Arts & Ideas

BBC Radio 4

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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.

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Authority

Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, schools, medical settings and in the home? What is the difference between authority and power, how have historical shifts such as the advent of the internet affected public perceptions of authority, and how much should authority feature in the raising of children? In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme about ideas past and present, Anne McElvoy and guests explore these questions and more. Justine Greening is a former Conservative Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media who published a book called The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium Sophie Scott-Brown is a philosopher and historian of anarchism Peter Hyman is a former headteacher and adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer who writes a Substack, Changing the Story Tom Simpson is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford Producer: Eliane Glaser

57 min
20/02

Crime and punishment medieval to modern

How have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme, Matthew Sweet and guests explore the criminal justice system through history. With: Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull and BBC / AHRC New Generation Thinker on the scheme which puts research on radio Scout Tzofiya Bolton, poet and broadcaster who presents on National Prison Radio, and for Radio 4 the Illuminated episode called The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag. Her poetry collection is called The Mad Art of Doing Time Joanna Hardy-Susskind, criminal barrister and presenter for Radio 4 of a series called You Do Not Have To Say Anything Stephen Shapiro, Professor of American Literature at the University of Warwick Jonathan Sumption, former Supreme Court judge and now Moral Maze panellist for BBC Radio 4 and author of a five-volume account of The Hundred Years War Producer: Eliane Glaser

57 min
13/02

Working Class Creativity

From an impoverished neighbourhood in South London, Charlie Chaplin became one of the most significant figures in the development of cinema. More recently, TV writers like Sophie Willan and Michaela Coel have transformed the way working class lives are depicted on TV, from the concerned paternalism of the 1960s to a more celebratory view from the inside in the 2020s. In this week's edition of Radio 4's arts and ideas discussion programme, Matthew Sweet charts these changes, and considers what they mean for our understanding of class categories in wider society. With TV historian Laura Minor, art historian Jacqueline Riding, novelist Adelle Stripe, and historian Samuel Johnson-Schlee. Plus, an interview with Ian La Frenais, co-creator of such comedy classics as The Likely Lads and Porridge. The paperback of Adelle Stripe's memoir Base Notes, and Jacqueline Riding's book Hard Street: Working Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin's London, are both published in February. Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
6/02

Is Might Right?

'The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must'. So claimed the powerful Athenians, according to the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides. Plato tried to demonstrate that might does not make right, and thinkers ever since, from Hobbes and Rousseau to Kant and Carl Schmitt, have placed the idea that might is right at the centre of their political philosophies, for better or worse. Matthew Sweet traces the intellectual history of the idea, with Angie Hobbs, Margaret MacMillan, Lea Ypi, and Hugo Drochon. Angie Hobbs' book Why Plato Matters Now, and Lea Ypi's book Indignity, are both out now, Hugo Drochon's book Elites And Democracy is published in March Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
30/01

Labour, work and productivity

What do we mean when we talk about productivity? Anne McElvoy and guests discuss labour in the context of both work and motherhood: what the language of childbirth tells us about how mothers and their bodies are viewed today; how the language of production and reproduction is used in the public and private contexts of the workplace, in macroeconomics, in the labour ward and at home; and the current public debates about parental and domestic labour, the maternal pay gap and the 'productivity puzzle'. With: John Callanan, Reader in Philosophy at King's College London Beth Malory, Lecturer in English Linguistics at University College London Patrick Foulis, author and journalist Corinne Low, Associate Professor of Economics at the Wharton School and author of Femonomics Helen Charman, Fellow in English at Clare College, Cambridge and author of Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood Producer: Eliane Glaser

57 min
23/01

Double Lives

From undercover field operatives to online anonymity, via lives led in the closet and large scale infidelity, Matthew Sweet discusses the what can prompt people to lead double lives. With: Ashleigh Percival-Borleigh, Radio 4 New Generation Thinker, former soldier and historian, researching the lives of under-cover agents during WW2 Lawrence Scott, literary critic and commentator on social media and the double lives people lead online Peter Parker, historian of gay life in Britain before homosexuality was decriminalized, has documented decades of lives lived in the closet Clare Carlisle, philosopher and biographer of Soren Kierkegaard, who thought there’s always a difference between our inner selves and the face we present to the world Plus the actress Ruth Wilson, whose 2018 drama Mrs Wilson unraveled the story of her own grandfather's multiple lives Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min
16/01

Victorian Values

What does the phrase 'Victorian values' conjure today? Matthew Sweet and guests explore what we have inherited from that formative era in relation to political ideas, civic culture, aesthetics, and social and sexual mores. How does our view of the Victorian age match the historical reality? And can we move beyond stereotypes of repression and the stiff upper lip? AN Wilson, writer, biographer and historian Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston, crossbench peer in the House of Lords Sarah Williams, Research Professor in the History of Christianity at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada and author of When Courage Calls: Josephine Butler and the Radical Pursuit of Justice for Women Fern Riddell, historian and writer. Her latest book is Victoria’s Secret: The Private Passion of a Queen (2025) And Matthew Stallard, Research Associate from the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London. Producer: Eliane Glaser

57 min
9/01

Innovation

Are we addicted to novelty? What are the cultural settings that allow innovation to flourish? And are novelty and innovation things we've always valued? Matthew Sweet is joined by writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan, Professor of Innovation Tim Minshall, and historians Agnes Arnold-Forster, and Christina Faraday. Tim Minshall is the author of Your Life is Manufactured. Margaret Heffernan's most recent book is Embracing Uncertainty Agnes Arnold-Foster has written Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion Christina Faraday is the author of The Story of Tudor Art Nick Hilton, presenter of The Ned Ludd Radio Hour podcast Producer: Luke Mulhall

57 min

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Matthew Sweet

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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.