Main content

Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    War in fact and fiction

    Historians Margaret McMillan and Rob Johnson. Novelists Abdulrazak Gurnah and Mia Couto

  2. Audiences

    A director, event programmer and theatre & dance historians on making work without a crowd

  3. Individualism and Community

    From Enlightenment conscience to New Deal USA to carers and refugees. Anne McElvoy hosts

  4. City Life, estate living and lockdown

    Matthew Sweet and guests on how Covid has changed our cities.

  5. The Writing of Aim茅 C茅saire

    From n茅gritude and his Discourse on Colonialism to his long inventive and punning poetry.

  6. 2020 Polari Prize winners

    Shahidha Bari looks at some of the best recent LGBTQ+ writing and photography.

  7. Seances and Science

    A Croydon poltergeist and artists as mediums - Kate Summerscale and Simon Grant.

  8. Derrida and post truth

    Matthew Sweet asks biographer Peter Salmon about Derrida's influence today

  9. Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid; Reynard the Fox

    A poet and a crime writer compare notes; plus, lessons for now from a medieval foxy fable

  10. New Thinking about Museums

    VR Vikings, military museums to bakelite - new research into a range of collections.

  11. The Frieze 大象传媒 Radio 3 Debate Museums in the 21st Century

    Gallery directors from Russia, USA and Singapore compare notes, hosted by Anne McElvoy.

  12. African Europeans, Fidel Castro and African leaders, WEB Du Bois

    Professors Olivette Otele and Simon Hall on understanding connections in black history

  13. Writing a Life: Hermione Lee, Daniel Lee and Rachel Holmes

    Biographers of Tom Stoppard, Sylvia Pankhurst and a little known SS soldier compare notes.

  14. Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

    Links between biography and poetry. Telling modern Ugandan stories. With Shahidha Bari.

  15. Cows, farming and our view of nature

    Are cows the answer to depleted soil or the problem? With farmer and author James Rebanks.

  16. Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize 2020

    Tales of indigenous people battling for their land; colonialism & pioneers of anthropology

  17. Conservatism, Philanthropy, Liberal and socialist futures

    Anne McElvoy talks to Edmund Fawcett about conflicts within Conservatism.

  18. The impact of being multilingual

    Discussion ahead of the European Day of Languages and International Translation Day.

  19. Get Carter

    Digging beneath the surface of the classic Brit noir film with director Mike Hodges.

  20. Family Ties and Reshaping History

    From Neanderthals to Sikh warriors to the idea of weird people, three authors look at kin.

  21. The Mayflower and Native American history

    Sarah Churchwell, Kathryn Napier Gray and Lauren Working with Eleanor Barraclough.

  22. Piranesi and disturbing archecture

    Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, is one of Matthew Sweet's guests.

  23. Wole Soyinka's Writing

    Ben Okri, Louisa Egbunike and Oladipo Agboluaje discuss Wole Soyinka's life and work.

  24. Bernard-Henri L茅vy, Stella Sandford, Homi K Bhabha

    How philosophy helps us understand the world reshaped by Covid-19. Shahidha Bari presents.

  25. Dada and the power of nonsense

    A project to reimagine the Dada arts movement now, and reflections on satire and nonsense.

  26. Anne Applebaum, Ingrid Bergman, Herland

    Anne Applebaum, and the lives of Ingrid Bergman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

  27. Nature Writing

    From Gilbert White to lockdown blogs - why we need to spend more time in nature.

  28. Magic

    Matthew Sweet and guests conjure a conversation about the importance and appeal of magic

  29. The consolation of philosophy and stories

    Matthew Sweet talks to Kylie Murray, Prof Seth Lerer and former Bishop Richard Holloway.

  30. What Does a Black History Curriculum Look Like?

    Reports from The Runnymede Trust and The Black Curriculum call for wider history teaching.

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 14
  5. 15
  6. 16
  7. 17
  8. 18
  9. …
  10. 43