Free Thinking Folgen

Rana Mitter chairs a Free Thinking debate from the annual 12-hour My Night With Philosophers festival at the Institut Français on the role of philosophy in public life, and asks what can the tools of philosophy offer the European political mindscape in the current climate?

BBC Radio 3's annual Free Thinking festival of ideas hits the road this summer as it takes up residency at leading summer events across the country. Rana Mitter chairs a debate from the York Festival of Ideas on the legacy of the War of the Roses with Helen Castor, Sandy Grant and Mark Ormrod reflecting on how the Wars of the Roses shaped the country from the 15th century right up to the present day. In the year that Richard III's remains were identified beneath a Leicester Car Park, why does the Wars of the Roses continue to exert such a hold over our imaginations, from Game of Thrones to new BBC series The White Queen?

Matthew Sweet talks to Peter Brook. The theatre director has had a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare which he has explored in his productions of plays including A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear and Hamlet starring actors such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Paul Scofield. He discusses his new book of essays reflecting on the playwright, The Quality of Mercy.