Arts & Ideas Podcast
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives 鈥� looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on 大象传媒 Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Episodes to download
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Luck, predictability and superstition
Last Friday
Dr Christian Busch, Bobby Seagull, Sharron Davies, Dr Kate Tomas and Timandra Harkness.
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How we think about evil
Fri 6 Dec 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests pick up from this year's Reith lectures and look at ideas of evil
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Gifts and Gratitude
Fri 29 Nov 2024
Following Thanksgiving, and as Christmas approaches, Shahidha Bari on giving and receiving
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Diplomacy from Ancient Greece to Trump
Fri 22 Nov 2024
Sir Nigel Sheinwald,Clare Jackson, Holly Furneaux and Bronwen Maddox discuss diplomacy
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Cosy comfort reading or Nietzsche?
Fri 15 Nov 2024
Alexander McCall Smith, Susannah Clapp, Tom Shakespeare, Deborah Sugg Ryan & Hugo Drochon
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Milton and our modern world
Fri 8 Nov 2024
It's 350 years since the death of Milton - we discuss ideas of Puritanism and divorce
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Ghosts, death and ecstatic states
Fri 1 Nov 2024
Shahidha Bari with Irving Finkel, Simon Critchley, Chris Harding & Hetta Howes
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Are we all American now?
Fri 25 Oct 2024
3Short Freddy Gray, Dr Katie McGettigan, Amanda Taub, Kit Davis, Rana Mitter
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Insiders & Outsiders
Fri 18 Oct 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests explore the secret languages of the internet and beyond
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Childhood and innocence
Fri 11 Oct 2024
Katherine Rundell, Emily Baughan, Grace Lockrobin, Miriam Cates, Andrew Cooper
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The eternal dynamic of Rivalry, Fredric Jameson, the newly reopened Warburg Institute
Fri 27 Sep 2024
Michael Crick, Helen Castor, David Edmonds, Kate Maltby and Roger Luckhurst
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Crisis & Decision
Fri 20 Sep 2024
Do we live in a time of crisis? Matthew Sweet gets to grips with the present moment
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Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship
Fri 13 Sep 2024
Anne McElvoy with guests including David Runciman and Gisela Stuart
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Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship
Fri 13 Sep 2024
Anne McElvoy with guests including David Runciman and Gisela Stuart
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The illusion of time, the summer solstice & the philosophy of comedy
Fri 21 Jun 2024
Mark Miodownik, Emily Herring, Rob Newman & Fay Dowker consider Time with Matthew Sweet
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History - the long and short of it
Fri 14 Jun 2024
Peter Frankopan, Alison Light, Bronwen Maddox & Zeinab Badawi join Matthew Sweet
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Generations - D-Day - Global Instability
Fri 7 Jun 2024
Eliza Filby, Rana Mitter, Jo Hamya, Tom Simpson, plus Gaby Hinsliff
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The Insurrectionists' Guide to the Movies
Fri 31 May 2024
Stephen Bush, Dr Sarah Jilani , Kate Maltby and Keith Shiri join Matthew Sweet
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Left and Right - still relevant in British and Global Politics?
Sat 25 May 2024
Margaret MacMillan, David Aaronovitch, Phillip Blond and Gisela Stuart join Matthew Sweet
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Positive & negative politics, "intellectual vices" and the face you bring to work.
Tue 21 May 2024
Sir Richard Evans, Margaret Heffernan, Isabel Oakeshott, Quassim Cassam join Anne McElvoy
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New Thinking: 2024鈥檚 New Generation Thinkers
Thu 16 May 2024
Introducing ten academics who鈥檒l be sharing their research as part of a 大象传媒/AHRC scheme
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Life expectations, philosophy in the world, protest
Fri 10 May 2024
Matthew Sweet with David Willetts, Elizabeth Oldfield, Will Davies, Tiffany Watt Smith
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Winning & Losing, Plato Scroll, the Decline of Nightlife
Sat 4 May 2024
Winning and losing with Lea Ypi, Peter Hitchens, Michael Mansfield KC and Cath Bishop.
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Kant today, Spice Girls Reunited, Impersonating an Animal
Fri 26 Apr 2024
Girl power past and present, the wisdom of goats and seagulls and Kant's ideas on reason
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New Thinking: Exploring the local
Fri 26 Apr 2024
New research into local politics, newspapers and the history of the post office
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Tacitus, Byron's fanmail and Bluey
Fri 19 Apr 2024
Mary Beard, Konnie Huq, Helen Carr and Tom Peck join Shahidha Bari
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Change, scrabble and cultural christianity
Fri 12 Apr 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests look at ideas about change: political, climate, personal
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Hobbes, Abba, Waterloo and margarine
Fri 5 Apr 2024
Matthew Sweet and guests look back at the week exploring the ideas shaping our lives today
