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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Free Thinking - Saki. Ria Sattouf. Anders Lustgarten. ‘A Thing’
Wed 6 Apr 2016
Rana Mitter talks to playwright Anders Lustgarten & rereads Saki's satirical stories.
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Evelyn Waugh.
Tue 5 Apr 2016
Bryony Lavery, Alexander Waugh, Philip Eade and Adam Mars-Jones celebrate Evelyn Waugh
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Free Thinking: Light: Ann Wroe, Dan Flavin, Blackpool Illuminations, The Sun.
Thu 31 Mar 2016
Ann Wroe joins Anne McElvoy for an exploration of light from Blackpool to the South Downs
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Nationalisms: Jerry Brotton, Elif Shafak, John Breuilly
Wed 30 Mar 2016
Jerry Brotton talks to Rana Mitter about Elizabethan England and the Islamic World.
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Suits. Neil LaBute
Thu 24 Mar 2016
Shahidha Bari explores the history of suits with Anne McElvoy. Plus dramatist Neil LaBute
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Free Thinking - The Green Man. George Monbiot.
Wed 23 Mar 2016
Rana Mitter considers the myth of the Green Man and our relationship with Nature.
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Free Thinking – Daniel Clowes; Alan Clarke's TV career; Ken Loach tribute to Barry Hines
Tue 22 Mar 2016
Phil Davis and Clio Barnard discuss the career of director Alan Clarke.
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Free Thinking - Russia and the Arts: Julian Barnes, Roxana Silbert and Suhayla El-Bushra
Thu 17 Mar 2016
Julian Barnes reviews portaits of Russian cultural figures on show at the NPG.
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Free Thinking - Philosophy: Bryan Magee
Wed 16 Mar 2016
Matthew Sweet considers the state of philosophy today
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Free Thinking – Identity in Britain: Martin Parr.
Tue 15 Mar 2016
Photographer Martin Parr has curated a show exploring views of the UK from outsiders.
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Free Thinking – The Holy Roman Empire; Peter H Wilson, Janet Soskice, Rupert Shortt. Iranian art
Thu 10 Mar 2016
Rana Mitter reads a new history of the Holy Roman Empire & discusses Christianity today.
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Free Thinking – Javier Marias; Cervantes; Spanish politics today
Wed 9 Mar 2016
Javier Marias talks to Philip Dodd about fiction, politics & the writing of Cervantes.
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Free Thinking - International Women's Day: Hollie McNish, Emily Hall, Helen Pearson, Edwina Attlee and Ailsa Grant Ferguson
Tue 8 Mar 2016
Performance poet Hollie McNish and scientist Helen Pearson join Anne McElvoy.
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Free Thinking - Botticelli Reimagined, A New Biography of Hitler
Thu 3 Mar 2016
How German historians view Hitler now and Anne McElvoy reviews Botticelli at the V&A
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Free Thinking – Neil Jordan, The Lonely City
Tue 1 Mar 2016
Film director Neil Jordan on writing fiction. Olivia Laing explores loneliness.
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Free Thinking – Russian Culture Inwards and Outwards
Thu 25 Feb 2016
Anne McElvoy and Charles Clover on the old idea shaping contemporary Russian geopolitics.
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Free Thinking
Wed 24 Feb 2016
Karl Ove Knausgård talks to Philip Dodd in a programme looking at Scandinavia today.
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Free Thinking
Wed 24 Feb 2016
Karl Ove Knausgård talks to Philip Dodd in a programme looking at Scandinavia today.
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Free Thinking - Religion Without Belief: Buddhist thinker Stephen Batchelor; Kader Abdolah; Linda Woodhead
Tue 23 Feb 2016
Rana Mitter discusses a translation of the Qur'an & atheism in the UK & ancient Greece
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Free Thinking - Utopianism in Politics
Thu 18 Feb 2016
Is politics about building a better world, or simply the art of the possible?
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Free Thinking – Delacroix. Petain, De Gaulle. Jonathan Lynn
Wed 17 Feb 2016
Jonathan Lynn & his play about Petain & de Gaulle; Delacroix discussed by Philip Dodd
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Free Thinking – Hieronymus Bosch anniversary
Tue 16 Feb 2016
Tom Shakespeare joins Matthew Sweet in Holland for an exhibition marking Bosch 1450-1516.
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Free Thinking – Screaming Lord Sutch on Stage. Margaret McMillan. Artificial Neural Networks.
Thu 11 Feb 2016
Playwright James Graham discusses his new comedy which puts Screaming Lord Sutch on stage
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Dadaism's 100th anniversary.
Tue 9 Feb 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago.
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Free Thinking - Dadaism's 100th anniversary
Tue 9 Feb 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago.
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Free Thinking - Dadaism's 100th anniversary
Tue 9 Feb 2016
Matthew Sweet looks at the founding of the Dada movement 100 years ago.
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Free Thinking -Joseph Crawhall; Madame Bovary by Peepolykus; Rona Munro's The James plays; and Matthew Parris on biography.
Thu 4 Feb 2016
Anne McElvoy profiles the painter Joseph Crawhall one of the lost masters of British art
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Free Thinking – John Irving
Wed 3 Feb 2016
Philip Dodd interviews John Irving whose latest novel is called Avenue of Mysteries.
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Free Thinking - Dad's Army; States of Mind at the Wellcome Institute; Utopia in sci-fi
Tue 2 Feb 2016
Marking Dad's Army on film, Matthew Sweet looks at the fifth column.
