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.
Why has Denmark played such a significant role in shaping modern ideas about childhood? The Danish-born historian and lecturer Lars Tharp and the writer on children's literature Julia Eccleshare explore the work and legacy of Hans Christian Andersen with Ian McMillan.
The history of the National Trust with Dame Helen Ghosh and Patrick Barkham.
The novelists Helen Dunmore and Louise Welsh discuss DH Lawrence's 'The Rainbow', first published a hundred years ago in 1915, with Rana Mitter. The novel, which was banned on publication, tells the story of the Brangwen family as they face the decline of their pastoral life in the face of industrialisation. Presented by Rana Mitter.
Philip Hoare and Merlin Holland discuss Wilde's tumultuous year. With Shahidha Bari.
Actress Lisa Dwan and singer Susan Bullock discuss the role of memory in performance.
Its early readers included Queen Victoria and a young Oscar Wilde. 150 years after it became a publishing sensation the writer Lynne Truss and children's novelist Philip Ardagh discuss 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and its enduring appeal to readers, writers and film makers with Anne McElvoy. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music.
Poets Jo Shapcott and Sean O'Brien discuss Ezra Pound's poetry collection, 'Cathay'.
Oscar-winning composer Steven Price on the inspiration of Holst's Planets Suite.
Award-winning actor Henry Goodman and director and designer Antony McDonald discuss the enduring appeal of the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof - one of the most successful in Broadway history - which tells the story of a Jewish community in 1905 Tsarist Russia. Rana Mitter presents.
Professor Karen Leeder and Professor Robert Vilain explore the great German Romantic poetry which inspired Beethoven throughout his life from Schiller's Ode to Joy to Goethe's Egmont and Treitschke's Fidelio. Recorded in front of an audience at the Royal College of Music
Rana Mitter with Nicholas Kenyon and Leanne Langley
Anne McElvoy discusses heroic triumph and failure with a trio of eminent historians
Philip Dodd discusses Camelot: The Shining City and reviews the new Harper Lee
Anne McElvoy on French intellectual traditions & rom-com; prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer
Philip Dodd discusses Legal Aid, Law, Language and Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr
Matthew Sweet on Jaws and the film-maker's role in creating the myth of a man-eating machine. Good or bad for the shark? Gareth Fraser, Ian Hunter, Will Self and Fiona Tan discuss.
Tariq Ali discusses Satyajit Ray's 1955 film Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) 60 years on. Rana Mitter is also joined by novelist Sunjeev Sahota and Neil Bartlett.
Anne McElvoy at Tate Modern with the Museum of the Year finalists.
The links between dance, art and the brain and the meaning of "the public"
Matthew Sweet on worrying - Joseph Cornell - Spy Fiction and the First film.
Anne McElvoy discusses the ways Scottish writers negotiate what it means to be Scottish with Janice Galloway, Kathleen Jamie, Peter Mackay and Murray Pittock.
Philip Dodd discusses community and talks a poet Claudia Rankine.
Matthew Sweet is in Cardiff to examine the role of the Left in Welsh politics and its bearing on today's debate about nationalism hearing from In Cardiff Matthew Sweet is joined by Professor Daniel Williams and Sir Deian Hopkin to discuss the role of the Left in Welsh politics and its bearing on today's debate about nationalism. He also talks about the Bardic tradition with the writers, Gwyneth Lewis and Iain Sinclair. And, takes a trip to Llandrindod Wells to sample the latest instalment in the...
Rana Mitter talks to Laurence Scott about living in a digital world Channel 4's Humans and explores the writing of Muriel Spark with Dr Sarah Dillon as Spark's novel The Driver's Seat is adapted by Laurie Sansom for The National Theatre of Scotland. 2015 New Generation Thinker Sandeep Parmar discusses diversity in contemporary British poetry and the shortlists for this year's Forward Prizes. Painter Chris Gollon is touring British cathedrals with an exhibition of religious art.
Geoff Dyer reviews Milan Kundera's first novel in 12 years The Festival of Insignificance. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks talks to Philip Dodd about confronting religious violence
Director John Boorman talks to Matthew Sweet about his new film Queen and Country and its place in a career that includes Deliverance and Excalibur as well as Hope and Glory
Poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger reflects on his writing, and German history, in his latest book New Selected Poems. New Generation Thinker Danielle Thom and the historian and columnist Tim Stanley, join Anne McElvoy to discuss Tate Britain’s exhibition of history painting from the eighteenth century to present day. Plus writer Lindsay Johns reviews the first night of a new RSC production of Othello staring Hugh Quarshie and Lucien Msamati.
Martin Amis, Zachary Leader and Sarah Churchwell join Matthew Sweet to discuss Saul Bellow and his masterpiece, Herzog with readings by Kerry Shale.
Matthew Sweet has a go on Carsten Höller's slide at the Hayward Gallery with arts critic Charlotte Mullins and discusses freaks and fairgrounds with Dr Helen Davies, Vanessa Toulmin, Director of the National Fairground Archive and performance artist Martin O'Brien
Anne McElvoy discusses maths and music with Mathematician Eugenia Cheng. Susan Abulhawa talks about her latest book The Blue Between Sky and Water. And, New Generation Thinker Gregory Tate shares his research into the way British writers were inspired by the figure of Napoleon.
