First Encounters

How do you decipher history when there isn't anything written down?

• 44 mins

What Does a Black History Curriculum Look Like?

Reports from The Runnymede Trust and The Black Curriculum call for wider history teaching.

• 44 mins

The consolation of philosophy and stories

Matthew Sweet talks to Kylie Murray, Prof Seth Lerer and former Bishop Richard Holloway.

• 44 mins

Magic

Matthew Sweet and guests conjure a conversation about the importance and appeal of magic

• 44 mins

Nature Writing

From Gilbert White to lockdown blogs - why we need to spend more time in nature.

• 44 mins

Anne Applebaum, Ingrid Bergman, Herland

Anne Applebaum, and the lives of Ingrid Bergman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

• 44 mins

Dada and the power of nonsense

A project to reimagine the Dada arts movement now, and reflections on satire and nonsense.

• 44 mins

Bernard-Henri Lévy, Stella Sandford, Homi K Bhabha

How philosophy helps us understand the world reshaped by Covid-19. Shahidha Bari presents.

• 44 mins

Wole Soyinka's Writing

Ben Okri, Louisa Egbunike and Oladipo Agboluaje discuss Wole Soyinka's life and work.

• 44 mins

Piranesi and disturbing archecture

Susanna Clarke, author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, is one of Matthew Sweet's guests.

• 44 mins

The Mayflower and Native American history

Sarah Churchwell, Kathryn Napier Gray and Lauren Working with Eleanor Barraclough.

• 44 mins

Family Ties and Reshaping History

From Neanderthals to Sikh warriors to the idea of weird people, three authors look at kin.

• 44 mins

Get Carter

Digging beneath the surface of the classic Brit noir film with director Mike Hodges.

• 44 mins

The impact of being multilingual

Discussion ahead of the European Day of Languages and International Translation Day.

• 44 mins

Conservatism, Philanthropy, Liberal and socialist futures

Anne McElvoy talks to Edmund Fawcett about conflicts within Conservatism.

• 44 mins

Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize 2020

Tales of indigenous people battling for their land; colonialism & pioneers of anthropology

• 44 mins

Cows, farming and our view of nature

Are cows the answer to depleted soil or the problem? With farmer and author James Rebanks.

• 44 mins

Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Links between biography and poetry. Telling modern Ugandan stories. With Shahidha Bari.

• 44 mins

Writing a Life: Hermione Lee, Daniel Lee and Rachel Holmes

Biographers of Tom Stoppard, Sylvia Pankhurst and a little known SS soldier compare notes.

• 44 mins

African Europeans, Fidel Castro and African leaders, WEB Du Bois

Professors Olivette Otele and Simon Hall on understanding connections in black history

• 44 mins

The Frieze BBC Radio 3 Debate Museums in the 21st Century

Gallery directors from Russia, USA and Singapore compare notes, hosted by Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

New Thinking about Museums

VR Vikings, military museums to bakelite - new research into a range of collections.

• 44 mins

Daljit Nagra & Val McDermid; Reynard the Fox

A poet and a crime writer compare notes; plus, lessons for now from a medieval foxy fable

• 44 mins

Derrida and post truth

Matthew Sweet asks biographer Peter Salmon about Derrida's influence today

• 44 mins

Seances and Science

A Croydon poltergeist and artists as mediums - Kate Summerscale and Simon Grant.

• 44 mins

2020 Polari Prize winners

Shahidha Bari looks at some of the best recent LGBTQ+ writing and photography.

• 44 mins

The Writing of Aimé Césaire

From négritude and his Discourse on Colonialism to his long inventive and punning poetry.

• 44 mins

City Life, estate living and lockdown

Matthew Sweet and guests on how Covid has changed our cities.

• 44 mins

Individualism and Community

From Enlightenment conscience to New Deal USA to carers and refugees. Anne McElvoy hosts

• 44 mins

Audiences

A director, event programmer and theatre & dance historians on making work without a crowd

• 44 mins