Free Thinking at the Hay Festival: Responsibility

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 debated in Parliament and in the media. It is often at issue on the psychotherapist’s couch. For Radio 4’s arts and ideas discussion programme, Shahidha Bari gathers a panel of experts who deal with the concept of responsibility in very different contexts. Recorded in front of an audience at the Hay Festival, Shahidha's guests are: Baroness Hale served as the most senior judge in the UK. Her books include Spider Woman, and With the Law on Our Side Psychotherapist and artist Philippa Perry. Her books include The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, How to Stay Sane and now a crime novel Shrink Solves Murder Philosopher Simon Critchley. His books include On Mysticism, Tragedy: The Greeks and Us, and What We Think About When We Think About Football Former Downing Street Director of Communications Guto Harri Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can listen to Free Thinking at the Hay Festival: Responsibility online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Free Thinking at the Hay Festival: Responsibility is an episode from Arts and Ideas by BBC.

This episode is 56:33 long.

This episode was published on May 29, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Arts and Ideas when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.