Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Soil Stories Old and New Feb 22, 2017

Show notes

Matthew Sweet talks to poet and writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, environmental scientist, Jules Pretty and geologist, Andrew Scott, and historians Matthew Kelly and Philip Coupland about Soil and Culture and Survival Stories For some Soil is where they come from, for others it is an object of aesthetic beauty, for most of us it is the means by which we get what we need to live. Poet and writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett's forthcoming A Dictionary of Soil explores the lives lived within and through the soil of three fields which constitute the origins of her family's ancestral village. Agroecology expert, Jules Pretty says Soil We Can Rebuild It and in an environmentally friendly way and it will continue to feed us. Geologist Andrew Scott examines soils from deep time to discover what they can tell us about how the planet and life on Earth evolved. Historian Matthew Kelly is interested in the cultural history of landscape and focuses on environmental policy in Britain after World War II and Philip Coupland is the biographer of Jorian Jenks, a man who might have been regarded as the father of the British Green Movement if he hadn't joined Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. They join Matthew Sweet to think through our developing relationship with the life-giving dirt beneath our feet and discuss whether a happy ending just might be possible.

Presenter: Matthew Sweet

Guests: Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex author 'The Earth Only Endures' (2007) and 'Agri-Culture' (2002) Andrew C. Scott, Emeritus Professor of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London author of ‘Fire on Earth: An Introduction’ (2014) Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Newman University. Author of Swims (Pennned in the Margins, 2017) Philip Coupland 'Farming, Fascism and Ecology: A Life of Jorian Jenks' 2016 Matthew Kelly, Professor of Modern History, Northumbria University 'Quartz and Feldspar: Dartmoor A British Landscape in Modern Times' 2015

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Free Thinking - Shakespeare in cartoons; Jess Phillips; Sidney Nolan's Australian legends. Feb 21, 2017

Show notes

MP Jess Phillips on life in the public eye. Plus Ned Kelly, Lady Macbeth, one once flesh and blood, the other imagined into being, yet both have done sterling work as ciphers to the human condition. Anne McElvoy talks to Rebecca Daniels, curator of an exhibition marking the centenary of Australia’s great myth-maker, the artist Sidney Nolan and to David Taylor, curator of an exhibition at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre about the way memorable images work and legends are made—they are joined by Lorna Miller and Kevin 'Kal' Kallaugher, who draw on their experience as political cartoonists.

Transferences: Sidney Nolan in Britain runs at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester from 18th February 2017 – 4th June 2017 and part of centenary programming across 2017. You can find out more from http://www.sidneynolantrust.org/centenary-2017/centenary-programme

Draw New Mischief: 250 years of Shakespeare and Political Cartoons is in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s PACCAR room: 25 February – 15 September 2017 Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking the Truth by Jess Phillips is out now.

Producer: Karl Bos Editor: Robyn Read

Free Thinking: Hull: A trip down memory lane. Feb 16, 2017

Show notes

Matthew Sweet visits Hull - the city where he grew up - and seeks out Basil Kirchin's sound world, Richard Bean's version of Hull during the Civil War and the re-opened Ferens Art Gallery where he used to spend Saturday mornings.

You can hear more of Basil Kirchin's music for films in tonight's Late Junction which follows at 11pm and Radio3 is recording Mind on the Run featuring Goldfrapp's Will Gregory with members of the BBC Concert Orchestra - the event takes place 17th - 19th Feb at Hull City Hall and will be broadcast on Hear and Now on March 4th. The Ferens Art Gallery is displaying Francis Bacon's Screaming Popes until May 1st; Pietro Lorenzetti's panel painting Christ Between Saints Paul and Peter until April. Exhibitions by Ron Mueck, Spencer Tunick's Sea of Hull commission and the Turner prize follow later in 2017.

Richard Bean's play The Hypocrite - dramatising what happened in the Civil War when parliament charged Sir John Hotham with denying King Charles entry to Hull - runs from Friday 24th of February – Saturday 25th of March at Hull Truck Theatre, and Friday 31th of March – Saturday 29th of April at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.

Free Thinking: Martin Luther- fundamentalist reactionary or enlightened creator of our modern world Feb 16, 2017

Show notes

Its 500 years since the German friar, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Reformation. The violent upheavals that followed have tended to obscure his character, his beliefs and his legacy. Nowadays when we think of him we usually conjure up the image of a jowly zealot. To uncover a truer likeness Anne McElvoy was joined at the London School of Economics by Luther's latest biographer, Peter Stanford and the historians, Diarmaid MacCulloch and Ulinka Rublack -- was he a fundamentalist reactionary or the enlightened creator of our modern world.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Free Thinking: Paolozzi; Daniel Dennett Feb 15, 2017

Show notes

Dubbed the "godfather of British pop art", Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) is the subject of an exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery. Philip Dodd and his guests art historians Richard Cork and Judith Collins, philosopher Barry Smith and writer Iain Sinclair discuss Paolozzi's legacy. Plus an interview with American philosopher Professor Daniel Dennett Co-Director Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.

Eduardo Paolozzi runs at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 16 February – 14 May 2017

Daniel Dennett's latest book is called From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

Producer Torquil MacLeod

Rude Valentines. Neil Gaiman, Translating China's Arts Feb 14, 2017

Show notes

Neil Gaiman on his enduring attraction to the world of giants, gods and rainbow bridges of Norse myths and why he's produced his own version; plus research into the ugly side of Valentines from classical times to the 19th century with Annebella Pollen and Edmund Richardson, and, as the RSC prepares to bring Snow in Midsummer to the stage, the first of a planned series of Chinese classics, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig explains her play's 13th century origins and along with Craig Clunas, author of Chinese Painting and Its Audiences, talks to Rana Mitter about bringing Chinese culture to new global audiences.

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig play Snow in Midsummer based on a Chinese classic is on at The Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre Feb 23rd-March 25th 2017 Craig Clunas' new book is Chinese Painting and Its Audiences Neil Gaiman's new book is called Norse Mythology. Annebella Pollen is Principal Lecturer in the History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton and has published her research on Valentines in Early Popular Visual Culture, 2014. Edmund Richardson Director of the Durham Centre for Classical Reception, University of Durham

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Free Thinking: Professor Paul Gilroy Feb 09, 2017

Show notes

30 years ago There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation was published. Philip Dodd talks to the author Professor Paul Gilroy about its impact and whether discussions about race and culture in Britain have moved on or not.

Producer Eliane Glaser.

Free Thinking: Robots, and an Icelandic Dracula Feb 08, 2017

Show notes

Matthew Sweet meets Eric the UK's first robot, built in 1928 now at the Science Museum as part of a big display exploring robotics. He's joined by Kathleen Richardson who is Senior Research Fellow in the Ethics of Robotics at De Monfort University, Murray Shanahan - Professor of Cognitive Robotics from Imperial College - and Ryan Abbott from the University of Surrey School of Law to discuss the legal and ethical implications of our increasing reliance on robotics and automation. And Kevin Jackson looks at the first English translation of Makt Myrkranna or Powers of Darkness - Valdimar Asmundsson's 1901 Icelandic reworking of Bram Stoker's vampire classic Dracula. Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Free Thinking: Russian Art and Revolution Feb 07, 2017

Show notes

As the Royal Academy unveils its huge new show of work produced in Russia between 1917 and 1932, Anne McElvoy and her guests - the film maker and actor, Dolya Gavanski, novelist Charlotte Hobson and the historians Stephen Smith and Victor Sebestyen - assess the role played by artists in the revolution and the relevance of their paintings, sculptures, films, books and music today.

Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932 runs from February 11th to April 17th at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Charlotte Hobson's novel is called The Vanishing Futurist. Dolya Gavanski is currently working on her second feature film, Soviet Woman: Work, Build and Don't Whine. Professor Stephen Smith from All Souls College, Oxford is the author of books including The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism and Russia in Revolution. Victor Sebestyen's Lenin the Dictator is published later this month.

Producer: Zahid Warley

Borders: On the ground, on the map, in the mind Feb 02, 2017

Show notes

Garrett Carr travelled by foot and canoe along Ireland's border. Kapka Kassabova journeyed to what she calls "the edge of Europe". Frank Ledwidge's army career took him to the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, Nikolas Ventourakis is fascinated by how to capture the abstract notion of borders in photographs. They talk to Anne McElvoy about the essence of edges, notions of the other and the challenges of invisible borders which come and go like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.

The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border by Garrett Carr looks at a landscape which has hosted smugglers, kings, runaways, soldiers, peacemakers, protesters and terrorists Border: A journey to the Edge of Europe, Kapka Kassabova explores the rich human history in the wild borderlands of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Nikolas Ventourakis Project: Defining Lines Frank Ledwidge barrister, writer, Losing Small Wars and Investment in Blood

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

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