Free Thinking

Daisy Hay from Exeter University explores the way in which Disraeli invented the modern politician as a man or woman of feeling, and asks whether the image he projected as an emotionally in-touch ever...

6 Nov 201413min

Which historical 'facts' should be burned on the fire? How do you comb ancient and recent times for evidence? Rana Mitter is joined by Helen Castor and Laura Thompson to discuss the ways mythmaking c...

6 Nov 201443min

Sophie Coulombeau on the origins of the custom for women to take their husband's name. Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage Gateshead. New Generati...

5 Nov 201413min

David Willetts MP and the writer and philosopher Roger Scruton discuss the best way to foster knowledge in schools and universities and whether politicians have become too professionalised. In an age ...

5 Nov 201444min

New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton on what 17th-century ideas about censorship share with the Leveson report. Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sag...

4 Nov 201413min

Matthew Sweet explores the way digital media have transformed our cultural tastes with poet Kei Miller, author and online games creator Naomi Alderman, music journalist Dave Hepworth and Prospect Maga...

4 Nov 201443min

New Generation Thinker Tiffany Watt-Smith explores mirroring and a nineteenth-century fascination with imitation. Recorded in front of an audience at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at S...

3 Nov 201414min

Anne McElvoy chairs a discussion about conciliation in an age of uprisings recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage Gateshead. Best-selling Ukrainia...

3 Nov 201443min