Main content
This programme will be available shortly after broadcast

Weapons, real and symbolic

A round-table discussion exploring the uses - real and symbolic, historic and contemporary - of weapons.

How do weapons exert real and symbolic power, both now and in history?

Joining Matthew Sweet are:

The former soldier and politician Tobias Ellwood

The sculptor Hew Locke, whose artworks exploring colonial power have featured weaponry

The Renaissance historian Catherine Fletcher, whose latest book is The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires

The historian and broadcaster Mark Urban, whose books include Tank and Rifles

and

Hailey Austin, Lecturer in Visual Media and Culture at Abertay University who researches comics and videogames.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Release date:

57 minutes

On radio

Fri 1 May 202621:00

Broadcast

  • Fri 1 May 202621:00

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life