Why do we have a seven-day week?

How this unnatural cycle came to organise our lives

• 45 mins

The writer Rachel Carson who fought insecticide wars

How Silent Spring, a book about DDT use, changed the way we think about the environment

• 39 mins

When money died: The world's worst inflation

Hungary, 1946, where prices doubled every 15 hours

• 43 mins

How we work: Redesigning the office

The concept of the office is being reimagined. What can we learn from its history?

• 39 mins

Cavalry and code-breaking: The Polish-Soviet war

Little-known conflict that shaped Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the First World War

• 39 mins

Neanderthals: Meet the relatives

Recent scientific breakthroughs have overturned received wisdom about our ancient cousins

• 39 mins

How the shipping container changed the world

How standardising the humble shipping container revolutionised world trade

• 39 mins

Tropicália: the movement that defied Brazil’s dictatorship

The story of Brazil’s counter-cultural push of the late 1960s

• 42 mins

Rituals: Our anchors in a changing world

Why rituals and ceremonies enthral us and endure through the ages

• 48 mins

Alexander the Great or not so great?

One of the world’s most astonishing military leaders, but was he brilliant or brutal?

• 39 mins

The dam builders

The politics, power and engineering behind monumental dams

• 39 mins

How the mobile phone changed everything

Charting the seismic transformation of our lives caused by mobile communications

• 48 mins

A deep dive into deepfakes

Misinformation spread by faked images is almost as old as film itself

• 49 mins

Global mass tourism

Has tourism lost its way?

• 49 mins

The evolution of teenagers

Why do humans have such a prolonged adolescence?

• 49 mins

Pets and us

A scamper through the social history of our best friends

• 48 mins

The joy and sorrow of roads

Dirt tracks to expressways: how roadbuilding changed the world

• 48 mins

What makes a good boss?

An exploration of how we can get the best out of people in the workplace.

• 48 mins

Political parties and us

How well do political parties serve their voters?

• 48 mins

The story of throwaway living

How disposable and single-use items conquered the world

• 48 mins

Diplomacy

The reality of international diplomacy

• 48 mins

Supermarkets

How supermarkets came to dominate food retail

• 48 mins

Etiquette

Manners in the modern world and in the past

• 48 mins

Feeding the world and the Green Revolution

Turning points in arable farming

• 49 mins

The fight for women’s education

Empowering women through schooling

• 49 mins

Music on the move

A short history of portable audio devices

• 49 mins

The only way is up: A history of mountaineering

Tracing our fascination with the high peaks

• 48 mins

The diary: A life page by page

The centuries-old practice of keeping a personal journal

• 48 mins

The high-speed train race

Celebrating six decades of very fast railways

• 49 mins

Why sleep sometimes eludes us

Insomnia in science and the arts

• 49 mins