Free Thinking Folgen

Singer Umm Kulthum, Mounira al-Mahdiyya, Badia Masabni. These are the names of the pioneering performers working in Cairo's dance halls and theatres in the 1020s whom Raphael Cormack has written about in his new book. From that period of cosmopolitan culture to the uprising in 2011 - how has Egypt shifted ? New Generation Thinker Dina Rezk lectures at the University of Reading and she's been reading the new novel by Alaa Al Aswany - The Republic of False Truths. Edmund Richardson researches Alexander the Great and he's written about a Victorian pilgrim, spy, doctor, archaeologist Charles Masson who found a lost city in Afghanistan. Anne McElvoy presents.Raphael Cormack's book is called Midnight in Cairo: The Female Stars of Egypt's Roaring '20sDina Rezk is a New Generation Thinker and Associate Professor of History at the University of Reading. Her recent research has focused on the upheavals of the 'Arab Spring' across the Middle East.Edmund Richardson is a New Generation Thinker and Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham. His book is called Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost CityProducer: Ruth WattsImage: People celebrate at Tahrir Square, Cairo on 3rd July 2013 Credit: BBC (Abdel Khalik Salah)

What stories are being uncovered by people working behind the scenes at museums and institutions? Lisa Mullen finds out talking to Tessa Jackson – Conservator; David Beavan – Senior Research Software Engineer, Turing Institute and Matt Harle – Archivist and curator at the Barbican.Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life runs at the Hepworth Wakefield from 21 May 2021 to 27 Feb 2022. The gallery also runs a Hepworth Research Network in partnership with the Department of History of Art at the University of York and the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. https://hepworthwakefield.org/our-story/hepworth-research-network/people/Matthew Harle is an archivist working with the Barbican as it prepares for its 40th anniversary so is assembling an archive alongside the Guildhall School of Music and Drama https://www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/our-archive/about-the-archivehttps://matthewharle.com/Barbican-ArchiveThe Alan Turing Institute https://www.turing.ac.uk/ is the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence running a host of research projects into topics including AI, Public Policy and Living with Machines - a project that rethinks the impact of technology on the lives of ordinary people during the Industrial Revolution. https://livingwithmachines.ac.uk You can hear more from historian Emma Griffin in this conversation about Understanding the Industrial Revolution https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p081y7h4This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find a playlist exploring New Research on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90Producer: Sofie Vilcins

From the appeal of trickster gods Anansi and Loki to the joy of comics and fantasy: Booker prize winner Marlon James and Neil Gaiman, author of the book American Gods which has been turned into a TV series, talk writing and reading with Matthew Sweet in a conversation organised in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature and the British Library.Neil Gaiman is an author of books for children and adults whose titles include Norse Mythology, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Coraline, and the Sandman graphic novels. He also writes children's books and poetry, has written and adapted for radio, TV and film and for DC Comics. Marlon James is the author of the Booker Prize winning and New York Times bestseller A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Book of Night Women, John Crow's Devil and his most recent - Black Leopard, Red Wolf - which is the first in The Dark Star Trilogy in which he plans to tell the same story from different perspectives.Producer: Torquil MacLeod.You can find a playlist called Prose and Poetry featuring a range of authors including Ian Rankin, Nadifa Mohamed, Paul Mendez, Ali Smith, Helen Mort, Max Porter, Hermione Lee, Derek Owusu, Jay Bernard, Ben Okri on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh