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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The Wife of Bath
Tue 1 Aug 2023
Shahidha Bari is joined by Professor Marion Turner, poet Patience Agbabi and Hetta Howes
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The Wife of Bath
Tue 1 Aug 2023
Shahidha Bari is joined by Professor Marion Turner, poet Patience Agbabi and Hetta Howes
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Glenda Jackson on filming Sunday Bloody Sunday
Mon 31 Jul 2023
Matthew Sweet & guests including Glenda Jackson on John Schlesinger's love triangle film
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Writing and Place: Wales
Sun 30 Jul 2023
Zoë Skoulding and Tom Bullough talk to Joan Passey about Wales in their writing
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Writing and Place: The North-East
Sat 22 Jul 2023
Jessica Andrews and Jake Morris-Campbell compare notes with Ian McMillan
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Writing and Place: Northern Ireland
Mon 17 Jul 2023
Colin Bateman and Michelle Gallen talk about their writing to Shahidha Bari
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Rock Follies
Fri 14 Jul 2023
The groundbreaking 1970s TV drama reassessed with guests including actor Rula Lenska.
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Oxford Philosophy
Wed 12 Jul 2023
The influence of J.L. Austin, Gilbert Ryle, Elizabeth Anscombe and later Derek Parfit
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Childhood and play
Tue 11 Jul 2023
The V&A has re-opened its museum of childhood as Young V&A plus how kids learn to speak
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New Thinking: women and football
Thu 6 Jul 2023
Newspaper reports of the Lionesses analysed + early reports of women in American football
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South Asia: poverty and princes
Thu 6 Jul 2023
Historians Joya Chatterji and Tripurdaman Singh, plus the novels of Kamala Markandaya
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Liverpool Biennial + art at MIF
Tue 4 Jul 2023
Catherine Fletcher and 3 Biennial artists. Vid Simoniti visits Economics the Blockbuster
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A lively Tudor world
Tue 4 Jul 2023
From needlework to marriage portraits to depicting music on the page
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New Thinking: oral histories and the NHS
Tue 4 Jul 2023
New research on the stories held in the NHS archives and the voices that are missing
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New Thinking: Children and health
Mon 3 Jul 2023
What can we learn from children's experiences in the Pandemic at home and at school?
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New Thinking: health inequalities
Sun 2 Jul 2023
Health projects using Caribbean folk traditions, wild swimming, museums and the blues
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New Thinking: Design and health
Sat 1 Jul 2023
From sleeve design to stroke patient recovery and solving malnutrition
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New Thinking: Writing the NHS
Fri 30 Jun 2023
Dr Kim Moore and Dr Kim Wiltshire on how hospital staff have been helped by writing
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Dystopian thinking
Fri 30 Jun 2023
As Kay Dick's They opens at MIF, Matthew Sweet and guests trace the history of dystopias.
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Julian the Apostate
Wed 28 Jun 2023
We examine Rome's last pagan ruler via Ibsen's drama to apostasy in contemporary politics
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Boyhood to manhood
Mon 26 Jun 2023
Chris Harding with Luke Turner, Jeffrey Boakye and Lisa Sugiura discuss growing up now
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Gut instinct
Fri 23 Jun 2023
From gut feelings in your stomach to the language of disgust: Matthew Sweet hosts
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Diva
Wed 21 Jun 2023
As the V&A opens an exhibition about performers, Naomi Paxton discusses what makes a diva
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
Tue 20 Jun 2023
The book of the Sturm und Drang generation: Anne McElvoy explores the ideas behind it
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Life, art and drama in the kitchen
Fri 16 Jun 2023
Sarah Kent, Marianne Hem Eriksen, Melanie Williams and Angela Hui join Matthew Sweet
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Glenda Jackson and Filming Sunday Bloody Sunday
Thu 15 Jun 2023
With the death of Glenda Jackson announced here's a conversation she recorded last year
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Portraits
Wed 14 Jun 2023
As the NPG re-opens we look at portraiture in art, photography, documentary & oral history
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Ideas about health
Tue 13 Jun 2023
Gavin Francis on Thomas Browne, Polly Morland on John Berger, Matt Smith on mental health
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Adam Smith
Thu 8 Jun 2023
From the East India Company to Silicon Valley: the big ideas in his tercentennial year
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Yellowface, AI and Asian stereotypes
Wed 7 Jun 2023
Novelist R F Kuang, Dr Kerry McInerney, Ghislaine Boddington and MIT's Daron Acemoglu
