In this 2019 episode, John interviews the celebrated British writer Zadie Smith. The conversation quickly moves through Brexit (oh, the inhumanity!) and what it means to be a London–no, a Northwest London–writer before arriving at her case against identity politics. That case is bolstered by a discussion of Hannah Arendt on the difference between who and wha ... Show More
Yesterday
Rhea Rahman, "Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown, and White" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)
Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown and White (U Minnesota Press, 2026) is an ethnography of Islamic Relief (IR), the largest Islamic NGO based in the West. Racializing the Ummah explores how a Muslim organization can do good in a world that defines M ... Show More
1h 5m
Apr 28
David Womersley, "Thinking Through Shakespeare" (Princeton UP, 2026)
In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.” Johnson’s vie ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 27
The British General Election of 2024: A Conversation with Robert Ford and Paula Surridge
Why and how did Labour win the 2024 election? In The British General Election of 2024 Robert Ford, a Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester, Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, Will Jennings, Professor of Politics at the University ... Show More
47m 30s
Apr 2024
Kant today, Spice Girls Reunited, Impersonating an Animal
Marshmallows and Kant, ideas about girl power from Mary Wollstonecraft (born April 27th 1759) to the Spice girls; and galloping horses, sea-gull sounds and life as a goat. On today's Free Thinking Shahidha Bari is joined by literary historian Alexandra Reza, philosophers Angela B ... Show More
57m 4s
Jun 2022
Reviews of the film All My Friends Hate Me and the play Cancelling Socrates; the Women's Prize for Fiction nominee Ruth Ozeki
On our Thursday review panel this week: the film critic Leila Latif and Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge, review the British comedy horror film All My Friends Hate Me, directed by Andrew Gaynord and Howard Brenton's play Can ... Show More
42m 27s
Oct 2021
Chloe Zhao, Thomasin McKenzie, Last Night in Soho and Antlers
Chloe Zhao talks about her new film Eternals, Thomasin McKenzie tells us about starring in Edgar Wright’s new film.Plus we have reviews of Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone on its 20th Anniversary re-release; Antlers, set in an isolated Oregon town, about a middle-school tea ... Show More
1h 46m
Jan 2016
The Danish Girl, War and Peace, Deutschland 83, Angela Clarke Follow Me, Fallout 4 and Her Story
The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, portrayed in the film respectively by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hoope ... Show More
41m 43s