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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Free Thinking

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: The Free Thinking Essay

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: The Free Thinking Essay: Part 1: New Generation Thinkers: The Moor of Florence - A Medici Mystery

New Generation Thinkers: The Moor of Florence - A Medici Mystery

Part 1 Part 1: New Generation Thinkers: The Moor of Florence - A Medici Mystery

2015 Festival

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, 2015 Festival, The Free Thinking Essay, New Generation Thinkers: The Moor of Florence - A Medici Mystery

Catherine Fletcher on the claims that the first Medici duke of Florence was of mixed race.

Catherine Fletcher of Swansea University considers the claims that Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence, was of mixed race.

For over 400 years it's been claimed that the first Medici Duke of Florence was mixed race, his mother a slave of African descent. Catherine Fletcher of Swansea University asks if this extraordinary story about the 16th-century Italian political dynasty could be true. Or do the tales of Alessandro de' Medici tell us more about the history of racism and anti-racism than about the man himself?

The New Generation Thinkers are the winners of an annual scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics at the start of their careers who can turn their research into fascinating broadcasts.

The Essay was recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. If you want to hear Catherine Fletcher discussing her research you can download the Essay and conversation as an Arts and Ideas podcast. 

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival

The Free Thinking Essay

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

Series of events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers give talks in front of an audience at Free Thinking 2015

Series in which Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers give talks in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead for the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

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