Eleusinian Mysteries: Secret ceremonies promising happiness

The enigma at the centre of ancient Greek religion

• 39 mins

Mermaids: Tales from the deep

A history of sea creature folklore from around the world

• 38 mins

Sister Juana, a great mind of Mexico

An outspoken nun who was also a daring poet

• 39 mins

The Kalevala: the Finnish epic that inspired a nation

The collection of folk songs and poetry that articulated Finnish independence

• 39 mins

Abraham Maslow’s psychology of human needs

An influential 20th-century thinker who identified what motivates us

• 39 mins

Making waves: the history of swimming

Different strokes for different folks, embracing the story of swimming around the world

• 40 mins

BR Ambedkar: The Dalit hero of India

The life of perhaps the greatest social reformer in 20th-century India

• 39 mins

Adventures with dentures: The story of dentistry

The painful early roots of a profession we all rely on

• 39 mins

The One Thousand and One Nights

The ancient magical tales whose origins stretch from India to Persia to Arabia

• 40 mins

Pauline Viardot: 19th-Century diva

The Franco-Spanish singer and composer who charmed European society on and off stage

• 38 mins

Rabindranath Tagore: The Bard of Bengal

A portrait of the prolific writer who was an environmental thinker before his time

• 39 mins

One Hundred Years of Solitude: The story of Latin America

Gabriel García Márquez’s modern classic that fuses the magical with real life

• 39 mins

Unravelling the history of knitting

What are the origins of knitting and how did it spread to different parts of the world?

• 40 mins

The census: A snapshot of life

Charting the history of counting and classifying people the world over

• 39 mins

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, groundbreaking fort builder

The engineer who championed freedom on two continents

• 39 mins

Ukulele - a history of Hawaii's national instrument

The mini guitar that came to symbolise Hawaiian culture

• 39 mins

The birth of the modern car

Design milestones in the early history of motor vehicles

• 39 mins

Machiavelli, master of power

The life and reputation of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince

• 39 mins

X-rays: New ways of seeing

The discovery of X-rays in 1895 and how it transformed our world

• 39 mins

Aramaic: An imperial language without an empire

A history of one of the oldest living languages in the world

• 39 mins

Falconry: The history of hunting with birds of prey

From nomads to nobles, the working relationship between humans and raptors

• 39 mins

The Wizard of Oz: A homegrown American fairy tale

The magical story of Dorothy, a plucky American heroine who follows the yellow brick road

• 39 mins

Tracing the roots of ancient trees

What can we learn from the oldest trees on earth?

• 39 mins

Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone

How mass-produced audio discs transformed our sound world

• 40 mins

Rain or shine? A short history of the weather forecast

A century and a half of scientific meteorology

• 39 mins

Ida Pfeiffer: 19th Century globetrotter

The eccentric traveller and collector who circumnavigated the globe twice

• 39 mins

The Panama Canal: The real story behind the engineering triumph

The Canal that joined up the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but how did it impact Panama?

• 39 mins

Ibn Sina: The Persian polymath

Best known for his Canon of Medicine, Avicenna helped shape modern science

• 26 mins

Inside the mind of crime writer Patricia Highsmith

A 20th century master of the psychological thriller

• 42 mins

Sailing by the stars: The pioneering voyages of David Lewis

One man's intrepid quest to revive ancient navigation

• 39 mins