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

Queer Histories

How do we apply modern LGBT+ language and identities to historical figures?

• 44 mins

The Surreal World of Alejandro Jodorowsky

Matthew Sweet talks to Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky and to critics.

• 44 mins

Japan Now 2020

Hiromi Ito, Tomoko Sawada, Yukiko Motoya and Motoyuki Shibata

• 44 mins

African Empire stories

Petina Gappah and Sarah LeFanu on Livingstone, Kipling and Mary Kingsley in Africa.

• 44 mins

Genes, racism, ageing and evidence

Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin and geneticist Adam Rutherford join Rana Mitter.

• 44 mins

Women Behaving Badly?

Helen Lewis joins Shahidha Bari to talk feminist pioneers, dating, and power dynamics.

• 44 mins

How architecture shapes society

Ricky Burdett, Liza Fior, Des Fitzgerald, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Edwin Heathcote at LSE

• 44 mins

Anne Enright, The value of gossip

The Irish novelist talks to Laurence Scott, plus a discussion of gossip past and present.

• 44 mins

Maths and philosophy puzzles

Shahidha Bari looks at the legacy of 20th-century polymath Frank Ramsey (1903-1930).

• 44 mins

Jewish Identity in 2020

Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman, Jonathan Freedland and Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins

Fighting Women

Maaza Mengiste, Christina Lamb, Julie Wheelwright & Shawn Sobers join Eleanor Barraclough.

• 44 mins

Advertising, Renaissance Art and Artemisia Gentileschi

Historians Catherine Fletcher, Selina Todd and art critic Jonathan Jones join Rana Mitter.

• 44 mins

Slebs: Warhol, Beaton and celebrity culture

Lisa Mullen, Caroline Frost and historian & podcast host Greg Jenner join Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins

Does Growth Matter?

Is the economic future all about growth? Danny Dorling discusses Slowdown.

• 44 mins

Shoes

From Roman sandals to trainers and stilettos, Shahidha Bari looks at the shoe trade.

• 44 mins

Contagion & Viruses

Matthew Sweet talks to John Dupré, Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen & Matt Adams

• 44 mins

How do we build a new masculinity?

Sunil Gupta, CN Lester, Tom Shakespeare and Alona Pardo with Matthew Sweet.

• 44 mins

The Declaration Of Arbroath

Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the early medieval document and Scottish politics today.

• 44 mins

Future Thinking

Mark Honigsbaum, Lisa Mullen, Riel Miller, Sarah Dillon and Rupert Read with Matthew Sweet

• 44 mins

Wordsworth

Professors Sally Bushell and Simon Bainbridge talk to New Generation Thinker Sarah Jackson

• 44 mins

Knees

Dance to prayer, servants to Kings, knees ups to being on our knees. With Matthew Sweet

• 44 mins

Religion and ordinary lives

Tom Charlton looks for evidence of belief from samplers to children's scribbles in bibles.

• 44 mins

Belonging

Philip Dodd talks to actor Christopher Eccleston and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards.

• 44 mins

Deep Time and Human History

Lewis Dartnell, Gaia Vince and David Farrier join Rana Mitter to talk the deepest history.

• 44 mins