Matthew Sweet talks about the philosophy of winning and losing with Professor Lea Ypi a political scientist at the London School of Economics and the journalist and author Peter Hitchens. They'll be joined by the lawyer Michael Mansfield KC who has headed some of the biggest legal cases in recent history - including the Birmingham Six, the Bloody S…

Scam Busters (Davin talks about the danger of scammers), Fart Stories (Donald Trump fart rumor), Comics in the News (Comic kicks out breast feeding mother), Scamming Scammers (Elon and Zuckerberg are going to fight)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (Fake Davin and Maria are in a relationship)By Davin Rosenblatt

The protests at colleges and Davin’s refrigerator diesBy Davin Rosenblatt

Marshmallows and Kant, ideas about girl power from Mary Wollstonecraft (born April 27th 1759) to the Spice girls; and galloping horses, sea-gull sounds and life as a goat. On today's Free Thinking Shahidha Bari is joined by literary historian Alexandra Reza, philosophers Angela Breitenbach, John Callanan and journalist Tim Stanley to look back at t…

Women made up 10-15% of the workforce in the early days of the post office. Looking at a series of different records from the 17th century onwards, Sarah Ward Clavier has discovered stories about spying, how pubs, the links between pubs and post offices. Research suggests that communities with a local newspaper are more likely to vote in local elec…

Fig Wasps, Senator Tom Cotton calls for violence, School of Fools (USC denies valedictorian from speaking), Scamming Scammers (Fake Davin treats Elon like a child)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (Maria Milton asks for money)By Davin Rosenblatt

Childhood sexuality, More problems with Cable Company, Comedy weekend rap up, Sad Disney moviesBy Davin Rosenblatt

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 Pe…

An odor ordinance closes down a Vietnamese restaurant, the Trump Effect on opinion, Illegal to contact workers after hours, Scamming Scammers (Elon’s idea for a perfect society)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (We meet Maria Milton)By Davin Rosenblatt

Food talk, who could be unbiased on a Trump court case, You Stink (Davin gives a you stink to Optimum / Altice)By Davin Rosenblatt

"The times they are a changin" or are they? In politics people are talking about an appetite for change, or being a candidate for change but how radical can you be? With climate change, seasonal change and a change of broadcast time for this programme, Matthew Sweet and his guests discuss change, play a new collaborative version of scrabble, and af…

The full Plato's Retreat team bring you a special live to air from the Hallertau Brewery in Riverhead to celebrate the release of the 95BeerFM Lager (you can get yours HERE, with $10 of each sale going to bFM).

Pip is on the rocks, Turbulent Air (Jet Blue gets sued for being antisemitic), Interview with author Carl Unegbu for the book Comedy Goes to Court; When People Stop Laughing and Start Fighting, Scamming Scammers (Fake Davin tells Elon all of his failures is why he is not ready to invest)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (We say goodbye to Jenny)By Davin Rosenblatt

Davin’s Den is syndicated again, New Jersey Earthquake, Solar eclipse. You Stink (Joe is unhappy with a restaurant)By Davin Rosenblatt

What do you owe the state and what does it provide for us? Writing during the English civil war, Thomas Hobbes came up with an outline for the social contract between individuals and the sovereign – on Free Thinking, Matthew Sweet and guests unpick his ideas and come up with a version for now. They also explore the politics of butter, margarine and…

We countdown the biggest fools in Florida Man, Politics, and the world.By Davin Rosenblatt

We countdown the biggest fools in sports and celebritiesBy Davin Rosenblatt

A scammer asks Davin to steal from the collection plate on Easter, Davin’s father gets scammed, Turbulent Air (Davin has two bad flying experiences)By Davin Rosenblatt

Усім ёў! І гэта не фармальнае прывітанне, а жыццёвае крэда маладога музыкі, фотамастака і зацятага аматара скейтбордынгу Аляксея Грызунта aka Лайтовы aka grisbe. З ім мы сустракаемся ў сённяшнім "Рэдактарскім падкасце", каб пагутарыць пра гэтыя тры існасці, якія спляліся ў "філасофію бервяна на калёсах", а таксама паслухаць трохі музыкі ад Аляксея …

Gold sequins, silk and vibrant colour threads might not be what you expect to find in a sampler stitched by a Quaker girl in the seventeenth century. New Generation Thinker Isabella Rosner has studied examples of embroidered nutmegs and decorated shell shadow boxes found in London and Philadelphia which present a more complicated picture of Quaker …

In 1910 Virginia Woolf and a group of friends caused a stir when they were welcomed on board the HMS Dreadnought, disguised as a delegation of Abyssinian royalty. At the 2017 Conservative Party conference, Theresa May was handed a P45 in the middle of giving her speech. Both these events made the headlines, but what was the intention behind them an…

Who's Holding the Baby? was the title of an exhibition organised to highlight a lack of childcare provision in East London in the 1970s. Was this feminist art? Bobby Baker, Sonia Boyce, Rita Keegan and members of the photography collective Hackney Flashers are some of the artists who've been taking part in an oral history project with New Generatio…

The impact of light bulbs on cities like New York and Paris at the turn of the twentieth century and the way modernist poets like Mina Loy and Lola Ridge depicted this, is at the heart of research being done by Dr Nicoletta Asciuto. For this New Thinking conversation hosted by Dr Sophie Coulombeau, she joins Dr Jaqueline Yallop, whose book Into the…

Viking burials, preserving archaeology in Uganda, the morgues of Paris and New York and the medieval attitude to dying are our topics as Chris Harding hears about new research from archaeologists Marianne Hem Eriksen and Pauline Harding, and historians Cat Byers and Harriet Soper. Catriona Byers is completing a PhD at King’s College London on the n…

The Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens produced around 1,500 artworks, and a new research project explores the Islamic themes in his art. Dr Adam Sammut discusses why the Ottoman Empire’s influence on Rubens has been at the periphery of research, and what it reveals about the early modern understanding of cultural identity. Dr Nil Palabiyik …

A 1660s board game made by a Jesuit missionary sent to the Mohawk Valley in North America is the subject of New Generation Thinker Gemma Tidman's essay. This race game, a little like Snakes and Ladders, depicts the path of a Christian life and afterlife. Gemma explores what the game tells us about how powerful people have long turned to play, image…

An ancient Sussex church - home to a medieval anchorite and the cottage where William Blake received the poetic spirit of Milton are two of the places explored in the new book from Alexandra Harris, as she returns to her home country Sussex and consults sources ranging from parish maps, paintings by Constable to records of the fish caught on the Ri…

Сёння ў "Рэдактарскім падкасце" мы слухаем прэм'еру альбома Fragments,які выходзіць на лейбле Radio Plato а таксама гутарым з музыкамі пра жыццё-быццё, сумесную калабу і, канешне ж, пра плытку. Fragments – змрочны нуарны альбом, які з'явіўся з калабарацыі двух менскіх музыкаў – бітмэйкера Drum Warz і гітарыста JJ.OK. Cлухаць альбом: https://album.l…

The A13 runs from the City of London past Tilbury Docks and the site of the Dagenham Ford factory to Benfleet and the Wat Tyler Country Park. As he travels along it, talking to residents about their ideas of community and change, New Generation Thinker Dan Taylor reflects on the history of the area and different versions of hopes for the future. Dr…

Whilst water is the most important substance on earth, we take it for granted in our modern lives. As an archaeologist, Jay Ingate looks at water in the development of urban centres in early Roman Britain. Whilst the Romans sought to channel water for human purposes they also had a respectful relationship to it because of its believed connection to…

From 1922, between 10-30,000 women and girls are thought to have been incarcerated at the Magdalene laundries which operated in Ireland. New Generation Thinker Louise Brangan has been reading the testimonies of many of the girls who survived these institutions. As the Irish state tries to come to terms with this history, how should it be spoken abo…

Canvey Island: cradle of innovation for gas heating and home to music makers Dr Feelgood, who drew inspiration from the Mississippi Delta. New Generation Thinker Sam Johnson-Schlee is an author and geographer based at London South Bank University. His essay remembers the influence of Parker Morris standards on heating in the home, songs written by …

Looking at the way human and animal bodies were treated in death and used in rituals prompts New Generation Thinker and archaeologist Marianne Hem Eriksen, from the University of Leicester, to ask questions about the way humans, animals and spirit-worlds were understood. Her Essay shares stories from a research project called Body-Politics’: presen…

Two years living at sea taught New Generation Thinker Kerry McInerney values which she wants to apply to the development of AI. Her Essay explores the "sustainable AI" movement and looks at visions of the future in novels including Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan and Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl. Dr McInerney is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Cen…

Amalia Holst's defence of female education, published in 1802, was the first work by a woman in Germany to challenge the major philosophers of the age, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Unlike Mary Wollstonecraft writing in England, Holst failed to make headway with her arguments. New Generation Thinker Andrew Cooper teaches in the…

Tik Tok may be banned, Where the USA ranks sexually, School of Fools (Teachers forced to tell parents if student switches genders), Scamming Scammers (Fake Davin won’t due business with Elon after X fails)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (Jenny demands Fake Davin downloads a crypto wallet)By Davin Rosenblatt

Davin goes to a Jewish ceremony for a baby and Davin participates in his first expoBy Davin Rosenblatt

In 2024, Scotland marks two big anniversaries: David I ascended the throne nine centuries ago and James I of Scotland began his reign 600 years ago. Both Kings played a role in shaping Scotland's ideas about its monarchy. How did David shape Scotland, and what relevance does the Stone of Destiny have - then, and now, as it returns to its native Per…

Rana Mitter explores looks at the role of writing in propagating ideas and exposing political tensions. He hears how writers have given voice to personal and political ambitions, from Ding Ling to the teenagers of modern China. Yuan Yang discusses her new book, Private Revolutions. Simon Ings talks about his latest book Engineers of Human Souls whi…

Why do babies say "daddy" earlier and what might it mean when a baby does call for "mum" or "anne"? Dr Rebecca Woods, from Newcastle University, calls upon her training in linguistics and observations from her own home to trace the way children’s experiences shape their first words and the names they use for their parents. Rebecca Woods is a New Ge…

When Saved was banned in 1965 by the Lord Chamberlain's office, the Royal Court theatre turned itself into a private club to allow performances of Edward Bond's drama to be staged. This may be the most famous incident in the career of the playwright, who has died aged 89, but he was the author of over 50 plays, including several written for young p…

The full team is back in the studio delivering a special treat for Plato's Retreat, in the form of the Covers Special! Listeners love to hate it, and hate to love it, and this edition continues in the proud tradition of seeking out the best and worst covers to be found anywhere.

School of fools (School has toe sucking contest to raise money), Comics in the News (Montreal Comedy Festival cancelled), Girls scouts tell troop they can’t raise money for Palestinian children, Scamming Scammers (Elon has a pee jar)By Davin Rosenblatt

Scamming Scammers (Fake Davin tells Jenny he lost money when he invested with an ex)By Davin Rosenblatt

Joe goes to an open mic.By Davin Rosenblatt