A poet, crime writer, theologian and marine biologist explore darkness. Read more
now playing
Dark Places
A poet, crime writer, theologian and marine biologist explore darkness.
Enter the Dragon and Bruce Lee
Matthew Sweet watches the 1973 martial arts film made before Bruce Lee's death aged 32.
Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's Hand in the Trap
Confronting the man who jilted you is the plot of this 1960s Argentine expressionist film
New Generation Thinkers 2022
Laurence Scott introduces the ten academics chosen to share their research on radio.
Bridgerton and Georgian Entertainment
Shahidha Bari with Ian Kelly, Hannah Greig, Sophie Coulombeau, Brianna Kirkland-Robertson.
China: World Politics, Ink Art and Insomnia
Kevin Rudd talks about avoiding catastrophic conflict between China and the USA.
Grief
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the role of ritual, laments and how we express grief.
Ships and History
Artist Hew Locke plus historians Sarah Caputo, Jake Subryan Richards and Tom Nancollas.
Housework
Gender, class and domestic tasks. Matthew pulls on his rubber gloves and gets stuck in.
Preserving our heritage
From knitting patterns to greetings cards: Naomi Paxton looks at a series of UK archives
Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound
Shahidha Bari on a new staging of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Why is Warwick a key figure?
Teaching and Inspiration
Novelist Julian Barnes, historian Daisy Hay and New Generation Thinker Louise Creechan.
Speaking Welsh
Catherine Fletcher explores the relationship between Cymru and Cymraeg - Wales and Welsh.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne McElvoy discusses the visionary poet with a composer and two literature experts.
May Day Rituals
Matthew Sweet and guests explore ideas about community, collective action and May revels.
Kawanabe Kyōsai and Yukio Mishima
Japanese cultural experimentation: painter Kyōsai 1831-1889 and writer Mishima 1925-1970.
Windows
From Rear Window to stained glass, TB to paintings at Dulwich. Shahidha Bari hosts.
Odessa Stories
Linda Grant and Boris Dralyuk discuss the writer Isaac Babel with Matthew Sweet.
Mental Health
Anne McElvoy looks at ASMR, clean air, loneliness and a memoir exploring mental health.
Soil
John Gallagher and guests dig deep into the significance of soil.
Soho
Matthew Sweet is joined by Jingan Young, Benjamin Halligan and David McGillivray.
Gandhi, Indian architecture
Rana Mitter looks at a new play at the National Theatre about the man who murdered Gandhi.
Goddesses
Christopher Harding investigates the feminine divine with Ronald Hutton and others.
Tattoos
Shahidha Bari traces the move from markings on convicts and aristos to today's body art.
The Tudor Mind
Donne, Hamlet, mathematics and the Tudor portraits composed by Vaughan Williams.
Tudor families
Tangled bloodlines, executions and a big, gold inflatable thing belonging to Henry VIII.
Oceans and the Sea
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Emily Shuckburgh and Joan Passey join Rana Mitter at Hay Festival.
Amia Srinivasan and Philosophical Genealogy
The Right to Sex is the title of Amia Srinivasan's new book. Christopher Harding hosts.
The Wolfson Prize 2022
Rana Mitter interviews the shortlisted authors for the Wolfson Prize for history writing.
John McGrath's Scottish Drama
Anne McElvoy revisits the 1973 play The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil
Victorian Streets
Is that strong, inescapable image of 19th-century city streets in our heads the right one?