Free Thinking 2009

Dan Cruickshank: Building Memories

Globe-trotting architect Dan Cruickshank on why we must restore lost historic buildings.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2009

Tom Shakespeare

Talk by Tom Shakespeare on how art can help us understand today's difficult moral issues.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2009

Lionel Shriver/Ian McMillan

Lionel Shriver talks to Anne McElvoy about her novel A Perfectly Good Family.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2009

Sarah Hall/Hugh Pym/Speed Dating with a Thinker

Highlights from Free Thinking 2009, including Sarah Hall on the sources of her writing.

• 45 mins

Year of Science 2010

Chris and Uta Frith

Rana Mitter talks to Chris and Uta Frith - a couple who are both neuroscientists.

• 45 mins

Louise Bourgeois, Christopher Hitchens, Cultural Attitudes to Skin, The Late Middle Classes

Anne McElvoy talks to Christopher Hitchens and discusses sculptor Louise Bourgeois.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Is the Book Dead?

Philip Dodd is joined by an audience of authors and reader to ask - is the book dead?

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Universities

Philip Dodd debates the question of what we really want from universities and graduates.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Free Thinking - Jacqueline Wilson

Author Jacqueline Wilson in a lecture - Beyond the Fairytale: Happiness in the Real World.

• 60 mins

Free Thinking 2010

What Does Britain Do Best: Sport or the Arts?

A special debate as 5 live sports fans battle with a panel of Radio 3 arts lovers.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Matthew Sweet hosts a debate reflecting on the 2010 Free Thinking ideas festival.

• 30 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Philosopher Angie Hobbs on Heroes

Angie Hobbs debates today's idea of heroism in war, social justice, the arts and sport.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Comedy or Tragedy

A debate on which approach to life and art is more illuminating - comedy or tragedy.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Can the Government Make You Happy?

Philip Dodd hosts a debate asking the question 'can the Government make you happy?'.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

What Acting Can Teach You in Life

Actress Fiona Shaw joins a discussion asking 'what acting can teach you about life'.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Marriage

Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce discusses the subject of marriage. Does it need rescuing?

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Ben Franklin and Shopping

TV presenter Kevin McCloud gives a lecture about the importance of craftsmanship.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Violence - A New Perspective

Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Blair on the part violence plays in human behaviour.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Do Possessions Make Us Happy?

Rana Mitter with Sarah Dunant and Sara Maitland ask - do possessions make us happy?

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

The Joys of Failure

Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce on the Joys of Failure at the Free Thinking festival.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Has God Gone Global?

Philip Dodd chairs a debate at the Sage Gateshead asking Has God Gone Global?

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Emancipation: A Listener's Guide

Jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch gives a lecture entitled Emancipation: A Listener's Guide.

• 45 mins

Free Thinking 2010

Academics and the Media: Friends or Foes?

Debate from Free Thinking 2010 entitled Academics and the Media: Friends or Foes?

• 45 mins

Landmark - The Avengers

Matthew Sweet investigates the phenomenon of The Avengers.

• 45 mins

George Soros

Philip Dodd talks to financier and philanthropist George Soros.

• 45 mins

Lars von Trier

In a special edition, Matthew Sweet talks to Danish film director Lars von Trier.

• 45 mins

Tyrannosaur, Joanna Bourke, In Our Own Words: Soldiers' Thoughts from Afghanistan, Susan Ray

Matthew Sweet interviews Joanna Bourke about her new book What It Means to Be Human.

• 45 mins

Midnight in Paris, Fiona Shaw, Madness, St Paul's Cathedral

Juliet Gardiner interviews Woody Allen about his latest film Midnight in Paris.

• 45 mins

Claire Tomalin, Forward Poetry Prize, Gerhard Richter, The Iliad

Philip Dodd talks to Claire Tomalin about her new biography of Charles Dickens.

• 45 mins

Nobel Prize for Literature, The Veil, Steve Fuller and Toby Litt, Grayson Perry

Anne McElvoy presents the announcement of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature.

• 45 mins