Mocking power past and present.

The German joker Tyll Ulenspiegel. Anne McElvoy, Daniel Kehlmann & 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?

• 45 mins

Early cinema: why are we obsessed with firsts?

Matthew Sweet looks back at the early history of cinema

• 44 mins

The shadow of slavery

From sugar and spice, to reparations and memorials: slavery and how we acknowledge it

• 44 mins

The History of Sex

Fern Riddell, Kate Lister and Robin Mitchell discuss their research with Matthew

• 45 mins

Queer histories

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

• 49 mins

The Surreal World of Alejandro Jodorowsky

Matthew Sweet talks to the Chilean French director Alejandro Jodorowsky and to critics

• 46 mins

African Empire Stories

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

• 65 mins

Genes, racism, ageing and evidence

Daniel Levitin on ageing & Adam Rutherford on race and genetics.

• 44 mins

Japan Now 2020

Philip Dodd talks to Hiromi Ito, Tomoko Sawada, Yukiko Motoya, and Motoyuki Shibata

• 45 mins

New Thinking: Everything to Everybody - Shakespeare for the people

Islam Issa hears how Adrian Lester and Ewan Fernie are taking Shakespeare to the people

• 39 mins

How archictecture shapes society

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

• 45 mins

Yolande Mukagasana - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

Zoe Norridge describes translating the testimony of a Rwandan survivor

• 14 mins

Margaret Oliphant - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

The Scottish writer whose comic heroine Miss Marjoribanks bucks 19th-century conventions

• 13 mins

Charlotte Smith - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

The Romantic poet who inspired Wordsworth is profiled by Sophie Coulombeau.

• 14 mins

Lady Mary Wroth - women writer to put back on the bookshelf

The English Renaissance poet whose reputation at court was ruined by her writing.

• 14 mins

Anne Enright + the value of gossip

Anne Enright discusses acting with Daisy Black, Emily Butterworth and Marie Le Conte.

• 44 mins

New Thinking: Women in Virtual Reality

Hetta Howes learns how Sylvia Xueni Pan and Sarah Ellis are pushing the VR envelope

• 45 mins

Frank Ramsey

Shahidha Bari looks at the life and legacy of the 20th century polymath

• 62 mins

Storm Jameson - women writers to put back on the bookshelf

Yorkshire-born writer with a European outlook who campaigned for World War Two refugees.

• 14 mins

Jewish Identity in 2020

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

• 44 mins

Fighting Women

How women have fought on the frontline from antiquity to the present day

• 44 mins

Advertising & Artemisia

Considering how women have shaped art and advertising and new feminist writing in Korea.

• 44 mins

Slebs: Warhol, Beaton and celebrity culture

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

• 45 mins

Does Growth Matter?

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

• 47 mins

New Thinking: Science Fiction

Hetta Howes, Caroline Edwards & Amy Butt ask is science fiction the new realism?

• 48 mins

Shoes

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

• 44 mins

Contagion and Viruses

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

• 40 mins

Future Thinking

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

• 40 mins

What's so great about EM Forster

Deborah Levy and Laurence Scott talk to Shahidha Bari about the English novelist's work.

• 58 mins