Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age. Read more
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Edith Wharton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.
Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)
Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).
The Fable of the Bees
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.
Free Radicals
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the molecules linked to cell functioning and ageing
Marie Antoinette
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France.
Horace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.
Hope
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope - a weakness or a strength?
The Long March
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934
The Thirty Years War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England
The Poor Laws
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse
Venus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to Earth, sometimes called Earth's twin
Papal Infallibility
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Popes cannot err in exercise of their office
Samuel Beckett
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot
Emmy Noether
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians.
Owain Glyndwr
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century
Aristotle's Biology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific study of life, originated by Aristotle.
Judith beheading Holofernes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries.
Pheromones
A discussion of the chemicals that animals use in order to affect others of their species.
Antarah ibn Shaddad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight
William Cecil
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth I.
Authenticity
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.
The Danelaw
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries.
The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49.
The Evolution of Teeth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how teeth evolved in our toothless ancestors - and why.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays
Nero
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.
The Gordon Riots
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.
Bergson and Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henri Bergson's ideas about our experience of time passing