Free Thinking

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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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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: Winter Light

Winter Light

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Winter Light

From paintings and folk tales to Brian Cox on the stars and Susan Greaney on Stonehenge.

Stonehenge and Maes Howe at solstice, the shadowy paintings of Wright of Derby, and Artemisia Gentileschi and the candlelight of Hanukkah - Shahidha Bari and guests look at light.

Brian Cox on the stars and planets.  Archaelogist Susan Greaney on Stonehenge and Maes Howe at solstice, the shadowy paintings of Wright of Derby and Artemisia Gentileschi and the candlelight of Hanukkah in art and literature picked out by Alexandra Harris and the philosophy of Plato and light giving ideas from Sophie-Grace Chappell: Shahidha Bari and guests look at light as BBC Radio 3 broadcasts a series of music programmes, concerts, walks and features looking at Light in Darkness. 

Physicist Professor Brian Cox joins the BBC SO and Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska to explore the questions raised by music and the Cosmos concerning eternity, death, rebirth and meaning in a concert being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on the afternoon of December 23rd. In Autumn 2021 he will be embarking on another Horizons Arena Tour around the UK explaining the latest thinking about the Cosmos to the wider public.  

Professor Alexandra Harris is the author of books including Weatherland and Romantic Moderns and was one of the first BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers.

Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell is the author of many philosophy books and is currently considering the idea of epiphanies.

Susan Greaney works with English Heritage at Stonehenge, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

Producer: Ruth Watts

You might also be interested in Free Thinking conversations about 
Ice https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001jzq
Ancient wisdom and remote living https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q3by 
Antartica https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p5267
Diving Deep https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k8kqr 
Archaeology https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03xpn5p

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.

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