Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself Read more
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Authenticity
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.
The Danelaw
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries.
The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49.
The Evolution of Teeth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how teeth evolved in our toothless ancestors - and why.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays
Nero
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.
The Gordon Riots
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.
Bergson and Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henri Bergson's ideas about our experience of time passing
Frankenstein
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life
Kinetic Theory
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how we know gas molecules move rather than keep still.
President Ulysses S Grant
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in reconstructing the USA after the Civil War
Sir Thomas Browne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times
The Inca
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the advanced Andean empire, dominant until Pizarro arrived
The Mytilenaean Debate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' change of mind in the Peloponnesian War.
Doggerland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Stone Age human habitats now covered by the North Sea.
Lorca
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death.
Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812.
The Rapture
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that believers will vanish from the world.
Dorothy Hodgkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Rousseau on Education
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas on the education of children
The Time Machine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.
Robert Burns
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796).
Hybrids
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how parents from different species can reproduce
The Treaty of Limerick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaty ending the Williamite War in Ireland in 1691
Crime and Punishment
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful woman in the C12th Kingdom of Jerusalem
Li Shizhen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heights of medical knowledge under the Ming dynasty
Lawrence of Arabia
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week
Coffee
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee and its impact
Auden
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s.