0. In Our Time Archive

BBC  - IN OUR TIME ARCHIVE

==> ALL THE MP3'S

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl/episodes/downloads

AND

==> ALL THE YOUTUBE MP4'S

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH99V1T9pDs5GwzLyiT8szMrpVuzC_iez

AND

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 2

...

AND 

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 3

...

AND

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 4

...

AND 

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 5

...

AND 

ENGLISH - please Google me NIACTEC ... - BBC RADIO 4 - In Our Time ARCHIVE - Part 6

...

etc ... etc ...

W O R K S    IN PROGRESS

==========

PAGE 1 OF 35

Episodes to download

Fielding's Tom Jones

Thu 13 Jun 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great English comic novels. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

The Orkneyinga Saga

Thu 6 Jun 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Saga of the Earls of Orkney up to the 13th century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Marsilius of Padua

Thu 30 May 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great figures in the history of political ideas 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Empress Dowager Cixi

Thu 23 May 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who dominated China's court for almost 50 years. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Philippa Foot

Thu 16 May 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Thu 9 May 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing poet at the heart of Henry VIII's court 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Mercury

Thu 2 May 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to our Sun. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Bertolt Brecht

Thu 25 Apr 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great 20th-century German playwright. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Napoleon's Hundred Days

Thu 18 Apr 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise coup in 1815 before Waterloo 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Lysistrata

Thu 11 Apr 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' comedy in which a sex strike brings peace. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

Nikola Tesla

Thu 4 Apr 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Serbian-American inventor. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Kalevala

Thu 28 Mar 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem that helped build the Finnish nation. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Julian the Apostate

Thu 21 Mar 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the emperor who aimed to return Christian Rome to paganism 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Waltz

Thu 14 Mar 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the waltz on British society and culture. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Mokrani Revolt

Thu 7 Mar 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major Algerian uprising against French rule in 1871. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

Thu 29 Feb 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Heisenberg's key role at the outset of quantum mechanics 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Sack of Rome 1527

Thu 22 Feb 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Holy Roman Emperor's army's notorious attack on Romans 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Thu 15 Feb 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lewis Carroll's fantastical tale inspired by Alice Liddell 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hormones

Thu 8 Feb 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the chemical signals that control the ways our bodies work 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Hanseatic League

Thu 1 Feb 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval trading network the Hanseatic League. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Panpsychism

Thu 25 Jan 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that fundamental particles have consciousness. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Nefertiti

Thu 18 Jan 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and impact of ancient Egypt's best-known queen. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Condorcet

Thu 11 Jan 2024 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the last great figures of the Enlightenment. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

Thu 28 Dec 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's great comedy of love, desire and marriage. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Vincent van Gogh

Thu 21 Dec 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Dutch painter of Sunflowers and Starry Nights. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tiberius

Thu 14 Dec 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man born in Republican Rome who became second Emperor. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Karl Barth

Thu 7 Dec 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential Swiss protestant theologian. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Edgar Allan Poe

Thu 30 Nov 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of the Fall of the House of Usher. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Marguerite de Navarre

Thu 23 Nov 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss writer and Renaissance queen Marguerite de Navarre. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Theory of the Leisure Class

Thu 16 Nov 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Veblen on conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 2 OF 35

Episodes to download

The Barbary Corsairs

Thu 9 Nov 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of North African privateers on law and language 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Thu 2 Nov 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's ideas on how to live a good life. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Germinal

Thu 26 Oct 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emile Zola's novel, set in a French miners' strike. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Julian of Norwich

Thu 19 Oct 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval anchoress and her Revelations of Divine Love. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Federalist Papers

Thu 12 Oct 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hamilton, Madison and Jay's urgings for a US Constitution. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Plankton

Thu 5 Oct 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the tiny lifeforms that sustain so much life on earth. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Thu 28 Sep 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Keynes' influential attack on the Treaty of Versailles 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Seventh Seal

Thu 21 Sep 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bergman's iconic film of a knight playing chess with Death 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain

Thu 21 Sep 2023 

To mark his 1000th episode of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Albert Einstein

Thu 14 Sep 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Einstein's astonishing impact on theoretical physics. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Jupiter

Thu 29 Jun 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the largest planet in our solar system. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Elizabeth Anscombe

Thu 22 Jun 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential 20th-century moral philosopher. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Death in Venice

Thu 15 Jun 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Mann's novella of 1912. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Oedipus Rex

Thu 8 Jun 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests on Sophocles' tragedy, sometimes called the best play ever written 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Mitochondria

Thu 1 Jun 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Louis XIV: The Sun King

Thu 25 May 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and reign of the French king who built Versailles 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Virgil's Georgics

Thu 18 May 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet's celebration of agriculture and rural life 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Shimabara Rebellion

Thu 11 May 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1637-8 Christian uprising in Japan. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Thu 4 May 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Biblical texts and documents found in the late 1940s. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Walt Whitman

Thu 27 Apr 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative and highly influential American poet. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Linnaeus

Thu 20 Apr 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and legacy of the pioneering Swedish botanist. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Battle of Crécy

Thu 13 Apr 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1346 conflict between the armies of France and England 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Cnut

Thu 6 Apr 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dane who became a powerful King of England in 1016. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

A Room of One's Own

Thu 30 Mar 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's essay on women and literature. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Solon the Lawgiver

Thu 23 Mar 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the statesman who transformed Athens in the 6th century BC 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Mercantilism

Thu 16 Mar 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea which dominated European economies for 300 years. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Ramayana

Thu 9 Mar 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Sanskrit epic. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Megaliths

Thu 2 Mar 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what we know about ancient stones placed in the landscape. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Paul Erdős

Thu 23 Feb 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the prolific Hungarian mathematician. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Stevie Smith

Thu 16 Feb 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the writer best known for her poem Not Waving But Drowning 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

==

PAGE 3 OF 35

Episodes to download

Chartism

Thu 9 Feb 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th-century campaign for greater democracy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tycho Brahe

Thu 2 Feb 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 16th-century astronomer, renowned for his accuracy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Superconductivity

Thu 26 Jan 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why some materials lose all electrical resistance. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Rawls' Theory of Justice

Thu 19 Jan 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Rawls' influential ideas on liberty and equality. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

John Donne

Thu 12 Jan 2023 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the priest who was one of England's finest love poets. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Great Stink

Thu 29 Dec 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1858 crisis from the flow of sewage into the Thames. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Persuasion

Thu 22 Dec 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Austen's last complete novel, published after her death. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Citizen Kane

Thu 15 Dec 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orson Welles' celebrated and influential film from 1941. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Irish Rebellion of 1798

Thu 8 Dec 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and early consequences of the 1798 rebellion. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Nibelungenlied

Thu 1 Dec 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval German epic The Song of the Nibelungs. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Challenger Expedition 1872-1876

Thu 24 Nov 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great global Victorian voyage of scientific discovery. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Demosthenes' Philippics

Thu 17 Nov 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that set the standard for political attacks. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Bauhaus

Thu 10 Nov 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential German school founded by Walter Gropius. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Morant Bay Rebellion

Thu 3 Nov 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events in Jamaica in 1865 and their consequences. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Wilfred Owen

Thu 27 Oct 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the outstanding poets of the First World War. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Fish-Tetrapod Transition

Thu 20 Oct 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great stages in the evolution of life on Earth. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Berthe Morisot

Thu 13 Oct 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative artist at the heart of French impressionism 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Knights Templar

Thu 6 Oct 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and abrupt fall of the famous military order. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Electron

Thu 29 Sep 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the atomic particle that's proved a gateway to modernity. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Plato's Atlantis

Thu 22 Sep 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's story of the great, lost island of Atlantis. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Thu 15 Sep 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's novel on totalitarianism, truth and surveillance. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

John Bull

Thu 30 Jun 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and evolution of the satirical everyman figure 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Angkor Wat

Thu 23 Jun 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Cambodian temple complex, begun 900 years ago. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Dylan Thomas

Thu 16 Jun 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems, plays and persona of the prominent Welsh writer 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Death of Stars

Thu 9 Jun 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the ends of stars can lead to new planets and new life 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hegel's Philosophy of History

Thu 26 May 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hegel's ideas on the consciousness of freedom. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Comenius

Thu 19 May 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 17th-century Czech educator committed to toleration. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tang Era Poetry

Thu 12 May 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Li Bai and Du Fu from the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Davidian Revolution

Thu 5 May 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the lasting impact of David I, King of Scotland c1084-1153 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Early Christian Martyrdom

Thu 28 Apr 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eusebius of Caesarea and his stories of Christian martyrs. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 4 OF 35

Episodes to download

Olympe de Gouges

Thu 21 Apr 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Homo erectus

Thu 14 Apr 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the two-million-year span of our most adaptable ancestor. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Polidori's The Vampyre

Thu 7 Apr 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1819 work that inspired two centuries of vampire tales 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Sistine Chapel

Thu 31 Mar 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Antigone

Thu 24 Mar 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of an autocrat who defies family ties. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Charisma

Thu 17 Mar 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Max Weber's idea of charismatic authority in leadership 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Seismology

Thu 10 Mar 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the study of earthquakes helps reveal Earth's secrets. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

In Our Time is now first on BBC Sounds

Fri 4 Mar 2022 

New episodes will now be available first on Sounds for 28 days before other podcast apps. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Arthashastra

Thu 3 Mar 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Peter Kropotkin

Thu 24 Feb 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Romeo and Juliet

Thu 17 Feb 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of young star-crossed love in Verona 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Walter Benjamin

Thu 10 Feb 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential thinkers of the last century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Temperance Movement

Thu 3 Feb 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Colette

Thu 27 Jan 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major force in French culture in the 20th century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Gold Standard

Thu 20 Jan 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Thomas Hardy's Poetry

Thu 13 Jan 2022 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Fritz Lang

Thu 30 Dec 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a giant of cinema in Weimar Germany and Hollywood. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Hittites

Thu 23 Dec 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

A Christmas Carol

Thu 16 Dec 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' celebrated story of Scrooge's redemption. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The May Fourth Movement

Thu 9 Dec 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and protests in 1919 that shaped modern China. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Battle of Trafalgar

Thu 2 Dec 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's famous victory and death on 21 October 1805. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Plato's Gorgias

Thu 25 Nov 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's exploration of the nature of power and freedom. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Decadent Movement

Thu 18 Nov 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Beardsley, Wilde and art for art's sake in the 1890s. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

William and Caroline Herschel

Thu 11 Nov 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the siblings at the forefront of 18th-century astronomy 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Song of Roland

Thu 4 Nov 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a masterpiece of French epic poetry from the 12th century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Corals

Thu 28 Oct 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the simple animals which form the now-threatened reefs. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Iris Murdoch

Thu 21 Oct 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of the celebrated author of The Bell. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Thu 14 Oct 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Europe's largest republic, before its partition in 1772. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Manhattan Project

Thu 7 Oct 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the race to build an atom bomb before anyone else in WW2 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Thu 30 Sep 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's novel of a woman's fight for independence. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 5 OF 35

Episodes to download

Herodotus

Thu 23 Sep 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Evolution of Crocodiles

Thu 16 Sep 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the land animals of the Triassic that dominated dinosaurs. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Thu 24 Jun 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the greatest and most challenging poems in English 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Edward Gibbon

Thu 17 Jun 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Booth's Life and Labour Survey

Thu 10 Jun 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's landmark survey of London's poor and rich. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Kant's Copernican Revolution

Thu 3 Jun 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Kant's insight into how we relate to the world around us. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Interregnum

Thu 27 May 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the upheavals of 1649-60 in the British Isles 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Journey to the West

Thu 20 May 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great novel from the Ming Era, with its heroic Monkey. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Longitude

Thu 13 May 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of longitude and the race to calculate it at sea. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Second Barons' War

Thu 6 May 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simon de Montfort's fatal struggle with Henry III's forces 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Ovid

Thu 29 Apr 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Franco-American Alliance 1778

Thu 22 Apr 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French fight against Britain in America and its impact 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Arianism

Thu 15 Apr 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an orthodox form of Christianity that became a heresy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Thu 8 Apr 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician behind metrication. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Russo-Japanese War

Thu 1 Apr 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1904-5 clash of Japanese and Russian empires. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

David Ricardo

Thu 25 Mar 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument on free trade after the Napoleonic wars 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Bacchae

Thu 18 Mar 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revenge of Dionysus on Thebes in Euripides' tragedy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Late Devonian Extinction

Thu 11 Mar 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the five major extinction events on Earth so far. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Thu 4 Mar 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Coleridge's famous poem of a sailor who shot an albatross. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Marcus Aurelius

Thu 25 Feb 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and meditations of 'the last good Roman emperor'. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Medieval Pilgrimage

Thu 18 Feb 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Christian pilgrimage in Europe in the Middle Ages. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Rosetta Stone

Thu 11 Feb 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the deciphering of hieroglyphs, secret for 1,500 years. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Emilie du Châtelet

Thu 4 Feb 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss an astonishing mathematician of the French Enlightenment. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Saint Cuthbert

Thu 28 Jan 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life of one of England's most revered saints. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Plague of Justinian

Thu 21 Jan 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scale and impact of the plague that raged in 541AD. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Great Gatsby

Thu 14 Jan 2021 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Fitzgerald's celebrated novel of the Jazz Age. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Eclipses

Thu 31 Dec 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific advances gained from studying eclipses. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Cultural Revolution

Thu 17 Dec 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mao's uprising against his own party from 1966-76 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

John Wesley and Methodism

Thu 10 Dec 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wesley's role in the rise of Methodism in the 18th Century 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Fernando Pessoa

Thu 3 Dec 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Portuguese poet and his many literary personas. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 6 OF 35

Episodes to download

The Zong Massacre

Thu 26 Nov 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous drowning of enslaved Africans in 1781. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Albrecht Dürer

Thu 12 Nov 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and timeless works of the great German artist. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Mary Astell

Thu 5 Nov 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosopher Mary Astell (1666 – 1731). 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Piers Plowman

Thu 29 Oct 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Langland's celebrated poem, written around 1370. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Maria Theresa

Thu 22 Oct 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who ruled Austria, shaking up the European order 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Alan Turing

Thu 15 Oct 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the short, brilliant life of computer science's founder. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Deism

Thu 8 Oct 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most disruptive ideas of the Enlightenment. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Macbeth

Thu 1 Oct 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Cave Art

Thu 24 Sep 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Stone Age people decorated caves with images. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Pericles

Thu 17 Sep 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Athenian statesman and orator. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Covenanters

Thu 12 Mar 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Presbyterian solidarity in C17th Scotland and its impact. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Paul Dirac

Thu 5 Mar 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest theoretical physicists who ever lived. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Evolution of Horses

Thu 27 Feb 2020 

Discussion of the origin, migration, extinction and domestication of horses. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Valladolid Debate

Thu 20 Feb 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dispute in 1550 over enslavement of native Americans. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

Thu 13 Feb 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Germanic tribes' destruction of three Roman legions. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

George Sand

Thu 6 Feb 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated French novelist, her life and work. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Alcuin

Thu 30 Jan 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scholar who revived learning for its own sake in C8th 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Solar Wind

Thu 23 Jan 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss solar wind, from auroras to the edge of the solar system. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Siege of Paris 1870-71

Thu 16 Jan 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paris under Prussian siege and then under the Commune 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Catullus

Thu 9 Jan 2020 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems of Catullus from the late Roman Republic 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tutankhamun

Boxing Day 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Auden

Thu 19 Dec 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Coffee

Thu 12 Dec 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee and its impact 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Lawrence of Arabia

Thu 5 Dec 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Li Shizhen

Thu 28 Nov 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heights of medical knowledge under the Ming dynasty 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem

Thu 21 Nov 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful woman in the C12th Kingdom of Jerusalem 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Crime and Punishment

Thu 14 Nov 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law.... 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Treaty of Limerick

Thu 7 Nov 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaty ending the Williamite War in Ireland in 1691 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hybrids

Thu 31 Oct 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how parents from different species can reproduce 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Robert Burns

Thu 24 Oct 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796). 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 7 OF 35

Episodes to download

The Time Machine

Thu 17 Oct 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Rousseau on Education

Thu 10 Oct 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas on the education of children 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Dorothy Hodgkin

Thu 3 Oct 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Rapture

Thu 26 Sep 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that believers will vanish from the world. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow

Thu 19 Sep 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Lorca

Thu 4 Jul 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Doggerland

Thu 27 Jun 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Stone Age human habitats now covered by the North Sea. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Mytilenaean Debate

Thu 20 Jun 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' change of mind in the Peloponnesian War. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Inca

Thu 13 Jun 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the advanced Andean empire, dominant until Pizarro arrived 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Sir Thomas Browne

Thu 6 Jun 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

President Ulysses S Grant

Thu 30 May 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in reconstructing the USA after the Civil War 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Kinetic Theory

Thu 23 May 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how we know gas molecules move rather than keep still. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Frankenstein

Thu 16 May 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Bergson and Time

Thu 9 May 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henri Bergson's ideas about our experience of time passing 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Gordon Riots

Thu 2 May 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Nero

Thu 25 Apr 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Thu 18 Apr 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Evolution of Teeth

Thu 11 Apr 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how teeth evolved in our toothless ancestors - and why. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Great Irish Famine

Thu 4 Apr 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Danelaw

Thu 28 Mar 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thu 21 Mar 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Authenticity

Thu 14 Mar 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

William Cecil

Thu 7 Mar 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth I. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Antarah ibn Shaddad

Thu 28 Feb 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Pheromones

Thu 21 Feb 2019 

A discussion of the chemicals that animals use in order to affect others of their species. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Judith beheading Holofernes

Thu 14 Feb 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Aristotle's Biology

Thu 7 Feb 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific study of life, originated by Aristotle. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Owain Glyndwr

Thu 31 Jan 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Emmy Noether

Thu 24 Jan 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Samuel Beckett

Thu 17 Jan 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 8 OF 35

Episodes to download

Papal Infallibility

Thu 10 Jan 2019 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Popes cannot err in exercise of their office 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Venus

Thu 27 Dec 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to Earth, sometimes called Earth's twin 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Poor Laws

Thu 20 Dec 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Thu 13 Dec 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Thirty Years War

Thu 6 Dec 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Long March

Thu 29 Nov 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hope

Thu 22 Nov 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope - a weakness or a strength? 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Horace

Thu 15 Nov 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Marie Antoinette

Thu 8 Nov 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Free Radicals

Thu 1 Nov 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the molecules linked to cell functioning and ageing 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Fable of the Bees

Thu 25 Oct 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

Thu 18 Oct 2018 

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2). 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

Thu 11 Oct 2018 

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2) 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Edith Wharton

Thu 4 Oct 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Thu 27 Sep 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German theologian, killed for plotting against Hitler 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Automata

Thu 20 Sep 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of machines imitating living beings. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Iliad

Thu 13 Sep 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem on the wrath of Achilles in the Trojan War. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

William Morris

Thu 5 Jul 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a great cultural figure of the 19th century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Mexican-American War

Thu 28 Jun 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 war that cost Mexico half its territory. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Echolocation

Thu 21 Jun 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how some animals sense their world with sound not sight. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Montesquieu

Thu 14 Jun 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss republicanism, despotism and the separation of powers. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Persepolis

Thu 7 Jun 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Achaemenid Empire's great ceremonial capital. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Henrik Ibsen

Thu 31 May 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and his tragedies of middle-class life. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Margaret of Anjou

Thu 24 May 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Emancipation of the Serfs

Thu 17 May 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the freeing of a third of Russians from serfdom in 1861. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Mabinogion

Thu 10 May 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval Welsh stories of Celtic mythology. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Almoravid Empire

Thu 3 May 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great empires of the Islamic west. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Proton

Thu 26 Apr 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Proton, found in the nuclei of all elements. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Middlemarch

Thu 19 Apr 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's greatest novel, published 1871-72. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

George and Robert Stephenson

Thu 12 Apr 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George and Robert Stephenson and the birth of railways. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 9 OF 35

Episodes to download

Roman Slavery

Thu 5 Apr 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between slavery and the power of Rome. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tocqueville: Democracy in America

Thu 22 Mar 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Augustine's Confessions

Thu 15 Mar 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine's account of his conversion to Christianity. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Highland Clearances

Thu 8 Mar 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss evictions and migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Sun Tzu and The Art of War

Thu 1 Mar 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential ancient Chinese work on military strategy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Rosalind Franklin

Thu 22 Feb 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Fungi

Thu 15 Feb 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss fungi. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Frederick Douglass

Thu 8 Feb 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, born to slavery. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Cephalopods

Thu 1 Feb 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the biology of squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Cicero

Thu 25 Jan 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Marcus Tullius Cicero. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Anna Akhmatova

Thu 18 Jan 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the celebrated Russian poet. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Siege of Malta, 1565

Thu 11 Jan 2018 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ottoman attack on the Knights Hospitaller in Malta. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hamlet

Thu 28 Dec 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, longest and most quoted play. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Beethoven

Thu 21 Dec 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Thomas Becket

Thu 14 Dec 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, murder and impact of Thomas Becket (c 1118-1170) 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Moby Dick

Thu 7 Dec 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most popular idea sent in by listeners. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Thu 30 Nov 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gauss, one of the great mathematicians. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Thebes

Thu 23 Nov 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek city of Thebes in myth, drama and history. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Germaine de Stael

Thu 16 Nov 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and works of the great woman of letters. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Picts

Thu 9 Nov 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss history and culture of the Picts. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Picasso's Guernica

Thu 2 Nov 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events behind and impact of Picasso's iconic work. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Feathered Dinosaurs

Thu 26 Oct 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss which dinosaurs were feathered, and their links to birds. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Congress of Vienna

Thu 19 Oct 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Congress of Vienna, 1814-15. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Aphra Behn

Thu 12 Oct 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aphra Behn (1640-1689): playwright, poet, spy. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Constantine the Great

Thu 5 Oct 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Wuthering Heights

Thu 28 Sep 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Kant's Categorical Imperative

Thu 21 Sep 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the difference between right and wrong, according to Kant. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Bird Migration

Thu 6 Jul 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how birds navigate and the risks and benefits of migration 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Plato's Republic

Thu 29 Jun 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great works of political and ethical theory. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Eugene Onegin

Thu 22 Jun 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pushkin's masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

==

PAGE 10 OF 35

Episodes to download

The American Populists

Thu 15 Jun 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rural protest movement in America's Gilded Age. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Christine de Pizan

Thu 8 Jun 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Christine de Pizan (c1364-1430). 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Enzymes

Thu 1 Jun 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss enzymes, the catalysts essential for life. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Purgatory

Thu 25 May 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea of Purgatory. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Louis Pasteur

Thu 18 May 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Louis Pasteur, known as a founder of microbiology. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Emily Dickinson

Thu 11 May 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), celebrated American poet. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Battle of Lincoln 1217

Thu 4 May 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for the English crown at the Battle of Lincoln. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Thu 27 Apr 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Egyptian funerary text, The Book of the Dead. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Roger Bacon

Thu 20 Apr 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval scholar Roger Bacon. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Rosa Luxemburg

Thu 13 Apr 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and times of Rosa Luxemburg, revolutionary. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Pauli's Exclusion Principle

Thu 6 Apr 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wolfgang Pauli and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hokusai

Thu 30 Mar 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Battle of Salamis

Thu 23 Mar 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the significance of The Battle of Salamis, 480BC. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Thu 16 Mar 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the highest global temperatures in the last 65m years. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

North and South

Thu 9 Mar 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South from 1855. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Kuiper Belt

Thu 2 Mar 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the icy Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune, home to Pluto. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Seneca the Younger

Thu 23 Feb 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works, life and times of Seneca the Younger. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Maths in the Early Islamic World

Thu 16 Feb 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flourishing of maths in the Islamic world from C8th. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

John Clare

Thu 9 Feb 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, poet and farm labourer. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Hannah Arendt

Thu 2 Feb 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of Hannah Arendt, political philosopher 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Parasitism

Thu 26 Jan 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Parasitism, where one species gains at the cost of another 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Mary, Queen of Scots

Thu 19 Jan 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality

Thu 12 Jan 2017 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Johannes Kepler

Thu 29 Dec 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss astronomer Johannes Kepler. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Four Quartets

Thu 22 Dec 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's Four Quartets, known as his great last work. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Gin Craze

Thu 15 Dec 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cause and impact of the gin craze in the 18th century. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Harriet Martineau

Thu 8 Dec 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Harriet Martineau, writer. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Garibaldi and the Risorgimento

Thu 1 Dec 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, for our Listener Week. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Baltic Crusades

Thu 24 Nov 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss crusades against Baltic pagans from 12th Century onwards. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Justinian's Legal Code

Thu 17 Nov 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great impact of legal changes under emperor Justinian. 

Download 

==

PAGE 11 OF 35

Episodes to download

The Fighting Temeraire

Thu 10 Nov 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Epic of Gilgamesh

Thu 3 Nov 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gilgamesh, the great epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

John Dalton

Thu 27 Oct 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The 12th Century Renaissance

Thu 20 Oct 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a period of great change in western Europe. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Plasma

Thu 13 Oct 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Lakshmi

Thu 6 Oct 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the goddess Lakshmi. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Zeno's Paradoxes

Thu 22 Sep 2016 

Does an arrow in flight move and could Achilles overtake a tortoise? Not according to Zeno 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Invention of Photography

Thu 7 Jul 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the invention of photography. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Sovereignty

Thu 30 Jun 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea of sovereignty. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Thu 23 Jun 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Bronze Age Collapse

Thu 16 Jun 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bronze Age collapse. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Penicillin

Thu 9 Jun 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of penicillin. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Margery Kempe and English Mysticism

Thu 2 Jun 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe, the medieval English mystic. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Gettysburg Address

Thu 26 May 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 1863. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Muses

Thu 19 May 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses in Greek mythology and after. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

Thu 12 May 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his fictitious Popish Plot. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Thu 5 May 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Euclid's Elements

Thu 28 Apr 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Elements of Euclid. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

1816, the Year Without a Summer

Thu 21 Apr 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 1816, known as the year without a summer. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Neutron

Thu 14 Apr 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the neutron. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Sikh Empire

Thu 7 Apr 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Agrippina the Younger

Thu 31 Mar 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman empress Agrippina the Younger. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Aurora Leigh

Thu 24 Mar 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Bedlam

Thu 17 Mar 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the early history of Bethlehem Hospital, known as Bedlam. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Maya Civilization

Thu 10 Mar 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Maya civilization in central America. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Dutch East India Company

Thu 3 Mar 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dutch East India Company. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Mary Magdalene

Thu 25 Feb 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Magdalene, one of the best-known figures in the Bible 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Robert Hooke

Thu 18 Feb 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 17th-century scientist Robert Hooke. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Rumi's Poetry

Thu 11 Feb 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi (1207-1273). 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Chromatography

Thu 4 Feb 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins, development and uses of chromatography. 

Download 

==

PAGE 12 OF 35

Episodes to download

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Thu 28 Jan 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most powerful woman of her time. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thu 21 Jan 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, published in 1776. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Saturn

Thu 14 Jan 2016 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet Saturn. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Tristan and Iseult

Thu 31 Dec 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of Tristan and Iseult. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Michael Faraday

Christmas Eve 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientist Michael Faraday. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Circadian Rhythms

Thu 17 Dec 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss circadian rhythms. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Chinese Legalism

Thu 10 Dec 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Chinese Legalism from the time of the First Emperor. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Voyages of James Cook

Thu 3 Dec 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the voyages of James Cook, as suggested by listeners. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Salem Witch Trials

Thu 26 Nov 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Salem witch trials. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Emma

Thu 19 Nov 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emma, the novel by Jane Austen. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Battle of Lepanto

Thu 12 Nov 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Lepanto, 1571. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

P v NP

Thu 5 Nov 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mathematical problem of P versus NP. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

The Empire of Mali

Thu 29 Oct 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire of Mali. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Simone de Beauvoir

Thu 22 Oct 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, work and life of Simone de Beauvoir. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Holbein at the Tudor Court

Thu 15 Oct 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Holbein at the court of Henry VIII. 

Download 

Choose your file 

Higher quality (128kbps) 

Lower quality (64kbps) 

Alexander the Great

Thu 1 Oct 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and legacy of Alexander the Great. 

Download 

Perpetual Motion

Thu 24 Sep 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss perpetual motion. 

Download 

Frida Kahlo

Thu 9 Jul 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frida Kahlo. 

Download 

Frederick the Great

Thu 2 Jul 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frederick II, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. 

Download 

Extremophiles

Thu 25 Jun 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss extremophiles and astrobiology. 

Download 

Jane Eyre

Thu 18 Jun 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847. 

Download 

Utilitarianism

Thu 11 Jun 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Utilitarianism. 

Download 

Prester John

Thu 4 Jun 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the legend of Prester John. 

Download 

The Science of Glass

Thu 28 May 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the puzzling science of glass. 

Download 

Josephus

Thu 21 May 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Flavius Josephus, author of The Jewish War. 

Download 

The Lancashire Cotton Famine

Thu 14 May 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Lancashire cotton famine during the American Civil War 

Download 

Tagore

Thu 7 May 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rabindranath Tagore. 

Download 

The Earth's Core

Thu 30 Apr 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Earth's core. 

Download 

Fanny Burney

Thu 23 Apr 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the 18th-century writer Fanny Burney. 

Download 

Matteo Ricci and the Ming Dynasty

Thu 16 Apr 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Matteo Ricci's 16th-century travels in Ming China. 

Download 

==

PAGE 13 OF 35

Episodes to download

Sappho

Thu 9 Apr 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek poet Sappho. 

Download 

The California Gold Rush

Thu 2 Apr 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. 

Download 

The Curies

Thu 26 Mar 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family. 

Download 

Al-Ghazali

Thu 19 Mar 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval Islamic thinker Al-Ghazali. 

Download 

Dark Matter

Thu 12 Mar 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss dark matter, the 'missing mass' of the universe. 

Download 

Beowulf

Thu 5 Mar 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. 

Download 

The Eunuch

Thu 26 Feb 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and significance of eunuchs. 

Download 

The Wealth of Nations

Thu 19 Feb 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's economic treatise The Wealth of Nations. 

Download 

The Photon

Thu 12 Feb 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, the fundamental particle of light. 

Download 

Ashoka the Great

Thu 5 Feb 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Indian ruler Ashoka the Great. 

Download 

Thucydides

Thu 29 Jan 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. 

Download 

Phenomenology

Thu 22 Jan 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophical movement phenomenology. 

Download 

Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent

Thu 15 Jan 2015 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bruegel's painting The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. 

Download 

Truth

Thu 18 Dec 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss philosophical approaches to truth. 

Download 

Behavioural Ecology

Thu 11 Dec 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss behavioural ecology. 

Download 

Zen

Thu 4 Dec 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Zen, a distinctively East Asian form of Buddhism. 

Download 

Kafka's The Trial

Thu 27 Nov 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Trial, by Franz Kafka. 

Download 

Aesop

Thu 20 Nov 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop, legendary author of the famous collection of fables 

Download 

Brunel

Thu 13 Nov 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel. 

Download 

Hatshepsut

Thu 6 Nov 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the female Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut. 

Download 

Nuclear Fusion

Thu 30 Oct 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and science of nuclear fusion. 

Download 

The Haitian Revolution

Thu 23 Oct 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804. 

Download 

Rudyard Kipling

Thu 16 Oct 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Rudyard Kipling. 

Download 

The Battle of Talas

Thu 9 Oct 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Talas in AD751. 

Download 

Julius Caesar

Thu 2 Oct 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and reputation of Julius Caesar. 

Download 

e

Thu 25 Sep 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Euler's number, e. 

Download 

The Sun

Thu 10 Jul 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the science of the sun, source of all our energy. 

Download 

Mrs Dalloway

Thu 3 Jul 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. 

Download 

Hildegard of Bingen

Thu 26 Jun 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval writer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen. 

Download 

The Philosophy of Solitude

Thu 19 Jun 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of solitude. 

Download 

==

PAGE 14 OF 35

Episodes to download

Robert Boyle

Thu 12 Jun 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the pioneering scientist Robert Boyle. 

Download 

The Bluestockings

Thu 5 Jun 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century Bluestocking Society. 

Download 

The Talmud

Thu 29 May 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Talmud, a major text of rabbinical Judaism. 

Download 

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Thu 22 May 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. 

Download 

Photosynthesis

Thu 15 May 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss photosynthesis. 

Download 

The Sino-Japanese War

Thu 8 May 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Second Sino-Japanese War. 

Download 

The Tale of Sinuhe

Thu 1 May 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Egyptian poem The Tale of Sinuhe. 

Download 

Tristram Shandy

Thu 24 Apr 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy. 

Download 

The Domesday Book

Thu 17 Apr 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Domesday Book. 

Download 

Strabo's Geographica

Thu 10 Apr 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica, an early work of geography. 

Download 

States of Matter

Thu 3 Apr 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the states of matter, from solids to plasmas. 

Download 

Weber's The Protestant Ethic

Thu 27 Mar 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 

Download 

Bishop Berkeley

Thu 20 Mar 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century philosopher George Berkeley. 

Download 

The Trinity

Thu 13 Mar 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trinity, a central doctrine of Christianity. 

Download 

Spartacus

Thu 6 Mar 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman gladiator and rebel leader Spartacus. 

Download 

The Eye

Thu 27 Feb 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas about the eye and how it works. 

Download 

Social Darwinism

Thu 20 Feb 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Social Darwinism. 

Download 

Chivalry

Thu 13 Feb 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss medieval chivalry. 

Download 

The Phoenicians

Thu 6 Feb 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Phoenicians of the ancient Mediterranean. 

Download 

Catastrophism

Thu 30 Jan 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the geological theory of Catastrophism. 

Download 

Sources of Early Chinese History

Thu 23 Jan 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the sources for early Chinese history. 

Download 

The Battle of Tours

Thu 16 Jan 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours of 732. 

Download 

Plato's Symposium

Thu 2 Jan 2014 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Plato's Symposium. 

Download 

The Medici

Boxing Day 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, rulers of Renaissance Florence. 

Download 

Complexity

Thu 19 Dec 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss complexity theory. 

Download 

Pliny the Younger

Thu 12 Dec 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman letter-writer Pliny the Younger. 

Download 

Hindu Ideas of Creation

Thu 5 Dec 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hindu ideas about the creation of the universe. 

Download 

The Microscope

Thu 28 Nov 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the development of the microscope. 

Download 

Pocahontas

Thu 21 Nov 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the Native American Pocahontas. 

Download 

The Tempest

Thu 14 Nov 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Shakespeare's The Tempest. 

Download 

==

PAGE 15 OF 35

Episodes to download

Ordinary Language Philosophy

Thu 7 Nov 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Ordinary Language Philosophy. 

Download 

The Berlin Conference

Thu 31 Oct 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa. 

Download 

The Corn Laws

Thu 24 Oct 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws of the 19th century. 

Download 

The Book of Common Prayer

Thu 17 Oct 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Book of Common Prayer. 

Download 

Galen

Thu 10 Oct 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman physician and medical theorist Galen. 

Download 

Exoplanets

Thu 3 Oct 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. 

Download 

The Mamluks

Thu 26 Sep 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mamluks, medieval rulers of Egypt and Syria. 

Download 

Pascal

Thu 19 Sep 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the French thinker Blaise Pascal. 

Download 

The Invention of Radio

Thu 4 Jul 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio. 

Download 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Thu 27 Jun 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Chinese book Romance of the Three Kingdoms. 

Download 

The Physiocrats

Thu 20 Jun 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, important French economic thinkers. 

Download 

Prophecy

Thu 13 Jun 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss prophecy in the Abrahamic religions. 

Download 

Relativity

Thu 6 Jun 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Einstein's theory of relativity. 

Download 

Queen Zenobia

Thu 30 May 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Queen Zenobia, who led a rebellion against Ancient Rome. 

Download 

Lévi-Strauss

Thu 23 May 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. 

Download 

Cosmic Rays

Thu 16 May 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays. 

Download 

Icelandic Sagas

Thu 9 May 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic sagas. 

Download 

Gnosticism

Thu 2 May 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a sect associated with early Christianity. 

Download 

Montaigne

Thu 25 Apr 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the great French writer Michel de Montaigne. 

Download 

The Putney Debates

Thu 18 Apr 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates of 1647. 

Download 

The Amazons

Thu 11 Apr 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Amazons, formidable female warriors of classical myth. 

Download 

Japan's Sakoku Period

Thu 4 Apr 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period of deliberate isolation. 

Download 

Water

Thu 28 Mar 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss water, one of the most remarkable of all molecules. 

Download 

Alfred Russel Wallace

Thu 21 Mar 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace. 

Download 

Chekhov

Thu 14 Mar 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov. 

Download 

Absolute Zero

Thu 7 Mar 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature. 

Download 

Pitt-Rivers

Thu 28 Feb 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers. 

Download 

Decline and Fall

Thu 21 Feb 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall. 

Download 

Ice Ages

Thu 14 Feb 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ice ages. 

Download 

Epicureanism

Thu 7 Feb 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of Epicureanism. 

Download 

==

PAGE 16 OF 35

Episodes to download

The War of 1812

Thu 31 Jan 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the War of 1812 between America and Great Britain. 

Download 

Romulus and Remus

Thu 24 Jan 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romulus and Remus, the foundation myth of Rome. 

Download 

Comets

Thu 17 Jan 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss comets, the 'dirty snowballs' of the solar system. 

Download 

Le Morte d'Arthur

Thu 10 Jan 2013 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malory's epic medieval tale Le Morte d'Arthur. 

Download 

The Cult of Mithras

Thu 27 Dec 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the cult of Mithras, the Roman mystery religion. 

Download 

The South Sea Bubble

Thu 20 Dec 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the South Sea Bubble of the early 18th century. 

Download 

Shahnameh of Ferdowsi

Thu 13 Dec 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi. 

Download 

Bertrand Russell

Thu 6 Dec 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss influential British philosopher Bertrand Russell. 

Download 

Crystallography

Thu 29 Nov 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and achievements of crystallography. 

Download 

The Borgias

Thu 22 Nov 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Borgias, the most infamous family in Renaissance Italy 

Download 

Simone Weil

Thu 15 Nov 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil. 

Download 

The Upanishads

Thu 8 Nov 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Upanishads, the sacred texts of Hinduism. 

Download 

The Anarchy

Thu 1 Nov 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the 12th-century English civil war. 

Download 

Fermat's Last Theorem

Thu 25 Oct 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Fermat's Last Theorem. 

Download 

Caxton and the Printing Press

Thu 18 Oct 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Caxton and the influence of the printing press. 

Download 

Hannibal

Thu 11 Oct 2012 

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the remarkable Carthaginian general Hannibal. 

Download 

Gerald of Wales