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Arts

Arts and Ideas

BBC

The best of BBC Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme Free Thinking - featuring in-depth interviews and debates with artists, scientists and public figures.

Arts and Ideas Podcast Guide

Listen to Arts and Ideas, a Arts podcast by BBC. Stream 2,012 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.

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Browse this show under Arts podcasts.

Episodes

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Episodes

20 of 2,012 episodes

The Ethics of Knowledge

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...

56:43Jul 10, 2026

Trade and traffic

What does trade set in motion beyond the exchange of goods? Anne McElvoy explores the movement of commerce across time as a carrier of habit...

56:45Jul 3, 2026

The Child's Eye View

Shahidha Bari investigates the child’s-eye view of the world. From navigating AI, to living through war, to the joys of reading, what makes...

56:26Jun 26, 2026

Eccentrics & Outsiders

How has the figure of the outsider or eccentric has been used to explore English culture, history, politics, and our relationship with natur...

114:54Jun 19, 2026

Satire and Gulliver's Travels

300 years after the publication of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Matthew Sweet looks at satire, past and present. How can satirists r...

56:43Jun 12, 2026

Wealth

Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the concentration, distribution and morality of wealth now and look back at An Inquiry into the Nature and C...

56:51Jun 5, 2026

Thinking with Food

The links between food and philosophy, ideas about experimentation, taste and how food and traditions become part of our identity are explor...

56:52May 22, 2026

Technologies of the Self

‘Technologies of the self’ is a phrase from the French philosopher Michel Foucault to describe things people might do to shape the people th...

57:02May 15, 2026

The Middle

From taking the middle ground to the mid-life crisis, Middle England to middle managers, to being a middle child - is occupying a position i...

57:00May 8, 2026

Weapons, real and symbolic

How do weapons exert real and symbolic power, both now and in history? Joining Matthew Sweet in Radio 4's round table discussion programme a...

56:28May 1, 2026

Weapons, real and symbolic

How do weapons exert real and symbolic power, both now and in history? Joining Matthew Sweet are: The former soldier and politician Tobias E...

56:28May 1, 2026

Purity

From spiritual cleanliness to purity spirals: Matthew Sweet is joined by guests including David Aaronovitch; Catherine Coldstream, author of...

56:31Apr 24, 2026

Humility

From Spinoza's thinking and the approach of different religions to the Dickens' character Uriah Heep and the "humble brag" - in Radio 4's la...

56:56Mar 27, 2026

Oral tradition and oracy

Oracy - the ability to express oneself fluently - has been included in plans to modernise the national curriculum, with a new focus on equip...

56:44Mar 20, 2026

Taste

'It's all in the best possible taste'. But what does it mean to have good taste? And does pursuing good taste lead to favouring style over s...

56:48Mar 16, 2026

Women, language & experience

In a special programme looking ahead to International Women’s Day on March 8th, Shahidha Bari looks at how women express themselves in langu...

56:59Mar 6, 2026

Authority

Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business lead...

57:15Feb 27, 2026

Crime and punishment medieval to modern

How have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? In Radio 4's ro...

56:31Feb 20, 2026

Working Class Creativity

From an impoverished neighbourhood in South London, Charlie Chaplin became one of the most significant figures in the development of cinema....

56:50Feb 13, 2026