Show Notes
Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, schools, medical settings and in the home? What is the difference between authority and power, how have historical shifts such as the advent of the internet affected public perceptions of authority, and how much should authority feature in the raising of children? In Radio 4's roundtable discussion programme about ideas past and present, Anne McElvoy and guests explore these questions and more. Justine Greening is a former Conservative Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Martin Gurri is a former CIA analyst who writes about the relationship between politics and media who published a book called The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium Sophie Scott-Brown is a philosopher and historian of anarchism Peter Hyman is a former headteacher and adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer who writes a Substack, Changing the Story Tom Simpson is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford Producer: Eliane Glaser
More from Free Thinking
Is democracy in crisis? From anarchic social media to the rise of authoritarianism, Mathew Sweet and guests give our political system a full MOT, from the basics of democratic theory to questions about how it should run from day-to-day. With: Hugo Drochon is an Associate Professor in Political Theory at the University of Nottingham. His latest book is Elites & Democracy Teresa Bejan is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of Oxford. Her latest book is First Among Equals: Visions of Equality Before Egalitarianism Melissa Lane is a Professor at Princeton teaching classics and philosophy. Her latest book is Of Rule and Office: Plato's Ideas of the Political Guto Harri is a writer and consultant, formerly Downing Street Head of Communications Producer: Luke Mulhall
The 'bread of life', your 'bread and butter', bread riots and 'let them eat cake', gentrification and bakeries: Shahidha Bari hosts the round-table discussion programme about ideas and, as part of Radio 4's Farming Tomorrow season of programmes, our topic is bread. Shahidha's guests are: Paul Mason, journalist and writer on economics and history whose latest book is Reds: A Global History of Communism Pen Vogler author of Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain New Generation Thinker Dr Dan Taylor, a Senior Lecturer In Social And Political Thought at the Open University Elizabeth Oldfield, presenter of The Sacred podcast and author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. And, Susannah Savage, the commodities correspondent for the Financial Times. Producer: Ruth Watts
What is left unsaid and who is missing from historical archives? Reading against the grain is a way of thinking about these questions and in the week when Woman's Hour marks 80 years of broadcasting, Radio 4's Friday night round table discussion programme about ideas traces the way thinking about representation has changed through the decades. Matthew Sweet is joined by: Sally Alexander, an activist with the Women's Liberation Movement and founding editor of the History Workshop Journal, where ideas like reading against the grain were developed and put to use; Suzannah Lipscomb, whose book The Voices of Nîmes uses overlooked sources to reconstruct the lives of women in Early Modern France; Adjoa Osei researches women singers and performers who made their names in Paris and on stage in the 1930s including Josephine Baker; the Afro-Brazilian erotic acrobatic dancer, Miss Bartira; the Malian performer Melka Soudani; the British Tiller Girls; the Afro-Guadeloupean dancer and muse of Man Ray, Adrienne Fideline and others; Hetta Howes is the author of Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women; Sophie Oliver's book What The Dresses Know: A Women's History Of Modernism Told Through Clothes will be published in November Producer: Luke Mulhall
He renounced his fortune and lived amongst animals so does the example of St Francis help us think about issues like the wealth gap and our relationship with the environment and the natural world. October 4th is his feast day and this year the Catholic church is marking the 800th anniversary of his death. For Radio 4's Friday night roundtable discussion programme about ideas past and present Anne McElvoy is joined by: Peter Stanford is an author of articles and books on religion including about pilgrimage, angels, 50 religious ideas you really need to know and most recently Gaudí: God’s Architect. New Generation Thinker Dr Jakub Kowalewski, a Senior Research Fellow at St Mary's University Twickenham, author of A Philosophy of Climate Apocalypticism. He is working on the Guardians of Creation Project investigating paths to sustainable and ecologically sensitive change in the Catholic Church. Carmody Grey, is professor of Integral Ecology at the Laudato Si’ Institute at Radboud University. She also appears as a panelist on some episodes of Radio 4's Moral Maze. Rupert Read is Emeritus Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia and Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project. Daniel Susskind is Professor of Business at Gresham College, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University and the author of What Should My Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI Producer: Ruth Watts
What is the role of intellectuals in public life? Matthew Sweet hosts Radio 4's Friday night round table discussion programme about ideas. His guests are: Emile Chabal, author of a new biography about Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm; Sophie Scott Brown, who’s researching BBC TV programme The Brains Trust, in which historians, philosophers and others answered questions sent in by the audience; critic and columnist Muriel Zagha; former editor of Prospect magazine David Goodhart; and curator and critic Pierre d'Alancaisez. Producer: Luke Mulhall