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Free Thinking Episodes

  1.

    The Unsaid

    Some people, some times, just can’t say what they want to. But why not?

  2. The TV Debate

    Gore Vidal v William F Buckley Jr, Germaine Greer v Norman Mailer: Have debates changed?

  3. The Tudor Mind

    Donne, Hamlet, 16th century psychology and mathematics, Tudor portraits

  4. The Troubles in Northern Ireland

    As an Imperial War Museum show opens, Anne McElvoy and guests discuss art and the Troubles

  5. The Surreal World of Alejandro Jodorowsky

    Matthew Sweet talks to the Chilean French director Alejandro Jodorowsky and to critics

  6. The Strange Case of the Huge Country Pile

    Why are we so obsessed by the setting of the big country house, upstairs and downstairs?

  7. The status of Science

    Shahidha Bari and guests discuss the status of science in society and culture

  8. The Stasi poetry circle, Nazi schools and German culture

    How an East German creative writing class fought the cold war: was their poetry any good?

  9. The Spirit of a Place: A Free Thinking Royal Society of Literature Discussion

    Alan Johnson, Pascale Petit, Hisham Matar & Peter Pomerantsev join Eleanor Barraclough

  10. The Speed of Life - Short Stories: Jenn Ashworth, Paul McVeigh & Kirsty Logan

    Stories on the theme of this year’s Free Thinking Festival

  11. The Sorrows of Young Werther

    The book of the Sturm und Drang generation: Anne McElvoy explores the ideas behind it

  12. The shadow of slavery

    From sugar and spice, to reparations and memorials: slavery and how we acknowledge it

  13. The shadow of empire and colonialism

    The company that gave the world atrocious corporate violence and beautiful art

  14. The Rules Of Good Science

    Jim al-Khalili, Carlos Frenk, Katy Price and Tom Shakespeare debate scientific discovery.

  15. The Rossettis and Walter Pater

    Matthew Sweet and guests visit a Tate Britain show and look at Pater's Renaissance ideas

  16. The rise of translation and the death of foreign language learning

    Arundhati Roy, Meena Kandasamy and Preti Taneja on translation. With Anne McElvoy

  17. The Red Shoes

    Ahead of a BFI festival, Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Powell and Pressburger's film

  18. The Radiophonic Workshop

    Matthew Sweet meets members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

  19. The pros and cons of Swearing.

    Comedian Janey Godley, historian John Gallagher, author Emma Byrne, poet Bridget Minamore

  20. The power of dance and the meaning of 'public'.

    The links between dance, art and the brain and the meaning of "the public"

  21. The post-Covid city

    How the pandemic has transformed our use and experience of urban space

  22. The Population Bomb

    Danny Dorling, Lionel Shriver and Stephen Emmott debate with Matthew Sweet.

  23. The Politics of Fashion and Drag

    Shahidha Bari talks fashion with Jenny Gilbert & to Scrumbly Koldewyn about the Cockettes

  24. The Piano and Love

    Debbie Wiseman, Fern Riddell, Frank Tallis and Tiffany Watt Smith join Matthew Sweet.

  25. The Normans

    Rana Mitter and guests look at Norman history, misconceptions and echoes heard today

  26. The New Age of Sentimentality

    Lisa Appignanesi,Rachel Hewitt & Irenosen Okojie w/ Rana Mitter at Free Thinking Festival

  27. The Mill on the Floss

    Celebrating George Eliot with readings from Fiona Shaw

  28. The Middle Classes

    Muriel Zagha, Prof. Sam Friedman, Lord Willetts, Lisa Holdsworth & Prof. Melinda Mills

  29. The Middle

    Middle - England, ground, child, age, pig in ... Anne McElvoy hosts a middling discussion

  30. The mermaid-like Mélusine

    The fish-tailed woman of medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.

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