015
A discussion of the actor/director relationship and are there rules for good theatre?
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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 – 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’s 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.
