Arts & Ideas

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and phone apps have changed the way we share our lives, leading to an explosion in the telling of life stories. Alice Hall, from the University of York, explores our changing perceptions of what memory and memoir mean and looks at the way the language of modern fiction has tried to reflect this shift. Recorded on Sunday 27th October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage...

What is the neuroscience of depression, how does it affect decision-making, and what are the ethics of medical treatments? Rana Mitter chairs a discussion looking at how we control our minds. He is joined on stage by Professor Barbara Sahakian who questions the ethics of smart drugs, Richard Bentall the Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, and Guardian columnist and aut...

In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant pressure on time, how does not having enough shape the way we think and act? Professors Sendhil Mullainathan from Harvard, Simin Davoudi from Newcastle and Jeremy Till from Central St Martins discuss scarcity and sustainability with Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage Gateshead. Recorded on Saturday 26th October 2013...

Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public pressure and the increasing emphasis on "choice" and "consultation" leave professional expertise and political instinct? Anne McElvoy chairs a panel at the Free Thinking Festival of Ideas, including the founder of the Renewal campaign David Skelton, the columnist David Aaronovitch and Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executiv...

A 15th-century English monarch was appointed by God and had absolute supremacy but how was that belief shaken when medieval kings were unfit to rule or the throne was contested? New Generation Thinker Sarah Peverley, from Liverpool University, looks at the way the people viewed their rulers during the Wars of the Roses. Recorded on Saturday 26 October 2013 in front of a live audience at Sage Gates...

Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable "We", which was published in 1919. It depicts a city of glass where citizens are spied upon. Fans of the book have included George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe and it increasingly resonates with today's concerns about surveillance techniques. Matthew Sweet and an audience at The Free Thinking Festival from Sag...

When Lindisfarne monastery was attacked in 793AD the monk Alcuin described the church of St Cuthbert, "splattered with the blood of the priests." New Generation Thinker Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, from Durham University, takes this moment as the starting point for an exploration of the power battles between Vikings and Anglo Saxons which led to the symbolic battles of 1066. Recorded on Saturday...

Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2013, exploring the traits that determine a healthy life span and arguing that we need to rethink the relationship between health, wealth and self-control. Professor Marmot is one of the global pioneers of research into health inequalities - how stress, status and diet can affect our wellbeing. His ground-bre...

In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet examines the work and legacy of director Michael Grigsby, who died earlier this year, and who made a trilogy of films in Ulster. In the first two, Too Long A Sacrifice and The Silent War, he invited people to talk about how The Troubles had impacted on their lives. Matthew Sweet is joined by two film-makers who worked clo...

BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity around the country. In the first of 2 programmes from Derry-Londonderry Matthew Sweet celebrates the city's status as City of Culture 2013 and explores its cultural past and present with a series of discussions, events and interviews recorded at The Playhouse. Writer Owen Hatherley, Derry-based architect Mary Ker...

Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on whether we can afford ethical business. The panel includes The Guardian's Lucy Siegle, Adrian Wooldridge of The Economist, founder of Ethical Superstore Andy Redfern and economist Virginie Perotin. As austerity bites into family finances and public services, cheap goods seem ever more attractive, even vital. But is there a price to pay...

BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas continues its summer of activity as it takes up residency at leading summer events across the country. Anne McElvoy chairs a debate from the Daily Mail Chalke Valley History festival to examine how the British have looked to their history to give them a sense of national identity, and explores whether a sense of belonging and citizenship can be...

Philip Dodd discusses the Problem with Love with behavioural scientist Dylan Evans, television presenter Esther Rantzen, Costa Prize-winning author AL Kennedy and singer and writer Pat Kane. Is it bad for us? How does love alter our brains and our bodies? What impact will social media and changing gender relations have on the future of love? The edition is was recorded at the recent HowTheLightGet...

Rana Mitter chairs a Free Thinking debate from the annual 12-hour My Night With Philosophers festival at the Institut Français on the role of philosophy in public life, and asks what can the tools of philosophy offer the European political mindscape in the current climate?

BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas hits the road this summer as it takes up residency at leading summer events across the country. Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on the legacy of the War of the Roses with Helen Castor, Sandy Grant and Mark Ormrod reflecting on how the Wars of the Roses shaped the country from the 15th century right up to the present d...

Matthew Sweet talks to Peter Brook. The theatre director has had a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare which he has explored in his productions of plays including A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear and Hamlet starring actors such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Paul Scofield. He discusses his new book of essays reflecting on the playwright, The Quality of Mercy.

Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think about humanity and how it will impact our moral and philosophical universe. Matthew is joined by the best-selling science-fiction writer Stephen Baxter, the science broadcaster and journalist Sue Nelson, the futurist and neuroscientist Anders Sandberg, and one of our leading space scientists, John Zarnecki, Profess...

Best-selling novelist Philippa Gregory talks to Rana Mitter about writing historical fiction, her fascination with the Tudors, and how her fiction turns the spotlight on the lives on women at significant moments in history. Recorded at The Sage Gateshead at Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival on Sunday 4th November 2012.

Columnist and youth worker Lindsay Johns argues that we should stop listening to the young, in a talk recorded at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival presented by Rana Mitter. He explains that we need to stop pandering to young people, and that all too often we tell them only what they want to hear. Recorded at The Sage Gateshead on Sunday 4th November 2012.

Colm Toibin is one of Ireland's finest writers, whose books explore issues such as Catholicism, immigration and homosexuality. His 2009 novel Brooklyn won the Costa novel of the Year, and his latest The Testament of Mary is a controversial re-imagining of the life of the Virgin Mary. In an extended interview recorded at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at The Sage Gateshead on Saturday 3 Novembe...

Economist Ian Goldin gives a talk on Globalisation and the Future at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival. Presented by Anne McElvoy, Ian explores whether globalisation is a force for good, or whether it will be the source of an ever more unequal and unstable world. Recorded at The Sage Gateshead on Sunday 4th November 2012.

What kind of societies will the Arab Spring give birth to? Democratic, Capitalist, Islamic, or Unstable? Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, and Egyptian political economist Tarek Osman join Samira Ahmed to discuss this issue and to explore what the possible implications may be for the western world. Recorded at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at The Sage Gateshead on Saturday 3rd Novembe...

Matthew Sweet debates how the discovery of alien life might change the way we think about humanity and how it will impact our moral and philosophical universe. Matthew is joined by the best-selling science-fiction writer Stephen Baxter, the science broadcaster and journalist Sue Nelson, the futurist and neuroscientist Anders Sandberg, and one of our leading space scientists, John Zarnecki, Profess...

Julie Bindel gives a talk arguing that sexuality is a choice at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival. In a talk titled Not Born This Way, the feminist, lesbian, columnist and writer Julie Bindel challenges liberal thinking by arguing that sexuality is indeed a choice, and that the current scientific quest to identify a gay gene is both pointless and dangerous. The event is chaired by Night Waves pre...

Matthew Smith, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers, explores why the simple peanut has become a battleground of medical debate. Recorded at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at The Sage, Gateshead on Sunday 4th November 2012.