Classicist Mary Beard picks Tacitus as a figure who still has relevance if we're thinking about satire, power and celebrity. Shahidha Bari is joined by Mary, historian Helen Carr, who co-edited What is History Now? political sketch-writer from The Times newspaper Tom Peck and Konnie Huq, writer and former presenter of the children's TV show Blue Peter. On April 21st 1964, the tv channel BBC 2 launched with an episode for children of Play School and programmes like Bluey and Peppa Pig, have been making headlines so what do we want from kids TV? Plus - poet Lord Byron died 200 years ago this week - scholar Dr Corin Throsby has been reading the fan mail he received.
Listen out for Mary Beard and the new series of Being Roman coming to BBC Radio 4 in May - and the first series is available on BBC Sounds. And if you're a fan of Oliver Postgate - The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin you can find a Free Thinking episode exploring those programmes.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
Left and Right - still relevant in British and Global Politics?
Positive & negative politics, "intellectual vices" and the face you bring to work.
New Thinking: 2024’s New Generation Thinkers
Life expectations, philosophy in the world, protest
Winning & Losing, Plato Scroll, the Decline of Nightlife
Kant today, Spice Girls Reunited, Impersonating an Animal
New Thinking: Exploring the local
Change, scrabble and cultural christianity
Hobbes, Abba, Waterloo and margarine
Unravelling plainness
Pranks
What does feminist art mean?
New Thinking: Light and Darkness
Approaches to death
New Thinking: East West artistic connections
Rock, Paper, Saints and Sinners
Writing Place
Arteries of tomorrow
New Thinking: How water shapes our history and environment
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins