Free Thinking

Veteran politician Tony Benn talks to Matthew Sweet about his final volume of diaries, A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine. Historian Eliza Filby and journalist David Aaronovitch examine how much political traditions shape contemporary politics. Writer Brian Sibley reveals the lesser-known side of Mary Poppins author PL Travers. Writer Will Self discusses Guy Debord’s prescient polemic, The Society of the Spectacle.

With the return of the Young Vic's Theatre Uncut season, Anne McElvoy is joined by Neil LaBute, Hannah Price and Tiffany Jenkins to discuss the role and nature of political theatre. Writer Scott Turow reflects on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 50 years on. As part of Radio 3's Britten 100 celebrations, Alexandra Harris and Francis Spalding discuss the life and work of his librettist Myfanwy Piper.

Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. For the Free Thinking Festival, she returned to the city where she began her career. During her work at Trade Films in Gateshead she depicted the aftermath of the closure of the steelworks in Consett in When the Dog Bites. Her most recent project involved negotiating a truce between rival Birmingham gangs which she documented in One Mile Away. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

50 years of Dr Who is celebrated this weekend by the BBC. Matthew Sweet discusses the TV series with historian Dominic Sandbrook, philosopher Ray Monk and New Generation Thinker and cultural historian Fern Riddell. A Free Thinking career interview with artist William Tillyer, whose work is being celebrated in a retrospective at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art MIMA. Dr Adam Smith reflects on the political philosophy underlying the rhetoric of the Gettysburg address, given by Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago.

Whose Strife Is It Anyway? Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan discuss depictions of the powerless in fiction and factual reporting with Rana Mitter. Chaudhuri has explored life in Calcutta in many of his novels and essays; Badhadur's book Coolie Woman: The Odyssesy of Indenture takes the history of her great grandmother and examines the status of women who worked as labourers on sugar plantations; Khan is an editor for the Urdu section of the BBC's World Service. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the visual arts are coming out of the gallery, but is this a welcome trend? Matthew Sweet chairs the Free Thinking panel: BALTIC Curator Godfrey Worsdale, critic Sarah Kent, artist Wolfgang Weileder and Helen Marriage, director of Artichoke, the arts company responsible for a puppet elephant parading through London and Durham's Lumiere street light festival. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Is the idea of counselling as non-judgmental listening flawed? New Generation Thinker Christopher Harding, from Edinburgh University, focuses his talk on attitudes in Japan and the UK. He asks whether prayer involves fewer hidden pressures than a session with a shrink. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

As we strive to protect our children’s imaginations from negative influences, are we running an even greater risk – of starving those imaginations altogether? Writer Patrick Ness, author of the ‘Chaos Walking’ trilogy, and Dr Charles Fernyhough, whose writing examines the development of childhood language and memories, join Matthew Sweet to explore what stimulates young minds and how children cope in an unstable world. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On stage at Free Thinking to debate the issue are: Dame Fiona Reynolds, former head of the National Trust; Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage and author of The Building of England and The Men from the Ministry; Jon Alexander, reformed ad-man and founder of the newcitizenship project; rural sociologist Professor Mark Shucksmith, Director of Newcastle University's Newcastle Institute of Social renewal and Canon Dagmar Winter, Rural Affairs Officer for the Diocese of Newcastle. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 and chaired by Samira Ahmed in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.

Today many scientists are engaged in exploring the interaction between logical and intuitive aspects of the mind. New Generation Thinker Gregory Tate, from the University of Surrey, argues that novelists have been examining similar psychological questions for centuries, and he outlines the way the novels of Jane Austen shed light on the balance of power between thought and emotion. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gateshead as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking festival.