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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Childbirth and parenthood: Contains Strong Language Festival
Tue 26 Sep 2023
Testament, Hannah Silva, historian Jessica Cox and Thackray museum curator Laura Sellers
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Betty Miller and Marghanita Laski
Tue 26 Sep 2023
Howard Jacobson, Lara Feigel and Lisa Mullen with Matthew Sweet
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Notebooks and new technology
Thu 21 Sep 2023
Authors Jonathan Coe, Roland Allen, Lesley Smith and art book maker Gill Partington
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Why go into space?
Wed 20 Sep 2023
Christopher Harding investigates the history, culture and science of space exploration
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Black Atlantic
Tue 19 Sep 2023
Artist Jaqueline Bishop and curator of an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge
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The Red Shoes
Thu 14 Sep 2023
Ahead of a BFI festival, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Powell and Pressburger's film
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Queer history, new narrative in San Fransisco
Wed 13 Sep 2023
Diarmuid Hester & Dodie Bellamy on a '70s US writing group. Lauren Elkin on art monsters
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Wolfson Prize 2023
Tue 5 Sep 2023
Rana Mitter talks to the six authors shortlisted for the UK's main history writing prize
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Writing and Place: The Cairngorms
Mon 4 Sep 2023
Amanda Thomson and Merryn Glover talk to Kate Molleson about Scots nature writing
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The Black Country past and present
Fri 25 Aug 2023
Matthew Sweet and guests with an audience at the 2022 Contains Strong Language Festival
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Depicting AIDS in Drama
Wed 23 Aug 2023
Russell T Davies, Jill Nalder, Sabina Dosani and Matthew Sweet recorded with an audience
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Landladies
Wed 23 Aug 2023
Historical accounts and fictional depictions of the women who ran boarding houses.
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Late works
Tue 22 Aug 2023
Dame Sheila Hancock , viola player Rachel Stott and writer Geoff Dyer discuss endings
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Dark Places
Mon 21 Aug 2023
A poet, crime writer, theologian, marine biologist and Matthew Sweet explore darkness
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ETA Hoffmann
Fri 4 Aug 2023
Anne McElvoy and guests look at the writing of the German Romantic writer and musician
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My Neighbour Totoro
Thu 3 Aug 2023
Japanese ideas about childhood innocence and the influence of a 1988 Studio Ghibli film.
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Oliver Postgate
Wed 2 Aug 2023
Matthew Sweet & Daniel Postgate, musicians Sandra Kerr & Neil Brand, critic Samira Ahmed
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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
