Free Thinking – Being Human: Lost and Fo...

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 ... Show More

Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the concentration, distribution and morality of wealth now and look back at An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published by the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith in 1776, which gives an early account of what ... Show More

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 ... Show More

In the mid-19th century, British-occupied Ireland lost roughly one-third of its population during a years-long catastrophe known as “The Great Hunger” or, “The Irish Potato Famine.” In the years that followed, some have wondered if the tragedy wasn’t the result of a natural disas ... Show More

What are the origins of the Irish War of Independence? What impact did the First World War have on Irish efforts for Home Rule? What was the mood in Ireland following the bloody Easter Rising of 1916? And, who was Éamon de Valera, the man who dominated the story of not only Irish ... Show More

<p>This week the boys have the honor of sitting down with <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Damienechols">Damien Echols</a> and his wife Lorri Davis to discuss Damien's time behind bars as one of "The West Memphis Three", how life has changed since his 2011 release, and how findin ... Show More

Margaret talks with writer and podcast host Sarah Marshall about the prisons for "fallen women" around the UK, US & Ireland, and the many people who fought against them, like Sinéad O'Connor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Guest; Daniel Duke is the great-great-grandchildren of Jesse James. He grew up surrounded by stories of lost outlaw treasures. For more than two decades he has been researching the mysteries involving his connection with family, Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and the secrets o ... Show More

After the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson and the signing of the polarising Anglo-Irish Treaty, how did the bombastic Battle of the Four Courts break out in Dublin? With British guns opening fire on the building, how long did the men of the IRA hold out? What was the outcome of ... Show More

Ted Kaczynski, the man better known to the world as the Unabomber, died in 2023. But his manifesto and the ideas he presented as justifications for his killings have become more mainstream. We sat down with Candice DeLong, one of the FBI agents who helped capture Kaczynski in 199 ... Show More

In this informal catch-up chat, Patrick, Katie and Lis question why historians are so reluctant to accept ghost stories as part of cultural heritage. Patrick tells Lis and Katie the surreal moment when he met one of our listeners in real life - plus Lis shares some good museum ne ... Show More