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 BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Miles Davis and On The Corner
Tue 11 Oct 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore this genre-stretching album released on 11th Oct 1972
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How We Read
Fri 7 Oct 2022
Our surprisingly complex and mysterious relationship with text explored by Matthew Sweet.
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Female power and influence past and present
Wed 5 Oct 2022
Anne McElvoy talks to novelist Kamila Shamsie and playwright Rona Munro
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My Neighbour Totoro
Tue 4 Oct 2022
Christopher Harding looks at the background and influence of Studio Ghibli's 1988 film
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John Cowper Powys
Thu 29 Sep 2022
John Gray, Iain Sinclair, Margaret Drabble and Kevan Manwaring on 'the Dorset Proust'
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Claude McKay and the Harlem Renaissance
Wed 28 Sep 2022
Authors Nadifa Mohamed, Johny Pitts and Pearl Cleage join Shahidha Bari.
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Ibsen
Mon 26 Sep 2022
New interpretations of the Norwegian dramatist's plays from Lucinda Coxon & Steve Waters.
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The Black Country - past and present
Fri 23 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "the Black Country" region
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The Black Country - past and present
Thu 22 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the roots and resonance of "The Black Country" region
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The Normans
Wed 21 Sep 2022
Rana Mitter and guests look at Norman history, misconceptions and echoes heard today
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Cuba, cold war and RAF Fylingdales
Tue 20 Sep 2022
Novelist Ian McEwan and researchers into early warning system archives join Anne McElvoy
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Immortality
Fri 16 Sep 2022
Matthew Sweet & guests explore ideas about never ending life in literature, film and myth
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The Lindisfarne Gospels and new discoveries
Wed 14 Sep 2022
An archaeologist, a historian and a poet join Shahidha Bari as the gospels return North.
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New Thinking: What language did Columbus speak?
Tue 13 Sep 2022
John Gallagher and guests explore language in the 15th century age of exploration
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1922: The Hollywood Bowl
Tue 6 Sep 2022
From a season of starlit concerts in 1922 to the USA’s principal outdoor concert venue
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1922: The Lincoln Memorial
Fri 2 Sep 2022
Why was Lincoln the president the nation chose to commemorate in 1922?
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Pogroms and Prejudice
Wed 31 Aug 2022
Brendan McGeever looks at anti-Semitism from Russian history to the present day
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Facing Facts
Tue 30 Aug 2022
From duelling injuries to eye patches - Emily Cock asks how we respond to people's faces
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Dam Fever and the Diaspora
Mon 29 Aug 2022
How do large dam projects gain widespread support despite past examples asks Majed Akhter
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Prison Break
Fri 26 Aug 2022
New Generation Thinker Jeffery Howard asks if it is ever ok to escape from prison
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1922: Nanook of the North
Wed 17 Aug 2022
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough looks at this ground-breaking documentary about Arctic life.
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1922: Food
Tue 16 Aug 2022
John Gallagher explores eating fads in the 1920s with Annie Gray and Elsa Richardson
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Not Quite Jean Muir
Fri 12 Aug 2022
How does sewing a dress add to Jade Halbert's understanding of disappearing skills?
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Tudor Virtual Reality
Thu 11 Aug 2022
The link between VR dinosaurs and a Tudor wall painting of the Judgment of Solomon
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Coming Out Crip and Acts of Care
Wed 10 Aug 2022
Ella Parry-Davies draws on experiences of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon and the UK
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Digging Deep
Tue 9 Aug 2022
Susan Greaney asks whether Neolithic attitudes to the earth could shape our thinking
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Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music
Tue 9 Aug 2022
Tom Smith's essay on early pioneers of Berlin's music scene and arguments about whiteness
