Talking about Silence

Good Silence, Bad Silence

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores how Christianity contains silences that need ending.

• 14 mins

Words for War

Oksana Maksymchuk-Hear Their Words

War came to Ukraine in 2014. Its poets have been responding to it ever since.

• 14 mins

Words for War

We Come from Odesa - Boris and Ludmila Khersonsky

Boris and Ludmila Khersonsky recently fled Odesa. 'We have to write, to give witness.'

• 14 mins

Words for War

Lyuba Yakimchuk-Ruination of Cities & Words

Lyuba Yakimchuk was born in eastern Ukraine near Luhansk and has now fled Kyiv for Vienna.

• 14 mins

Words for War

Oksana Lutsyshyna - I Dream of Explosions

Oksana Lutsyshyna is an award-winning writer, translator and poet.

• 14 mins

Words for War

Vasyl Makhno-My Personal History of War

Vasyl Makhno was born in 1964 and has written about war since the Afghan/Soviet conflict.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Walking with the Ghosts of the Durham Coalfield

Jake Morris-Campbell carries the ashes of poet Bill Martin from Sunderland to Durham.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Contesting an Alphabet

Mirela Ivanova on the countries claiming to be the birthplace of the Cyrillic script.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

African cinema, nationhood, and liberation

Sarah Jilani on the lessons about power in films by Ousmane Sembene and Souleymane Cissé.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Ruffs in Jamestown

Lauren Working on what fashion reveals about life for C16 English settlers in America.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

John Baptist Dasalu and Fighting for Freedom

Jake Subryan Richards reads the letter sent by a captured man who arrived in Cuba in 1854.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

A Brazilian Soprano in Jazz-Age Paris

Adjoa Osei celebrates Elsie Houston, who mixed Afro-Brazilian folk with European opera.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

The Paradox of Ecological Art

Vid Simoniti considers eco-art from Olafur Eliasson to videos by Bo Zheng.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Alexander and the Persians

Julia Hartley asks why we call Alexander the Great.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Opium Tales

Fariha Shaikh reads accounts from Thomas de Quincey (1821) to Timothy Mo and Amitav Ghosh.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Pause for Thought

Florence Hazrat looks at the history of punctuation marks (such as brackets) and emojis.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

Falling in Love Again

Marybeth Hamilton charts a song Dietrich initially loathed yet never stopped singing.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

When Love Dies

David Thomson charts the collaboration between Dietrich and director Joseph von Sternberg.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

In the Ruins of Berlin

Karin Wieland analyses a song that charted Dietrich's bitter relationship with home.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

Where Have All the Flowers Gone

Paul Morley marks Dietrich's dive into a Pete Seeger anti-war folk song she transformed.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

Le Gateau Chocolat revels in how Dietrich and Burt Bacharach reforged a classic show tune.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Tupac

Inua Ellams explores the impact of rapper 2Pac on his political and racial awareness.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Kipling

Inua explores race and racism through Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Dante

Inua Ellams explores why basketball is so alive in black and working-class communities.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Sunflowers

A very personal exploration of poetic starting points from writer Inua Ellams.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Carrots

Inua Ellams explores how African barber shops provide spaces where men can be vulnerable.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Creativity

Adrian Edmonson reflects on what went wrong with the highly successful sitcom Bottom.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Money

How Adrian Edmondson tricked the bank, ran away from school and almost got expelled.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Nuts

Five reflections on his life by comedian, actor and writer, Adrian Edmondson.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Fandom

Adrian Edmondson ponders the nature of being a fan and the object of others' recognition.

• 14 mins