Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
Anne McElvoy looks at the benefits and challenges of cities pooling resources. Michael Wynne and Rachel De-lahay discuss their plays opening in Liverpool and Birmingham this week. Plus New Generation Thinkers Matthew Smith, from the University of Strathclyde, and Charlotte Blease, from University College Dublin, have been working on philosophy and psychiatric diagnosis, depression and ADHD.
David Henry Hwang tells Philip about his 2007 drama Yellow Face, reflecting life of Asian American and now showing in London; biographer Rachel Holmes and New Generation thinker, historian Emma Griffin explore Eleanor Marx's life.
As a musical version of The Water Babies opens Simon Heffer and New Generation Thinker Corin Throsby discuss the ideas of Charles Kingsley. Matthew Sweet talks about literary satire with novelist Edward St Aubyn. Plus we mark today's anniversary of Roger Bannister's 4 minute mile by talking to documentary maker Sally McLean about her current film project which profiles the Viennese running coach Franz Stampfl.
Samira Ahmed is joined by poets Paul Farley, Fiona Sampson and Clive Wilmer to discuss Thom Gunn, who died ten years ago. An interview with Michael Cunningham, about his new novel The Snow Queen. Plus historians Charlie Laderman and Umit Ungor discuss Turkish Armenian relations.
The BBC Radiophonic workshop,opened in 1958 with an aim to experiment and produce original music for various iconic BBC programmes. It was shut down 40 years later by Director General John Birt. In an edition recorded just as the Workshop prepare to release a new album, and tour the UK, Matthew Sweet brings together Radiophonic Workshop members Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Peter Howells, and Mark Ayres to reflect on the days and nights they spent in the workshop, coaxing ageing machi...
Philip Dodd explores the sexual mores of eighteenth-century England talking to Faramerz Dabhoiwala of Exeter College, Oxford, Joanne Bailey of Oxford Brookes University, David Turner of Swansea University, author and broadcaster Hallie Rubenhold and Judith Hawley of Royal Holloway College. This download does contain some strong language.
Samira Ahmed discusses the ownership of street art with Mary McCarthy, Director of MM Contemporary Arts; Professor Lionel Bently, barrister and copyright expert on intellectual property, and street artist and gallery owner, Pure Evil. Ex-ITV CEO Stewart Purvis on the rise of indie news organisation Vice. Plus artist Jeremy Millar, film critic Chris Darke and Habda Rashid, Assistant Curator at The Whitechapel Gallery discuss French film maker Chris Marker's life and work.
In extended conversation with Philip Dodd, Dame Janet Suzman talks about her acting and directing and politics in her native South Africa - which goes to the polls on May 7th.
Philip Dodd explores 18th century attitudes to the law, crime and punishment with Professor Norman S Poser, Antonia Hodgson, Lucy Powell and Geoffrey Robertson QC.
In 1714 Bernard de Mandeville published his provocative Fable of the Bees, in which he explored the relationship between morality and economic wealth. As part of Radio 3's 18th Century season of programming, Matthew Sweet chairs a discussion with the Natural History Museum's Dr Erica McAlister, Southampton University economic historian Dr Helen Paul, finance journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Money Box Paul Lewis and Stephen Davies, Education Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs....
Anne McElvoy talks to Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Desmond Shawe-Taylor and historians Amanda Foreman, StellaTillyard and Jeremy Black about 18th century monarchy and power.
If Mrs Thatcher thought she was living again through Victorian England, we are now living through the eighteenth century. This special edition of Free Thinking explores London as the centre of the world then and now, financial bubbles bursting then and now, and the lust for consumption then and now, whether of bodies or bodices. Philip Dodd brings together the MP and author Kwasi Kwarteng, historians Helen Berry, Jerry White and AN Wilson and playwright April De Angelis for a discussion which is...
Naomi Alderman, Geoff Mulgan and Lionel Bently join Philip Dodd to explore the ever-changing meaning of Originality. Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, discusses the meaning of greatness in art in front of the new exhibition - Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice. And as Simon Stephens's new play Birdland opens, the playwright talks inspirations, death and originality.
Matthew Sweet discusses the silent film star Betty Balfour with BFI curator Byony Dixon and comedian Lucy Porter and interviews Dutch novelist Peter Buwalda and James Lovelock.
Anne McElvoy looks at the impact of war, the Afghan elections and childhood violence. She's joined by Professor Hew Strachan and Ian Morris. Film critic Charlotte O Sullivan has been watching 'I Declare War,' Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson's film about childhood games which turn sour. And in the week that the British Command handed over to the Americans in Helmand province, Noorjahan Akbar and Hamdullah Mohib talk about what has happened to their culture and society in Afghanistan over that tim...
Matthew Sweet explores the idea of the police with the playwright Roy Williams, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Sara Thornton, the historian Kate Colquhoun and the film maker and criminologist Roger Graef.
Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic and curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Victoria Walsh join Anne McElvoy to discuss the display of art and design. As Prospect magazine launches the long list for its poll of World Thinkers for 2014, Serena Kutchinsky, Digital Editor of Prospect, joins Anne to debate what makes a leading intellectual. And lawyer and political activist Raja Shehadeh outlines the arguments he will be putting forward in this year's Edward Said London Lecture: Is there a Language of P...
Damon Galgut's new book Arctic Summer evokes EM Forster's experiences in India and the inspiration Forster found there. Galgut joins Rana Mitter and a panel of guests including Tariq Ali and Alex Clark to explore the writing and career of EM Forster in a programme live from Radio 3's pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre.
Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai traces the story of a group of Samurai who are hired to prevent thieves stealing the crops from a farming village in 1587. It regularly appears on polls of the greatest films of world cinema. Matthew Sweet is joined for a discussion of this Landmark of culture by Professor Ian Christie, critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, writer SF Said and Dr Alexander Jacoby. The programme was broadcasted from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre where Radio 3 is broadc...
Author and design consultant Stephen Bayley has written an e-book called Charm: A Victim's Guide. He joins Philip Dodd for a discussion on the pros and cons of charm with Rachel Johnson, novelist AL Kennedy and PR expert Mark Borkowski - from Castiglione's The Book of The Courtier to its role in politics, public life and modern middle management techniques. The programme was broadcasted from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre where Radio 3 is broadcasting live every day for two weeks....
Frank Field MP, child psychiarist Dickon Bevington and authors Meg Rosoff and Philip Ridley join Philip Dodd for a discussion about different aspects of childhood. The programme was broadcasted live from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre space in the Royal Festival Hall Riverside Café area.
Historian Archie Brown and military expert Frank Ledwidge join Samira Ahmed to discuss whether strong leaders undermine rather than enhance the possibility of good leadership. Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh talks about making life-or-death decisions in the operating theatre. And Susannah Clapp and novelist Nicola Upson review Blithe Spirit, which sees Angela Lansbury return to the London stage. Broadcast from the pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre where Radio 3 is broadcasting live all day eve...
American authors Jonathan Lethem and Gary Shteyngart discuss radicalism, belonging and why being 'American' is no longer enough.
Philip Dodd chairs a discussion between Terry Farrell, Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael and Patty Hopkins and Richard Rogers recorded at RIBA. These architects have come together to share a public platform as part of the Brits Who Built The Modern World Season of events which has included the opening of a new gallery at RIBA, an exhibition at the V and A and a BBC Four TV series.
David Grossman's new book Falling Out of Time mixes poetry, drama and fiction to explore grief and loss. His own son died in 2006. Matthew Sweet spoke to him when he was in London during Jewish Book Week.
Richard Mabey discusses his biography of Flora Thompson, author of Lark Rise to Candleford, and choreographer Richard Alston joins Anne McElvoy on the eve of Radio 3's Ravel Day. Plus there’s a discussion about the ongoing fascination with ruins; whether a picturesque castle ruin glimpsed through the mist or the eerie photographs of an abandoned Detroit. Anne talks to the curator of a new exhibition at Tate Britain and the writer, Amanda Hopkinson.
Philip Dodd in conversation with artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel, best known for creating a series of paintings on broken ceramic plates as well as directing films, including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, and a biopic of the painter Basquiat. Michael Goldfarb, the author of Emancipation, How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance, considers the life of a pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest known holocaust survivor who died on 2...
Matthew Sweet visits the British Museum's Vikings exhibition with the curator Gareth Williams and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough from Durham University. Lincoln Paine discusses his history of navigation and seafaring 'Sea and Civilization'. Plus Captain M.K.Barritt, author of An Artist in the Channel Fleet, looks at the Napoleonic War artist John Thomas Serres.
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld talk about the impact of education and religion on success and Anne McElvoy has a first night review of Peter Gill's new play Versailles from historian David Reynolds. Plus Spitting Image is 30 years old, the series'€™ original producer John Lloyd, the Labour politician Alan Johnson and editor of the satirical website The Daily Mash, Tim Telling talk about its legacy.
Film director Wim Wenders and Australian philosopher Mary Zournazi explain why they believe we need a new visual and moral language for peace. Richard King outlines why he believes taking offence has become a political tactic.
