Arts & Ideas

BBC Radio 4

4.7 (7)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
EVERY TWO WEEKS

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.

1 NOV

Ghosts, death and ecstatic states

With Day of the Dead, Halloween and All Souls Day being marked in different countries around the world - Shahidha Bari's guests discuss the belief in ghosts and the search for meaning in mysticism. They are: Dr Chris Harding is a cultural historian of Japan, India and East-West connections and is based at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Japanese and Japan Story. Dr Hetta Howes is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at City, University of London and Deputy Programme Director for the BA in English. She is a BBC Radio 3 and 4 New Generation Thinker and the author of a new book “Poet Mystic Widow Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women.” Simon Critchley is a philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, USA. His latest book is On Mysticism: The Experience of Ecstasy. Dr Iriving Finkel is Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages and cultures in the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum and has published The First Ghosts: A rich history of ancient ghosts and ghost stories Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

57 min
25 OCT

Are we all American now?

Does the reach of the USA and its cultural influence mean "we're all American now?" Anne McElvoy and her guests discuss the similarities and differences across the Anglosphere and think about the changing dynamics on the international stage. They are: Freddy Gray, Deputy Editor of the Spectator Magazine and host of the Americano podcast. Dr Katie McGettigan, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and co-editor of the Journal of American Studies. Amanda Taub writes The Interpreter, an explanatory column and newsletter about world events for The New York Times. Kit Davis, an American living in London, an anthropologist and Emeritus Professor at SOAS. Rana Mitter ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

57 min
18 OCT

Insiders & Outsiders

The philosopher Leo Strauss claimed that many of the great texts of Western philosophy can be read in two ways. There's the message intended for everybody, but also a deeper level, accessible only to those who can see it. Taking this as a starting point, Matthew Sweet grapples with the closed world of social media tribes, the challenges posed by conspiracy theory, and the history of thinking in allegorical symbols. With: Marianna Spring, the BBC's Disinformation Correspondent Lisa Bortolotti, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham Daniel Herskowitz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Theology & Religion, University of Oxford Hugh Cullimore, PhD student at the Warburg Institute And Constantine Sandis, Director of Lex Academic discusses the shortlist for the 2024 Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy. The shortlisted books are: Chris Armstrong, Global Justice and the Biodiversity Crisis (Oxford University Press). Mazviita Chirimuuta, The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience (The MIT Press). Shannon Vallor, The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press). https://royalinstitutephilosophy.org/book-prize/ Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
11 OCT

Childhood and innocence

Can we still be idealistic about childhood? How do we square the impact of war, stories of sexual abuse, the impact of time spent on screens with the idea of children's experiences being about play, learning to be social, listening and creating stories ? Anne McElvoy's guests include: Katherine Rundell, author of the Waterstones book of 2023 Impossible Creatures, her series about children's literature is on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds next week. It's called The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder. Emily Baughan, Senior Lecturer in 19th/20th Century British History at the University of Sheffield and author of Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism and Empire. She is a New Generation Thinker working with BBC Radio 4 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share her research on radio. Miriam Cates former Conservative MP who is now Senior Fellow at the Centre for Social Justice. Andrew Cooper, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick who teaches courses on philosophy of nature, philosophy of mind, and existentialism. Grace Lockrobin who is Co-Director of SAPERE - a UK charity that works to realise the benefits of a philosophical education as widely and equitably as possible. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

56 min
4 OCT

Reading & Empathy

"I never read novels" is something you hear people say. What is the point of reading - be it histories or fiction? Does it help us empathize with the situation of other people or shed insights into our historical moment? With the news story that university students these days are, apparently, unaccustomed to reading entire books, cover to cover, favouring excerpts, abridgements, and introductions and ahead of the biggest date in the publishing calendar (Super Thursday on Oct 10th) Shahidha Bari is joined by novelist Elif Shafak - winner of the British Academy's President's Medal, her latest novel is called There Are Rivers in the Sky; journalist Gabriel Gatehouse - host of the podcast and Radio 4 series The Coming Storm; New Generation Thinkers Janine Bradbury - a poet, and Jonathan Egid - a philosopher; Tiffany Watt Smith - a historian of emotions and author of a book on schadenfreude and by the historian of China Professor Rana Mitter - chair of the judges for this year's Cundill History Prize. The winner will be announced on October 30th and the books in contention are: Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights by Dylan C. Penningroth Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
27 SEPT

The eternal dynamic of Rivalry, Fredric Jameson, the newly reopened Warburg Institute

Sibling rifts, leadership battles in politics and history, philosophical schools of thoughts and their key players all come into our discussion of the way rivalry shapes the world. Roger Luckhurst reflects on the legacy of the American literary critic and philosopher Fredric Jameson who died earlier this week. Plus a report from the Warburg Institute Library which holds over 360,000 volumes available to scholars studying the afterlife of antiquity and the survival and transmission of culture. Matthew Sweet is joined by the journalist Michael Crick, historian Helen Castor, Philosopher David Edmonds and the writer and academic Kate Maltby. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

57 min
20 SEPT

Crisis & Decision

Climate, trust, politics, communication. Some would say we live in a period of crisis several areas of society and life. How can we make sense of the present moment, and where do we go from here? Plus, we hear about the short list for this year's Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize and ask what that tells us about scientific publishing. Matthew Sweet is joined by Timothy Morton, whose most recent book is Hell: In Search of a Christian Ecology Jessica Frazier, Lecturer in the Study of Religion at the University of Oxford Clare Chambers, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge Jessica Wade, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Lecturer in Functional Materials at Imperial College London and one of the judges for They are all appearing at the How the Light Gets in Festival of Ideas this weekend in London - more information at howthelightsgetsin.org Plus Mark Solms, neuroscientist and editor of the newly published Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud The Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2024 which will be announced on October 24th. The books shortlisted are: Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy by Kashmir Hill The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction by Gísli Pálsson Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World by Tom Chivers Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
13 SEPT

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

See All (2K)

Matthew Sweet

Host

4.7

out of 5

7 Ratings

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.