The legacy of the Trojan War

Why do the legendary walls of a Bronze Age city still cast such a long shadow?

• 44 mins

Is the Shadow of Mao still hanging over China?

Rana Mitter talks to historians of China Jung Chang and Julia Lovell, and Cindy Yu.

• 44 mins

The Future of Universities

Larry Summers and Josie Frasser on the impact of technology and globalisation.

• 44 mins

Resting and Rushing

Claudia Hammond has solutions for our frazzled times and Matthew Smith looks at ritalin.

• 44 mins

When TV & the information superhighway were new

Matthew Sweet and guests reflect on the experimental art of Nam June Paik and John Giorno

• 44 mins

Feasting, fasting, hospitality and food security

From plenty to food banks - writer Priya Basil, curator Victoria Avery and Maia Elliot

• 44 mins

The shadow of empire and colonialism

Historian William Dalrymple, Wasafiri editor Susheila Nasta and novelist Romesh Gunesekera

• 44 mins

Pan-Africanism

Shahidha Bari discusses pan-Africanism in plays, films, literature and politics.

• 44 mins

The wealth gap, #MeToo and Edith Wharton

Laurence Scott and Alice Kelly re-read Wharton's 'gilded-age' novel The Age of Innocence.

• 44 mins

Speaking the right language.

Matthew Sweet asks how did the English language grow & what are the key election phrases?

• 44 mins

Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World

Rana Mitter looks at the ideologies surrounding climate disaster.

• 44 mins

The culture wars and politics now

Philip Dodd with Douglas Murray, David Goodhart, Beatrix Campbell and Maya Goodfellow.

• 44 mins

The Strange Case of the Huge Country Pile

Matthew Sweet and guests are upstairs and downstairs in the stately home.

• 44 mins

Panpsychism - Is everything conscious?

Matthew Sweet lifts the lid on a radical movement in philosophy.

• 44 mins

Could there be a private language?

Shahidha Bari investigates how Wittgenstein meets the challenge of scepticism.

• 44 mins

Philosophy, imagination and film

Rana Mitter, Sally Potter and philosophers discuss thought experiments and cinema.

• 44 mins

Why we read and the idea of the 'woman writer'

From Elizabethan poet Anne Dowriche and Anne Bronte to what women say they read now.

• 44 mins

Simplify your life - ideas from 20th-century radicals

Laurence Scott looks at the rise of vegetarianism, a basic income, world peace and nudism.

• 44 mins

Psychohistory: Isaac Asimov and guiding the future

Matthew Sweet asks if the fictional science of psychohistory changed the future of humans.

• 44 mins

Pioneering women: academics and classics

Nikita Gill & Francesca Wade on classicist Jane Harrison, goddesses and LSE's Eileen Power

• 44 mins

Poetry and Science

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Greg Tate, Sam Illingworth & Sunayana Bhargava join Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

What is good listening?

Matthew Sweet with New York Times journalist Kate Murphy, Anne Karpf and David Toop.

• 44 mins

Remembering Auschwitz

Rana Mitter marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation and talks to author Anne Michaels

• 44 mins

How we see pregnancy past and present

Anne McElvoy hears the story of a woman who gave birth to rabbits and the news from Davos.

• 44 mins

Fungi: An Alien Encounter

Are fungi out to get us or here to help? A look at mushrooms in art, food, and psychology.

• 44 mins

Mocking power past and present

The German joker Tyll Ulenspiegel. Anne McElvoy, Daniel Kehlmann and Karen Leeder discuss.

• 44 mins

Samuel Beckett & the purpose of culture

If we want the arts to be a comfort blanket, where does Beckett fit in? Lisa Dwan responds

• 44 mins

Early Cinema

Matthew Sweet looks back at an early female film director and a British film pioneer.

• 44 mins

The shadow of slavery

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to a panel about slavery, sugar and the costs.

• 44 mins

How we talk about sex and women's bodies

Fern Riddell, Kate Lister and Robin Mitchell discuss their research with Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins