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Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    Samuel Beckett & the purpose of culture

    If we want the arts to be a comfort blanket, where does Beckett fit in? Lisa Dwan responds

  2. Mocking power past and present

    The German joker Tyll Ulenspiegel. Anne McElvoy, Daniel Kehlmann and Karen Leeder discuss.

  3. Fungi: An Alien Encounter

    Are fungi out to get us or here to help? A look at mushrooms in art, food, and psychology.

  4. How we see pregnancy past and present

    Anne McElvoy hears the story of a woman who gave birth to rabbits and the news from Davos.

  5. Remembering Auschwitz

    Rana Mitter marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation and talks to author Anne Michaels

  6. What is good listening?

    Matthew Sweet with New York Times journalist Kate Murphy, Anne Karpf and David Toop.

  7. Poetry and Science

    Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Greg Tate, Sam Illingworth & Sunayana Bhargava join Anne McElvoy.

  8. Pioneering women: academics and classics

    Nikita Gill & Francesca Wade on classicist Jane Harrison, goddesses and LSE's Eileen Power

  9. Psychohistory: Isaac Asimov and guiding the future

    Matthew Sweet asks if the fictional science of psychohistory changed the future of humans.

  10. Simplify your life - ideas from 20th-century radicals

    Laurence Scott looks at the rise of vegetarianism, a basic income, world peace and nudism.

  11. Why we read and the idea of the 'woman writer'

    From Elizabethan poet Anne Dowriche and Anne Bronte to what women say they read now.

  12. Philosophy, imagination and film

    Rana Mitter, Sally Potter and philosophers discuss thought experiments and cinema.

  13. Could there be a private language?

    Shahidha Bari investigates how Wittgenstein meets the challenge of scepticism.

  14. Panpsychism - Is everything conscious?

    Matthew Sweet lifts the lid on a radical movement in philosophy.

  15. The Strange Case of the Huge Country Pile

    Matthew Sweet and guests are upstairs and downstairs in the stately home.

  16. The culture wars and politics now

    Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, David Goodhart, Beatrix Campbell and Maya Goodfellow.

  17. Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World

    Rana Mitter looks at the ideologies surrounding climate disaster.

  18. Speaking the right language.

    Matthew Sweet asks how did the English language grow & what are the key election phrases?

  19. The wealth gap, #MeToo and Edith Wharton

    Laurence Scott and Alice Kelly re-read Wharton's 'gilded-age' novel The Age of Innocence.

  20. Pan-Africanism

    Shahidha Bari discusses pan-Africanism in plays, films, literature and politics.

  21. The shadow of empire and colonialism

    Historian William Dalrymple, Wasafiri editor Susheila Nasta and novelist Romesh Gunesekera

  22. Feasting, fasting, hospitality and food security

    From plenty to food banks - writer Priya Basil, curator Victoria Avery and Maia Elliot

  23. When TV & the information superhighway were new

    Matthew Sweet and guests reflect on the experimental art of Nam June Paik and John Giorno

  24. Resting and Rushing

    Claudia Hammond has solutions for our frazzled times and Matthew Smith looks at ritalin.

  25. The Future of Universities

    Larry Summers and Josie Frasser on the impact of technology and globalisation.

  26. Is the Shadow of Mao still hanging over China?

    Rana Mitter talks to historians of China Jung Chang and Julia Lovell, and Cindy Yu.

  27. The legacy of the Trojan War

    Why do the legendary walls of a Bronze Age city still cast such a long shadow?

  28. George Eliot's Mill on the Floss

    Rebecca Mead, Fiona Shaw, Philip Davis, Dafydd Daniel & Peggy Reynolds with Shahidha Bari.

  29. Are the arts saving Margate?

    Philip Dodd finds out about the Turner Contemporary’s impact. Plus writer Maggie Gee.

  30. Being Human: Love Stories

    New research taking love stories out of the vaults and into the gay bar.

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