Free Thinking Folgen

Deciphering Dickens's shorthand, how the National Health Service uses graphic art to convey messages, creating a comic strip from Greek myths: these are some of the events taking place at the annual Being Human Festival in which universities around the UK introduce their research in a series of public talks, walks, workshops and performances. Laurence Scott meets some of those taking part and discusses different ways of recording and presenting information from comics to coded notebooks, to a scheme that projected books onto the ceilings of hospitals, which made it possible for thousands of people with disabilities to read after the Second World War.Dr Claire Wood is at the University of Leicester. Her event is called Cracking the Dickens CodeProfessor Anna Feigenbaum is at the University of Bournemouth. Her event is called Covid Comics and Me. Find out more at https://www.covidcomics.org/Dr Amanda Potter is at the Open University. Her event is called Greek Mythology Comic Writing WorkshopProfessor Matthew Rubery is at Queen Mary University of London. His event is called Projected Books for Veterans of the Second World WarThe Being Human Festival runs from November 11th to 20th https://beinghumanfestival.org/Producer: Phoebe McFarlane.This New Thinking episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast was made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. You can find other programmes hearing insights from academics in our New Research playlist on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

Cold, civil, world, uprising, conflict, war on terror: Anne McElvoy and her guests Elif Shafak, Christina Lamb, Lincoln Jopp and Hilary Roberts explore the impact of the words we use to describe conflict. The Imperial War Museum has just revamped its "Second World War" galleries with changed dates and a wider focus and Cold War history is being rewritten in the light of current politics. So this year's Remembrance discussion asks how does language affect attitudes to war?Elif Shafak's latest novel The Island of Missing Trees explores the division of Cyprus. Journalist Christina Lamb's books include Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women and Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World and with Nujeen Mustafa she published The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen's Escape from War to Freedom and with Malala Yousafzai she published I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Hilary Roberts is the IWM's Senior Curator and Historian of Cold War and Late 20th Century Conflict. Total War: A People’s History of the Second World War and The Holocaust by IWM curators Kate Clements, Paul Cornish and Vikki Hawkins an illustrated history of the Second World War, told with the help of personal stories from across the globe has been published to mark the re-opening of the IWM galleries. Lieutenant-Colonel Lincoln Jopp MC (retired) discussed war and modern memory on Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07jlbvp and at the Free Thinking Festival he debated decision making and quick reactions with Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Damon Hill https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08j9zshProducer: Torquil MacLeodYou can find a playlist on the Free Thinking website exploring war hearing from historians, writers, soldiers, diplomats, artists and including the previous Remembrance Discussions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kgbyb

Modern theology often treats God as an abstract principle: a mover that doesn't move. But in the Bible, Abraham walks alongside him, Jacob (arguably) spends a night wrestling with him, Moses talks with him face to face, Ezekiel sees him sitting on a throne, and Amos sees him standing in his temple. Jesus is declared the son of God, and declares in turn that he has sat alongside God at his right hand. Biblical scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou joins Matthew Sweet to discuss the embodied divine and what it means for our understanding of God, along with with Hetta Howes, who studies Medieval mystical Christianity, and psychotherapist and former priest Mark Vernon.On our website you can find a playlist called Free Thinking explores religious belief which includes conversations about Jewish history, Buddhism, interviews with Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins, a discussion of St John Henry Newman and about Islam and Mecca. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlpYou might also be interested in hearing the music picked out by Francesca Stavrakopoulou on Radio 3's Private Passions https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnv3Producer: Luke Mulhall