Free Thinking

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 Hobsbawm;
Sophie Scott Brown, who’s researching BBC TV programme The Brains Trust, in which historians, philosophers and others answered questions sent in by the audience; critic and columnist Muriel Zagha;
former editor of Prospect magazine David Goodhart;
and curator and critic Pierre d'Alancaisez.
Producer: Luke Mulhall

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 programme.
With:
Quassim Cassam, philosopher and author of Intellectual Vices
Havi Carel, a philosopher who's worked extensively on imbalances of knowledge in healthcare and other areas
Ian Kidd, philosopher specializing in the ethics of knowledge
Ebony Reid, author of Trapped Lives
Marianna Spring, the BBC's misinformation correspondent
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Part of a series of programmes across Radio 4 looking at what drives us apart and how to bring us together – look for Common Ground.

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, where trade was entangled with colonial expansion and shaped by unequal, sometimes unexpected encounters, to the supply chains and diplomatic negotiations of the present, this discussion asks how economic exchange has also mediated cultural contact. Alongside rivalry and wealth, how has trade given rise to its own languages of civility, reciprocity and trust?
Guests include:
Nandini Das is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford University and author of This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England
Jeremy Hunt is a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and the author of Can We Be Rich Again?
Soumaya Keynes is an economist and columnist at the Financial Times and the author of How to Win a Trade War
Professor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School
Dr Lauren Working is a Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at York University and author of A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England
Producer: Ruth Watts

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, where trade was entangled with colonial expansion and shaped by unequal, sometimes unexpected encounters, to the supply chains and diplomatic negotiations of the present, this discussion asks how economic exchange has also mediated cultural contact. Alongside rivalry and wealth, how has trade given rise to its own languages of civility, reciprocity and trust?
Guests include:
Nandini Das is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Oxford University and author of This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England
Jeremy Hunt is a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and the author of Can We Be Rich Again?
Soumaya Keynes is an economist and columnist at the Financial Times and the author of How to Win a Trade War
Professor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School
Dr Lauren Working is a Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at York University and author of A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England
Producer: Ruth Watts

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 children’s perspectives so distinctive? With writer Katherine Rundell, psychotherapist Josh Cohen, nature writer and novelist Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, historian Emma Butcher, and psychologist Nomisha Kurian.
Producer: Luke Mulhall