Free Thinking

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture

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Free Thinking episodes

September 13, 2024 Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship
With the success of the far right Alternative for Deutschland party in the German elections, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris making their pitches to American voters to be their leader and the Conservatives in this country voting for theirs, we look at Carl Schmitt, the German political theorist of democracy, crisis and dictatorship, to see if he can help us make sense of the present moment.
Anne McElvoy's guests are:
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, is a British German politician. A former Labour politician, she now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.
David Runciman is a former Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and now hosts Past Present Future: The History of Ideas Podcast. His most recent book is called The History of Ideas: Equality, Justice and Revolution.
Tom Simpson is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
Katya Adler is the BBC's Europe Editor.
Plus Charles Tripp, emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern politics at SOAS, is chair of the judges for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
Books on the shortlist announced this week are:
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues by Ross Perlin
Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway
The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 by Marcy Norton
Divided, Racism, Medicine and why we Need to DeColonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo
Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics and its Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell
The winner of the prize of £25,000 will be announced on October 22nd 2024. And Free Thinking will be looking at some of the other non fiction book prize shortlists over episodes this Autumn
Producer: Luke Mulhall
You can find past episodes of Free Thinking available on BBC Sounds and as the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast
57 min
September 13, 2024 Carl Schmitt, democracy and dictatorship
With the success of the far right Alternative for Deutschland party in the German elections, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris making their pitches to American voters to be their leader and the Conservatives in this country voting for their: we look at Carl Schmitt, the German political theorist of democracy, crisis and dictatorship, to see if he can help us make sense of the present moment.
Anne McElvoy's guests are:
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, is a British German politician. A former Labour politician she now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords
David Runciman is former Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and now hosts Past Present Future: The History of Ideas Podcast. His most recent book is called The History of Ideas : Equality, Justice and Revolution
Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Katya Adler is the BBC's Europe Editor
Plus Charles Tripp, emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern politics at SOAS is chair of the judges for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding
Books on the shortlist announced this week are:
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues by Ross Perlin
Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway
The Tame and the Wild: People and Animals after 1492 by Marcy Norton
Divided, Racism, Medicine and why we Need to DeColonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo
Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Global History of Mathematics and its Unsung Trailblazers by Kate Kitagawa and Timothy Revell
The winner of the prize of £25,000 will be announced on October 22nd 2024. And Free Thinking will be looking at some of the other non fiction book prize shortlists over episodes this Autumn
Producer: Luke Mulhall
You can find past episodes of Free Thinking available on BBC Sounds and as the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast
57 min
June 28, 2024 Escapism
Travel, reading, cinema and psychedelic drugs are all means people have used to try to escape. But do they ever really lead us where we want them to? With the election looming, Glastonbury in full swing and lists of beach read suggestions starting to appear -
Matthew Sweet discusses the difference between escape and escapism with
Noreen Masud, Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol and author of the memoir A Flat Place
Kirsty Sinclair Dootson, Lecturer in Film and Media at University College London, author of The Rainbow's Gravity
Jonathan White, Professor of Politics and Deputy Head of the European Institute at the London School of Economics and author of In The Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea
Jules Evans, writer, historian of ideas and practical philosopher whose books include The Art of Losing Control, and Philosophy for Life and other dangerous situations.
Plus, Maximilian de Gaynesford, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, on the philosophical significance of dreams and dreaming from Descartes and Freud to Norman Malcolm.
Jules, Noreen and Kirsty are all New Generation Thinkers on a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share academic research on radio.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
57 min
June 21, 2024 The illusion of time, the summer solstice & the philosophy of comedy
As the sun sets on the longest day of the year, Matthew Sweet talks to an eclectic group of guests about the illusion of time, the summer solstice and the philosophy of comedy. They are:
Materials scientist & engineer; Director of the UCL Institute of Making; Author of Stuff Matters and other book Mark Miodownik.
Philosopher Emily Herring who is about to publish the first English biography of the french philosopher Henri Bergson who was famous for his theory of time as well as his views on the meaning of comedy. Emily's book Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People is out in October.
Comedian Rob Newman who made his name with the Mary Whitehouse Experience in the 90s and has presented two series on BBC Radio 4 including Rob Newman's Half-full Philosophy Hour.
Also Professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London Fay Dowker who is an expert in Causal Set Theory and Quantum Relativity.
And Author K A Laity will talk about the Women in Magick Conference being held in Birmingham this weekend.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
57 min
June 14, 2024 History - the long and short of it
Histories spanning the Big Bang to the present, and the story of an entire continent have been written by two of the Free Thinking guests tonight. What insights do big histories bring and what is the value of focusing on a single family or object ? And how do these approaches apply when looking at policy and government. Matthew Sweet's guests are:
Professor Peter Frankopan has written New Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed: An Untold History
Alison Light's most recent book of essays is called – Inside History: From Popular Fiction to Life-Writing, previous titles include Common People: The History of an English Family
Zeinab Badawi is author of An African History of Africa. The first presenter of the ITV Morning News and co-presenter of Channel 4 News, she is president of SOAS University of London.
Bronwen Maddox is CEO of Chatham House and a Visiting Professor in the Policy Institute at King's College London. She's been Director of the Institute for Government and editor and chief executive of the magazine Prospect.
BBC Moscow Correspondent Steve Rosenberg
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
57 min
June 07, 2024 Generations - D-Day - Global Instability
With D-day commemorations giving us images of "the finest generation" and discussion about how parties are targeting different age groups in the UK election, Anne McElvoy hosts a discussion looking at what divides and unites us in a fracturing world.
Dr Eliza Filby - a historian of generational evolution and contemporary values and author of Inheritocracy and Generation Shift gives us the low down on boomers to Gen Alpha.
Professor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of books including China's Good War: How World War II is Shaping A New Nationalism and China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival. A presenter of Free Thinking on BBC Radio 3 before he joined Harvard, you can find him hosting plenty of Free Thinking discussions.
Jo Hamya's debut novel was called Three Rooms. The Hypocrite explores what happens when we become frightened of the generations below us
Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College.
And joining the conversation to talk about how the political parties are trying to woo voters of different ages is Gaby Hinsliff, columnist for The Guardian
Producer: Luke Mulhall
57 min
May 31, 2024 The Insurrectionists' Guide to the Movies
The Insurrectionists' Guide to the Movies looking at some of the latest releases at the cinema and what they say about our culture society and democracy today.
Matthew Sweet speaks to Financial Times columnist Stephen Bush, Critic and historian Kate Maltby, film curator Keith Shiri who has advised on a new Pan-African season at the British Film Institute called Tigritudes and Dr Sarah Jilani - an expert in Anglophone postcolonial literature and world film.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
57 min
May 21, 2024 Positive & negative politics, "intellectual vices" and the face you bring to work.
Sir Richard Evans, Margaret Heffernan, Isabel Oakeshott, Quassim Cassam join Anne McElvoy to look at the ideas shaping our lives today. Are they optimists or pessimists ? How negative should we be in political campaigning, doomscrolling, parenting, writing reviews or giving academic feedback. What are intellectual vices and how might they help us think about truth and conspiracy theories? And "Have a nice day" - we look at the demand to perform a role in the workplace.
Professor Sir Richard J Evans is an historian of modern Germany and modern Europe, and has published over 20 books in the field, most recently The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1915 and Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History. In August his new book comes out called Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, CEO and author of books including Uncharted: How to Map the Future Together and Beyond Measure: The Impact of Small Changes
Quassim Cassam is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. His books include Ekstremisme, The Epistemology of Democracy and
Vice Epistemology.
Isabel Oakeshott is an award winning British political journalist. Her books include The Pandemic Diaries written with Matt Hancock, Life Support: Farmaggedon written with Michael Ashcroft.
Dr Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal is a Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at Queen Mary University of London. She's been announced this week as one of 10 early career academics who’ve been chosen as the 2024 New Generation Thinkers – that’s a scheme to share academic research on the radio which the BBC runs with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. You can hear from all ten in a special New Thinking episode of our Arts & Ideas podcast where you will also find episodes of Free Thinking.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood
57 min
May 16, 2024 New Thinking: 2024’s New Generation Thinkers
Does reading really encourage empathy? Are we asked to perform a role when we walk into the workplace? How was early film and technicolour embraced for political ends? Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough finds out about the latest research being undertaken by ten academics chosen to work with the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council as the 2024 New Generation Thinkers. They'll be sharing their research on a series of BBC Radio 4 programmes across the coming year and here's a taster from the 2024 New Generation Thinkers.
Dr Emily Baughan, a historian at the University of Sheffield, is researching childcare. She is the author of Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire.
Dr Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal, lectures in drama at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research looks at the way workplaces, from serving coffee to providing care, ask people to perform a role.
Dr Janine Bradbury is an award-winning poet and critic who is interested in exploring reading, empathy and sentimentality. A lecturer at the University of York, she has recently published a poetry pamphlet “Sometimes Real Love Comes Quick & Easy”.
Jade Cuttle is writing a book called Silthood and studying for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, looking at the language used by British nature poets of colour and their new word coinings. She has released an album of songs and written poems and articles including for The Times, The TLS, The Guardian, Poetry Review, Ledbury Poetry Festival and the BBC Proms.
Dr Jacob Downs is departmental lecturer in music at the University of Oxford. He has written on AI-generated music, Beyoncé, how people use headphones for listening and is also an active musician and arranger, and recently worked on Erland Cooper’s Folded Landscapes.
Jonathan Egid has spent the past few years digging through the archives on the trail of a brilliant and neglected thinker from 17th century Ethiopia, and the question of whether or not Zera Jacob existed. Based at King’s College, London, he also hosts the podcast and interview series ‘Philosophising In…’ on philosophy in lesser-studied languages.
Dr Shona Minson is a criminologist at the University of Oxford. Originally from Belfast, her work on mothers in prison has helped changed legal professional practice in the UK and overseas.
Dr Kirsty Sinclair Dootson is interested in the politics of making images in colour. Based at University College London, she has published a book exploring this called The Rainbow’s Gravity.
Dr Jack Symes is a public philosopher and researcher at Durham University. He hosts The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast, and edits Bloomsbury’s Talking about Philosophy book series. His most recent book was called Defeating the Evil-God Challenge: In Defence of God’s Goodness
Dr Becca Voelcker's research explores artistic and filmic responses to the environmental crisis. Based at Goldsmiths, University of London, she writes for Sight & Sound and Frieze magazines, introduces films at the BFI, and serves on film festival juries.
Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough has made a series of programmes for the BBC about Norse sagas, forest bathing, the history of runes, the far north, Roman bathing since being chosen as a New Generation Thinker in 2013.
This New Thinking podcast and the New Generation Thinkers scheme are run as a partnership between the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI.
You can hear more insights from academics based at a host of UK universities in a New Research playlist on BBC Radio 4's Free Thinking programme website.
45 min
May 10, 2024 Life expectations, philosophy in the world, protest
Can we still expect a meaningful job, stable income, a chance of owning property? How have expectations changed and what is the place of protest? Matthew Sweet's guests this week are:
David Willetts is a former Universities Minister and now a life peer. The Rt Hon Lord Willetts FRS is also current President of the Resolution Foundation, Chair of the UK Space Agency and a visiting Professor at King’s College London. His books include The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future – And Why They Should Give It Back
Dr Tiffany Watt Smith is Director for the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, London. Her books include Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another’s Misfortune, and The Book of Human Emotions. She was chosen as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2014 and you can hear her in Free Thinking discussions about happiness, schadenfreude and she presented a short feature about the science of baby laughs.
Professor Will Davies is a sociologist and political economist teaching at Goldsmiths University of London. His books include Nervous States: How feeling took over the world, The Happiness Industry: How the government and big business sold us wellbeing and This is Not Normal: The collapse of liberal Britain.
Elizabeth Oldfield's latest book is called Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. She hosts The Sacred podcast and is a former director of Theos, a religion and society think tank.
Plus a report from an event this week in which the Royal Institute of Philosophy was paying tribute to its outgoing president, the political philosopher and ethicist Onora O’Neill, and welcoming her successor, the political philosopher Jonathan Wolff. We hear from Angie Hobbs, Paul, Tom Shakespeare, Grace Lockrobin, Onora O’Neill and Jo Wolff.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
57 min

About Free Thinking

From the publisher's feed

Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives - looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari…