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

Religion and Science

Is the idea that religion and science are at odds a myth?

• 45 mins

Fugitive slaves, Victorian justice

Oskar Jensen tells the tall tale of a court case inspired by a best-selling novel

• 13 mins

Revolutionary free speech

Clare Siviter looks at attempts to liberate and then censor expression in 1790s France.

• 14 mins

Pirates

From Treasure Island to Kynance Cove, Anne Bonney to Captain Pugwash: Anne McElvoy hosts

• 45 mins

Children of the Waters

Sabina Dosani looks at the ritual of Mizuko Kuyo and modern ceremonies marking miscarriage

• 14 mins

Ginger Rogers

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the Hollywood star's dancing, comic timing and "sass".

• 45 mins

Land and soil politics

Jim Scown on the links between Goethe, George Eliot and the storming of the US Capitol

• 14 mins

Caruso, Elsie Houston, Peter Brathwaite

Exploring the flow of cultural influences in both directions across the Atlantic.

• 45 mins

Galatea and Shakespeare

Trans narratives in pre-Shakespearian drama plus Twelfth Night and the First Folio.

• 45 mins

Tartan, Kidnapped and Highland writing

Tartan at V&A Dundee, RL Stevenson's Kidnapped on stage, the Highland Book prize 2022

• 45 mins

Hilma af Klint

The spiritual paintings of the Swedish artist are discussed by Matthew Sweet and guests

• 45 mins

New Thinking: Fashion, sustainability and Earth Day

From outfits which double as tents to material and algae: Lucy Orta and Monica Buchan-Ng

• 27 mins

Queen Charlotte, fashion and music

Shahidha Bari and guests on a Royal Collection exhibition and the new Bridgerton spin off

• 45 mins

Lady Antonia Fraser

Rana Mitter talks to the author about her life & the art of writing historical biography.

• 45 mins

Sound, conflict and central heating

Matthew Sweet finds out how extreme temperatures changed Erland Cooper's music

• 45 mins

Sidney Poitier

Matthew Sweet and guests consider the career of the Bahamian-American actor (1927-2022)

• 45 mins

Kingship and ceremony

Anne McElvoy looks at royalty, pomp and glory in opera, ancient Persia and Tudor England.

• 45 mins

Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe

Shahidha Bari hears about two inspirational medieval women mystics who wrote about faith

• 44 mins

Mountaineering, Lizzie Le Blond, sport and science

Rachel Hewitt has been researching the pioneering Irish climber Mrs Aubrey Le Blond.

• 45 mins