Arts & Ideas

Modern theology often treats God as an abstract principle: a mover that doesn't move. But in the Bible, Abraham walks alongside him, Jacob (arguably) spends a night wrestling with him, Moses talks with him face to face, Ezekiel sees him sitting on a throne, and Amos sees him standing in his temple. Jesus is declared the son of God, and declares in turn that he has sat alongside God at his right hand. Biblical scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou joins Matthew Sweet to discuss the embodied divine and what it means for our understanding of God, along with with Hetta Howes, who studies Medieval mystical Christianity, and psychotherapist and former priest Mark Vernon.On our website you can find a playlist called Free Thinking explores religious belief which includes conversations about Jewish history, Buddhism, interviews with Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins, a discussion of St John Henry Newman and about Islam and Mecca. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlpYou might also be interested in hearing the music picked out by Francesca Stavrakopoulou on Radio 3's Private Passions https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnv3Producer: Luke Mulhall

How can zines and board games help us understand climate change? Projects in Birmingham and Glasgow are using these techniques to allow young people to express their hopes and their experiences of activism. Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold and Simeon Shtebunaev talk to Rosamund Barraclough about why we should listen to and include the thoughts of young people. Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold is Senior Lecturer in Children’s Literature Studies at the University of Glasgow. More information on zine-making workshops: https://festivalofsocialscience.com/events/the-climate-in-your-hands-empowering-young-peoples-engagement-in-climate-action-through-zine-making/ Simeon Shtebunaev is a doctoral researcher and lecturer at Birmingham City University. You can find more information about ‘Are You Game For Climate Change?’ here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/research/our-phds/news-and-events/new-board-game-to-educate-young-people-in-climate-change Both projects are funded through the AHRC’s ‘Engaging young people with climate research’ fund. More information can be found here: Food, theatre and music engage young people with climate research – UKRIThe podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency.The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.Producer: Sofie Vilcins

Is district heating, not boilers, the answer to lowering our energy use? How should we think of decommissioned factories? Professor Frank Trentmann and Dr Ben Anderson explain the concept of district heating and how cities need to adapt to be more sustainable.Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, where he is the principal investigator of the Material Cultures of Energy project.You can find more information at: http://www7.bbk.ac.uk/mce/about/ Dr Ben Anderson is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental History at Keele University. He is currently running two projects, including ‘Decommissioning the Twentieth Century’, which aims to establish a new role for local communities in decommissioning large industrial facilities.You can find more information at: https://chatterleywhitfieldfriends.org.uk/news/2524/decommissioning-the-twentieth-century/ Professor Des Fitzgerald is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Exeter.The podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough are in conversation with researchers about a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast. Producer: Sofie Vilcins

Caesars with the wrong beard, faint laurels in the background of a scene from Hogarth's A Rake's Progress and the experiences of the guardian of empty tombs, part of a ruined Neolithic necropolis in the Sharjah desert in the United Arab Emirates: Rana Mitter and his guests discuss the ghosts of history and depictions of power in art. Classicist Mary Beard has traced the collecting of images of Caesar over centuries in her latest book. Ali Cherri's artwork, born out of his experiences growing up in Lebanon, includes films like the Digger and interventions in galleries designed to make us notice what is on display and what is being hidden or erased. Alice Insley is Curator of Historic British Art at Tate Britain and she's been exploring the continental connections between Hogarth and his fellow artists.Hogarth and Europe runs at Tate Britain from November 3rd to 20th March 2022. Ali Cherri is the National Gallery’s new Artist in Residence for 2021. He is also making work inspired by the archives held by Coventry's Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. You can find examples of his work https://www.alicherri.com/ Mary Beard's book is called Twelve Caesars: Images of Power form the Ancient World to the ModernOur playlist of conversations about visual arts includes the 2021 Frieze Discussion with three directors of museums and galleries, an exploration of colour, and Aboriginal artworks on show at the Box Plymouth https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p026wnjlProducer: Robyn Read

A concrete diving suited figure apparently swimming into the gallery floor is one of the sculptures created by Tania Kovats for her current exhibition. Margo Neale Ngawagurrawa has curated the Songlines exhibition of Aborginal art and the importance of their landscape. Huhana Smith works on the Te Waituhi a Nuku project which looks at Māori Coastal Ecosystems and Economies and climate change. Michael Falk researches the poetry of Papua New Guinea, including Reluctant Flame by John Kaisapwalova, which was written 50 years ago. Laurence Scott hosts the conversation about our relationship with water, the land and a sense of identity.Tania Kovats: Oceanic is on show at Parafin London until Sat 20 Nov 2021. She is Profess of Drawing at Bath Spa University and her drawings and sculptures are inspired by reading Rachel Carson’s 1953 book The Sea Around Us https://www.drawingopen.com/tania-kovats has links to projects including Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies: Planning for Climate Change Impacts on Māori Coastal Ecosystems and Economies which Huhana Smith works on. Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters runs at the Box Plymouth until 27 February 2022 and includes the work of over 100 artists covering a landscape of 500,000 sq km. This link has more information about the poetry discussed by Michael Falk https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-kasaipwalova You can find a playlist on the Free Thinking programme website called Green Thinking which gathers together podcasts made for COP26 highlighting new research into ways of combatting climate change and a series of discussions with writers, artists and musicians interested in exploring nature in their work. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2Producer: Sofie Vilcins.

Are states policing themselves properly? How is the law helping put the CITES agreement into practice to stem the international trade of wild animals and plants? Professor Elizabeth Kirk and Professor Tanya Wyatt discuss the pros and cons of international law as a tool and how it is hard to keep treaties up to date with changing environmental conditions. Des Fitzgerald hosts the conversation. Professor Elizabeth Kirk is Global Chair of Global Governance and Ecological Justice and Director of the Lincoln Centre for Ecological Justice.You can find more information at: https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/collegeofsocialscience/research/lincolncentreforecologicaljustice/ Dr Tanya Wyatt is Professor of Criminology specialising in green criminology at the University of Northumbria.You can find more information at: https://cites.org/eng/disc/what.php The podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough are in conversation with researchers about a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast. Producer: Sofie Vilcins

As the clocks go back, theoretical physicist Fay Dowker, philosopher Nikk Effingham and science fiction writer Una McCormack join Matthew Sweet get to grips with the weirdness of time travel.Fay Dowker is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London. Una McCormack's latest book is The Autobiography of Mr Spock. Nikk Effingham is Reader of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham and author of Time Travel: Possibility and ImprobabilityProducer: Torquil MacLeodRadio 3 is broadcasting a series of programmes Capturing Twilight including a Free Thinking episode and an edition of Words and Music. On Sunday October 31st you can hear Music for the Hours - a day punctuated by moments of musical reflection. This is inspired by the daily rituals of the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, which formed the basis of the earliest Christian services particularly in the monastic tradition. The music centres on medieval chant and the Renaissance vocal polyphony that arose from this tradition, with complementary choral works from contemporary composers, recorded specially for Radio 3 by the Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips. You can find details of the broadcasts on the BBC Radio 3 website.

Would it help to see Superheroes do their recycling? Do viewers feel more invested in climate protests depending on what the protesters look like? And how does bingeing box sets contribute to emissions and a bigger carbon footprint? Pietari Kaapa explains how blockbusters might be able to have a bigger impact than documentaries about the climate emergency, and Sylvia Hayes describes the changes in news images of climate change protest influence audiences. Sylvia Hayes is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Exeter and is currently on placement with Carbon Brief, a climate change news website. Her research looks in to the use of media and images in reporting climate change news. https://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Sylvia_Hayes Dr Pietari Kaapa is Reader in Media and Communications at the University of Warwick, where he specialises in environmental screen media, particularly film and television. He is also the Principle Investigator for the Global Green Media Network. https://globalgreenmediaproduction.wordpress.com/Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.The podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough are in conversation with researchers about a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast. Producer: Sofie Vilcins

Christienna Fryar speaks to the researchers uncovering classical music that has been left out of the canon – discovering the stories of three composers whose voices and stories have been marginalised and obscured over time, despite their profound influence on music: the 18th-century French polymath Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the Japanese trailblazer Kikuko Kanai and the prolific African-American composer Julia Perry.Christopher Dingle, a Professor of Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, is studying the music of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799). Born in Guadeloupe to an enslaved mother and a French plantation owner father, Boulogne lived an extraordinary life – as well as being one of the first black colonels in the French Army, he was a master fencer, celebrated violinist and conductor, whose concertos rival his contemporary Mozart in their fiendish virtuosity.Mai Kawabata, from the Royal College of Music, is a musicologist and violinist. She shares the story of Kikuko Kanai (1906-1986), the first female composer in Japan to write a symphony. Kanai made waves in the musical establishment by fusing Japanese melodies with Western-classical influences –her “life mission” was to popularise the folk music of her native Okinawa.Michael Harper, a vocal tutor from the Royal Northern College of Music, is championing the work of Julia Perry (1924-1979). Perry occupied a unique place as a black American composer – female and upper-middle class, she won Guggenheim fellowships to train in Europe. Despite a life cut short by paralysis and illness, her works include 12 symphonies and three operas.Their research, in collaboration with the AHRC and Radio 3, will result in special recordings and concert broadcasts of these composers’ works. Produced by Amelia ParkerToday’s conversation was a New Thinking episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research council which is part of UKRI. And if you want more information about the Diverse Composers project you can find that on the website of UK Research and Innovation https://www.ukri.org/news/celebrating-classical-composers-from-diverse-ethnic-backgrounds-2/ If you enjoyed this – there’s a playlist called New Research on the Free Thinking website where you can find discussions about everything from conserving fashion and putting it on display in museums to recording the accents found around Manchester, so do dip in. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

The government plans to plant 30,000 hectares of trees each year by 2025. But how practical is it and what would the real impact be? Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to Dr Julie Urquhart of the University of Gloucestershire about why we need more information about carbon capture to help select the best places and the best tree species to plant. William Macalpine is based at Rothamsted – his project explores how cutting back and coppicing willows as a crop encourages a rapid growth cycle and replenishment. His presentation Willow Power at the 2008 Chelsea Flower show demonstrated the versatility of willow and the number of varieties. He argues we need longer term funding and to break the 5 year funding cycle for farmers, and researchers. Dr Julie Urquhart is Associate Professor of Environmental Social Science at the University of Gloucestershire. She’s an ambassador for the Future of UK Treescapes programme, a collaboration funded by UK Research and Innovation, the Scottish and Welsh government and DEFRA.William Macalpine is a willow breeder at Rothamsted Research, looking at shrub willows as a sustainable energy source. He is also a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winner, for a display entitled ‘Willow Power’. You can find out more about William Macalpine here: https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/staff/841w0/william-macalpine&resultMode=3 and the National Willow collection here https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/uk-national-willow-collection You can find more information about the Treescapes projects here: https://nerc.ukri.org/research/funded/programmes/future-of-uk-treescapes/Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.The podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough are in conversation with researchers about a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast. Producer: Ruth Watts