Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Free Thinking - Paul Foot Award Feb 24, 2015

Show notes

As this year's Paul Foot Awards are announced for campaigning and investigative journalism, Anne McElvoy reports from the ceremony and talks to this year's winner. Anne also talks to the Director of the London School of Economics, the sociologist Dr Craig Calhoun about the things that inspired him to take up a career in the social sciences. The artist Alinah Azadeh talks about her latest project, two banners celebrating the 1965 Race Relations Act and the 1897 founding of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies now hanging in the Palace of Westminster with New Generation Thinker Naomi Paxton.

Free Thinking - David Grossman Feb 19, 2015

Show notes

Matthew Sweet talks to the Israeli novelist David Grossman about his book Falling Out of Time which mixes poetry, drama and fiction to explore the emotion of grief and loss. His own son died in 2006. He is also the author of non fiction books including Death as a Way of Life: From Oslo to the Geneva Agreement. They discuss his fiction and the part he hopes it can play in the discourse about Israel today. Originally broadcast on 11 March 2014.

Free Thinking - Buddhism Feb 18, 2015

Show notes

Rana Mitter discusses Buddhism, in Western therapy and in Eastern politics with psychotherapist Mark Vernon, Rupert Gethin - Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and co-director of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, Dr Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen expert in religion and politics in Contemporary Japan and Christopher Harding – Cultural historian of India and Japan

Free Thinking Landmark - 1001 Nights Feb 17, 2015

Show notes

It's three hundred years since the death of Antoine Galland, a French orientalist and archaeologist, whose translation of The One Thousand and One Nights kick-started its adventures in the West via the works of English orientalists, Richard Burton, Edward Lane and John Payne. Philip Dodd asks a panel of experts on these hugely influential tales, plus story-tellers who continue to wrest new life out of them. He talks to Scholars Robert Irwin and Wen-chin Ouyang, the theatre director Tim Supple and Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh.

Free Thinking - Britain's Economy Feb 12, 2015

Show notes

Will Hutton joins Anne McElvoy for a programme focusing on economics and wealth in Britain. They're joined by Richard Davies, The Economist's Economics Editor, Wendy Carlin, Professor of Economics and Macroeconomics at UCL and Luke Johnson the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners and the former Chairman of Channel 4 Television.

Free Thinking - Karim Miske; Aatish Taseer: 11 Feb15 Feb 11, 2015

Show notes

Karim Miské and Aatish Taseer discuss their recent novels, the French tradition of secularism and the influences of religion with Philip Dodd. They're joined by historians Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh and Dr Ruth Scurr.

Free Thinking - Eroticism & Utopia Feb 10, 2015

Show notes

Dylan Evans tells Matthew Sweet about his experimental community in the Scottish Highlands and why the Utopia Experiment failed. They are joined by Elaine Barker who has looked at communities set up by religious cults and Joe Duggan of Transition Town in Crystal Palace. Also our changing attitudes to eroticism on film. In the week when the release of the film Fifty Shades of Grey is causing much excitment Matthew discusses prudishness and prurience in British cinema with film historian Melanie Williams, sexploitation screen writer David McGillivray and documentary maker Kim Longinotto.

Free Thinking - Greece & Russia Feb 05, 2015

Show notes

Anne McElvoy assesses reports that members of the new Greek government are rediscovering age-old links between Greece and Russia. With Roderic Lynne, former British ambassador to Moscow; Mary Dejevsky, Professor Vassilis Fouskis and Spyros Economides. Plus as Sheffield Theatres begin a season looking back at the work of Sarah Kane, Director Daniel Evans discusses her writing and also a review of Indian Summers - Channel 4's new costume drama about the end of colonial rule with Preti Taneja and Nick Lloyd.

Free Thinking - Paul Muldoon, Roy Foster. Rona Munro: 4 Feb15 Feb 04, 2015

Show notes

Poet Paul Muldoon explores the history of Ireland in his new collection, One Thousand Things Worth Knowing. Historian Roy Foster's latest book is Vivid Faces: the Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923. Rona Munro's new play Scuttlers runs at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre from Feb 5th - March 7th directed by Wils Wilson. It depicts Manchester gangs and riots in the Industrial Revolution and in 2011.

Free Thinking - Eddie Marsan Feb 03, 2015

Show notes

Andrew O'Hagan talks to Matthew Sweet about identity, capturing memories and the impact of war in his new novel The Illuminations. Eddie Marsan talks about creating his character in the new film Still Life and about how much we know about a person's identity. Critic Charlotte Mullins considers the artists' obsession with capturing their image and that of their friends, as the National Portrait Gallery hosts a series of paintings by John Singer Sargent and Turner Contemporary in Margate looks at the role of the self portrait in the 21st century.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected