Free Thinking Episodes Episode guide
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Writing Love: Sarah Hall, Monica Ali, Adam Mars-Jones
Shahidha Bari talks to authors about writing love stories set against troubling times.
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Mind-Altered States
Matthew Sweet and guests knock on the doors of perception.
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惭茅濒耻蝉颈苍别
The mermaid-like figure from medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.
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Adapting Moli猫re
Liz Lochead is one of Anne McElvoy's guests discussing how to update Moli猫re.
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Appeasement
How does Neville Chamberlain's capitulation to Hitler in 1938 affect politics in 2022?
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Gloves
From python skin to Nintendo gaming, PPE to vegan materials: how gloves are evolving.
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Jean-Paul Belmondo and the French New Wave
The French film star who burst onto the scene in 1960 in Godard's Breathless.
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Colm T贸ib铆n, David Cohen winner, Dullness
Is it a good thing to stand out? Anne McElvoy and guests explore the virtue of being dull.
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Early Buddhism, Sheila Rowbotham
Two Buddhism scholars and British socialist feminist Sheila Rowbotham join Rana Mitter.
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Witchcraft and Margaret Murray
Matthew Sweet and guests look at 1921's The Witch-Cult in Western Europe and witches now.
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The TV Debate
Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr, Germaine Greer v Norman Mailer. Have debates changed?
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The Day of the Triffids
Matthew Sweet and guests re-read John Wyndham's post-apocalyptic novel from 1951.
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Caribbean Art
As a Tate Britain show opens, Shahidha Bari looks at Caribbean post-war writing and art
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D眉rer, Rhinos and Whales
Writer Philip Hoare, curator Robert Wenley, historian Helen Cowie talk celebrity animals.
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Toys
How toys are shaped by politics and why they have a spooky side.
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Christopher Logue's War Music
Shahidha Bari and guests read Logue's version of Homer's Iliad and look at its language.
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Romanian History and Literature
Novelists Mircea C膬rt膬rescu and Georgina Harding and historian Philippe Sands on Romania.
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Faking It and Trompe-l'oeil
From fake flowers carved by Grinling Gibbons to modern craft and internet images.
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Marvin Gaye's What's Going On
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss what inspired Marvin Gaye's 1971 album What's Going On?
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Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex
One of the key French existentialists in the 50s, how does Simone de Beauvoir read today?
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Being Human 2021
Reseach into covid comics, codes in Dickens, projecting books onto hospital ceilings.
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Dogs
Labradors Olive and Mabel became a Covid internet hit - can we know what a dog thinks?
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The Imperial War Museum Remembrance Discussion 2021
How do we define a war? Anne McElvoy and guests look at how language changes attitudes.
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God's Body
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Hetta Howes and Mark Vernon join Matthew Sweet.
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Caesar, Hogarth and images of power
Rana Mitter talks to Professor Mary Beard, artist Ali Cherri and looks at Hogarth's art.
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Oceans, art and pacific poetry
Tania Kovats describes her sculptures from bleached coral and concrete moulded wetsuits.
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Time
As the clocks go back, Matthew Sweet and guests host a party for time travellers.
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Twilight
Poet Pascale Petit, photographer Jasper Goodall, Alexandra Harris, composer Sally Beamish.
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The Language of Flowers
Rebecca Solnit's new book on George Orwell explores his interest in gardening and the land
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Rationality and Tradition
Tim Stanley on tradition and Steven Pinker on rationality. Anne McElvoy hosts.
