Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

What does a black history curriculum look like? Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Whose life stories are missing from the British history we write and teach? How do we widen the way we look at episodes which are on the syllabus?

Rana Mitter's panel comprises Kimberly McIntosh Senior Policy Editor from the Runnymede Trust, Lavinya Stennett founder of the Black Curriculum & New Generation Thinker Christienna Fryar, who runs the Black British History MA at Goldsmiths, University of London. Plus Hester Grant has just published a history of the Sharp family. Granville Sharp was instrumental in securing a definitive legal ruling on the question of whether a slave could be compelled to leave Britain. How does a group biography retell this story?

The Good Sharps by Hester Grant is out now. The Runnymede Trust and TIDE report can be found here https://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/education/runnymede-tide-project-teaching-migration-report.htm https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/our-work

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Gambling, good leadership and economic history Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

Anne McElvoy looks at leadership lessons from past US presidents, the parallels between the betting industry and fears over gambling in 1945 and now and she asks who are the key economic thinkers. Her guests are Callum Williams, senior economics writer at The Economist, 2020 New Generation Thinker Darragh McGee from the University of Bath and ahead of July 4th and Independence Day in the USA she revisits her interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin about her book called Leadership in Turbulent Times.

Callum Williams' book The Classical School: The Turbulent Birth of Economics in Twenty Extraordinary Lives is out now.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Frank Cottrell-Boyce Jul 01, 2020

Show notes

The screenwriter and novelist talks to Matthew Sweet about teaching creative writing to children in lockdown, attending mass on zoom, the changing meaning of community and the importance of family and he looks back to the image of Britain he created with Danny Boyle for the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is the author of books including Millions, Framed, Runaway Robot and a sequel to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, He has worked on screenplays including The Two Popes, collaborations with Michael Winterbottom on films including 24 Hour Party People and scripts for Coronation Street and Doctor Who.

You can find Matthew Sweet talking to the author Sarah Perry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dmn6l and the actor Robin Askwith https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08fgxjp about their careers and this current moment in the Free Thinking archives.

And Frank Cottrell-Boyce giving the 2016 Proms Lecture on the importance of the arts https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p041vxwh

Producer: Karl Bos

Ian Rankin and Tahmima Anam Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

Crime writer Ian Rankin talks with Tahmima Anam in a conversation organised in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature and the Bradford Literature Festival. Plus New Generation Thinker Xine Yao looks at the depiction of East Asian figures in science fiction films and writing. Shahidha Bari presents.

Ian Rankin's latest Inspector Rebus novel A Song For the Dark Times comes out in October. His cat-and-mouse espionage thriller Westwind was republished last September. Tahmima Anam's first novel debut novel, A Golden Age, was inspired by her grandparents' experiences of war in Bangladesh. It was followed in 2011 by The Good Muslim and the final book in the Bangladesh trilogy The Bones of Grace.

You can hear her discuss this in more detail in this Free Thinking conversation with Alain de Botton and AL Kennedy exploring writing about love https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078xlft Ian Rankin can be found in the Free Thinking archives discussing Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qdpj5

Bradford Literature Festival has a series of digital events running this year https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/ You can find more conversations about literature including several past Free Thinking episodes on the Royal Literature Society website https://rsliterature.org/

Xine Yao is one of the 2020 New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which selects academics to turn their research into radio. The book mentioned in the discussion is called Severance by Ling Ma. You can find a longer discussion about Fu Manchu in this Free Thinking programme called Neel Mukherjee, Images of China https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04jjnlx

Producer: Robyn Read Technical Producer: Craig Smith

Revisit: Arundhati Roy Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

Arundhati Roy, the Man Booker prize winning author and campaigner, is in conversation with Philip Dodd about a life in the public eye and the novel she published 20 years after The God of Small Things. She discusses the politics of Kashmir, the influence of architecture and why she chose a graveyard setting for her novel and how writing a transgender character Anjum, who is a Hijra, helped her tell the story. Her second novel is called The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

The virtual Women of the World Festival takes place June 27-28 2020 https://thewowfoundation.com/wow-global-24/ You can find a playlist of Free Thinking conversations called Women in the World https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p084ttwp

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Rethinking the Curriculum Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

From a greater focus on Black history and poetry to classics in state school classrooms and an understanding of the history of science - Rana Mitter & guests debate the syllabus. Jade Cuttle is Arts Commissioning Editor at The Times, and a poet who both reviews and writes her own work https://www.jadecuttle.com Sandeep Parmar is Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She is hosting an online conversation at the 2020 Ledbury Poetry Festival and since 2017 she has worked on the Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics which she co-founded with Sarah Howe in 2017. A report into the effects of this scheme shows that it has more than doubled the total number of BAME poetry reviewers writing for national publications in the last two years. You can find more on the Ledbury website about events they are running https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/

Edith Hall is a Professor in the Classics Department at King's College London http://edithhall.co.uk/ Her latest book A People’s History of Classics co-written with Henry Stead examines the working class experience of classical culture in Britain.

Seb Falk is a historian at the University of Cambridge who previously worked as a teacher. He is a New Generation Thinker and his book about medieval science The Light Ages will be published in September. https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/directory/dr-sebastian-falk

This conversation is part of a wider BBC Radio project Rethink which is looking at how we might change attitudes and approaches to a wide range of subjects https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gt1ry

There is a playlist of Free Thinking discussions about maths, economics, sociology, archaeology, Black British history https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90 You can find Claudia Rankine giving the Free Thinking Festival Lecture here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nbghv

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Irenosen Okojie and Nadifa Mohamed. Midsummer archaeology Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

The writing life of two authors who should have been sharing a stage at the Bare Lit Festival. Irenosen Okojie and Nadifa Mohammed talk to Shahidha Bari in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature. And 2020 New Generation Thinker Seren Griffiths describes a project to use music by composer at an archaeological site to mark the summer solstice and the findings of her dig.

The Somali-British novelist Nadifa Mohamed featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers under 40. Her first novel Black Mamba Boy won a Betty Trask Award. Her second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls won the Somerset Maugham Award and contributed poems to the collection edited by Margaret Busby in 2019 New Daughters of Africa.

Irenosen Okojie's debut novel, Butterfly Fish, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Edinburgh First Book Award. Her short story collection, Speak Gigantular was shortlisted for the Edgehill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. Her most recent book is called Nudibranch.

You can find more information about the Bare Lit Festival http://barelitfestival.com/ and about the Royal Society of Literature https://rsliterature.org/ Irenosen is one of the voices talking about Buchi Emecheta in this programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09r89gt Caine Prize 2019 winner Lesley Nneka Arimah is interviewed https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006mtb Caine Prize 2018 winner Makena Onjerika https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b89ssp Billy Kahora a Caine nominee https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02tw6fg

The music used by Seren Griffiths is by https://jonhughesmusic.com/ and you can find out about the dig https://bryncellidduarchaeology.wordpress.com/the-bryn-celli-ddu-rock-art-project/ and the minecraft https://mcphh.org/bryn-celli-ddu-minecraft-experience/

New Generation Thinkers is the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

Queer Bloomsbury and stillness in art and dance Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

Francesca Wade and Paul Mendez talk to Shahidha Bari about Queer Bloomsbury in a conversation run in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature who set up events in mid-June to mark Dalloway Day, inspired by the 1925 novel from Virginia Woolf. Claudia Tobin from the University of Cambridge looks at Woolf's writing on art and the vogue for still lives and compares notes with 2020 New Generation Thinker Lucy Weir from the University of Edinburgh, who has written a postcard exploring dance, stillness and movement in lockdown.

Claudia Tobin's book is called Still Life and Modernism: Artists, Writers, Dancers. She was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Francesca Wade is the author of Square Haunting. You can hear her focusing on the academics Jane Harrison and Eileen Power in a Free Thinking episode called Pioneering women: academics and classics https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dj0g Paul Mendez's novel is called Rainbow Milk Lucy Weir is a Teaching Fellow, Modern and Contemporary Art, History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and is one of the 2020 New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC to select academics who can turn their research into radio.

You can hear a discussion of the novel Mrs Dalloway featuring the writers Hermione Lee, Alison Light and Margaret Drabble with Philip Dodd https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt79p and you can find a host of conversations for Dalloway Day on the website of the Royal Society of Literature https://rsliterature.org/

Producer: Robyn Read

Revisit: Antarctica - testing ground for the human species Jun 16, 2020

Show notes

Two hundred years ago, Antarctica was discovered by Russian explorers and throughout this year the the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is marking that anniversary. As we approach the date in June which is celebrated as midwinter with a special meal on the research stations - here's a chance to hear Rana Mitter and guests discussing the lure of this polar region both in our imaginations and as an aid to understanding what is happening to the planet.

Rana Mitter's guests are: writer Meredith Hooper, who has visited Antarctica under the auspices of three governments, Australia, UK and USA and is currently curating an exhibition about Shackleton and the Encyclopedia Britannica he took with him on Endurance. Polar explorer Ben Saunders completed the longest human-powered polar exploration in history to the South Pole and back, retracing Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. Architect Hugh Broughton is the designer behind Halley VI, the UK's scientific base on the Brent Ice Shelf Jonathan Bamber is one of the world's leading experts on ice and uses satellite technology to monitor the mass of Antarctica's ice sheets; his work is central to predictions of ice melt and rising sea levels. He is head of the Bristol Glaciology Centre.

Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage Gateshead in November 2014

You might also be interested in this discussion of Ice with Kat Austen, Michael Bravo, Jean McNeil and Tom Charlton https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001jzq You can find further information from the British Antarctic Survey https://www.bas.ac.uk/ and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust https://www.ukaht.org/

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

New Thinking: Refugees Jun 16, 2020

Show notes

What are the best shelters? the right language? how does our view of hosting families change if we look at refugee self help schemes and experiences in camps in Palestine and Syria ? A trio of researchers share their findings with John Gallagher as we mark Refugee Week 2020.

Dr Rebecca Tipton, from the University of Manchester, works on Translating Asylum - an ongoing research project looking at language and communication challenges common to individuals displaced by conflict both past and present https://translatingasylum.com/about/

Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, from University College London, leads Refugee Hosts - an ongoing research project examining local community experiences of and responses to displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. https://refugeehosts.org/

Associate Professor, Tom Scott-Smith, at the University of Oxford, is a 2020 New Generation Thinker and works on Architectures of Displacement - an ongoing research project exploring temporary accommodation for refugees in the Middle East and Europe. It is a partnership between the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University and the Pitt Rivers Museum. https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/research/architectures-of-displacement

All of their work features in the Imperial War Museum London exhibition Refugees: Forced to Flee. You can find more on the website https://www.iwm.org.uk/ and on the website of the AHRC, part of UKRI, which helped put this programme together as part of a series focusing on the latest academic research from UK univerisites https://ahrc.ukri.org/ You can find all the conversations available as Ne w Thinking podcasts on the BBC Arts & Ideas feed and as a playlist here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Producer: Karl Bos

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