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BBC Radio 4


Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.


Arts & Ideas

Rocks have shaped the fates of civilizations and the study of geology has transformed our intellectual landscape. In the 19th century developments in earth sciences led to the scientific rejection of Biblical timescales in favour of the far greater spans of geological time, which opened the way for Darwin's development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. More recently, historians have been keen to incorporate factors like access to natural resources and major events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions into their accounts of the past and analyses of the present. Matthew Sweet asks how disciplines in the humanities, like history and political theory, might be transformed by incorporating insights and data from the earth sciences, and also how the earth sciences might be transformed if they become more historically and culturally aware. With historians Peter Frankopan and Rosemary Hill, geologist Anjana Khatwa, philosopher Graham Harman, and poet Sarah Jackson.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Rocks

What function do ceremonies like Armistice Day perform? How do we balance desires for reconciliation with feelings about revenge? How we remember wars and what commemoration means is much less settled than we might think. And that throws up questions, in times when conflicts are spreading close to us in western Europe, of how wars end and how we balance our concern for justice and peace with darker impulses?

Joining presenter Anne McElvoy for BBC Radio 4's roundtable discussion about the ideas shaping our world are:
classicist Natalie Haynes whose most recent novel No End to this House re-imagines the story of Medea,
former solider Ashleigh Percival-Borley, who is now an academic and on the New Generation Thinkers scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Duncan Wheeler, author of Following Franco and an academic studying contemporary Spain.
neuro-scientist Nicholas Wright who advises the Pentagon and has written Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain
and, Andy West, prison philosophy teacher and author of The Life Inside

Producer: Ruth Watts

Revenge and reconciliation

"Doom-prepping" tech billionaires have been in the headlines recently and whether it’s ecological crisis or a breakdown in law and order, fear of societal collapse seems to lurk in the background of a lot of discussion in politics and wider society. But what does it mean? When has it happened in the past? Can we avoid it – or survive it – in the future? Joining presenter Shahidha Bari for Radio 4's roundtable discussion about the ideas shaping our world are:
Luke Kemp from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the writer and commentator Peter Hitchens, classical historian Neville Morley, historian of modern politics Phil Tinline and Rhiannon Firth, sociologist at University College London.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

The end of civilisations and societies

From economics to dreams: Anne McElvoy and guests consider the value of irrationality. How often is emotion, instinct and unsound thinking behind the decisions taken by governments, financial markets and citizens? And does it matter if long term strategic thinking relying on calm assessments of the trade offs, conventional wisdom and the lessons of experience take a back seat. Is there a value in irrationality? Guests include: Bronwen Maddox, Director and CEO of Chatham House, the international think tank; Lionel Barber, author of Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan's Masayoshi Son; Salma Shah, who sits on the boards of Policy Exchange and the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge; Patrick Foulis, the foreign editor at the Economist and, Jonathan Egid, philosopher and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Rational and Irrational decision making

From military ceremonies to folk customs - can traditions really provide an answer to nationalism and boost local pride? Former MP Penny Mordaunt is publishing a book called Pomp and Circumstance: Why Britain's Traditions Matter written with Chris Lewis. She's one of Matthew Sweet's guests in the Free Thinking studio alongside
Sunder Katwala, author of How to be a patriot: Why love of country can end our very British culture war. He is the director of British Future which conducted the biggest-ever public consultation on immigration.
Muriel Zagha is a journalist and co-host of the podcast Garlic & Pearls which compares French and British culture and attitudes.
Ceri Houlbrook is one of the academics involved in a National Folklore Survey for England and the co-author with Owen Davies of Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present.
Dr Uran Ferizi has a background in scientific and financial research and since January 2024 he has been the Albanian Ambassador to the UK and to Ireland.

Producer: Robyn Read

Traditions, roots and local pride

Science is one of the major sources of authority in society today. Scientists develop technologies to make our lives easier and more comfortable. They fight diseases, they have identified and are helping to combat climate change. Yet developments like AI, and some areas of genetic science, seem to raise ethical dilemmas that scientists on their own can't address. And at a time when the authority of 'experts' has been challenged, where does that leave the authority of scientists? Shahidha Bari discusses science in society with theologian Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel, who's been working on Samuel Clarke, known as Newton's Bulldog, as a case study in the status of science in 17th century England, and Dr Sandra Knapp, researcher at the Natural History Museum and chair of the judges of this year's Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. Also Hannah Devlin, science correspondent for The Guardian, Nick Spencer, Senior Fellow at Theos, and geneticist, author and broadcaster Adam Rutherford.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

The status of Science

What does living a good life involve? Michael Rosen's new book is called Good Days and offers suggestions to brighten our daily lives. Dr Sophie Scott-Brown is a research fellow at St Andrews' Institute of Intellectual History. The Rev'd Fergus Butler-Gallie has spent time working in the Czech republic and South Africa and ministering in parishes in Liverpool and London. His most recent book is Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings that made Christianity. Dr Rachel Wiseman lectures on philosophy at the University of Liverpool and explored the impact of the relative absence of women philosophers. Sudhir Hazareesingh is a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol, Oxford and author of "Daring to be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World, which raises questions about the Enlightenment's exclusion of enslaved people from the universal vision of a good society.
Matthew Sweet hosts the discussion about what it means to be good. 

The six books shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 which will be announced on December 2nd are:

• Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough (Profile Books)
• The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor (Allen Lane)
• Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell (Hurst Publishing)
• Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin (William Collins)
• The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune and the Story of St Kilda by Andrew Fleming (Birlinn)
• The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge (Yale University Press)

The judges for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 are Mary Beard, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Helen King and Diarmaid MacCulloch, with the panel chaired by David Cannadine.

Producer: Jayne Egerton

The Good Life

In party conference season, we look at what bonds party members and what it means to create a new network with its own shared beliefs and rituals. What light can the big thinkers from the worlds of anthropology and sociology shed? From political tribes to criminal gangs, from social media to social class - how do shared beliefs, rituals, rules and values bond us together - and pull us apart?

Anne McElvoy is joined by Kit Davis, emeritus professor of anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London; Lynsey Hanley writer and author of Estates and Respectable: The Experience of Class; Adele Walton, Journalist and author of Logging Off; Alistair Fraser, professor of criminology at Glasgow University; assistant editor of The Spectator and political journalist and Isabel Hardman; and, Rebecca Earle, Professor of History and Chair of the British Academy Book Prize

Shortlist for the British Academy Book Prize announced on October 22nd:
The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years by Sunil Amrith
The Baton and The Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin by Lucy Ash
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple
Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance by Bronwen Everill
Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health by Sophie Harman
Sound Tracks: Uncovering Our Musical Past by Graham Lawson

Producer: Ruth Watts

Finding my tribe

The French philosopher Michel Foucault though friendship could be one of the most subversive relationships around. Our friends can be the most important people in our lives. But managing friendships can be hard work too. Matthew Sweet is joined by a psychotherapist, a historian, a philosopher, a literary historian, and a film critic to discuss the history, politics, and psychology of friendship.

Tiffany Watt Smith is the author of Bad Friend: A Century of Revolutionary Friendships
Susie Orbach's books include Between Women: Love, Envy and Competition in Women's Friendships, co-written with Luise Eichenbaum
Stephen Shapiro is Professor of American Literature at the University of Warwick
Alexander Douglas is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and author of Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self
Phuong Le is a film critic whose writing appears in Sight & Sound, The Guardian and elsewhere

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Friendship

Shahidha Bari looks at censorship, editing and self-censorship with guests including historian of China, Rana Mitter, Jemimah Steinfeld of Index on Censorship and Nigel Warburton, host of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Amelia Fairney discusses her research on sensitivity readers and the conversations that take place in publishing houses. And, Nicola Wilson, who’s been studying reading recommendations from The Book Society which operated in the UK between 1929 and 1968. The book selectors sometimes suggested changes to the published texts so we hear about this history and look at publishing now.

Nicola Wilson's book Recommended! The influencers who changed how we read is out now
Nigel Warburton has written many books on philosophy including A Little History of Philosophy

Producer: Ruth Watts

Revenge and reconciliation

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