Main content

Free Thinking 2014 Festival Episodes

Back up to: Free Thinking

  1. Fear or Wonder: Everything Under the Moon

    Have science fiction and space travel changed people's relationship with the world?

  2. The Cost of Free Information

    Rana Mitter hosts a debate asking if the internet can make knowledge open to all.

  3. Happy Talk: Beatrix Campbell, Vincent Deary and Paul Dolan

    Rana Mitter and a panel consider 'how much self-knowledge do we need to be happy?'.

  4. Knowing Your Characters: David Greig and Siobhan Redmond in Conversation

    Siobhan Redmond and David Greig discuss drama and how much one has to know about a play.

  5. Animals: Watching Us Watching Them Watching Each Other

    Rana Mitter explores the links between the behaviour of animals and humans.

  6. Bringing the Rich to Book: John Lanchester on the Language of Money

    John Lanchester discusses the wealth gap, banking and how we understand the economy.

  7. Imagining Turkey: Elif Shafak in Conversation

    Turkish writer Elif Shafak joins Anne McElvoy in conversation at Sage Gateshead.

  8. From Flat Caps to Benefit Caps

    David Almond, Eliza Carthy and Alison Light debate working class history with Anne McElvoy

  9. Burning the Facts: The Link Between Lord Lucan and Joan of Arc

    Historian Helen Castor and biographer Laura Thompson discuss myths, mysteries and evidence

  10. Right Thinking People

    David Willetts MP and Roger Scruton discuss how much specialist knowledge politicians need

  11. You Must See This

    Matthew Sweet chairs a debate exploring technology's impact on cultural taste.

  13. Knowing Your Enemy: Andrey Kurkov, Gabrielle Rifkind, John Kampfner

    A discussion exploring protest, foreign policy, intervention and peace-making.

  14. Karen Armstrong

    Karen Armstrong argues that a recognition of how little we know is the only way to peace.