Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Free Thinking - Neuroscience Apr 09, 2015

Show notes

Rana Mitter discusses a new model for understanding the brain, with researcher and writer Norman Doidge. Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi talks about his latest film - Foreign Body - and a new touring festival of classic Polish cinema selected by Martin Scorsese. Activist Srdja Popovic is a proponent of non-violent protest and was a founder of the student movement Otpor! which helped to bring about the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic. He and writer Kate Maltby talk about the strengths and weaknesses of peaceful resistance.

Free Thinking - The Way We Live Now Apr 08, 2015

Show notes

This evening Free Thinking is devoted to one of the pinnacles of Victorian England – Anthony Trollope’s massive novel The Way We Live Now. To examine the book and its social and historical context Philip is joined by Jerry White, Simon Heffer, Kathryn Hughes and Jonathan Myerson. .

Free Thinking - Nick Broomfield Apr 07, 2015

Show notes

With the publication of the widest survey of sexual behaviour since the Kinsey Report, Matthew Sweet picks apart the data with its author, David Spiegelhalter, and New Generation Thinker, Fern Riddell, author of The Victorian Guide to Sex. Nick Broomfield discusses his latest documentary, Tales of the Grim Sleeper, about a serial killer in LA which exposes the deep divide still evident in America today. Plus, Queen Mary's Matt Rubery on the fascinating history of the audio book.

Free Thinking - Patricia Duncker Apr 02, 2015

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Patricia Duncker talks to Anne McElvoy about her new novel which imagines George Eliot's relationship with her German publishers, Max and Wolfgang Duncker. Adrienne Mayor discusses the strength of women with Professor Melvin Konner. As an exhibition featuring empty Sansovino frames opens at The National Gallery in London, Anne speaks to Head of Frames Peter Schade about their history and Dame Harriet Walter and Guy Paul discuss collaborating on stage as a real life couple ahead of appearing in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Free Thinking - Public and private art Apr 01, 2015

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In this programme about private and public art, Philip Dodd talks to Nicholas Penny, the outgoing Director of the National Gallery and Budi Tek, global art collector and private museum owner.

Free Thinking - Blade Runner Mar 31, 2015

Show notes

As Ridley Scott's science fiction extravaganza, Blade Runner is re-released, Matthew Sweet is joined by the critics Roger Luckhurst and Sarah Churchwell, and by the philosopher Max de Gaynesford, to discuss its enduring significance. And Matthew talks to Eric Jarosinski, a writer who claims he found his creative voice on twitter under the name @NeinQuarterly, and to linguist and medievalist Kate Wiles, and book historian Sjoerd Levelt, about the parallels between the tweets of today and the marginalia of Medieval readers.

Free Thinking - Cosmopolitanism/Nation State Mar 26, 2015

Show notes

Philip Dodd continues his exploration of the culture wars by investigating the tension between cosmopolitanism and the nation state and how this is playing out in Europe. He speaks to Dr Ayça Çubukçu from the LSE, writer Agata Pyzik, Phillip Blond from think-tank ResPublica and Dr Andrew Dowling from the University of Cardiff.

Free Thinking - Peggy Seeger Mar 25, 2015

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Philip Dodd talks to one of the icons of what used to be called the counter-culture, Peggy Seeger. Her voice and career are emblematic of a life lived against the establishment grain.

Free Thinking - Secularism & Religion Mar 24, 2015

Show notes

In the first of three programmes exploring fractures and faultlines in contemporary society, Philip Dodd and guests discuss the tension between secularism and religion. With philosopher and atheist Daniel Dennett, sociologist of religion Linda Woodhead, and the writer and 'futurist' thinker Ziauddin Sardar.

Free Thinking - School Report Mar 19, 2015

Show notes

Anne McElvoy hears from young people involved in the BBC's School Report Day. School children who have come to north-east England from other countries describe what home means. Writer Bidisha and sociologist David Ralph discuss how migrants and refugees construct a sense of home. Also, ahead of a new exhibition, British Museum curator Ian Jenkins and classicist Edith Hall discuss ideas of beauty in ancient Greece and how the body was portrayed.

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