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Society & Culture

Free Thinking

by BBC Radio 4
Society & Culture

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Latest episodes

  • What's So Good About Democracy?

    October 23, 2026 · 57 min

    Is democracy in crisis? From anarchic social media to the rise of authoritarianism, Mathew Sweet and guests give our political system a full MOT, from the basics of democratic theory to questions about how it should run from day-to-day…

  • Bread

    October 16, 2026 · 57 min

    The 'bread of life', your 'bread and butter', bread riots and 'let them eat cake', gentrification and bakeries: Shahidha Bari hosts the round-table discussion programme about ideas and, as part of Radio 4's Farming Tomorrow season of…

  • Reading Against the Grain

    October 9, 2026 · 57 min

    What is left unsaid and who is missing from historical archives? Reading against the grain is a way of thinking about these questions and in the week when Woman's Hour marks 80 years of broadcasting, Radio 4's Friday night round table…

  • The Example of St Francis

    October 2, 2026 · 57 min

    He renounced his fortune and lived amongst animals so does the example of St Francis help us think about issues like the wealth gap and our relationship with the environment and the natural world. October 4th is his feast day and this year…

  • Intellectuals

    September 25, 2026 · 57 min

    What is the role of intellectuals in public life? Matthew Sweet hosts Radio 4's Friday night round table discussion programme about ideas. His guests are: Emile Chabal, author of a new biography about Marxist historian Eric…

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  • The Ethics of Knowledge

    July 10, 2026 · 57 min

    Do we have a responsibility to inform ourselves about the state of the world? Is the experience of some people valued more highly than that of others? Matthew Sweet investigates the ethics of knowledge in Radio 4's round table discussion…

  • Trade and Traffic

    July 3, 2026 · 57 min

    What does trade set in motion beyond the exchange of goods? Anne McElvoy explores the movement of commerce across time as a carrier of habits, ideas, ambitions and influence, as well as of material things. From the early modern world…

  • The Child's Eye View

    June 26, 2026 · 56 min

    Shahidha Bari investigates the child’s-eye view of the world. From navigating AI to living through war and the joys of reading, what makes children’s perspectives so distinctive? With writer Katherine Rundell, psychotherapist Josh Cohen…

  • Eccentrics & Outsiders

    June 19, 2026 · 57 min

    How has the figure of the outsider or eccentric been used to explore English culture, history, politics, and our relationship with nature and the countryside? Matthew Sweet discusses, including a re-reading of Sylvia Townsend Warner's 1926…

  • Satire and Gulliver's Travels

    June 12, 2026 · 57 min

    300 years after the publication of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Matthew Sweet looks at satire, past and present. How can satirists reflect critically and humorously on political events in an age of social media saturation and at a…

  • Wealth

    June 5, 2026 · 57 min

    Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the concentration, distribution and morality of wealth now and look back at An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published by the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith in…

  • Free Thinking at the Hay Festival: Responsibility

    May 29, 2026 · 57 min

    Freedom is one of the leading values of our society. But with freedom comes responsibility, which is a much more contested principle. Deciding where responsibility lies, and what it means to take it, is the job of the courts. It is also…

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About the show

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