2013 Festival [Free Thinking]

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

An Interview With John Waters

20131106

John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His 'Trash Trilogy' involved negotiations with film censors. In an extended interview recorded in front of an audience, John Waters talks to Samira Ahmed about a career which has moved from film to hosting a show on American Court TV which featured marriages that ended in murder. Their discussion ranges over the influence of Catholicism, his birthplace Baltimore, the films of Douglas Sirk and the perils of hitchhiking.

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Filmmaker John Waters talks to Samira Ahmed about Hairspray, hitchhiking and Baltimore.

Are Audiences Killing Culture?

20131112

20140902 (R3)

In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the visual arts are coming out of the gallery, but is this a welcome trend? Matthew Sweet chairs the Free Thinking panel: BALTIC Curator Godfrey Worsdale, critic Sarah Kent, artist Wolfgang Weileder and Helen Marriage, director of Artichoke, the arts company responsible for a puppet elephant parading through London and Durham's Lumiere street light festival.

Producer: Fiona McLean

Image Credit: 'The Sultan's Elephant' by Royal de Luxe, produced in London in 2006 by Artichoke. Photo copyright Sophie Laslett.

Matthew Sweet presents a debate asking if the arts are leading or following public taste.

Are We At A Tipping Point? Controlling Infection And Combatting Disease

20131028

20140818 (R3)

Increasing resistance to antibiotics is a threat to Britain which could be as dangerous as terrorism. That's the argument put by Professor Dame Sally Davies in her Free Thinking lecture at Sage Gateshead. The first woman to hold the post of Chief Medical Officer for England, she also answers audience questions and talks about strategies for combatting infection and improving the nation's health. Joining her on stage for this discussion is Andrew Sails, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Research and Development and Molecular Diagnostics at Newcastle's Public Health Laboratory, and Professor Hugh Pennnington, Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen.

The event is chaired by Night Waves presenter Anne McElvoy

Recorded at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and first broadcast in October 2013.

Professor Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, lectures on disease.

Controlling Moods And Minds: Depression And Smart Drugs

20131104

Professor Barbara Sahakian's book Bad Moves questions the ethics of smart drugs; they help treat brain injury and illness but should they be available to the healthy? Richard Bentall is the Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool and author of Madness Explained and Doctoring the Mind.

Guardian columnist and author Clare Allan drew on her experiences of being a psychiatric patient in her novel Poppy Shakespeare.

The theme of this year's Free Thinking Festival is 'Who's In Control?'. Presenter Rana Mitter chairs this discussion looking at the neuroscience of depression, how it affects decision-making and the morality of medical treatments.

Producer: Philippa Ritchie.

A debate about depression, decision-making and the morality of medical treatments.

Controlling The Countryside

20131107

Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On stage at Free Thinking to debate the issue are: Dame Fiona Reynolds, former head of the National Trust; Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage and author of The Building of England and The Men from the Ministry; Jon Alexander, reformed ad-man and founder of the newcitizenship project; rural sociologist Professor Mark Shucksmith, Director of Newcastle University's Newcastle Institute of Social renewal and Canon Dagmar Winter, Rural Affairs Officer for the Diocese of Newcastle. Samira Ahmed chairs the discussion.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Fiona Reynolds and Simon Thurley discuss planning and power pressures on rural areas.

How On Earth Can We Cope With Less?

20131031

In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant pressure on time, how does not having enough shape the way we think and act? Professors Sendhil Mullainathan from Harvard, Simin Davoudi from Newcastle and Jeremy Till from Central St Martins discuss scarcity and sustainability with Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage Gateshead.

BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Philip Dodd chairs a discussion about scarcity, sustainability and creativity.

Michael Marmot On Self-control

20131025

Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2013, exploring the traits that determine a healthy life span and arguing that we need to rethink the relationship between health, wealth and self-control.

Professor Marmot is one of the global pioneers of research into health inequalities - how stress, status and diet can affect our wellbeing. His ground-breaking Whitehall Studies followed the health and stress levels of British civil servants over a decade and he coined the term 'status syndrome' to describe his discovery that being lower down the pecking order leads to a shorter life span.

Sir Michael Marmot's talk about whether self-control is the key to a long life was recorded earlier tonight in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead and presented by Philip Dodd. It marks the start of three weeks of Free Thinking broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.

This year's festival theme is 'Who's in Control'. A weekend of provocative debate, new ideas, music and performance will hear from Lionel Shriver, Patrick Ness, Dame Sally Davies, Chris Mullin, Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor Sugata Mitra, Kathryn Tickell, Penny Woolcock, Dame Fiona Reynolds, Kevin Whately.

Now in its eighth year, the Free Thinking Festival of ideas takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is produced and broadcast by BBC Radio 3. It's a platform for today's innovative thinkers, who debate the ideas shaping our world.

Michael Marmot's Free Thinking Lecture, asking 'Is self-control the key to a long life?'.

Penny Woolcock

20131120

Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. For the Free Thinking Festival, she returned to the city where she began her career. During her work at Trade Films in Gateshead she depicted the aftermath of the closure of the steelworks in Consett in When the Dog Bites. Other projects have included a retelling of the biblical chapter Exodus, featuring Margate residents and the burning of a specially constructed Antony Gormley sculpture and an exploration of the UK coastline set to music by the rock band British Sea Power. Her most recent project involved negotiating a truce between rival Birmingham gangs which she documented in One Mile Away.

Producer: Natalie Steed.

Director Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about working in opera and film.

Power To The People: What Choices Do We Have?

20131030

Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public pressure and the increasing emphasis on 'choice' and 'consultation' leave professional expertise and political instinct? Anne McElvoy chairs a panel at the Free Thinking Festival of Ideas, at Sage Gateshead, including the founder of the Renewal campaign David Skelton, the columnist David Aaronovitch and Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham who sits on the governments NHS Future Forum.

BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October. The theme of this year's events is 'Who's In Control?

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

David Skelton, David Aaronovitch and Julie Moore discuss power and consultation.

Science Fiction And Surveillance: Zamyatin's We

20131029

Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable 'We', which was published in 1919. It depicts a city of glass where citizens are spied upon. Fans of the book have included George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe and it increasingly resonates with today's concerns about surveillance techniques. Matthew Sweet and an audience at The Free Thinking Festival from Sage Gateshead discuss the novel with poet Sean O'Brien, columnist David Aaronovitch and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon.

BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October

Producer: Zahid Warley.

Matthew Sweet discusses Zamyatin's 1919 novel We, which depicts spying in a glass city.

Teaching The Teachers: The Future Of Education

20131105

20140821 (R3)

Professor Sugata Mitra's pioneering experiments gave children in India access to computers to teach themselves and inspired the novel which became the film Slumdog Millionaire. He is now using retired volunteers in the UK to share their knowledge and guide children across the other side of the world. At the Free Thinking Festival he outlines the way he plans to use the $1 million 2013 Ted Prize to further his vision of 'schools in the cloud' and how this differs from a UK education system involving league tables and a set curriculum.

Presenter: Philip Dodd

Producer: Fiona McLean

First broadcast in November 2013.

Lecture in which Professor Sugata Mitra talks about teaching ourselves using computers.

What's Eating You?

20131113

20140822 (R3)

What is the place of food and body image in contemporary culture? Lionel Shriver is the author of novels including We Need To Talk About Kevin and Big Brother, which depicts the impact of food obsession on family relationships. Dr Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is the author of Don't Look, Don't Touch: The Science Behind Revulsion. Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival brought them together for a discussion chaired by Samira Ahmed.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

First broadcast in November 2013.

Authors Lionel Shriver and Val Curtis ask if we are too obsessed with food and body image.

Who's Got Hold Of Children's Imaginations?

20131108

In his 'Chaos Walking' trilogy, Patrick Ness created a town where secrecy and privacy were impossible. Dr Charles Fernyhough's writing and research examines the development of childhood language and memories. In a discussion recorded in front of an audience at this year's Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, they discuss, with presenter Matthew Sweet, the way children cope in an unstable world and what stimulates young imaginations.

Producer: Robyn Read.

Authors Patrick Ness and Professor Charles Fernyhough discuss children's imaginations.

Whose Strife Is It Anyway?

20131114

Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan discuss depictions of the powerless in fiction and factual reporting with Rana Mitter. Chaudhuri has explored life in Calcutta in many of his novels and essays; Badhadur's book Coolie Woman: The Odyssesy of Indenture takes the history of her great grandmother and examines the status of women who worked as labourers on sugar plantations; Khan is an editor for the Urdu section of the BBC's World Service.

In a programme recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, the panel debate the idea of responsibility and whether stories about tragedy and poverty reinforce stereotypes or change attitudes and prompt action?

Producer: Natalie Steed.

Who has the right to depict the experiences of the powerless? Rana Mitter chairs a debate.

Why Are Maps Still So Powerful?

20131111

20140819 (R3)

Can a map reveal too much? How do they direct our thinking? From ancient atlases to satnav and Google, maps continue to be a key planning tool.

Rana Mitter hosts a discussion recorded at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead between Vanessa Lawrence CB, head of Ordnance Survey and Professor Jerry Broton. They look at who owns the data? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? Who has peer reviewed the maps?

Professor Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London is the author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps and presenter of the BBC Four TV series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession.

Vanessa Lawrence is advisor to the British government on mapping, surveying and geographic information. She is honorary vice-president of the Geographical Association and visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and Kingston University.

First broadcast in November 2013.

Producer: Neil Trevithick.

A discussion asking if maps can reveal too much and how they direct our thinking.

Episodes

Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
An Interview With John Waters	20131106		John Waters' film Hairspray became a hit musical. His 'Trash Trilogy' involved negotiations with film censors. In an extended interview recorded in front of an audience, John Waters talks to Samira Ahmed about a career which has moved from film to hosting a show on American Court TV which featured marriages that ended in murder. Their discussion ranges over the influence of Catholicism, his birthplace Baltimore, the films of Douglas Sirk and the perils of hitchhiking. Producer: Zahid Warley. Filmmaker John Waters talks to Samira Ahmed about Hairspray, hitchhiking and Baltimore.
Are Audiences Killing Culture?	20131112	20140902 (R3)	In a bid to reach new audiences, theatre is increasingly moving off the stage and the visual arts are coming out of the gallery, but is this a welcome trend? Matthew Sweet chairs the Free Thinking panel: BALTIC Curator Godfrey Worsdale, critic Sarah Kent, artist Wolfgang Weileder and Helen Marriage, director of Artichoke, the arts company responsible for a puppet elephant parading through London and Durham's Lumiere street light festival. Producer: Fiona McLean Image Credit: 'The Sultan's Elephant' by Royal de Luxe, produced in London in 2006 by Artichoke. Photo copyright Sophie Laslett. Matthew Sweet presents a debate asking if the arts are leading or following public taste.
Are We At A Tipping Point? Controlling Infection And Combatting Disease	20131028	20140818 (R3)	Increasing resistance to antibiotics is a threat to Britain which could be as dangerous as terrorism. That's the argument put by Professor Dame Sally Davies in her Free Thinking lecture at Sage Gateshead. The first woman to hold the post of Chief Medical Officer for England, she also answers audience questions and talks about strategies for combatting infection and improving the nation's health. Joining her on stage for this discussion is Andrew Sails, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Research and Development and Molecular Diagnostics at Newcastle's Public Health Laboratory, and Professor Hugh Pennnington, Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen. The event is chaired by Night Waves presenter Anne McElvoy Recorded at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and first broadcast in October 2013. Professor Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, lectures on disease.
Controlling Moods And Minds: Depression And Smart Drugs	20131104		Professor Barbara Sahakian's book Bad Moves questions the ethics of smart drugs; they help treat brain injury and illness but should they be available to the healthy? Richard Bentall is the Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool and author of Madness Explained and Doctoring the Mind. Guardian columnist and author Clare Allan drew on her experiences of being a psychiatric patient in her novel Poppy Shakespeare. The theme of this year's Free Thinking Festival is 'Who's In Control?'. Presenter Rana Mitter chairs this discussion looking at the neuroscience of depression, how it affects decision-making and the morality of medical treatments. Producer: Philippa Ritchie. A debate about depression, decision-making and the morality of medical treatments.
Controlling The Countryside	20131107		Are our policy makers too urban in their outlook? Have we lost touch with nature? On stage at Free Thinking to debate the issue are: Dame Fiona Reynolds, former head of the National Trust; Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage and author of The Building of England and The Men from the Ministry; Jon Alexander, reformed ad-man and founder of the newcitizenship project; rural sociologist Professor Mark Shucksmith, Director of Newcastle University's Newcastle Institute of Social renewal and Canon Dagmar Winter, Rural Affairs Officer for the Diocese of Newcastle. Samira Ahmed chairs the discussion. Producer: Jacqueline Smith. Fiona Reynolds and Simon Thurley discuss planning and power pressures on rural areas.
How On Earth Can We Cope With Less?	20131031		In a world of diminishing natural resources, global economic crisis and constant pressure on time, how does not having enough shape the way we think and act? Professors Sendhil Mullainathan from Harvard, Simin Davoudi from Newcastle and Jeremy Till from Central St Martins discuss scarcity and sustainability with Philip Dodd and an audience at Sage Gateshead. BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October Producer: Zahid Warley. Philip Dodd chairs a discussion about scarcity, sustainability and creativity.
Michael Marmot On Self-control	20131025		Sir Michael Marmot delivers the opening lecture of the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival 2013, exploring the traits that determine a healthy life span and arguing that we need to rethink the relationship between health, wealth and self-control. Professor Marmot is one of the global pioneers of research into health inequalities - how stress, status and diet can affect our wellbeing. His ground-breaking Whitehall Studies followed the health and stress levels of British civil servants over a decade and he coined the term 'status syndrome' to describe his discovery that being lower down the pecking order leads to a shorter life span. Sir Michael Marmot's talk about whether self-control is the key to a long life was recorded earlier tonight in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead and presented by Philip Dodd. It marks the start of three weeks of Free Thinking broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. This year's festival theme is 'Who's in Control'. A weekend of provocative debate, new ideas, music and performance will hear from Lionel Shriver, Patrick Ness, Dame Sally Davies, Chris Mullin, Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor Sugata Mitra, Kathryn Tickell, Penny Woolcock, Dame Fiona Reynolds, Kevin Whately. Now in its eighth year, the Free Thinking Festival of ideas takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is produced and broadcast by BBC Radio 3. It's a platform for today's innovative thinkers, who debate the ideas shaping our world. Michael Marmot's Free Thinking Lecture, asking 'Is self-control the key to a long life?'.
Penny Woolcock	20131120		Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about directing a film version of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. For the Free Thinking Festival, she returned to the city where she began her career. During her work at Trade Films in Gateshead she depicted the aftermath of the closure of the steelworks in Consett in When the Dog Bites. Other projects have included a retelling of the biblical chapter Exodus, featuring Margate residents and the burning of a specially constructed Antony Gormley sculpture and an exploration of the UK coastline set to music by the rock band British Sea Power. Her most recent project involved negotiating a truce between rival Birmingham gangs which she documented in One Mile Away. Producer: Natalie Steed. Director Penny Woolcock talks to Samira Ahmed about working in opera and film.
Power To The People: What Choices Do We Have?	20131030		Social media allows us to make our views known quickly but where does this public pressure and the increasing emphasis on 'choice' and 'consultation' leave professional expertise and political instinct? Anne McElvoy chairs a panel at the Free Thinking Festival of Ideas, at Sage Gateshead, including the founder of the Renewal campaign David Skelton, the columnist David Aaronovitch and Dame Julie Moore, Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham who sits on the governments NHS Future Forum. BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October. The theme of this year's events is 'Who's In Control? Producer: Luke Mulhall. David Skelton, David Aaronovitch and Julie Moore discuss power and consultation.
Science Fiction And Surveillance: Zamyatin's We	20131029		Yevgeny Zamyatin's experiences in the Tyne shipyards fed into his dystopian fable 'We', which was published in 1919. It depicts a city of glass where citizens are spied upon. Fans of the book have included George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe and it increasingly resonates with today's concerns about surveillance techniques. Matthew Sweet and an audience at The Free Thinking Festival from Sage Gateshead discuss the novel with poet Sean O'Brien, columnist David Aaronovitch and Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon. BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October Producer: Zahid Warley. Matthew Sweet discusses Zamyatin's 1919 novel We, which depicts spying in a glass city.
Teaching The Teachers: The Future Of Education	20131105	20140821 (R3)	Professor Sugata Mitra's pioneering experiments gave children in India access to computers to teach themselves and inspired the novel which became the film Slumdog Millionaire. He is now using retired volunteers in the UK to share their knowledge and guide children across the other side of the world. At the Free Thinking Festival he outlines the way he plans to use the $1 million 2013 Ted Prize to further his vision of 'schools in the cloud' and how this differs from a UK education system involving league tables and a set curriculum. Presenter: Philip Dodd Producer: Fiona McLean First broadcast in November 2013. Lecture in which Professor Sugata Mitra talks about teaching ourselves using computers.
What's Eating You?	20131113	20140822 (R3)	What is the place of food and body image in contemporary culture? Lionel Shriver is the author of novels including We Need To Talk About Kevin and Big Brother, which depicts the impact of food obsession on family relationships. Dr Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is the author of Don't Look, Don't Touch: The Science Behind Revulsion. Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival brought them together for a discussion chaired by Samira Ahmed. Producer: Jacqueline Smith First broadcast in November 2013. Authors Lionel Shriver and Val Curtis ask if we are too obsessed with food and body image.
Who's Got Hold Of Children's Imaginations?	20131108		In his 'Chaos Walking' trilogy, Patrick Ness created a town where secrecy and privacy were impossible. Dr Charles Fernyhough's writing and research examines the development of childhood language and memories. In a discussion recorded in front of an audience at this year's Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, they discuss, with presenter Matthew Sweet, the way children cope in an unstable world and what stimulates young imaginations. Producer: Robyn Read. Authors Patrick Ness and Professor Charles Fernyhough discuss children's imaginations.
Whose Strife Is It Anyway?	20131114		Amit Chaudhuri, Gaiutra Bahadur and Aamer Ahmed Khan discuss depictions of the powerless in fiction and factual reporting with Rana Mitter. Chaudhuri has explored life in Calcutta in many of his novels and essays; Badhadur's book Coolie Woman: The Odyssesy of Indenture takes the history of her great grandmother and examines the status of women who worked as labourers on sugar plantations; Khan is an editor for the Urdu section of the BBC's World Service. In a programme recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead, the panel debate the idea of responsibility and whether stories about tragedy and poverty reinforce stereotypes or change attitudes and prompt action? Producer: Natalie Steed. Who has the right to depict the experiences of the powerless? Rana Mitter chairs a debate.
Why Are Maps Still So Powerful?	20131111	20140819 (R3)	Can a map reveal too much? How do they direct our thinking? From ancient atlases to satnav and Google, maps continue to be a key planning tool. Rana Mitter hosts a discussion recorded at BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead between Vanessa Lawrence CB, head of Ordnance Survey and Professor Jerry Broton. They look at who owns the data? What are they doing with it? Who are they selling it to? Who has peer reviewed the maps? Professor Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London is the author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps and presenter of the BBC Four TV series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. Vanessa Lawrence is advisor to the British government on mapping, surveying and geographic information. She is honorary vice-president of the Geographical Association and visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and Kingston University. First broadcast in November 2013. Producer: Neil Trevithick. A discussion asking if maps can reveal too much and how they direct our thinking.