Free Thinking

Latest Episodes:

Slavoj Zizek, Camille Paglia, Flemming Rose Jan 30, 2019

Show notes

Can causing offence be a good thing? Philip Dodd explores this question with the Slovenian philosopher, the American author and the Danish journalist.

On the 15th February 1989 the Ayatollah Komeni issued a fatwah following the publication of Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. Flemming Rose is the man who published the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed and ignited international controversy. Slavoj Zizek has been called the most dangerous philosopher in the West; and Camille Paglia, the cultural critic and intellectual provocateur considers the topics she can and can’t teach now in the lecture theatres of America’s universities.

Like A Thief In Broad Daylight: Power in the Era of Post-Human Capitalism by Slavoj Zizek is out now. Provocations: Collected Essays by Camille Paglia is out now. Flemming Rose is the author of The Tyranny of Silence, and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, Washington DC.

Our Free Thinking arts & ideas playlist looking at Culture Wars and Discussions about Identity can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jngzt

Producer: Zahid Warley

Art & Refugees from Nazi Germany. Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

Following this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Anne McElvoy looks at new writing which reflects on this history and at a festival marking the impact on British culture of refugees and artists who fled from the Nazis. Ed Williams from leading marketing firm Edelman sifts through the fall-out from Davos.

Martin Goodman's novel J SS Bach is published in March 2019.

Daniel Snowman's books include The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism.

Monica Bohm-Duchen has edited a book Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe and their contribution to British visual culture and initiated a festival which is working with 60 nationwide partners including Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery, London Transport Museum, Pallant House Gallery and Glyndebourne. More information can be found at https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/

Free Thinking past programmes include a debate about historical understandings of the holocaust and interviews with survivors https://bbc.in/2U86TzP

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Consent Jan 24, 2019

Show notes

Kate Maltby, Lucy Powell, Zoe Strimpel join Shahidha Bari. Virtue Rewarded is the subtitle of Samuel Richardson's 1740 novel Pamela, which began as a conduct book before he turned it into the new literary form of the novel. Playwright Martin Crimp has taken this book as the inspiration for his latest work When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. Shahidha Bari & guests debate consent then and now + news of the £40,000 Artes Mundi 8 Prize which is awarded tonight in Cardiff.

The Artes Mundi 8 shortlisted artists are Anna Boghiguian (Canada/Egypt); Bouchra Khalili (Morocco/France); Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria/Belgium); Trevor Paglen (USA); Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand). The exhibition runs at the National Museum Cardiff until Feb 24th 2019. New Generation Thinker Des Fitzgerald reports.

Martin Crimp's play When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other is directed by Katie Mitchell and stars Cate Blanchett. It runs at the National Theatre in rep until March 2nd 2019.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Slow Looking at Art Jan 23, 2019

Show notes

As new shows featuring the Post-impressionist, Pierre Bonnard and the video artist, Bill Viola, open in London, Laurence Scott and his guests discuss the way we experience art from the current vogue for slow looking to the 30 second appraisal scientists say is the norm for most gallery goers. How do small details reshape our understanding of paintings? What about looking more than once? Does digital art require more or less concentration ?

Kelly Grovier's book A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works is out now.

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory runs from 23 January to 6 May 2019 at Tate Modern. It will show 100 works of art by the French painter created between 1912 and 1947 and will include special evenings of "Slow Looking".

Bill Viola / Michelangelo Life Death Rebirth runs at the Royal Academy in London from 26 January — 31 March 2019

The Free Thinking Visual Arts Playlist with interviews including Tacita Dean, Chantal Joffe and Sean Scully amongst others is here https://bbc.in/2DpskGS

Producer: Zahid Warley

Oscars 2019 Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

Matthew Sweet and critics Catherine Bray and Ryan Gilbey look at films making waves as the Academy announces this year's nominations. Writer Jan Asante and cultural theorist Bill Schwarz assess James Baldwin's legacy in the light of the film adaptation of his novel If Only Beale Street Could Talk. Language historian John Gallagher gets to grips with the dialogue in period dramas including The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Icons. Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

Do our heroes and heroines have to be perfect? How do religious ikons link to iconoclasm and the labelling of film idols & politicians "icons of our time". Matthew Sweet is joined by film historian Pamela Hutchinson, bioethicist Tom Shakespeare, historian Julia Lovell and psychotherapist Mark Vernon.

Julia Lovell’s book Maoism a Global History is out soon Mark Vernon’s book A Secret History of Christianity is out soon.

For more information about the BBC TV series of programmes profiling modern icons from sport, cinema, politics, exploration .... go to bbc.co.uk/icons

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Tourism past and present Jan 16, 2019

Show notes

The must see sights on the Grand Tour, in Cold War Moscow & tourist hot spots now. Rana Mitter is joined by Roey Sweet, Sarah Goldsmith, Nick Barnett, Cindy Yu and Simon Calder.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.

Walls Jan 15, 2019

Show notes

Novelist John Lanchester, journalist Tim Marshall and historians David Frye and Kylie Murray join Anne McElvoy to discuss why we build walls rather than bridges and what it says about civilisations past, present and future from Persia to Berlin, the USA to a dystopian vision.

John Lanchester's latest novel is called The Wall. David Frye has written Walls: A History of Civilisation in Blood and Brick is out now Tim Marshall's book Divided: Why We're living in an Age of Walls is out now

Producer Jacqueline Smith

Boredom Jan 10, 2019

Show notes

Shahidha Bari, Josh Cohen, Madeleine Bunting, Lisa Baraitser, Rachel Long, and Sam Goodman explore the value of doing nothing and our wider experience of time.

Josh Cohen is the author of Not Working: Why We Have to Stop. Lisa Baraitser is Professor of Psychosocial Theory at Birkbeck, University of London and co-creator of Waiting Times, a research project on waiting in healthcare http://waitingtimes.exeter.ac.uk/ Madeleine Bunting is a novelist and writer Rachel Long is a poet New Generation Thinker Sam Goodman from Bournemouth University has been studying the drinking culture in Colonial India.

You might also be interested in BBC Radio 3's Words and Music exploring the idea that we are Creatures of Habit https://bbc.in/2E72xV0

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Free Thinking: Born in 1819: Ruskin, Clough and Bazalgette Jan 09, 2019

Show notes

The social campaigning, engineering and writing of three Victorians - art critic and philanthropist John Ruskin, poet and assistant to Florence Nightingale Arthur Hugh Clough and the builder of London's sewer system Joseph Bazalgette. Greg Tate, Suzanne Fagence Cooper , Stephen Halliday and Kevin Jackson join Laurence Scott to debate the way these 3 Victorians changed the way we look at the world and shaped our understanding of the Victorians.

Producer: Zahid Warley

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