Free Thinking

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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: How anthropology helps us understand the world

How Anthropology Helps Us Understand the World

How anthropology helps us understand the world

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, How anthropology helps us understand the world

Economist Gillian Tett is one of Anne McElvoy's guests.

How studying life in a Tajik village can help solve business problems in the city. Gillian Tett shares insights with Anne McElvoy. Plus a history of pioneering women in the field.

"Tunnel vision is deadly. We need lateral vision. That is what anthropology can impart: anthro-vision." So says renowned economist GillianTett, who trained as an anthropologist.  She joins Anne McElvoy along with Tulsi Menon, who trained in anthropology and now works in advertising, for a debate about what the discipline offers business.  We look back at the history of anthropology with Frances Larson, author of a new book about forgotten women anthropologists, and a previous book that looked at the west's obsession with severed heads.  And we explore the way the discipline of anthropology is changing, talking to Faye Harrison - Professor of Anthropology at Illinois and the editor of Decolonising Anthropology.  
 
Anthrovision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life by Gillian Tett, Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times, is out now.
Frances Larson's books are titled Undreamed Shores: The Hidden Heroines of British Anthropology and Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found.

In the Free Thinking archives you can find a discussion about Family Ties and reshaping history - hearing about Joseph Henrich's work on WEIRD - Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic and ideas about kinship 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mjt2 

In the Nayef Al Rodhan 2020 discussion with shortlisted authors Rana Mitter talks to Charles King about his history The Reinvention of Humanity: A Story of Race, Sex, Gender and the Discovery of Culture, which tracks the work of Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Ella Deloria and Zora Neale Hurston 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n0bv

The Free Thinking Festival discussion 20 Words for Joy ... Feelings around the world brought together Veronica Strang, Aatish Taseer and Thomas Dixon https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004ds4 

Producer: Eliane Glaser

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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Free Thinking

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