Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Contagion and Viruses Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

Matthew Sweet investigates viruses and how they could disrupt our understanding of the nature of organisms, and looks at what history can teach us about the current pandemic. With philosopher John Dupré, historian Mark Honigsbaum, New Generation Thinker Lisa Mullen and artist Matt Adams who works with Blast Theory.

Mark Honigsbaum is the author of The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris. Lisa Mullen has written Mid-Century Gothic: The Uncanny Objects of Modernity in British Literature and Culture after the Second World War. Professor John Dupré is director of the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. You can find about Matt Adams' work at https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Check out our podcast episode New Thinking: Science Fiction Hetta Howes discusses how science fiction extends beyond literature with Caroline Edwards and Amy Butt https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p086zq4g

You might also like this Sunday feature looking at the idea of the grid https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08v8qn4 and this Sunday Feature about the idea of Apocalypse How https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088j46v from the Radio 3 programme archives.

Shoes Mar 19, 2020

Show notes

From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos. Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade, with guests including Thomas Turner, who has written about sneakers in his book The Sports Shoe, A History From Field To Fashion; Tansy Hoskins, who examines global commerce in her book Footwork: What Your Shoes Are Doing To The World; Rebecca Shawcross, Shoe Curator at Northampton Museum & Art Gallery; and Roman shoe expert Owen Humphreys from Museum of London Archaeology.

Producer: Emma Wallace

New Thinking: Science Fiction Mar 18, 2020

Show notes

It's sometimes defined as 'the literature of cognitive estrangement'. In other words, it's a genre that helps us see things in a new light. Hetta Howes discusses current academic thinking on science fiction, as a way of thinking that extends beyond writing, film and TV to architecture and beyond. With Caroline Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck, University of London, and Amy Butt, Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Reading.

This conversation was recorded in mid February before coronavirus hit the UK. It is one of a series of conversations - New Thinking - produced in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research & Innovation. Further podcasts are available on the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking website under the playlist New Research https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Does Growth Matter? Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

The rate of social and technological change in the 20th century was unarguably frenetic. A key measure used by politicians, economists and journalists in that time has been GDP growth. But is Growth as a pointer still fit for purpose? And should all countries still aspire to achieve growth? Is the world on a longer-term slowdown? Would that be a bad thing? And as the shock of coronavirus echoes through communities and economies around the world, will our conceptions of value and cost be redefined?

Anne McElvoy discusses economic futures, with Danny Dorling, demographer, writer, professor of Geography at Oxford University, and author of forthcoming "Slowdown:The end of the Great Acceleration - and Why It's Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives", which is published in April. http://www.dannydorling.org/ and also www.worldmapper.org

Petr Barton writes and teaches economics in Prague, and is Chief Economist at Natland Investment Group. The webtool discussed in this programme can be found at https://coronavirus.clevermaps.io/

Richard Davies has been senior advisor to the UK Treasury, and the Bank of England and has been Economics Editor at The Economist. He teaches at the LSE and his recent book, "Extreme Economies", is published by Penguin.

Producer Alex Mansfield

Slebs: Warhol, Beaton and celebrity culture Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

Entertainment writer Caroline Frost, New Generation Thinker Lisa Mullen and historian & podcast host Greg Jenner join Matthew Sweet as exhibitions about Cecil Beaton and Andy Warhol open in London.

Greg Jenner presents the BBC Sounds podcast You're Dead to Me and has just published a book called Dead Famous: An Unexpected history of celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen Cecil Beaton's Bright Young Things runs at the National Portrait Gallery from March 12th to June 7th. Andy Warhol runs at Tate Modern from March 12th to September 6th. Caroline Frost is a writer, broadcaster and entertainment journalist. Lisa Mullen is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and AHRC to put academic research on the radio. She's the author of a book called Mid-century Gothic: The Uncanny Objects of Modernity in British Literature and Culture After the Second World War

Producer: Alex Mansfield

You might be interested in our collection of programmes The Way We Live Now on the Free Thinking website and available to download as BBC Arts & Ideas podcasts including discussions about narcissism, the emotions of now, advertising and how they manipulate our emotions and icons https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072637b?page=1

Advertising & Artemisia Mar 11, 2020

Show notes

New Generation Thinker Catherine Fletcher and Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones join Rana Mitter to discuss how women's stories have shaped art and advertising from the baroque painter Artemesia Gentileschi to the suffragettes promoting boot polish in 20th-century England. And against the backdrop of the Me Too movement, Rana hears how the best-selling novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 became a rallying cry for young women in south Korea.

Catherine Fletcher's new book about the Italian Renaissance peels back the glittering art of the period to discover the political and military turmoil beneath while Jonathan Jones tells the story of Artemesia Gentileschi who channeled the trauma of her rape at 17 into a body of powerful and challenging work. Cho Nam-Joo's novel, translated by Jamie Chang, raises questions about misogyny and discrimination in today's Korea.

Rana visits the Art of Advertising exhibition at the Bodleian Library with curator Julie-Ann Lambert and Selina Todd, professor of modern history at Oxford University, where he explores how female buying power and social mobility transformed the consumer market.

Catherine Fletcher's book is called The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance. Jonathan Jones has written a biography called Artemisia Gentileschi (Lives of the Artists). An exhibition of her work runs at the National Gallery in London from 4th April to 26th July. The Art of Advertising runs at the Bodleian Library in Oxford until August 31st. Admission is free. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo is translated by Jamie Chang. Selina Todd's books include The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, and Tastes of Honey: the making of Shelagh Delaney and a cultural revolution.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to put academic research on the radio. You can find a collection of programmes and podcasts on the Free Thinking programme website called New Research https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Also in the archives you can download a Free Thinking Landmark on The Prince with Catherine Fletcher with Sarah Dunant, Gisela Stuart and Erica Benner debating Machiavelli's ideas https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h0l9j and Breaking Free - Martin Luther’s Revolution is debated by Peter Stanford, Ulinka Rublack and Diarmaid MacCulloch hosted by Anne McElvoy at LSE https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nf02y

Producer: Paula McGinley

Fighting Women Mar 10, 2020

Show notes

Maaza Mengiste, Christina Lamb, Julie Wheelwright join Eleanor Barraclough to look at women's experience of fighting from Ethiopia's war with Mussolini to modern day Sudan back to Amazonians and British and French colonial troops in Canada. And academic Shawn Sobers discusses his research into the years Haile Selassie spent living in Bath after he escaped from a war-torn Ethiopia.

Our Bodies, Their Battlefields by Christina Lamb looks at rape as a weapon in war. Maaza Mengiste's novel The Shadow King is set during Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia. Julie Wheelwright's book is called Sisters in Arms: Female warriors from antiquity to the new millennium. It includes the discoveries she made whilst researching one of her ancestors. Shawn Sobers from the University of the West of England is a filmmaker and photographer whose work can be found at http://www.shawnsobers.com/

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Jewish Identity in 2020 Mar 06, 2020

Show notes

Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman, and Jonathan Freedland join Matthew Sweet.

Frank Ramsey Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

Shahidha Bari looks at the legacy of Frank Ramsey who died in 1930 aged 27, but not before doing work that changed the course of philosophy, logic, mathematics and economics. Shahidha is joined by Cheryl Misak, who has recently published the first biography of Ramsey, and philosopher Steven Methven. Plus, philosopher Emily Thomas on the role travel has played in the development of philosophy.

Cheryl Misak's biography Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers is out now.

Emily Thomas' The Meaning of Travel is out now.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Anne Enright + the value of gossip Mar 04, 2020

Show notes

The Irish novelist Anne Enright talks to Laurence Scott about her new book Actress and being the inaugural Irish laureate, plus a discussion of gossip past and present with Emily Butterworth, Daisy Black and political journalist and writer Marie Le Conte.

Anne Enright's novels include The Gathering; The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.

Emily Butterworth works on early modern literature and thought, with a particular interest in Montaigne and in deviant speech and language. Her book The Unbridled Tongue: Babble and Gossip in Renaissance France, looks at forms of excessive speech – babble, gossip and rumour – and why they were considered so personally and politically dangerous in the sixteenth century.

Daisy Black researches medieval history at the University of Wolverhampton and is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to put academic research on the radio. She writes about women in performance in The Routledge History of Women in Early Modern Europe. Her book Play Time: Gender, Anti-Semitism and Temporality in Medieval Biblical Drama is out this year.

Marie Le Conte is a political journalist who has worked for the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror, the Evening Standard and BuzzFeed. Her book Haven't You Heard? Gossip, power, and how politics really works explores the potency of gossip in the Westminster bubble.

You can find Matthew Sweet and guests discussing What is Speech? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1q2f3

Producer: Paula McGinley

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected