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Free Thinking Episodes

  1. 13/12/2024

    The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

  2. How we think about evil

    Matthew Sweet and guests pick up from this year's Reith lectures and look at ideas of evil

  3. 29/11/2024

    The ideas shaping our lives today - with Shahidha Bari and guests

  4. 22/11/2024

    The ideas shaping our lives today - with Anne McElvoy and guests.

  5. Cosy comfort reading or Nietzsche?

    Alexander McCall Smith, Susannah Clapp, Tom Shakespeare, Deborah Sugg Ryan & Hugo Drochon

  6. Milton and our modern world

    It is 350 years since the death of Milton. We discuss ideas of Puritanism and divorce.

  7. Ghosts, death and ecstatic states

    Shahidha Bari with Irving Finkel, Simon Critchley, Chris Harding and Hetta Howes.

  8. Are we all American now?

    Freddy Gray, Dr Katie McGettigan, Amanda Taub, Kit Davis and Rana Mitter join Anne McElvoy

  9. Insiders & Outsiders

    Matthew Sweet and guests explore the secret languages of the internet and beyond.

  10. Childhood and innocence

    Katherine Rundell, Emily Baughan, Grace Lockrobin, Miriam Cates, Andrew Cooper

  11. Why we read

    Shahidha Bari and guests discuss the value of reading fiction and of writing history.

  12. The eternal dynamic of Rivalry, Fredric Jameson, the newly reopened Warburg Institute

    Michael Crick, Helen Castor, David Edmonds, Kate Maltby and Roger Luckhurst.

  13. Crisis & Decision

    Do we live in a time of crisis? Matthew Sweet gets to grips with the present moment.

  14. Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship

    Anne McElvoy with guests including David Runciman and Gisela Stuart

  15. Escapism

    Matthew Sweet and guests question whether you can ever really escape.

  16. The illusion of time, the summer solstice & the philosophy of comedy

    Mark Miodownik, Emily Herring, Rob Newman and Fay Dowker consider Time with Matthew Sweet.

  17. History - the long and short of it

    Peter Frankopan, Alison Light, Bronwen Maddox and Zeinab Badawi join Matthew Sweet.

  18. Generations - D-Day - Global Instability

    Eliza Filby, Rana Mitter, Jo Hamya, Tom Simpson, plus Gaby Hinsliff.

  19. The Insurrectionists' Guide to the Movies

    Stephen Bush, Dr Sarah Jilani, Kate Maltby and Keith Shiri join Matthew Sweet.

  20. Left and Right - still relevant in British and Global Politics?

    Margaret MacMillan, David Aaronovitch, Phillip Blond and Gisela Stuart join Matthew Sweet.

  21. Positive and negative politics, 'intellectual vices' and the face you bring to work

    Sir Richard Evans, Margaret Heffernan, Isabel Oakeshott, Quassim Cassam join Anne McElvoy.

  22. Life expectations, philosophy in the world, protest

    Matthew Sweet with David Willetts, Elizabeth Oldfield, Will Davies and Tiffany Watt Smith.

  23. Winning and Losing, Plato scroll, the decline of Nightlife

    Winning and losing with Lea Ypi, Peter Hitchens, Michael Mansfield KC and Cath Bishop.

  24. Kant today, Spice Girls Reunited, Impersonating an Animal

    Girl power past and present, the wisdom of goats and seagulls and Kant's ideas on reason.

  25. Tacitus, Byron's fanmail and Bluey

    Mary Beard, Konnie Huq, Helen Carr and Tom Peck join Shahidha Bari.

  26. Change, Scrabble and Cultural Christianity

    Matthew Sweet and guests look at ideas about change: political, climate, personal.

  27. Hobbes, Abba, Waterloo and margarine

    Matthew Sweet and guests look back at the week exploring the ideas shaping our lives today

  28. Pranks

    Matthew Sweet and guests assess the value of pranks and what purpose they may serve.

  29. Writing Place

    Sylvia Townsend Warner's move to Dorset, Heidegger's Heimat and the River Arun in Sussex.

  30. Approaches to death

    Archaeologists Marianne Hem Eriksen, Pauline Harding: historians Cat Byers, Harriet Soper

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