Free Thinking Folgen

Matthew Sweet is joined by Xine Yao, Joe Cain, and Ruth Mace, who've been re-reading Charles Darwin's 1871 book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. The book offered a radical reinterpretation of what it means to be human by situating us completely within the natural world as a product of natural selection. But it is also a book of its times, as reflected in the language Darwin uses to talk about race and gender. University College, London where our speakers are based - holds the papers of Francis Galton, the Victorian polymath and eugenicist who was Darwin's half cousin and the conversation considers both the positive and the negative ways of interpreting Darwin's book.You will hear a discussion about some of the racial language used in the 19th and 20th centuries.Dr Xine Yao is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker whose main research at University College London focuses on nineteenth century American literature and histories of science and law at Professor Joe Cain is UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology. Ruth Mace is Professor of Evolutionary AnthropologyOn the Free Thinking website you can find a playlist exploring works which are Landmarks of Culture - these include discussions about Karl Marx, George Orwell, Machiavelli, Rachel Carson, Lorraine Hansberry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44 And there are discussions about animals including Should We Keep Pets? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09hzj3y Does My Pet Love Me? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004dr9Producer: Luke Mulhall

What we learn from the tattered costumes of actress Ellen Terry, the couture created by Alexander McQueen, and the everyday wardrobe of American women at the turn of the 20th century.V&A fashion curator Claire Wilcox has curated exhibitions on Frida Kahlo and Alexander McQueen, and has written a memoir, called Patch Work. She talks to Shahidha Bari about the pleasures and the challenges of conserving fashion and using it to tell bigger stories in museum displays. They're joined by Veronica Isaac from the University of Brighton, who researches theatre costumes of the 19th and early 20th century, including those of Ellen Terry, and by Cassandra Davies-Strodder from the University of the Arts London, who curated the V&A’s Balenciaga exhibition in 2018 and researches the wardrobes of two American women from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find more about New Research in a playlist on the Free Thinking programme website - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90 - where you’ll find other episodes in the New Thinking strand showcasing academic research.You can find other conversations about New Research in a playlist on the Free Thinking website - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90. This includes researchers from the University of Leeds and Huddersfield involved in the Future Fashion project -https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07nhbrd, and a discussion about the display of history in Museums - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08v3fl5You can see TV programmes going behind the scenes at the V&A on BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000f1xt/secrets-of-the-museumAnd in this episode of Free Thinking Shahidha Bari looks at the Politics of Fashion and Drag; Scrumbly Koldewyn remembers the '60s San Francisco theatre scene; drag at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London; and Jenny Gilbert and Shahidha look at environmentalism and fashion at the V&A - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zcjchProducer: Emma Wallace

How easy is it to climb out of the working class in Britain? Have attitudes to social mobility changed at all? Matthew Sweet talks to Professor Selina Todd about her latest book, Snakes and Ladders, which explores the myths and realities of the past century. They're joined by an accents specialist, a policy thinker and journalist, and a data analyst.Professor Selina Todd is author of Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth; The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class 1910-2010; Tastes of Honey The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural RevolutionDavid Goodhart is the author of Head, Hand, Heart: The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century (2020). He is Head of Policy Exchange's Demography, Immigration, and Integration Unit; and, he is also one of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board commissioners. Timandra Harkness is the author of Big Data: Does Size Matter and presents Radio 4 series including Divided Nation and Future ProofingDr Sadie Ryan is part of the Manchester Voices project https://www.manchestervoices.org/project-team/ and presents a podcast https://www.accentricity-podcast.com/ You can hear more about the Manchester project in this episode of New Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07h30hmYou might also be interested in Free Thinking programmes exploring The council estate in culture with artists George Shaw and Kader Attia , drama specialist Katie Beswick and writer Dreda Say Mitchell https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003596 City Life, estate living and lockdown with poet Caleb Femi, Katie Beswick, and urban researchers Julia King and Irit Katz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nvk2 Class in Britain - a review of Shelagh Delaney's play; Lindsay Johns, Douglas Murray and the former headmaster of Eton Tony Little https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02twczj Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds, the commentator David Goodhart, the writer and campaigner Beatrix Campbell, and the academic Maya Goodfellow, author of Hostile Environment - How Immigrants Became Scapegoats, reflect on the role of culture and identity in politics in Europe and post election Britain https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cb2fProducer: Ruth Watts