Arts & Ideas

BBC Radio 4

4.3 (286)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED BIWEEKLY

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.

DEC 12

Idleness

Is idleness ever a virtue? In a world that seems to privilege utility and productivity above all else, Matthew Sweet considers whether we can rethink the importance of doing nothing. His guests for Radio 4's late night ideas discussion programme are: Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler and author of books including Idle Thoughts: Letters on Good Living, How to Live Like a Stoic: A Handbook for Happiness Polly Dickson, a literary scholar at the University of Durham, who’s researching the art of doodling Katrien Devolder, Professor of Applied Ethics at the University of Oxford Gavin Francis, doctor and author of many books including The Bridge Between Worlds and coming in Feb 2026 The Unfragile Mind, Making Sense of Mental Health Steve Connor, cultural historian, Director of Research of the Digital Futures Institute, King’s College, London. Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
DEC 5

Influencing History

Do individuals or broader forces shape history? In the 2025 Reith lectures on BBC Radio 4, Rutger Bregman argues that small groups of individuals can have an outsize influence and he looks to examples in history from suffragism to the ending of slavery. In the Free Thinking studio for Radio 4's round-table discussion about the history of ideas, Matthew Sweet is joined by: Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer prize winning historian and author of Autocracy Inc, which looks at the networks linking powerful people in our world Jake Subryan Richards, New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and AHRC which puts research on radio. His new book is The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade Selina Todd, historian and author of The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class Clare Jackson, historian of seventeenth century Britain, whose latest book is Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I Rupert Read, philosopher, climate advocate and co author of Transformative Adaptation and The Climate Majority Project Producer: Eliane Glaser

57 min
NOV 28

Marriage

Why marry? Jane Austen began her novel Pride and Prejudice with the observation "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics show less than half the adult UK population are married or in a legal partnership and predictions are that by 2050, only 3 in 10 people in the UK will marry. Shahidha Bari hosts Radio 4's round-table discussion programme Free Thinking, which brings together philosophical and historical insights in a conversation about issues resonating in the present day. Her guests this week are: columnist Zoe Strimpel, who has been considering the history and current state of the family in a 5 part series running on Radio 4 this week Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, biographer of Thomas Cromwell and author of Lower than Angels: A history of Sex and Christianity Dr Reetika Subramanian from the University of East Anglia, who hosts a podcast called Climate Brides. Reetika is one of Radio 4's current researchers in residence on the New Generation Thinkers scheme run in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Psychoanalyst and literary scholar Josh Cohen Philosopher and film scholar Catherine Wheatley Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
NOV 21

Rocks

Rocks have shaped the fates of civilizations and the study of geology has transformed our intellectual landscape. In the 19th century developments in earth sciences led to the scientific rejection of Biblical timescales in favour of the far greater spans of geological time, which opened the way for Darwin's development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. More recently, historians have been keen to incorporate factors like access to natural resources and major events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions into their accounts of the past and analyses of the present. Matthew Sweet asks how disciplines in the humanities, like history and political theory, might be transformed by incorporating insights and data from the earth sciences, and also how the earth sciences might be transformed if they become more historically and culturally aware. With historians Peter Frankopan and Rosemary Hill, geologist Anjana Khatwa, philosopher Graham Harman, and poet Sarah Jackson. Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
NOV 14

Revenge and reconciliation

What function do ceremonies like Armistice Day perform? How do we balance desires for reconciliation with feelings about revenge? How we remember wars and what commemoration means is much less settled than we might think. And that throws up questions, in times when conflicts are spreading close to us in western Europe, of how wars end and how we balance our concern for justice and peace with darker impulses? Joining presenter Anne McElvoy for BBC Radio 4's roundtable discussion about the ideas shaping our world are: classicist Natalie Haynes whose most recent novel No End to this House re-imagines the story of Medea, former solider Ashleigh Percival-Borley, who is now an academic and on the New Generation Thinkers scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council Duncan Wheeler, author of Following Franco and an academic studying contemporary Spain. neuro-scientist Nicholas Wright who advises the Pentagon and has written Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain and, Andy West, prison philosophy teacher and author of The Life Inside Producer: Ruth Watts

57 min
NOV 7

The end of civilisations and societies

"Doom-prepping" tech billionaires have been in the headlines recently and whether it’s ecological crisis or a breakdown in law and order, fear of societal collapse seems to lurk in the background of a lot of discussion in politics and wider society. But what does it mean? When has it happened in the past? Can we avoid it – or survive it – in the future? Joining presenter Shahidha Bari for Radio 4's roundtable discussion about the ideas shaping our world are: Luke Kemp from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the writer and commentator Peter Hitchens, classical historian Neville Morley, historian of modern politics Phil Tinline and Rhiannon Firth, sociologist at University College London. Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
OCT 24

Rational and Irrational decision making

From economics to dreams: Anne McElvoy and guests consider the value of irrationality. How often is emotion, instinct and unsound thinking behind the decisions taken by governments, financial markets and citizens? And does it matter if long term strategic thinking relying on calm assessments of the trade offs, conventional wisdom and the lessons of experience take a back seat. Is there a value in irrationality? Guests include: Bronwen Maddox, Director and CEO of Chatham House, the international think tank; Lionel Barber, author of Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan's Masayoshi Son; Salma Shah, who sits on the boards of Policy Exchange and the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge; Patrick Foulis, the foreign editor at the Economist and, Jonathan Egid, philosopher and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. Producer: Ruth Watts

57 min
OCT 17

Traditions, roots and local pride

From military ceremonies to folk customs - can traditions really provide an answer to nationalism and boost local pride? Former MP Penny Mordaunt is publishing a book called Pomp and Circumstance: Why Britain's Traditions Matter written with Chris Lewis. She's one of Matthew Sweet's guests in the Free Thinking studio alongside Sunder Katwala, author of How to be a patriot: Why love of country can end our very British culture war. He is the director of British Future which conducted the biggest-ever public consultation on immigration. Muriel Zagha is a journalist and co-host of the podcast Garlic & Pearls which compares French and British culture and attitudes. Ceri Houlbrook is one of the academics involved in a National Folklore Survey for England and the co-author with Owen Davies of Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present. Dr Uran Ferizi has a background in scientific and financial research and since January 2024 he has been the Albanian Ambassador to the UK and to Ireland. Producer: Robyn Read

57 min

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Matthew Sweet

Host

4.3

out of 5

286 Ratings

Please keep making more episodes!!

Sep 19

linenfrolic21

Amazing!!
Let’s mix up the podcasts!

Aug 17

Pete Bullock

I want to see (or hear)!Matthew Sweet on the podcast “Backlisted” talk about one of his favorites out of print book. The interaction between him and Andy Miller would be fascinating to hear.’
Friendship show was a step in the right direction

Jul 18

melodie-c

Arts & Ideas has been in steep decline since March 2024. One can feel the heavy hand of the BBC, terrorized by far right pressure groups and apparatchiks of the Tory and Labour party, enforcing a new set of standards, a ban on almost any topic or guest that might alienate reactionaries, alongside a dumbing down of the way topics are even addressed, with changes to the show’s format to speed it up and reduce the amount of actual discussion in favor of gimmicks like poorly-executed attempts at cooking shows and game shows. Longtime presenters like the legendary Matthew Sweet, Rana Mitter and Shahidha Bari have been marginalized from their own programme and rarely host anymore, replaced by more malleable AI-like personalities. New episodes were appearing much more rarely than before, every few weeks at most (previously there would be at least one, usually more than one per week) but considering the low quality of these new episodes, one almost wished the show had just stopped entirely. After a year of this nonsense I almost stopped paying attention, but noticed a new episode on Friendship that featured some interesting guests and Matthew Sweet back on hosting duties. I was pleasantly surprised when I listened— no gimmicks or game shows— back to the trusted format of lively discussion. Please keep this up. If Sweet actually wants to retire, understood, but there are other presenters who are capable of running the show, without BBC execs trying to fix what isn’t broken.
Oak & Ash

09/18/2023

pataphysician

Of the novels of J. C. Powys I’d read, “Porius” is my favorite… a pure animist marvel. It’s good to see that the man and the work are still being talked about. With due respect, the comment that Powys is not currently in print was mistaken; within the last decade a half dozen titles have become available—largely by The Overlook Press—plus a biography called “Descents of Memory.” Any curious reader would do well to search them out beginning with “A Glastonbury Romance” and saving “Porius” for desert! Thank you for the discussion.

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.