Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Kindness May 20, 2020

Show notes

Rutger Bregman challenges ideas about the selfish gene, and survival of the fittest with stories of human co-operation and kindness as he publishes a book called Human Kind - A Hopeful History. Plus in Mental Health Awareness Week, Dr Sylvan Baker on rethinking the way we treat kids in care. And New Generation Thinker Christina Faraday on an anniversary of the fairground.

You can hear a curated selection of readings and music on the theme of travelling fairs and circuses on Radio 3's Words and Music programme broadcast Sunday afternoons at half past five and available for 28 days following on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sv2wr

Producer: Robyn Read

The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: David Abulafia, Hallie Rubenhold, Prashant Kidambi May 18, 2020

Show notes

From Indian cricket, a survey of the oceans to the women killed by Jack the Ripper: Rana Mitter with the second set of shortlisted authors for the history writing prize.

David Abulafia The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans Hallie Rubenhold The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Prashant Kidambi Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire

You can hear the other shortlisted historians in a progarmme broadcast on May 12th and available as an Arts & Ideas Podcast. It features Marion Turner has written Chaucer: A European Life Toby Green is the author of A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution John Barton is nominated for A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

The winner of the 2020 Wolfson History Prize is announced on June 15th 2020.

In the Free Thinking archives you can find more history - Diarmuid McCulloch on Martin Luther in Breaking Free Martin Luther's Revolution https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nf02y William Dalrymple on The Shadow of Empire and Colonialism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c0f7 Peter Frankopan and Maya Jasanoff on What Kind of History Should We Write https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00016vf Tracy Borman on the Tudors in The Way We Used to Feel https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003zp2 Fern Ridell, Kate Lister and Robin Mitchell on How we talk about women's bodies and sex https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000f5n6

Producer: Robyn Read

Revisit: 2019 Wolfson History Prize Discussion May 14, 2020

Show notes

From classical birds to Nazi legacies, Oscar Wilde to Queen Victoria in India, early building to maritime trading: Rana Mitter and an audience at the British Academy debate history writing and hear from the six historians on the 2019 shortlist. The books are:

Building Anglo-Saxon England by John Blair Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice by Mary Fulbrook Trading in War: London’s Maritime World in the Age of Cook and Nelson by Margarette Lincoln Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words by Jeremy Mynott Oscar: A Life by Matthew Sturgis Empress: Queen Victoria and India by Miles Taylor

The winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2019 was Mary Fulbrook. You can find Free Thinking discussions with the 2020 shortlisted historians being broadcast on Radio 3 and available as Arts & Ideas podcasts and there is a playlist showcasing new academic and historical research here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

The 2020 Wolfson History Prize: Toby Green, Marion Turner, John Barton May 13, 2020

Show notes

New takes on Chaucer, the Bible and African trading - Rana Mitter presents the first of 2 prograrmmes featuring 3 of the historians shortlisted for this year's history writing prize.

Marion Turner has written Chaucer: A European Life Toby Green is the author of A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution John Barton is nominated for A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths

A second programme will be broadcast on Tues May 19th hearing from the other shortlisted authors David Abulafia The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans Hallie Rubenhold The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Prashant Kidambi Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire

The winner of the 2020 Wolfson History Prize is announced on June 15th 2020.

Producer: Robyn Read

WW II radio propaganda & French relations May 06, 2020

Show notes

Matthew Sweet looks at new research from Ludivine Broch, Daniel Lee, Hannah Elias and Cathy Mahoney into religion & propaganda on the radio + French soldiers in Yorkshire & a post WWII gratitude train sent by France and Italy to the USA.

Daniel Lee is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker who teaches at Queen Mary, London. His books include Pétain's Jewish Children: French Jewish Youth and the Vichy Regime, 1940–42 and The SS Officer’s Armchair due to be published in September 2020. Ludivine Broch is a historian at the University of Westminster who researches Vichy France, resistance and the commemoration of World War Two. Cathy Mahoney is Derby Fellow in Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool who has written on women's experiences in World War Two and depictions in the media. Hannah Elias is Lecturer in Black British History at Goldsmiths, University of London where she works on Modern Britain, religion, propaganda, and the transatlantic history of race and social protest in the 20th century.

Producer: Robyn Read Technical Production by Bob Nettles.

Daniel Lee has written a Radio 3 Essay about Vichy France Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038dvyt

You can find a collection of episodes of Free Thinking exploring different aspects of War & Conflict on the programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kgbyb7 and Matthew's discussion with guests including Hadley Freeman on her family's WWII experiences in our discussion on Jewish Identity in 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fwqd

Revisit: Encylopedias and Knowledge from Diderot to Wikipedia May 04, 2020

Show notes

Jimmy Wales talks Diderot & collecting knowledge + Tariq Goddard on Mark Fisher aka k-punk. The French writer Diderot was thrown into prison in 1749 for his atheism, worked on ideas of democracy at the Russian court of Catherine the Great and collaborated on the creation of the first Encyclopédie. Biographer Andrew S. Curran and Jenny Mander look at Diderot's approach to editing the first encyclopedia. Plus writer and publisher Tariq Goddard on the work and legacy of his collaborator and friend, the critical theorist Mark Fisher who analysed the culture of Capitalism following the economic crash of 2008. Shahidha Bari presents.

Diderot and the art of Thinking Freely by Andrew S Curran is out now. k-punk: the collected and unpublished writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2017) edited by Darren Ambrose is out now.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can find a playlist of programmes on the Free Thinking website on The Way We Live Now exploring ideas from boredom, to whether doctors should cry? the joy of sewing to ideas about consent. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072637b

Revisit: Mark Haddon Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

The Porpoise, Haddon's latest novel is now out in paperback. Anne McElvoy talks to him about the language of bloke, writing female characters and taking inspiration from Shakespeare and the legend of Pericles. The conversation ranges across his career in theatre, children's writing and stories for adults, the impact of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which he published in 2003 and his recent illness.

Recorded in front of an audience as part of the BBC Proms Plus series of discussions.

You can find a playlist of In Depth Conversations on the Free Thinking website with guests including James Ellroy, Edna O'Brien, Sebastian Faulks, Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi and others. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04ly0c8

Producer: Fiona McLean.

Cary Grant Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

The double life of the Bristol born Hollywood star of films including Suspicion, The Philadelphia Story and Charade. Matthew Sweet and guests imagine an evening in the film star's company. Born Archie Leach in 1904, he starred in films by Alfred Hitchcock, played opposite actors including Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Sophia Loren and Katherine Hepburn, and sat on the board of MGM films, before his death in 1986.

Charlotte Crofts runs the bi-annual Cary Grant Festival and is an Associate Professor of Film-making at the University of the West of England. Pamela Hutchinson blogs about silent cinema at SilentLondon.co.uk as well as contributing regularly to Sight & Sound and the Guardian. Mark Glancy is a Reader in Film History at Queen Mary, University of London

The Cary Comes Home weekend in Bristol is due to take place 20-22 November 2020

Producer: Craig Smith

You can find more episodes of Free Thinking in which Matthew discusses films including Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06xjln9 Hitchcock's Marnie https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05k6tn7 2001 A Space Odyssey https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sv91q

They are all in a playlist called Landmarks of Culture https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44

Revisit: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

Presenter Rana Mitter is joined by guests Tony Juniper, Emily Shuckburgh, Dieter Helm and Kapka Kassabova to discuss Rachel Carson’s passionate book, Silent Spring, first published in 1962 and said to be the work which launched the environmental movement. Recorded at the 2019 Hay Festival.

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, sustainability adviser and writer of work including Saving Planet Earth and How many lightbulbs does it take to change a planet? Emily Shuckburgh is a climate scientist and mathematician at the British Antarctic Survey and the co-author (with the Prince of Wales and Tony Juniper) of the Ladybird Book on Climate Change. Dieter Helm is an economist specialising in utilities, regulation and the environment. His recent books include Burn Out: the Endgame for Fossil Fuels, The Carbon Crunch, Nature in the Balance and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet. Kapka Kassabova is a novelist, poet and journalist whose work includes Border,, Someone else’s life and Villa Pacifica. You can hear her talking to Free Thinking about winning the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding here https://bbc.in/2TsFZ51

You might be interested in our episode Soil Stories which hears from agroecologist Jules Pretty and geologist Andrew Scott amongst others https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08fj505

You can find a collection of all the discussions of Landmarks of culture as a playlist on the Free Thinking website / and available to download as BBC Arts&Ideas podcasts https://bbc.in/2Jw9y5Q

Producer: Fiona McLean

Alternative Realities Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

From a Victorian Maths Professor to Aldous Huxley, AJ Ayer and Barbara Ehrenreich - Shahidha Bari explores the impact of life changing experiences & the fourth dimension talking to Mark Blacklock, Jeffrey Kripal and Lisa Mullen.

Mark Blacklock has written a novel called Hinton which traces the life and ideas of Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) who wrote an article in 1880 called What is the Fourth Dimension. Jeffrey Kripal holds the J Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and his book The Flip: Who You Really Are and Why It Matters has just been published in the UK. It includes the experiences of figures including AJ Ayer,, Hans Berger, Huxley, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Michael Shermer. Lisa Mullen is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker and author of a book called Mid-century gothic: The uncanny objects of modernity in British literature and culture after the Second World War. Lisa recommends Powell and Pressburger's Second World War film A Matter of Life and Death. Mark recommends Edwin Abbott Abbott's satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions published in 1884.

Producer: Robyn Read and Craig Templeton Smith

You might also be interested in the Free Thinking playlist on philosophy on the website which includes programmes about pansychism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0144txn or in Shahidha's discussion about the new biography of Maths Professor Frank Ramsey https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fws2

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