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Arts & Ideas: Daily Summaries Delivered
by BBC Radio 4
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
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- 2 weeks ago56 min
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 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 MulhallPart of a series of programmes across Radio 4 looking at what drives us apart and how to bring us together – look for Common Ground.
- 3 weeks ago56 min
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 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 EnglandJeremy 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 WarProfessor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy SchoolDr Lauren Working is a Lecturer in Early Modern Literature at York University and author of A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance EnglandProducer: Ruth Watts
- 3 weeks ago56 min
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 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 EnglandJeremy 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 WarProfessor Rana Mitter is ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy SchoolDr 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
- Jun 26, 202656 min
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 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
- Jun 26, 202656 min
The Child's Eye View
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, nature writer and novelist Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, historian Emma Butcher and psychologist Nomisha Kurian. Producer: Luke Mulhall
- Jun 19, 20261h 54m
Eccentrics & Outsiders
How has the figure of the outsider or eccentric has 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 novel Lolly Willowes, in which a middle aged woman leaves her suburban life behind to become a witch. With philosopher Charles Foster, literary historian Jade Munslow Ong, political philosopher Sophie Scott Brown, and psychotherapist Mark Vernon. Producer: Luke Mulhall
- Jun 19, 202656 min
Eccentrics & Outsiders
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 novel Lolly Willowes, in which a middle aged woman leaves her suburban life behind to become a witch. With philosopher Charles Foster, literary historian Jade Munslow Ong, political philosopher Sophie Scott Brown, and psychotherapist Mark Vernon. Producer: Luke Mulhall
- Jun 12, 202656 min
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 reflect critically and humorously on political events in an age of social media saturation and at a time when reality can seem stranger than fiction?He is joined by:Andrew Hunter Murray, comedian, writer and host of Radio 4's The Naked Week. His new book is Bad Deeds.Jan Ravens, actor and impressionist, known for her work on Spitting Image and Radio 4's Dead RingersRosie Holt, actor and comedian. Rosie's shows Churchill's Urinal and Rosie Holt: The Illegal Aliens have landed! will both be at Edinburgh Festival.Tom Peck, Parliamentary sketch writer for The TimesandSiôn Parkinson, artist, Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and 2026 AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker.Producer: Eliane Glaser
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About Arts & Ideas
Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
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