Podcast
Arts & Ideas
Hosted by BBC Radio 4 · EN
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.
36episodes
Episodes
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The Middle
1w ago00:57:00Tap to summarizeFrom taking the middle ground to the mid-life crisis, Middle England to middle managers, to being a middle child - is occupying a position in the middle out of fashion?Anne McElvoy hosts Radio 4's ideas discussion programme and her guests this week for a middling conversation are:Journalist Catherine Carr. Her new book Who's the Favourite?: The Loving, Messy Realities of Sibling Relationships explores being a middle child and the relevance of birth orderWriter and broadcaster Mark Lawson, who has written novels set in middle EnglandSymeon Brown, home affairs correspondent at Channel 4 news, whose forthcoming book is The Good, the Black and the Boujee: The Story of Britain's New Black Middle ClassAdrian Wooldridge, journalist, author and Global Business Columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. His recent book is entitled Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism.andClaire Ainsley, former adviser to Keir Starmer, now at the Progressive Policy Institute.Producer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →Weapons, real and symbolic
2w ago00:56:28Tap to summarizeHow do weapons exert real and symbolic power, both now and in history?Joining Matthew Sweet in Radio 4's round table discussion programme about ideas are:The former soldier and politician Tobias EllwoodThe sculptor Hew Locke, whose artworks exploring colonial power have featured weaponryThe Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher, whose latest book is The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European EmpiresThe historian and broadcaster Mark Urban, whose books include Tank and RiflesandHailey Austin, Lecturer in Visual Media and Culture at Abertay University who researches comics and videogames.Producer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →Weapons, real and symbolic
2w ago00:56:28Tap to summarizeHow do weapons exert real and symbolic power, both now and in history?Joining Matthew Sweet are:The former soldier and politician Tobias EllwoodThe sculptor Hew Locke, whose artworks exploring colonial power have featured weaponryThe Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher, whose latest book is The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European EmpiresThe historian and broadcaster Mark Urban, whose books include Tank and RiflesandHailey Austin, Lecturer in Visual Media and Culture at Abertay University who researches comics and videogames.Producer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →Purity
3w ago00:56:31Tap to summarizeFrom spiritual cleanliness to purity spirals: Matthew Sweet is joined by guests including David Aaronovitch; Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloistered – My Years as a Nun; Linda Woodhead, Professor of the Sociology of Religion at King's College, University of London; Izabella Scott, author of The Bed Trick; and Louise Brangan, author of The Fallen: The Magdalene Laundries and Ireland’s Legacy of Silence. They’ll be discussing ideas of purity in political ideology, religion, anthropology and the experiences of teenage girls.Producer Luke Mulhall
Transcribe →Humility
Mar 2700:56:56Tap to summarizeFrom Spinoza's thinking and the approach of different religions to the Dickens' character Uriah Heep and the "humble brag" - in Radio 4's late night ideas discussion programme Matthew Sweet and guests explore humility.Lamorna Ash is a writer and journalist and the author of Don't Forget We're Here Forever, which explores what it means to be a Christian for young people throughout the UK today and reflected on her own journey into faith.Sir Robert Buckland is the former Conservative MP for South Swindon, a former Lord Chancellor and Solicitor General. He is a practicing barrister with Foundry Chambers, a visiting law professor at the LSE and the Third Church Estates Commissioner.Aaron Reeves is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and co author of Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite with Sam Friedman.Ceri Sullivan is a Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University. Her research has encompassed the managerial techniques presented in Shakespeare's history plays, pragmatism in literary texts and devotional poetry.Dr Dan Taylor is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Thought at the Open University. He is the author of Spinoza and the Politics of Freedom and is involved in long term projects with long-term projects examining inclusion and housing in Barking and Dagenham; unpaid care in Gateshead; and community in the Fens.Producer: Ruth Watts
Transcribe →Oral tradition and oracy
Mar 2000:56:44Tap to summarizeOracy - the ability to express oneself fluently - has been included in plans to modernise the national curriculum, with a new focus on equipping young people with the skills they need for life and work. In Radio 4's round-table discussion programme, Anne McElvoy and guests look at how you teach oracy and explore the value of passing on traditional knowledge using methods like songs and poems. Joining Anne areReetika Subramanian is based at the University of East Anglia and is currently a researcher in residence with BBC Radio 4. She hosts the Climate Brides podcast and studies women’s work songs as records of environmental changeEdith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University who champions the use of Classical rhetoric to foster oracy in schoolsPhilip Collins, former speechwriter to Tony BlairEdith and Philip have taken part in Our Public House, a theatre performance staged by Dash Arts that builds on workshops with over 700 people nationwide who shared their visions for our nation's future.Stephen Batchelor, secular Buddhist teacher and writer and author of Buddha, Socrates and Us: Ethical Living in Uncertain Times, published by Yale University Press (2025).Tom F. Wright, historian of rhetoric at the University of SussexProducer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →Taste
Mar 1600:56:48Tap to summarize'It's all in the best possible taste'. But what does it mean to have good taste? And does pursuing good taste lead to favouring style over substance? Who are the thinkers who have considered a philosophy of aesthetics Matthew Sweet hosts Radio 4's late night ideas discussion programme. His guests are:Film historian and New Generation Thinker Sarah Smyth, who lectures in film and TV at the University of Essex Philosopher Dr John Callanan, who lectures on Kant at King's College London Writer and management consultant Peter York, whose books include Style War, co-author of The Official Sloane Ranger handbook Broadcaster and writer Emma Dabiri who co-presented Britain's Lost Masterpieces for BBC 4 and whose latest book is Disobedient Bodies: Reclaim Your Unruly Beauty Opera singer Le Gateau ChocolatProducer Luke Mulhall
Transcribe →Women, language & experience
Mar 600:56:59Tap to summarizeIn a special programme looking ahead to International Women’s Day on March 8th, Shahidha Bari looks at how women express themselves in language, argument, poetry and art. Her guests include:Sara Ahmed is the author of No is Not a Lonely Utterance Karen McCarthy Woolf's latest poetry collection is called Unsafe Lauren Elkin's books include Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art, she translated Simone de Beauvoir's previously-unpublished novel The Inseparables and has a new book coming out in May Vocal Break: On Women, Music, and Power. She has been reading the new translation by Sophie Lewis of Angst by the French feminist thinker Hélène Cixous Mary Wellesley is a historian and author of Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers Ash Percival-Borley, military historian and former soldierProducer: Luke Mulhall
Transcribe →Authority
Feb 2700:57:15Tap to summarizeIs authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, schools, medical settings and in the home? What is the difference between authority and power, how have historical shifts such as the advent of the internet affected public perceptions of authority, and how much should authority feature in the raising of children?In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme about ideas past and present, Anne McElvoy and guests explore these questions and more.Justine Greening is a former Conservative Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media who published a book called The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium Sophie Scott-Brown is a philosopher and historian of anarchism Peter Hyman is a former headteacher and adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer who writes a Substack, Changing the Story Tom Simpson is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of OxfordProducer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →Crime and punishment medieval to modern
Feb 2000:56:31Tap to summarizeHow have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme, Matthew Sweet and guests explore the criminal justice system through history.With:Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull and BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which puts research on radioScout Tzofiya Bolton, poet and broadcaster who presents on National Prison Radio, and for Radio 4 the Illuminated episode called The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag. Her poetry collection is called The Mad Art of Doing TimeJoanna Hardy-Susskind, criminal barrister and presenter for Radio 4 of a series called You Do Not Have To Say AnythingStephen Shapiro, Professor of American Literature at the University of WarwickJonathan Sumption, former Supreme Court judge and now Moral Maze panellist for BBC Radio 4 and author of a five-volume account of The Hundred Years WarProducer: Eliane Glaser
Transcribe →