Judith beheading Holofernes

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

• 49 mins

Pheromones

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

• 49 mins

Antarah ibn Shaddad

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

• 49 mins

William Cecil

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

• 51 mins

Authenticity

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself

• 50 mins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

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

• 47 mins

The Danelaw

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

• 50 mins

The Great Irish Famine

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

• 57 mins

The Evolution of Teeth

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

• 49 mins

A Midsummer Night's Dream

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

• 54 mins

Nero

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

• 51 mins

The Gordon Riots

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

• 50 mins

Bergson and Time

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

• 51 mins

Frankenstein

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

• 55 mins

Kinetic Theory

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

• 51 mins

President Ulysses S Grant

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

• 55 mins

Sir Thomas Browne

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

• 52 mins

The Inca

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

• 52 mins

The Mytilenaean Debate

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

• 54 mins

Doggerland

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

• 54 mins

Lorca

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

• 53 mins

Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow

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

• 54 mins

The Rapture

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

• 51 mins

Dorothy Hodgkin

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

• 52 mins

Rousseau on Education

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

• 51 mins

The Time Machine

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

• 51 mins

Robert Burns

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

• 52 mins

Hybrids

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

• 50 mins

The Treaty of Limerick

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

• 52 mins

Crime and Punishment

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

• 52 mins