Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages of discovery. Read more
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The Ming Voyages
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages of discovery.
Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People.
The Siege of Tenochtitlan
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Siege of Tenochtitlan and fall of the Aztec Empire
The Moon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins, science and mythology of the moon.
The Continental-Analytic Split
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Continental and Analytic philosophical traditions.
Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Ptolemy and ancient astronomy.
Judas Maccabeus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revolutionary Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus.
Christina Rossetti
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.
Heraclitus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus.
The Concordat of Worms
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Concordat of Worms of 1122.
Robinson Crusoe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe.
Macromolecules
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the giant molecules that underpin all life.
The Safavid Dynasty
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty of early modern Iran.
The Written World
Episode 1
How making signs on clay, wood or parchment enabled the development of human culture.
Episode 2
Melvyn considers the impact of the invention of the book.
Episode 3
How the invention of writing influenced the spread of religion.
Literature
How the written word, originally used for accountancy, gave rise to human literature.
Episode 5
How the invention of writing made the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment possible.
1848: Year of Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss 1848, the year that saw Europe engulfed in revolution.
The Scientific Method
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Scientific Method.
The Kama Sutra
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra.
Erasmus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus.
The An Lushan Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion.
Conductors and Semiconductors
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physics of electrical conduction.
Benjamin Franklin
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin.
Lyrical Ballads
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads.
Vitruvius and De Architectura
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Vitruvius's De Architectura.
Moses Mendelssohn
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.
The Measurement of Time
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the measurement of time.
George Fox and the Quakers
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins of Quakerism.
Early Geology
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the emergence of geology as a scientific discipline.