Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Spy talk Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

One Cold War spy has his story retold by journalist Simon Kuper, while the granddaughter of another - Charlotte Philby - writes novels that explore the human side and cost of espionage. Nigel Inkster, former MI6 director of operations and intelligence, looks at the role of spying in present day relations between China and the US, while journalist Margaret Coker explains how old school intelligence gathering without any hi-tech bells and whistles has been reaping rewards in Iraq. Rana Mitter hosts a conversation about spying fact and fiction.

The Happy Traitor: Spies, Lies and Exile in Russia - The Extraordinary Story of George Blake by Simon Kuper is out now. Charlotte Philby's most recent novel is A Double Life. The Great Decoupling: China, America and the Struggle for Technological Supremacy by Nigel Inkster is out now. Margaret Coker's book Spymaster of Baghdad is out now. Penguin Classics is re-issuing Len Deighton's novels.

In our archives you can find Stella Rimington in discussion with Alan Judd https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048ngpw John le Carré in conversation with Anne McElvoy https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039q13n The links in the world of French philosophy and spies https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2mfh3 And a playlist of programmes on War and Conflict https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kgbyb

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

From Blackface to Beyoncé Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Hanif Abdurraqib, the American poet and essayist, has written a book in praise of black performance challenging stereotypes and recovering figures including the magician Ellen Armstrong who performed along the Atlantic seaboard in the 1900s, the dancer William Henry Lane described by Dickens and Merry Clayton, the gospel singer who performed on the Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter. He joins New Generation Thinker Adjoa Osei and Dawn Walton, founder of Eclipse Theatre Company for a conversation with Matthew Sweet looking at how attitudes towards black performance have changed - or not.

Hanif Abdurraqib's book is called A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance.

Dawn Walton is directing The Death of a Black Man by Alfred Fagon at the Hampstead Theatre 28 May – 10 July. It premiered at that theatre in 1975.

Adjoa Osei is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to make radio from academic research. She researches at the University of Liverpool and her postcard looks at the Brazilian TV series on Netflix Coisa Mais Linda or Girls from Ipanema.

You can find a playlist on the Free Thinking website exploring identity from speakers including Eddie Glaude Jr and Nadia Owusu on James Baldwin; the writers JJ Bola and Derek Owusu in an episode about masculinity; novelist Paul Mendez in a discussion about Queer Bloomsbury; a quartet of artists on the Black British Art movement, Le Gateau Chocolat in a discussion about the subversion of Cabaret and Suzan-Lori Parks on her play Father Comes Home from the Wars https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jngzt and a second playlist offers other discussions exploring Black History https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp

The Lights Up festival of performance is running across BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC TV. The opening drama Giles Terera's The Meaning of Zong is available now on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tdk4

Producer: Caitlin Benedict

Writing About Faith Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

In Frank Skinner's A Comedian's Prayer Book the broadcaster presents a series of prayers which read like a stand-up routine exploring questions of belief. A practising Roman Catholic, Skinner's questions include the correct way of addressing God, what it means to be humble, and an unpicking of some of the metaphors used in the Bible.

Jeet Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in Kerala, and his latest novel, Names of the Women, imagines the New Testament from the viewpoint of the women who became followers of Jesus Christ - from Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, to Lydia of Thyatira, who is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe.

Yaa Gyasi’s second novel is called Transcendent Kingdom and it tells the story of a woman working in science who is negotiating her relationship both with her mother and with her beliefs and background.

Laurence Scott talks to these three authors about how they approached writing about faith in fiction and for a mass audience.

Producer: Emma Wallace

You can find a playlist exploring religious belief on the Free Thinking website, with speakers including Ziauddin Sardar, Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, Rabbi Sacks, Marilynne Robinson, and Rowan Williams. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp

Churchill's reputation Mar 25, 2021

Show notes

Wartime saviour or the symbol of nostalgic imperialism ? David Reynolds, Priya Satia, Richard Toye and Allen Packwood join Anne McElvoy to look at the ways Churchill's story and legacy are being written now by both historians and in the press. How can we untangle the culture war that is raging over his reputation and what can we learn if we look at the research coming out of the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge?

Richard Toye is Professor of History at the University of Exeter co-author of The Churchill Myths (2020) and author of Winston Churchill: A Life in the News (OUP, 2020) Priya Satia is Professor of International History at the University of Stanford, author of Time's Monster: How History Makes History (2020) and Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution (2018) David Reynolds is Professor of International History at the University of Cambridge and author of One World Divisible: a Global History since 1945 (2000) and In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (2004) which was the winner of the Wolfson Prize Allen Packwood is Director of the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge

Producer: Ruth Watts

Pleasure Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

As lockdowns have forced us to forgo the delights of the outside world, have we developed a taste for simple pleasures? Many have reported enjoying cooking and eating more than usual, or appreciating simple treats such as a walk in nature. Has the grey monotony of this period caused music to sound more vibrant, and colours to appear more vivid? And what is the science, philosophy and psychology behind the enjoyment of simple pleasures? Matthew Sweet asks taste and wine expert Barry Smith; colour expert Kassia St Clair; Lisa Appignanesi an author of books exploring psychology and memory; and historian of luxury Seán Williams to share their ideas about pleasure.

Kassia St Clair is the author of The Secret Lives of Colour and The Golden Thread. Barry C Smith is a Professor of philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London's School of Advanced Study. He researches the multisensory nature of perceptual experience, focusing on taste, smell and flavour and also writes on wine. Seán Williams is a New Generation Thinker who teaches on German culture and history at the University of Sheffield considering topics ranging from the Alps, Spas and ideas about luxury, to a history of hairdressing. Lisa Appignanesi's books include Everyday Madness, All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion, Memory and Desire and many others.

You can find a whole playlist of programmes exploring different emotions from our Free Thinking Festival 2019 including 20 Words for Joy ... Feelings Around the World hearing from Thomas Dixon, Aatish Taseer and Veronica Strang; Does My Pet Love Me? Why We Need Weepies, and the Way we Used to Feel https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p036y2hb

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Frantz Fanon Mar 23, 2021

Show notes

Irrational feelings of dread, fear, and hate in a subject whose threat is often exaggerated or "phobogenesis" - one of the psychological terms explored in Frantz Fanon's 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks, which sets out the way black people have been affected by colonial subjugation. Matthew Sweet, Tariq Ali, New Generation Thinker Alexandra Reza and Kehinde Andrews re-read Fanon's arguments and look at the influence of his thinking outlined in his books Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961).

Tariq Ali is a journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual whose books include The Islam Quintet; The Extreme Centre and The Dilemmas of Lenin. You can hear Rana Mitter in an extended Free Thinking conversation with him https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qgt57 Kehinde Andrews is a Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. His books include The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World and Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century. You can find him in conversation at the Free Thinking Festival 2019 discussing the emotions of now https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00040wd anger in politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003t1t and looking at Black British History with Bernadine Evaristo, Miranda Kaufmann and Keith Piper https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081tkr9 Alezandra Reza is a BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council New Generation Thinker who studies at the University of Oxford. You can hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about Aimé Césaire https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nmxf

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Syria: hope and poetry Mar 18, 2021

Show notes

Two years of staying inside her own home in Homs, whilst 60 per cent of her neighbourhood was turned into rubble hasn't deterred architect Marwa al-Sabouni. She talks to Anne McElvoy about rebuilding and hope. Adélie Chevée researches the use of media by the Syrian opposition, and Kareem James Abu-Zeid is an Egyptian-American translator, editor, and writer who spent 16 years working on a version of Songs of Mihyar the Damascene by Adonis, a poem which has been compared to TS Eliot's The Wasteland.

Marwa al-Sabouni published The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria in 2016 and you can hear her talking to Free Thinking about Syrian Buildings https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076b15v Since then she's recorded a TED talk How Syria's architecture laid the foundation for a brutal war, advised the World Economic Forum, written for the Wall St Journal and is now publishing Building for Hope: Towards and Architecture of Belonging.

Adonis was born into a farming family who couldn't afford the cost of a formal education but after reciting a poem to the president of Syria visiting his region, the teenager was supported by the president and enrolled in a French high school. He is now a leading Arabic poet based in Paris, who uses free verse, and a variety of forms to explore themes of migration and exile. His book Songs of Mihyar the Damascene, with translations by Kareem James Abu-Zeid and Ivan Neubanks is a 200 page collection which has taken Kareem 16 years of work to bring to print.

Adélie Chevée is a political scientist and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. She has studied the use of media by the Syrian opposition and is now looking at the impact of fake news in Middle Eastern societies.

You can find a playlist called Belonging, Home, Borders and National Identity on the Free Thinking website which includes conversations about Pakistan, Turkey, Hong Kong, France, India, Sweden and more https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mb66k

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Introducing New Generation Thinkers 2021 Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

From clues in paintings to colonial trade to letters sent between Australia and England; the links between a Durham based poet and India to the female singers and dancers from Latin America who were contemporaries of Picasso and Josephine Baker; the significance of the Cyrillic alphabet in building nations to why we should pay attention to brackets, commas and colons: African film and ideas about empire to depictions of Iran in nineteenth century French literature and art; how activism affects our view of art to law and the transatlantic slave trade: New Generation Thinker Lisa Mullen talks to the ten academics whose ideas will become programmes for BBC Radio 3 as we introduce the 2021 New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Dr Julia Hartley, University of Warwick Dr Florence Hazrat, University of Sheffield Dr Mirela Ivanova, University of Oxford Sarah Jilani, University of Cambridge Dr Jake Morris-Campbell, Newcastle University Adjoa Osei, University of Liverpool Dr Jake Richards, London School of Economics Dr Fariha Shaikh, University of Birmingham Dr Vid Simoniti, University of Liverpool Dr Lauren Working, University of Oxford

Producer: Ruth Watts

You can find a playlist featuring discussions, essays and features made by the hundred New Generation Thinkers over ten years of the scheme on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08zhs35

New Thinking: what do we learn from census stats? Mar 16, 2021

Show notes

Everyday lives from the past are often hard to reconstruct. As we prepare for the Census 2021, what stories can we tell from past censuses and the records held at Kew at the National Archives? John Gallagher is joined by four researchers whose work sheds light on women entrepreneurs, the health of residents in Brighton and Hastings, and the story of a house in a suburb of York - Tang Hall.

Dr Carrie Van Lieshout from the Open University is working on a project called A Century of Migrant Businesswomen comparing census figures from 1911 to 2011.

Audrey Collins is Records Specialist in Family History at the National Archives and the author of guides to tracing family history. Dr Deborah Madden from the University of Brighton looks at nineteenth century life writing, at public records and health, and is involved in a project which explores medical archival sources about the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, including oral history interviews with descendants of families affected by that pandemic, and interviews with NHS key workers.

Professor Krista Cowman at the University of Lincoln is researching women’s lives in a number of different contexts: as ‘war brides’ in France during World War One, as campaigners for post-war reconstruction in and out of Parliament in Britain, and in a number of community campaigns for safe play areas in the inter-and post-war period. She has worked on the history of a house in York's Tang Hall.

This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI.

You can find more conversations about New Research in a playlist on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Producer: Emma Wallace

Edward Said's thinking Mar 12, 2021

Show notes

Orientalism was his book, published in 1978, which outlined Said's view that imperialism and a romanticised version of Arab Culture clouded the way the East was depicted by Western scholars. In 1981 he published Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (revised in 1997). Timothy Brennan puts these books and other initiatives, such as the founding of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim; and his advocacy for the establishment of a Palestinian state, into context in the first biography since Said's death from leukemia in 2003. Rana Mitter talks to Timothy Brennan and the writers Ahdaf Soueif, Pankaj Mishra and Marina Warner about Said's life and legacy. Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said by Timothy Brennan is out now.

Dame Marina Warner - author of many books about figures including Joan of Arc, the Virgin Mary and fairy tales including the Arabian Nights. She has just published Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir which pieces together of her parents' lives from journals, photos and mementoes and looks at her own childhood in 1950s Cairo.

Ahdaf Soueif is an Egyptian novelist and author of books including In the Eye of the Sun, The Map of Love, Cairo: My City our Revolution; and she founded the Palestine Festival of Literature.

Pankaj Mishra is the author of books including Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond; A History of Indian Literature in English; Age of Anger: A History of the Present and Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race, and Empire. You can find him discussing Global Anger with Elif Shafak in the Free Thinking archives https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c32c3

You can find other programmes exploring key books and ideas in a playlist called Landmarks of Culture on the Free Thinking website. Recent episodes include Foucault, John Rawls and Hegel https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44 They are all available to download as Arts&Ideas podcasts.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

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