Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

New Thinking: African Europeans; Fidel Castro & African leaders; WEB Du Bois Oct 02, 2020

Show notes

From Roman emperor Septimius Severus to Senegal's Signares to the ten days in Harlem that Fidel Castro used to link up with African leaders at the UN, through to the missed opportunity to enshrine racial equality in post war negotiations following World War I; Olivette Otele, Simon Hall and Jake Hodder share their research findings with New Generation Thinker Christienna Fryar.

Olivette Otele is Professor of the History of Slavery at the University of Bristol and Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society. Her book African Europeans: An Untold History is published on 29 October 2020. Simon Hall is Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds. His book Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s is out now. Jake Hodder is Assistant Professor in the School of Geography at Nottingham University and has published articles on Black Internationalism and the global dynamics of race. New Generation Thinker Christienna Fryar runs the MA in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London

You can find Catherine Fletcher talking about Alessandro de Medici in this Essay for Radio 3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nrv7k Robin Mitchell discusses her researches into Ourika, Sarah Baartman and Jeanne Duval in a Free Thinking episode called How we talk about sex and women's bodies https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f5n6 The Early Music Show on Radio 3 looks at the life of Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0801l4g The Shadow of Slavery discussed by Christienna Fryar, Katie Donington, Juliet Gilkes Romero and Rosanna Amaka https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f7d5 Slavery Stories in the fiction of Esi Edugyan and William Melvin Kelley https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001bch What Does a Black History Curriculum Look Like ? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kpl5 Johny Pitts looks at Afropean identities with Caryl Phillips https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sjw

This episode of Free Thinking is put together in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI as one of a series of discussions focusing on new academic research also available to download as New Thinking episodes on the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast feed. You can find the whole collection here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Producer: Karl Bos

Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Seamus Heaney. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Oct 01, 2020

Show notes

New critical biographies of Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney and a reissue of Anne Sexton's poems prompt a conversation for National Poetry Day about our image of a poet. Is it possible to separate a poet's life from their work? Shahidha Bari is joined by New Generation Thinkers Sophie Oliver and Peter Mackay, and by Plath biographer Heather Clark. And she talks to Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi about her new novel, The First Woman – a coming of age story of a young girl in Uganda, mixing modern feminism and folk beliefs against a backdrop of Idi Amin’s regime.

The First Woman is out now. Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and her other books are Kintu and the short story collection Manchester Happened.

Mercies: Selected Poems by Anne Sexton is being issued in the Penguin Modern Classics series in November 2020

On Seamus Heaney by Roy Foster is published by Princeton University Press

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark is published in October by Vintage.

Sophie Oliver teaches at the University of Liverpool and researches women and modernist writers, including Jean Rhys. She also writes for the TLS, Burlington Magazine, and The White Review.

Peter Mackay teaches at the University of St Andrews and has published writing on Sorley MacLean; an anthology, An Leabhar Liath: 500 years of Gaelic Love and Transgressive Verse; and his own collection of poems Gu Leòr / Galore.

Free Thinking has a playlist of conversations about prose and poetry on the website - all available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh

If you have been affected by the mental health issues in this programme, you can find details of support organisations from the BBC Action Line website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/emotional-distress-information-and-support

Producer: Emma Wallace

Cows in culture and soil Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

From Cuyp's paintings, to Wordsworth's wanderings to modern dairy management and soil fertility via Victorian Industrial farming and talking Swiss satirical cows - Cumbrian farmer James Rebanks joins Matthew Sweet in a programme marking the anniversary of the poet Wordsworth, who helped shape attitudes to landscape. Other guests include New Generation Thinker Seán Williams from the University of Sheffield and Professor Karen Sayer from Leeds Trinity University who is writing Farm Animals in Britain, 1850-2001 and is part of a team of academics working on the project https://field-wt.co.uk/

James Rebanks is the author of English Pastoral: An Inheritance; The Shepherd's Life and The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd. An exhibition of paintings by Cuyp (1620–1691) at the Dordrechts Museum in Holland will now run from 3 October 2021– 6 March 2022

Sean read his own translation from the 1850 Novel "The Cheese Dairy in Cattlejoy" by Jeremias Gotthelf.

The contemporary cow-art Karen mentions is in an online exhibition at Reading's Museum of English Rural Life https://merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/online-exhibitions/sire/

Producer: Alex Mansfield

You might also be interested in the Free Thinking Collection of episodes Green Thinking which includes discussions about soil, Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring, a Free Thinking festival discussion with James Rebanks and anthropologist Veronica Strang, Peter Wohlleben on trees, George Monbiot on the Green Man myth, Chris Packham on music https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 Our Woolly episode looks at sheep from medieval wool merchants and images of the lamb of God to Sean the Sheep on screen https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009bw4

You can find a discussion about Wordsworth with the directors of Lancaster University's Wordsworth Centre for the Study of Poetry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p087kr4n

Radio 3 is broadcasting new writing from the 2020 Contains Strong Language Festival in Cumbria on The Verb and as the Radio 3 Drama.

Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize 2020 Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

The tribe of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, having a Jamaican Welsh identity, the idea of freedom and anti-colonial resistance, the alarming rise of youth suicide among Indigenous people in Canada and how a group of pioneering cultural anthropologists – mostly women – shaped our interpretation of the modern world: these are the topics tackled in the shortlist for the 2020 prize for a book fostering global understanding. Rana Mitter talks to the authors.

Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands by Hazel V. Carby Insurgent Empire – Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopal Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hämäläinen The Reinvention of Humanity: A Story of Race, Sex, Gender and the Discovery of Culture by Charles King All Our Relations: Indigenous trauma in the shadow of colonialism by Tanya Talaga

The international book prize, worth £25,000, and run by the British Academy, rewards and celebrates the best works of non-fiction that have contributed to global cultural understanding, throwing new light on the interconnections and divisions shaping cultural identity worldwide. Over 100 submissions were received and the winner is announced on Tuesday 27 October.

Producer: Karl Bos

The winner in 2019 was Toby Green for A Fistful of Shells – West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution and other previous winners include Kapka Kassabova, Neil MacGregor and Karen Armstrong. You can find interviews with the winenrs and the other shortlisted authors for the 2019 prize (Ed Morales, Julian Baggini, Julia Lovell, Aanchal Malhotra and Kwame Anthony Appiah in this Free Thinking collection https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07p3nxh

Conservatism, Philanthropy, Liberal and socialist futures Sep 24, 2020

Show notes

Edmund Fawcett's latest book focuses on the historic and contemporary conflicts in Conservatism. He describes how the constant tensions within the Conservative political thought have been exposed and what it might mean for the continuation of the tradition.

Paul Vallely argues that philanthropy is about more than mere altruism. It is always an expression of power, regardless of any desire to make the world a better place. He discusses the contradictions at the heart of philanthropy from the Greeks to modern philanthrocapitalists - and how philanthropy might still do good.

Ian Dunt and Grace Blakeley have written about the challenges facing Liberals and Socialists respectively. They discuss how these big intellectual traditions might survive contact with the current moment.

Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition by Edmund Fawcett is published by Princeton University Press

Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg by Paul Vallely is published by Bloomsbury

How to be a Liberal: Thinking for Yourself in a Populist World by Ian Dunt is published by Canbury Press

Socialist Futures: The Pandemic and the Post-Corbyn Era edited by Grace Blakeley is published by Verso

The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic Will Change Capitalism by Grace Blakeley is published by Verso

Producer: Ruth Watts

New Thinking: The impact of being multilingual Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

How German argument differs from English, the links between Arabic and Chinese and different versions of The 1001 Nights to the use of slang and multiple languages in the work of young performers and writers in the West Midlands: John Gallagher looks at a series of research projects at different UK universities which are exploring the impact and benefits of multilingualism.

Katrin Kohl is Professor of German Literature and a Fellow of Jesus College. She runs the Creative Multilingualism project. https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/about/people/katrin-kohl https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/creative-multilingualism-manifesto

Wen-chin Ouyang is a professor of Arabic literature and comparative literature at SOAS, University of London. Her books include editing an edition for Everyman's Library called The Arabian Nights: An Anthology and Politics of Nostalgia in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition. You can hear more from Wen-chin in this Free Thinking discussion of The One Thousand and One Nights https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052gz7g

Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies & Creative Industries at Birmingham City University. His books include the co-edited South Asian Creative and Cultural Industries (Dudrah, R. & Malik, K. 2020) and Graphic Novels and Visual Cultures in South Asia (Dudrah, R. & Dawson Varughese, E. 2020).

Saturday, 26 September is the European Day of Languages 2020 and Wednesday, 30 September is International Translation Day 2020 which English PEN is marking with a programme of online events https://www.englishpen.org/posts/events/international-translation-day-2020/

You might also be interested in this Free Thinking conversation about language and belonging featuring Preti Taneja with Guy Gunaratne, Dina Nayeri, Michael Rosen, Momtaza Mehri and Deena Mohamed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07fvbhn

Here is a Free Thinking episode that looks at the language journey of the 29 London bus https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00014qk Steven Pinker and Will Self explore Language in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hysms Arundhati Roy talks about translation and Professor Nicola McLelland and Vicky Gough of the British Council look at language learning in schools https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5hk01

Producer: Karl Bos

Get Carter Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

The film starring Michael Caine was adapted from a 1970 Ted Lewis novel set in an underworld of gangsters and teenage pornography. Mike Hodges, Nick Triplow, Pamela Hutchinson and John Gray talk with Matthew Sweet about the influence of the book and film.

Originally set in Scunthorpe, Lewis' novel Jack's Return Home was relocated to Newcastle/Gateshead for the film which Mike Hodges adapted and directed. A series of events marking what would have been Ted Lewis's 80th birthday are taking place at Scunthorpe, Newcastle, Barton-upon-Humber and Hull.

Jack's Return Home (1970) was published in 1971 as Carter and later re-published as Get Carter after the film was made. Nick Triplow is the author of a biography Getting Carter: Ted Lewis and the Birth of Brit Noir

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Family ties and reshaping history Sep 17, 2020

Show notes

From the influential part played by Sikh queens, through the ties of marriage and religion which helped shape the Western world, back to the links between Neanderthals and early man: Rana Mitter talks to Priya Atwal, Joseph Henrich, and Rebecca Wragg Sykes about family ties, power networks, and history.

Priya Atwal has published Royal and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire. Dr Atwal is a Teaching Fellow in Modern South Asian History at King's College London. Joseph Henrich is a Professor in the department of Human and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the author of The Weirdest People in the World: How the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous. Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an Honorary Fellow at University of Liverpool and Université de Bordeaux. She is the author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art and is one of the founders of https://trowelblazers.com/

You might be interested in other Free Thinking conversations with Rutger Bregman author of Human Kind https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08d77hx Penny Spikins speaking about Neanderthal history at the 2019 Free Thinking Festival https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003zp2 Tom Holland on his history of the impact of Christianity on Western thinking in a programme called East Meets West https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00093d1

Producer: Robyn Read

New Thinking: The Mayflower and Native American History Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

From fancy dress parties using native American head-dresses to the continuing significance of Wampum belts made of shells - how do particular objects help us tell the story of the colonisation of America and what is the legacy of the ideas brought by Puritan settlers who left English port cities like Plymouth and Southampton 400 years ago? Eleanor Barraclough talks to 3 academics whose research helps us answer these questions - Sarah Churchwell, Kathryn Gray and Lauren Working - and we hear contributions from the Wampanoag Advisory Committee who have worked with curators at The Box museum in Plymouth on a touring exhibition.

Professor Sarah Churchwell's books include Behold, America: A History of America First and the American Dream. She is Director of the Being Human Festival which puts on public events focusing on research taking place at universities across the UK. This year's festival (Nov 12th - 22nd) includes Mayflower related events. https://beinghumanfestival.org/us/

Dr Kathryn Gray from the University of Plymouth has consulted on exhibitions commissioned for https://www.mayflower400uk.org/ Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America is on tour to SeaCity Museum, Southampton (to 18 October 2020), Guildhall Art Gallery, London (8 January to 14 February 2021) and The Box Plymouth (15 May to 19 July 2021) . Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy runs at The Box Plymouth 29 September 2020 to 18 September 2021

Lauren Working is the author of The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis and works as a researcher on the TIDE project which explores Travel, Transculturality and Identity in England c1550 - 1700. http://www.tideproject.uk/

You might also be interested in this conversation with Nandini Das and Claudia Rogers on their research into First Encounters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kpgp

Producer: Robyn Read

Piranesi and disturbing archecture Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

Susanna Clarke, Adam Scovell, Lucy Arnold and Anton Bakker are Matthew Sweet's guests. Susanna Clarke talks about the inspiration behind the follow up to her best-selling first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Piranesi is the springboard for a discussion about haunted spaces and mind-bending architecture in film, fiction and art from MC Escher to Christopher Nolan's Inception, Shirley Jackson to Mervyn Peake. The print maker Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who was born 300 years ago on Oct 4th 1720, became known for his etchings of Rome and images of imagined prisons.

Piranesi drawings: visions of antiquity is an exhibition planned by the British Museum now due to open early in 2021. Susanna Clarke's novel Piranesi is out now. Adam Scovell writes on film for Sight and Sound and is the author of books including Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange and two novellas: Mothlight and How Pale the Winter Has Made Us. Dr Lucy Arnold researches contemporary literature at the University of Worcester and is the author of Reading Hilary Mantel: Haunted Decades. Anton Bakker's virtual exhibition Alternative Perspective at the National Museum of Mathematics in NYC can be visited via the MoMath website.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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