Free Thinking Âé¶¹´«Ã½ experts take part in festival Published on: 17 February 2017 BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking festival is returning to the Sage Gateshead next month and Âé¶¹´«Ã½ academics will be playing a key part. Experience and perception The free weekend of debate, new ideas and performance takes place from 17-19 March, with all the events being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the next few months. Early music specialist from the , will be . The show, Record Review, will be hosted by Andrew McGregor, and will take place from 9am to 12.15pm on Saturday, 18 March. , Professor in Comparative Neuropyschology, from the , will be playing his guitar as part of . The session, hosted by Tom Service, will explore our experience and perception of music and time in the routines and activities of daily life. It will take a particular look at the influence of social media on our musical listening and will ask: how do we use music to slow us down? Music Matters will take place at 12.15pm on Saturday. Englishness, French cinema, body clocks and writing The spotlight will shine a light on the sound of French Cinema, when , Professor of French Studies and founding director of the University's, traces a musical time line through Gallic film. He will talk about the pioneering Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès and the Pathé Brothers up to the present day. Matthew Sweet will presents the live edition of BBC Radio 3’s from 3pm on Saturday. , Director of the , will take part in on Saturday, 18 March at 5.30pm. Presenter Anne McElvoy will be asking how depression affects our sense of time and the rhythms of daily life and what happens when mental illness disrupts or even stops our body clock. Award-winning author and creative writing lecturer will share his passion for writing about trees as an ambassador for The Woodland Trust in , on Saturday at 7.45pm. The programme will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest. And on Sunday, 19 March, the 2017 winner of the TS Elliott Prize for Poetry and senior creative writing lecturer, , will be discussing Englishness for at 11am. Share: Latest News Scientists unlock hidden driver of inflammatory bowel disease Scientists have linked a key genetic signal in inflammatory bowel disease to an immune response that shuts down inflammation control, enabling faster diagnosis and targeted treatments. published on: 15 June 2026 Funding system risks limiting genuine community collaboration A new policy paper written by researchers at Âé¶¹´«Ã½ warns that the way UK research is funded may be undermining efforts to create genuinely collaborative partnerships with communities. published on: 15 June 2026 Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Âé¶¹´«Ã½ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Facts and figures