British Academy Book Prize 2022

Rana Mitter meets six authors shortlisted for the prize for Global Cultural Understanding.

• 44 mins

Going Underground

Shahidha Bari and guests explore life and leisure underground.

• 44 mins

Oliver Postgate

Matthew Sweet with Daniel Postgate, Sandra Kerr, Neil Brand and Samira Ahmed.

• 44 mins

Dead languages

John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of ancient Pompeii

• 44 mins

Orhan Pamuk and the Ottoman Empire

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk joins academics Michael Talbot and Keya Anjaria.

• 44 mins

Ghostwatch

An examination of the reality–horror/pseudo-documentary TV broadcast from 1992.

• 44 mins

Alexander the Great

Military leader, city founder, underwater explorer?! Rana Mitter on images of Alexander.

• 44 mins

Goethe, Schiller and the first Romantics

Andrea Wulf, author of a new group biography set in 1790s Jena, joins Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

John Knox

A life of great drama and religious controversy explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

The Imperial War Museum Remembrance Discussion 2022

Video game designers, a former soldier, and curator of War Games at IWM join Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

Plastic and Clay

Lisa Mullen and guests compare the extraordinary uses of two contrasting materials.

• 44 mins

Breakthroughs at Being Human 2022

New research on Benjamin Franklin in Cumbria, the Kenwood, lightbulbs and ganzflicker.

• 44 mins

Experimentation in the arts

Shahidha Bari talks to the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize, awarded for creative daring.

• 44 mins

George Bernard Shaw

Anne McElvoy and guests look at the arguments explored in the plays of Shaw (1856-1950).

• 44 mins

St Teresa/Vivekananda/Nietzsche

Rana Mitter discusses three major philosophers of religion and self-development

• 44 mins

Arabian queens, Bangladeshi mothers and women's tales

From the Arabian nights to refugee stories - female voices fictional and real.

• 44 mins

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment

Stephen Frears, Matthew Reisz, Lucy Bolton and Matthew Sweet look at this 1966 film.

• 44 mins

Soil, Chickens and City Farms

Ahead of world soil day, Anne McElvoy looks at changes to both rural and urban farming.

• 44 mins

How do we look at art?

Turner Prize shortlist, the vogue for surround-sound projections, and shows about sight.

• 44 mins

Star Trek

Matthew Sweet with George Takei, Naomi Alderman, Una McCormack and José-Antonio Orosco.

• 44 mins

Language, the Victorians, and Us

From Lancashire dialect protest poetry to Hardy's Dorset vowels. John Gallagher hosts.

• 44 mins

Trapeze acts and circus celebrities

Shahidha Bari hears about aerialists Lillian Leitzel and Pablo Fanque.

• 44 mins

Depicting AIDS in Drama

Russell T Davies, Jill Nalder, Sabina Dosani and Matthew Sweet, recorded with an audience.

• 44 mins

Lists

Are lists a good way of organising chaos? Lisa Mullen and guests discuss

• 44 mins

Beasts and animals

Shahidha Bari investigates the human invention of animals.

• 44 mins

Landladies

Historical accounts and fictional depictions of the women who ran boarding houses.

• 44 mins

Katherine Mansfield and Mavis Gallant

Claire Harman, Kirsty Gunn, Laurence Scott and Shahidha Bari discuss short story writing.

• 44 mins

Amílcar Cabral

Rana Mitter and guests discuss the pan-Africanist poet and anti-colonial leader.

• 44 mins

Wilkie Collins and disability

How the Victorian author’s own pain and drug dependency fed into his sensational novels.

• 44 mins

Phillis Wheatley

Christienna Fryar explores the life and writing of the enslaved American poet (1753-1784).

• 44 mins