Programme Index

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Night Waves

Happy Cities, Gandhi, Chapman Brothers

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Rana Mitter hears new research on how to build a happy city. Historian Ramachandra Guha on how Gandhi's time in South Africa influenced his thinking. Chapman Brothers art reviewed. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Ricky Burdett
Interviewed Guest:
Charles Montgomery
Interviewed Guest:
Ramachandra Guha
Reporter:
Jacky Klein

Free Thinking

Japanese History, Chinese Democracy

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Zhang Weiwei, one of China's foremost public intellectuals, talks to Rana Mitter about why his country should not become a democracy. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Zhang Weiwei
Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Mariko Oi
Interviewed Guest:
Haining Liu
Interviewed Guest:
David Pilling
Interviewed Guest:
Naoko Shimazu

Free Thinking

Festival 2017

Episode 11: New Generation Thinkers 2017

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

In front of an audience at Sage Gateshead, Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough introduces the ten academics selected as the 2017 cohort of New Generation Thinkers. Show more

Free Thinking

Festival 2017

Episode 16: Taking the Long View with the Animal Kingdom

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Field scientists Tim Birkhead and Phyllis Lee discuss long-lived animal species, their survival strategies and how their lives have shaped the minds of those who study them. Show more

Free Thinking

Landmark: Waverley

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

A special programme exploring Walter Scott's novel Waverley, as Rana Mitter reflects on the writer and the books which helped the British like the idea of Britain. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Jenni Calder
Interviewed Guest:
Robert Crawford
Interviewed Guest:
Andrew Lincoln

Free Thinking

Still Loving Victoriana Jokes and All

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Presented by Matthew Sweet. With Sarah Perry and Carol Birch on setting their novels in the 19th century, plus Victorian amusements and the 19th century in modern culture. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
Sarah Perry
Interviewed Guest:
Carol Birch
Interviewed Guest:
Mark Llewellyn
Interviewed Guest:
Fern Riddell

Free Thinking

Medieval Manuscripts, Emma Donoghue, The Story of Boris Vian

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Presented by Matthew Sweet. With a discussion about medieval illuminated manuscripts, author Emma Donoghue talking about her new novel and Dennis Duncan on the story of Boris Vian. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Christopher de Hamel
Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
Kylie Murray
Interviewed Guest:
Emma Donoghue
Interviewed Guest:
Dennis Duncan

Free Thinking

Canada 150: Sydney Newman and British TV, Vahni Capildeo, Shubbak Festival 2017

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Matthew Sweet on Sydney Newman, the Canadian who transformed 60s TV. Plus poet Vahni Capildeo on her award-winning collection and contemporary Arab art at the Shubbak Festival. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
Alvin Rakoff
Interviewed Guest:
Ryan Danes
Interviewed Guest:
Graeme Burk
Interviewed Guest:
Vahni Capildeo
Interviewed Guest:
Larissa Sansour
Interviewed Guest:
Jonathan May

Free Thinking

Breaking Free - How the Reformation Changed British Daily Life

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3Latest broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Alec Ryrie, Tom Charlton, Elizabeth Goodwin and Tara Hamling join Rana Mitter to discuss research into the way the Reformation changed lives in homes, parishes and monasteries. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Alec Ryrie
Interviewed Guest:
Tom Charlton
Interviewed Guest:
Elizabeth Goodwin
Interviewed Guest:
Tara Hamling

Free Thinking

Wolfson History Prize

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3Latest broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Rana Mitter is joined by the six authors shortlisted for the 2017 Wolfson History Prize and an audience at the British Academy for a discussion about the past into the present. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Daniel Beer
Interviewed Guest:
Chris Given-Wilson
Interviewed Guest:
Christopher de Hamel
Interviewed Guest:
Sasha Handley
Interviewed Guest:
Lyndal Roper
Interviewed Guest:
Matthew Strickland

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

New generation thinkers Shahidha Bari and Laurence Scott discuss the aesthetic and holistic aspects of running with four converts from the worlds of arts and academia. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Shahidha Bari
Presenter:
Laurence Scott
Interviewed Guest:
Kai Syng Tan
Interviewed Guest:
Angus Farquhar
Interviewed Guest:
Hayden Lorimer
Interviewed Guest:
Vybarr Cregan-Reid

Free Thinking

Yaa Gyasi, Daniel Levitin, Peter Bazalgette, James Bartholomew on clarity, civility and strong states

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Presented by Philip Dodd. With debates about empathy, rigorous thinking and the welfare state, plus writer Yaa Gyaasi on the importance of home for Africans and African-Americans. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Peter Bazalgette
Interviewed Guest:
Daniel Levitin
Interviewed Guest:
James Bartholomew
Interviewed Guest:
Yaa Gyasi
Interviewed Guest:
Philip Dodd

Free Thinking

Landmark: Marnie

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Matthew Sweet discusses memory and Marnie with guests, including Andrew Graham - son of Marnie author Winston. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
Lisa Appignanesi
Interviewed Guest:
Andrew Graham
Interviewed Guest:
Gwyneth Hughes
Interviewed Guest:
Murray Pomerance

Free Thinking

Rude Valentines. Neil Gaiman, Translating China's Arts

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Neil Gaiman talks Norse myths with Rana Mitter, plus the ugly side of Valentines from Edmund Richardson and Annebella Pollen plus Chinese Culture and its new audiences. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Neil Gaiman
Interviewed Guest:
Edmund Richardson
Interviewed Guest:
Annebella Pollen
Interviewed Guest:
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Interviewed Guest:
Craig Clunas
Presenter:
Rana Mitter

Free Thinking

Soil Stories Old and New

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Matthew Sweet with poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, scientists Jules Pretty and Andrew Scott and historians, Philip Coupland and Matthew Kelly, about Soil Culture and Survival Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest:
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Interviewed Guest:
Jules Pretty
Interviewed Guest:
Andrew Cunningham Scott
Interviewed Guest:
Philip Coupland
Interviewed Guest:
Matthew Kelly

Free Thinking

Burns the Radical; Exploration

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

From Ecuador to the Scottish borders: Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to Maren Meinhardt and Graham Robb about exploring the Scottish borders and the Ecuador seen by Humboldt. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Maren Meinhardt
Interviewed Guest:
Graham Robb

Free Thinking

Soviet Histories. Part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Svetlana Alexievich speaks on oral history told by Russian women in World War Two, and Stephen Kotkin on Stalin. Rana Mitter sees a musical depicting Soviet hipsters and hippies. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Svetlana Alexievich
Interviewed Guest:
Stephen Kotkin
Interviewed Guest:
Juliane Furst

Free Thinking

2015 Festival

Old Ways, New Directions

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Rana Mitter hosts a debate asking if in the hunger for new ideas we are forgetting the lessons of the past. With shepherd James Rebanks and cultural anthropologist Veronica Strang. Show more

Free Thinking

Hay Festival: Inheritance - Steve Jones, Lionel Shriver, Marlon James

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

In an event recorded at the 2016 Hay festival, Lionel Shriver, Marlon James and Steve Jones join Rana Mitter to discuss the subject of inheritance. Show more

Contributors

Interviewed Guest:
Lionel Shriver
Interviewed Guest:
Marlon James
Interviewed Guest:
Steve Jones
Presenter:
Rana Mitter

Free Thinking

Archaelogy: Alexandra Sofroniew, Damian Robinson, Raimund Karl, Susan Greaney

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 3

Available for over a year

Rana Mitter and guests explore changes to UK archaelogical digs, challenges facing the profession and underwater explorations on show at the Ashmolean and British Museums. Show more

Contributors

Presenter:
Rana Mitter
Interviewed Guest:
Alexandra Sofroniew
Interviewed Guest:
Damian Robinson
Interviewed Guest:
Raimund Karl
Interviewed Guest:
Susan Greaney