The mermaid-like Mélusine

The fish-tailed woman of medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.

• 44 mins

Gwendolyn Brooks

Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of the Pulitzer prize winning American poet 1917-2000

• 45 mins

Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills

Sarah Jilani on Latife Tekin’s magical realist novel about 1960’s Istanbul shanty towns.

• 14 mins

Lady Macbeth

From Kurosawa and Shostakovich to Zinnie Harris. New takes on the Scottish play.

• 44 mins

The Heir of Redclyffe

Clare Walker-Gore revisits Charlotte M. Yonge's best-selling novel from 1853.

• 14 mins

Donkeys

From Aesop and the bible to the film EO which looks at a donkey born in a Polish circus.

• 44 mins

Stories of Love

Romeo and Juliet reworked, Proust and Rita Mae Brown's coming of age tale Rubyfruit Jungle

• 44 mins

Idrissa Ouédraogo

The work of the Burkinabé filmmaker explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

Phaedra, Cretan palaces and the minotaur

Knossos - birthplace of myths and tragedies - explored by Rana Mitter and Natalie Haynes

• 44 mins

Climate change and empire building

The long history of climate change and empire: historians Nandini Das and Peter Frankopan

• 44 mins

Ghosts of Caribbean History

New writing by Colin Grant and Kevin Jared Hosein; art by Mary Evans and Michael Elliott

• 44 mins

Tin cans, cutlery and sewing

New research into the history of stainless steel cutlery, tinned food and sewing machines

• 44 mins

Sesame Street and Soviet culture

Anne McElvoy looks at Russian punk protest + a version of US TV's Big Bird, Bert and Ernie

• 45 mins

Dom Sylvester Houédard

Matthew Sweet and guests on the career of the C20th concrete poet and Catholic mystic

• 43 mins

Anarchism and David Graeber

Matthew Sweet and guests look at the ideas of American anthropologist (1961-2020).

• 44 mins

Making Your Voice Heard

Shahidha Bari is joined by Dina Nayeri, Kirsty Sedgman, Michelle Assay and Alberta Whittle

• 45 mins

New Thinking: British Sign Language

Kate Rowley and Gerardo Ortega talk about new research into British Sign Language

• 43 mins

Debt

As Budget day approaches, Anne McElvoy looks at debt from the South Sea Bubble to Sunak

• 45 mins

Decadent Art

New research into ideas about decadence and connections with France, England and Iran.

• 44 mins

The wicked? stepmother

Ahead of Mother's Day Matthew Sweet and guests discuss new ways of looking at stepmothers

• 44 mins

Busking and Billy Waters

The early 19th century street performer Billy Waters, Streetwise Opera and street ballads

• 44 mins

New Thinking: AI, feminism, human/machines

Kerry McInerney, Eleanor Drage and Kendra Briken share their research with Laurence Scott

• 47 mins

The culture of Albania

Matthew Sweet is joined by Lea Ypi, Adela Demetja, Ani Kokobobo and Aurel Qirjo

• 44 mins

East Germany

Katja Hoyer on East Germany, behind the Berlin Wall and the Cold War caricature

• 45 mins

Translating Cultures

Composer Alex Ho, novelist Xiaolu Guo, curator George Young and director Anthony Lau

• 45 mins

Charles Babbage and broadcasting the sea

The father of modern computing thought the sea could communicate. Joan Passey explains.

• 14 mins

Introducing New Generation Thinkers 2023

Chris Harding meets the 10 academics who will make programmes from their research in 2023

• 53 mins

The Rossettis and Walter Pater

Matthew Sweet and guests visit a Tate Britain show and look at Pater's Renaissance ideas

• 45 mins

New Thinking: Raiding Gay’s the Word & Magnus Hirschfeld

Diarmuid Hester hears about Operation Tiger & early 1900s queer life writing

• 42 mins

A family of witches

Emma Whipday explores the demonisation of single mothers in English witch trials.

• 14 mins