Podcasts by Seriously...
Seriously is home to the world’s best audio documentaries and podcast recommendations, and host Vanessa Kisuule brings you two fascinating new episodes every week.
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Across the Divide - Episode 1 from 2023-12-12T05:00
Families from the many sides of the Gaza/Israeli dispute share and reflect on their own personal histories and day-to-day existence.
ListenLegend: The Joni Mitchell Story - Episode 1 from 2023-12-08T05:00
Joni Mitchell’s songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend. In the first ep...
ListenLights Out - Dust from 2023-12-05T05:00
"I noticed that language seems to fail us. How do you write about the foundations of our existence? That is how mythology enters very naturally into the story, because history is about ideas, re...
ListenA Very Australian Scandal from 2023-12-01T05:00
The Sydney Opera House celebrates its 50th anniversary on October 20, 2023.
The American architect Frank Gehry called it “a building that changed the image of an entire country” and you co...
ListenScorchio! The Story of the Weather Girl from 2023-11-28T05:00
Within weeks of starting as a weather presenter, Sam Fraser’s arse had its own online fan club and she featured on a YouTube channel called Babes of Britain.
She hadn’t imagined that decad...
ListenBattle Grounds: Culture Wars in the Countryside - Vegans from 2023-11-24T05:00
The British countryside is often portrayed as a green and pleasant land - a rural idyll. But under the surface, rural culture wars rage: the Right to Roam, veganism, rewilding. Anna Jones is a f...
ListenThe Reinvention of Italy from 2023-11-21T05:00
Anne McElvoy goes on the road in Italy in the latest in her series exploring the convulsions of political and cultural change sweeping through Europe’s great nations. The election last September...
ListenMilitary Ink from 2023-11-17T05:00
Glasgow’s west end is home to the Primrose Path Tattoo Society where ex-service men & women have gravitated to reflect, celebrate and sometimes come to terms with their lives in the military...
ListenHow to Spot Potential - Sporting Success from 2023-11-13T05:00
Kate Mason looks at how potential can be assessed in the world of professional football with Brentford FC player Michael Olakigbe and talent spotter Lee Dykes.
From cycling, Dan Bigham te...
ListenArchive on 4 - The Greyhound Diaries 2023 from 2023-11-10T05:00
American singer-songwriter Doug Levitt expected his tour to last just the six weeks printed on the face of the Greyhound pass he bought. The idea was to compose a fuller portrait of the United S...
ListenHow Safe is Maternity Care? from 2023-11-07T05:00
In 2013, broadcaster and journalist Krupa Padhy, one of the presenters for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, lost her first child because of medical negligence in a London Hospital. Legal action was t...
ListenRedeeming Ricky from 2023-11-03T05:00
Ex-offender Ricky Gleeson has set up HoodEx, a new sustainable clothing charity in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. Ricky has a remarkable back story – a deeply troubled, chequered past. His mother...
ListenLights Out - Dead Ends from 2023-10-31T05:00
“Should we delete the sex tape?” Should we get rid of the crime scene photographs? How do I find a true image of my mum amidst the recordings, fragments and images she left behind?"
Explor...
ListenHoax - The Planted Plants of Rum from 2023-10-06T04:00
Mysterious plants appear on the Isle of Rum. Do they prove the island miraculously escaped the Ice Age? And what extraordinary lengths would one scientist go to in order to prove that it did? Dr...
ListenThe Great Replacement from 2023-09-29T04:00
The Great Replacement is an idea fueling far-right recruitment around the world - the idea that white communities and culture are being purposely replaced by non-white migrants.
Many far...
ListenMemorial No More? A History of Russian Forgetting from 2023-09-22T04:00
Historian Catherine Merridale witnessed the birth of Memorial in 1989 as the Soviet Union died. An organisation devoted to recovering the past of the Soviet Gulag and soon documenting the new tr...
ListenLego Overboard from 2023-09-19T04:00
In 1997 a freak wave washed 62 containers into the sea off a cargo ship near the coast of Cornwall. Inside one were five million pieces of Lego. By a strange quirk of fate, many of the Lego piec...
ListenArchive on 4 - The Holy Blood from 2023-09-15T04:00
Two decades ago Da Vinci Code mania gripped the world. But the story behind the theory that Jesus Christ had a secret bloodline is more surprising than any thriller. Step aside Indiana Jones and...
ListenThe Murder of Kelso Cochrane from 2023-09-12T04:00
When a gang of youths attacked and killed an Antiguan man in 1959, it sparked uproar in the local community, in the press, and even drew the attention of politicians. Like Stephen Lawrence, Kels...
ListenBug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer - Episode 1 from 2023-08-29T04:00
Dr Kat Arney explores cancer through the lens of evolution.
Why do we get cancer? In this episode we find out that far from being a new disease, cancer is embedded deep in almost every br...
ListenBFFs: A Life Built on Friendship from 2023-08-18T04:00
Emily Knight lives with five housemates. One of them is her partner. But this isn't a student house-share. They are all in their 30s, have no plans to break up the group, and Emily can't imagine...
ListenAn Almanac for Anxiety: In Search of a Calmer Mind - Episode 1 from 2023-08-15T04:00
Anxiety is the most common form of mental illness in the UK, with nearly a fifth of people experiencing it over the course of a year. Although it is often treated through medication, there are m...
ListenThe Trouble with Sheep from 2023-07-28T04:00
Sheep have been instrumental in creating some of the UK’s most iconic upland landscapes – from the sweeping fells of the Lake District, to the moors of Devon and Cornwall.
These humble an...
ListenFever: The Hunt for Covid's Origin - Episode 1 from 2023-07-18T04:00
As a deadly new virus starts spreading in Wuhan, China, so do rumours about a lab there.
In the remote, jungle-covered hills of China’s far-southwestern Yunnan Province, teams of scientis...
ListenYeti - Episode 1 from 2023-07-14T04:00
Tales of a bipedal ape-like creature persist in the myth and legend of the Himalayas. But does the yeti really exist? Two enthusiasts are determined to find out. Andrew Benfield and Richard Hors...
ListenBrexit: A Guide for the Perplexed - Movement of People from 2023-07-11T04:00
The free movement of people from the EU has ended, but immigration has reached record levels. Former Brussels correspondent, Adam Fleming, charts how Britain’s workplaces and universities have c...
ListenThe Fast Furniture Fix from 2023-07-07T04:00
Fair fashion campaigner and influencer Venetia La Manna sets out to discover how the ways we produce, consume and value furniture have transformed over recent decades, and what that means for ou...
ListenWindrush: A Family Divided - Episode 1 from 2023-06-23T04:00
Robert and Jennifer Beckford are married and agree on most things - apart from one issue; was the Windrush Generation better off after coming here or should they have stayed in the Caribbean? An...
ListenWhat Are the Railways For? from 2023-06-20T04:00
As the government prepares a major reorganisation of Britain's railways, Daniel Brittain asks what are they for. It's a question which has been ignored in previous reorganisations - which typica...
ListenSearching for Cosmic Dust from 2023-06-16T04:00
Norwegian jazz musician Jon Larsen was having breakfast one clear spring morning when he noticed a tiny black speck land on his clean, white table. With no wind, birds or planes in sight, he won...
ListenThe Boy in the Peking Hotel from 2023-06-06T04:00
When 8 year old Kim Gordon set off for China in 1965, it set in train a tale of passion, imagination and still unanswered questions. Kim’s parents were committed communists in the thick of Mao’s...
ListenDoes the Irish Republic Want Reunification? from 2023-06-02T04:00
25 years since the people of both Northern Ireland and the Republic voted to accept the Good Friday Agreement, another potential referendum looms on the distant horizon. That Agreement, though p...
ListenSupersenses - Episode 1 from 2023-05-30T04:00
We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change...
ListenIs Psychiatry Working? - Anxiety Special from 2023-05-26T04:00
In a special episode to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, writer Horatio Clare and psychiatrist Femi Oyebode consider the purpose of anxiety, and how it can manifest in different ways. They loo...
ListenBuying a British Dad from 2023-05-23T04:00
You can buy almost everything on social media – how about a British dad for your child? A year long BBC investigation has uncovered a brazen illegal immigration scam in which pregnant migrant wo...
ListenThe Truth Police from 2023-05-16T04:00
For years, science has had a dirty secret; research has been dogged by claims and instances of fraud, malpractice and outright incompetence. Suspicious-looking data sets, breakthrough results th...
ListenMagic Consultants - Episode 1 from 2023-05-01T04:00
Adam Shaw peeks behind the curtain of the consultancy industry. Worth hundreds of billions of pounds, consultants stretch across almost every industry, government department and international bo...
ListenPrincess - Leila Pahlavi from 2023-04-14T04:00
Presenter Anita Anand joins comedian Shaparak Khorsandi and author Andrew Scott Cooper to explore the tragic life, death and legacy of Princess Leila Pahlavi, the last Princess of Imperial Iran....
ListenAll Work and No Homes from 2023-04-06T04:00
Communities in the Scottish Highlands are facing a housing crisis so bad, it’s been described as a clearance for the 21st century. According to the Convenor of the Highland Council, Bill Lobban,...
ListenAnalysis - Lessons from the Vaccine Task Force from 2023-04-04T04:00
In May 2020 a group of experts came together, at speed, to form the UK’s Vaccine Task Force. Born in the teeth of a crisis, its efforts were responsible for allowing Britain to be among the firs...
ListenThe New Nomads from 2023-03-31T04:00
The roads and byways of the British Isles are home to a new generation of travellers. Alongside the traditional Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities there’s a booming sub-culture of van dweller...
ListenTroubled Water - Episode 1 from 2023-03-28T04:00
Are we running out of water? Britain may be known for its rain but, as our climate changes, there are warnings we could be closer than we think to our taps running dry.
In this episode of...
ListenHomesick Planet from 2023-03-10T05:00
Much of an astronaut’s leisure time is spent staring back at Earth, they just can’t stop looking back at home. Major Tim Peake journeys into the misunderstood phenomenon of homesickness.
...
ListenLife on the Edge of Oil from 2023-03-07T05:00
Situated 75-miles off the west coast of Shetland, the future of Cambo, a prospective new oil field in the North Sea, has big implications for Shetland. Cambo has become emblematic of the debate ...
ListenWoke: The Journey of a Word - Episode 1 from 2023-02-28T05:00
Matthew Syed traces the history of a term that's synonymous with our era of angry debate.
ListenThe Privatisation of British Gas from 2023-02-24T05:00
Historian Phil Tinline explores why, 37 years ago, the Thatcher government privatised British Gas, how what followed has shaped today's energy price crisis - and what should happen next.
...
ListenHow Wars End from 2023-02-21T05:00
It seems like an impossible conundrum. Ukraine is valiantly defending itself against the man Boris Johnson called "a blood-stained aggressor" and fighting for survival in a war that is currently...
ListenTaiwan: Hyper-democracy from 2023-02-07T05:00
Taiwan is one of the world's youngest democracies. The first fully democratic presidential election was held as recently as 1996. But it's now being heralded as a place where digital technology ...
ListenWhy Coups Fail from 2023-02-03T16:12
Recently, in both Europe and the United States, there have been serious attempts to overthrow elected governments by force.
History is full of examples of coups d'etat succeeding, going al...
ListenThe Boat Smugglers from 2023-01-24T05:00
The recent rise in migrant boat crossings between France the UK is being fuelled in part by the more sophisticated methods gangs are using to source the boats.
Last year when they investig...
ListenFirst Contact from 2023-01-09T05:00
For thousands of years we have gazed up at the stars and wondered: is anybody out there? The idea of meeting aliens has been the inspiration for countless books and films; for art and music. But...
ListenThe Crowning of Everest - Episode 5 from 2023-01-03T05:40
2 June 1953. As the crowds line the streets to see their new Queen crowned, the news that Everest has been conquered is relayed over loudspeaker and adds to the excitement of the day. The Times ...
ListenThe Crowning of Everest - Episode 4 from 2023-01-03T05:30
The world is waiting for news of success from the British expedition on Mount Everest.
James Morris, later to become Jan Morris, is a reporter from The Times newspaper embedded with the t...
ListenThe Crowning of Everest - Episode 3 from 2023-01-03T05:20
In 1953 the 9th British expedition to the top of Mount Everest finally reaches the summit.
In the final team was a New Zealander and a Nepalese Sherpa. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay co...
ListenThe Crowning of Everest - Episode 2 from 2023-01-03T05:10
Britain has tried and failed to reach the top of Everest for decades.
George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared on the mountain in 1924.
There were various British expeditions du...
ListenThe Crowning of Everest - Episode 1 from 2023-01-03T05:00
In 1953 Queen Elizabeth II is crowned. It's also the year that the British expedition makes an attempt to climb to the summit of the highest mountain in the world.
The story of Mount Ever...
ListenBad Blood - 6. Newgenics from 2022-12-24T15:56
Are we entering a ‘newgenic’ age - where cutting-edge technologies and the power of personal choice could achieve the kind of genetic perfection that 20th century eugenicists were after?
...
ListenBad Blood - 5. The Curse of Mendel from 2022-12-23T11:09
A key goal of eugenics in the 20th century was to eliminate genetic defects from a population. Many countries pursued this with state-led programmes of involuntary sterilisation, even murder. We...
ListenBad Blood - 4. Rassenhygiene from 2022-12-23T10:58
In the name of eugenics, the Nazi state sterilised hundreds of thousands against their will, murdered disabled children and embarked on a programme of genocide.
Why?
We like to bel...
ListenBad Blood - 3. Birth Controlled from 2022-12-23T10:49
Who should be prevented from having children? And who gets to decide? Across 20th century America, there was a battle to control birth - a battle which rages on to this day.
In 1907, the ...
ListenBad Blood - 2. You Will Not Replace Us from 2022-12-23T10:30
"You will not replace us" was the battle cry of white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville in 2017. They were expressing an old fear - the idea that immigrants and people of colour will ou...
ListenBad Blood - 1. You’ve Got Good Genes from 2022-12-23T10:21
In this 6-part series, we follow the story of eugenics from its origins in the middle-class salons of Victorian Britain, through the Fitter Family competitions and sterilisation laws of Gilded A...
ListenThe Susurrations of the Sea from 2022-12-20T05:00
The Susurrations of the Sea is a collaboration between the poet Katrina Porteous, who lives right next to the North Sea in Beadnell, Northumberland; radio producer Julian May, who grew up close ...
ListenA Bad Guy with a Gun from 2022-12-16T05:00
A bad guy with a gun.
At 09:30am on the 14th December 2012, the staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School locked the school's doors, a security precaution they took every day. At 09:35 a gunma...
ListenFalling Stars from 2022-12-09T05:00
In the history of science, many individuals are honoured by having technical terms named after them. To modern sensibilities, this is sometimes regrettable.
Poet Dr Sam Illingworth looks ...
ListenWhen Reality Breaks: Demystifying Paranoid Schizophrenia from 2022-11-29T05:00
Growing up in Canada, her father's delusions and paranoia gave Julia Shaw a front-row seat into an alternate reality Believing "they” were out to get him – including everyone from aliens to the ...
ListenThe Name Is DeSantis from 2022-11-08T05:00
You may not know who he is - but you should. Under Donald Trump Ron DeSantis rode the MAGA wave to to the governor job in Florida.
For some, he's a "smart Trump". For others, a "troll" wh...
ListenDisaster Trolls - Episode 1 from 2022-11-04T05:00
Daren is haunted by his experience of the Manchester Arena bombing. So why do people taunt him with conspiracy theories which falsely claim the attack didn’t happen?
On 22 May 2017, a ter...
ListenMusic to Scream to - The Hammer Horror Soundtracks from 2022-10-28T04:00
Curse of the Werewolf, The Brides of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell – films from the height of Hammer Films’ prolific output in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many of the horrific mu...
ListenDesert Island Discoveries - Lauren Laverne and Vick Hope from 2022-10-24T17:30
Lauren shares handpicked gems from the Desert Island Discs back-catalogue with Radio 1 presenter Vick Hope, including Bob Mortimer, Maya Angelou, Joe Wicks, Sophia Loren, Tom Hanks, Dame Pat McG...
ListenThe Other Black Door from 2022-10-14T04:00
Jack Fenwick explores how the think tanks and pressure groups behind the black door of an anonymous building in Westminster have shaped the last decade of British politics - and asks how they mi...
ListenUgandan Asians: The Reckoning from 2022-10-11T04:00
General Idi Amin seized power in in Uganda in 1971. His brutal dictatorship is synonymous with the deportation of the country's 80,000-strong Asian population fifty years ago this year. As the p...
ListenThe Scramble for Rare Earths - 5. The Great New Game from 2022-09-30T05:00
Misha Glenny explores the world of rare earth metals. In this final episode he hears how Russia's interest in Ukraine might be partially motivated by its huge mineral deposits.
Guests: Rob...
ListenThe Scramble for Rare Earths - 4. The EU's Dependency on China from 2022-09-30T04:45
Misha Glenny explores the world of rare earth metals. He asks whether the EU can end its dependency on China's supply of critical raw materials to fuel the green transition.
Guests:
...
ListenThe Scramble for Rare Earths - 3. The Super Magnets from 2022-09-30T04:30
Misha Glenny explores the world of rare earth metals. Neodymium is vital for wind turbines and electric motors but can the world become less dependent on China to supply it?
Guests: Dr Jul...
ListenThe Scramble for Rare Earths - 2. The Hidden Paradox from 2022-09-30T04:15
Misha Glenny explores the world of rare earth metals. Reducing CO2 emissions requires critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel but mining and processing them can pose a serious thr...
ListenThe Scramble for Rare Earths - 1. The Magnificent 17 from 2022-09-30T04:00
Misha Glenny explores the world of rare earth metals and other critical raw materials. They are vital for the future of technology and the green transition. But some see China's monopoly on prod...
ListenWill the US and China go to war over Taiwan? from 2022-09-16T04:00
A recent visit to Taiwan by Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has heightened tensions between the US and China. America has accused China of dangerous military provocatio...
ListenThe Dark Side of Direct Sales from 2022-09-13T04:00
Big money, glamorous work trips abroad, and becoming your own boss - the world of door-to-door selling and chugging on the high street has been rebooted for the social media age.
The indu...
ListenBhopal - 5. The Fatal Night from 2022-09-09T12:00
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the world's worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Un...
ListenBhopal - 4. Bhopal on the Brink of Disaster from 2022-09-09T11:49
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worlds worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Uni...
ListenBhopal - 3. Friendly Business from 2022-09-09T11:39
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worlds worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Uni...
ListenBhopal - 2. The Smell of Grass from 2022-09-09T11:29
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worlds worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Uni...
ListenBhopal - 1. A Friend Dies from 2022-09-09T11:17
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worlds worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Uni...
ListenRecalculating Art from 2022-08-30T04:00
Art by women is literally undervalued. The highest price achieved by a contemporary female artist is $12.4m, while it is $91m for a man. If a painting is signed by a man it goes up in value, sig...
ListenLeeds: Life in the Bus Lane from 2022-08-23T04:00
Rima Ahmed takes the bus into Leeds and tries to find out why it is “the biggest city in Western Europe without a mass transit system”. Rima meets passengers, campaigners and history buffs as we...
ListenInheritors of partition from 2022-08-16T04:00
In homes across the UK, partition is not history but a live issue for its young descendants. Over the course of a year, Kavita Puri follows three people as they piece together parts of their com...
ListenGeneration Games from 2022-08-02T04:00
Can video games change lives? And, if so, how? 50 years after the arrival of Pong, gamer and writer Keza MacDonald considers what gaming has done for us. Using the rich BBC Archives, she explore...
ListenWelcome to Rwanda from 2022-07-29T04:00
The government has described Rwanda, where it intends to send some people who arrive illegally in the UK, as "one of the world's safest nations". But this small, landlocked country in east Afric...
ListenEvacuated to Russia from 2022-07-26T04:00
More than a million refugees from the war in Ukraine have ended up in the arms of the enemy, Russia. Have they been rescued? Or illegally deported in another Kremlin war crime?
ListenThe Long History of Argument - Ep 3 from 2022-07-19T06:30
Rory Stewart explores the strange human phenomenon of arguing and why it matters so deeply to our lives in a new series on BBC Radio 4. Argument became the way in which we answered the deepest q...
ListenThe Long History of Argument - Ep 2 from 2022-07-19T06:15
Rory Stewart explores the strange human phenomenon of arguing and why it matters so deeply to our lives. Argument became the way in which we answered the deepest questions of philosophy, establi...
ListenThe Long History of Argument - Ep 1 from 2022-07-19T06:00
Rory Stewart explores the strange human phenomenon of arguing and why it matters so deeply to our lives. Argument became the way in which we answered the deepest questions of philosophy, establi...
ListenSchools Apart from 2022-07-12T04:00
Film and theatre producer Anwar Akhtar, Director of the educational charity Samosa Media, visits schools exploring diversity and the curriculum and asking questions about difficult topics such a...
ListenCeausescu's Children from 2022-07-05T04:00
Today, the actor Ionica Adriana lives with her family in the North Yorkshire countryside - but her life could have turned out wildly different. Until the age of two-and-a-half, Ionica lived in a...
ListenLondon on the Line from 2022-06-07T04:00
This summer marks a decade since the 2012 Olympics - a moment of national pride when London represented Britain on the global stage. Ten years on from those Olympian heights, the capital is stru...
ListenThe Dancer and Her Shoe Maker from 2022-06-03T04:00
A dancer at the top of her career can't do her job without the skill and attention to detail of their shoemaker. Francesca Hayward is a principal dancer for the Royal Ballet and Bob Martin is he...
ListenBound to the Mast from 2022-05-27T04:00
Why are people with mental illness committing themselves in advance, when well, to treatment that they know they may want to refuse when they become unwell? Sally Marlow investigates. Juan was d...
ListenThe Future Will Be Synthesised - Episode 5 from 2022-05-20T05:00
What do we want the synthetic future to look like? It’s seeping into our everyday lives, but are we ready? We need a conversation about the legal, policy and ethical implications for society. Listen
The Future Will Be Synthesised - Episode 4 from 2022-05-20T04:45
If anything can be a deepfake, perhaps nothing can be trusted - and politicians can take advantage of the so called "Liars' dividend" by dismissing real media as fake. In satire, deepfakes have...
ListenThe Future Will Be Synthesised - Episode 3 from 2022-05-20T04:30
If anything can be a deepfake, perhaps nothing can be trusted - and politicians can take advantage of the so called "Liars' dividend" by dismissing real media as fake. In satire, deepfakes have...
ListenThe Future Will Be Synthesised - Episode 2 from 2022-05-20T04:15
Ever since the 2018 mid-term elections in the US, people have been sounding the alarm that a deepfake could be used to disrupt or compromise a democratic process. These fears have not yet come t...
ListenThe Future Will Be Synthesised - Episode 1 from 2022-05-20T04:00
What do we want the synthetic future to look like? It’s seeping into our everyday lives, but are we ready? We need a conversation about the legal, policy and ethical implications for society. Listen
Blood, Sweat and Tears from 2022-05-03T04:00
As the BBC’s former defence correspondent, Caroline Wyatt spent more than a decade covering the war in Afghanistan. She first went there just after the 9/11 attacks, to report on the British troops...
ListenLicence to Kill? from 2022-04-29T04:00
On October 14, 2016, Michael Hoolickin was murdered by a man he had never met. His killer, Tim Deakin had 55 previous offences. His last crime was to bite a man's ear off in a pub fight. Deakin wa...
ListenMissing Mother from 2022-04-26T04:00
The Mother-Daughter relationship is a special one - but what happens to little girls who lose their mums early? Missing Mother is an intimate window into the life of women who have experienced argu...
ListenDirty Work from 2022-04-22T04:00
Over the past 20 years, our workplaces have changed for the better. The MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter have brought harassment and discriminatory actions to the fore, and our workplaces have...
ListenThe End of Invention from 2022-04-19T04:00
Someone born in the late 19th century would have lived through the most rapid period of technological progress in human history. By comparison, people born since the Second World War have seen stag...
ListenThe P Word from 2022-04-15T04:00
Is the use of the ‘P’ word ever acceptable? Prompted by the recent allegations of racism at Yorkshire CCC by cricketer Azeem Rafiq, Rajan Datar and producer Rajeev Gupta go on a journey of perso...
ListenAm I That Guy? from 2022-04-12T04:00
Scottish writer and broadcaster Alistair Heather is not proud of some of his past interactions with women. In a previous job as a builder’s labourer, he would watch and laugh as co-workers wolf-...
ListenBad Apples from 2022-04-08T04:00
Reporter Cara McGoogan investigates shocking claims of bullying, sexual harassment and violence within the ranks of the police towards female officers. When the revelations about toxic behaviour at...
ListenFungi: The New Frontier from 2022-04-05T04:00
It all started with rumours of an 800-meter underground organism hidden under the streets of Cambridge and a plate of mushrooms on toast. With cream. In this three-part series, Tim Hayward falls do...
ListenThe Witches' Pardon from 2022-04-01T04:00
From allegations of cursing the king's ships, to shape-shifting into animals, or dancing with the devil, three centuries ago witch-hunting was a mania that spread right across Europe. But nowher...
ListenSir Alex Ferguson: Made in Govan from 2022-03-29T04:00
BBC Radio Manchester presenter Mike Sweeney and former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson go back a long way. They used to play football together and bonded over their love of music fro...
ListenCold as a Mountain Top from 2022-03-25T05:00
WH Murray was one of a pioneering group of climbers in Scotland in the 1930’s, establishing new routes in Glencoe, Ben Nevis and The Cuillin. But it was one particular mountain that he loved – a...
ListenRap Gets Real from 2022-03-22T05:00
Rap is changing. High profile UK artists such as Stormzy and Dave are shunning the genre's dominant tropes of hypermasculinity and aggression. Instead they’re putting their battles with mental illn...
ListenEider Island from 2022-03-18T05:00
An intimate tale of bird-human interdependence. Eider ducks probably nested on Æðey - a small island in the Icelandic Westfjords - long before the first settlers arrived. And when the settlers arri...
ListenSoccer Mums from 2022-03-15T05:00
When journalist and broadcaster Rosemary Laryea’s son tells her he has dreams of playing professional football, she soon learns that this involves a lot more than cheering supportively from the tou...
ListenWomen in Stitches: The Making of the Bayeux Tapestry from 2022-03-11T05:00
The Bayeux Tapestry is coming to Britain in the near future. It’s among the world’s most famous works of art, but it's also a mystery: no one knows who made it. The stitching, though, is full of...
Listen5. The Lowball Tapes – Hunting the Truth from 2022-03-03T06:00
The public had a chance to find out the truth about the Libor scandal in 2012 – but somehow they didn’t. Andy finds secrets kept from MPs and even the juries in the rate rigging trials. Can he f...
Listen4. The Lowball Tapes – The Overseers from 2022-03-03T05:45
Who was responsible for Libor? It was hailed as the world’s most important number but who was looking after it and were the custodians behaving with integrity? While traders went to prison for r...
Listen3. The Lowball Tapes – The Whistleblower from 2022-03-03T05:30
Pressure is put on a reluctant trader to manipulate interest rates. But where are his instructions coming from?
As Libor begins to feel like a lie, Andy is given a flash drive with some i...
Listen2. The Low Ball Tapes - The Trails from 2022-03-03T05:15
Andy Verity investigates the secret history of Libor, asking did the right people go to jail? Were the rate rigging trials about law and the evidence, or were they show trials to appease public ...
Listen1. The Low Ball Tapes - Arrested from 2022-03-03T05:00
The secret tapes the authorities, on both sides of the Atlantic, wouldn’t want you to hear. Andy Verity, the BBC’s Economics Correspondent has audio recordings, kept secret for years, which reve...
ListenI See You: Poetry, Porn and Me from 2022-03-01T05:00
Last year, poet Helen Mort discovered that images taken from her social media page had been uploaded to a porn website. Users of the site were invited to edit the photos, merging Helen's face with ...
ListenArt Came in the Night from 2022-02-25T05:00
Kevin Harman is an Edinburgh artist best known for creating 'situations', such as borrowing all his neighbours’ doormats to create an installation, smashing the window of an art gallery and tran...
ListenA Recipe for Love from 2022-02-22T05:00
What makes us feel in love? And can we make ourselves feel it? Biomedic Sophie Ward sets herself the deluded task of making a scientifically-accredited love potion, with the help of neuroscienti...
ListenHeadwaters from 2022-02-11T05:00
A 21st-century dip into literary stream of consciousness. This narrative technique attempts to depict in words the multitudinous thoughts and feelings passing through the human mind. It first gaine...
ListenOne Ring to Bind Them from 2022-02-08T05:00
Pro-wrestler Matt Powell, AKA Mad Dog Maxx, explores the history of British wrestling and its recent resurgence, especially in the Midlands. Mad cap professional wrestling was huge in the 1970s and...
ListenOti Mabuse's Dancing Legends - Raven Wilkinson from 2022-02-04T05:00
Professional dancer and twice winner of Strictly Come Dancing, Oti Mabuse, continues her journey into the dancers and choreographers who have made a huge impact on dance. In this episode, Oti sits ...
ListenParis-Zurich-Trieste: Joyce l'European from 2022-02-01T05:00
The Irish cultural industries have in recent decades managed to turn James Joyce into a valuable tourist commodity - 'a cash machine', 'the nearest thing we've got to a literary leprechaun.' Joy...
ListenRoom 5 - Episode 1 from 2022-01-28T05:00
‘He was interested in why I was so attached to this penguin’ Bex is at university when she starts feeling anxious and overwhelmed. As Bex deteriorates, doctors are in a race against time to diag...
ListenBloody Sunday: 50 Years On from 2022-01-25T05:00
Fifty years ago on 30 January 1972, a day that came to be forever known as “Bloody Sunday”, soldiers of the First Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, shot dead 13 civil rights marchers in Londond...
ListenThe Coming Storm – Episode 1 from 2022-01-21T05:00
QAnon and the plot to break reality... When a mob storms the Capitol in Washington DC, reporter and presenter Gabriel Gatehouse sees someone he recognises: a man draped in furs with horns on his he...
ListenNight Watch from 2022-01-18T05:00
At night women say goodbye, telling each other "text me when you're home". We carry keys between our knuckles, avoid dark streets, cross the road, then cross back again, keep looking over your s...
ListenThe Lullaby Project from 2022-01-14T05:00
Felicity Finch reports on a pioneering project that sees members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra working alongside inmates in HMP Norwich. The aim is to workshop, draft and perform personal ...
ListenPiers Plowright, Soundsmith from 2022-01-11T05:00
Piers Plowright described himself as a 'radio man'. He'd grown up in a home where the wireless was moved into the living room of an evening for family listening. Others have called Piers, who died ...
ListenFümmsböwö (or What is the Word) from 2022-01-07T05:00
What exactly is this strange genre called sound poetry? Is it underappreciated and misunderstood? Is it just glorious gobbledygook? “Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu, pögiff, kwii Ee ...” So opens Ursonate b...
ListenThe Hidden History of the Staircase from 2022-01-04T05:00
Join Rachel Hurdley as she climbs the staircase to discover a story of steps, status, segregation and grand entrances. Staircases go back thousands of years to the stepped temples of the ancient wo...
ListenThe Great Pyramids of Albania from 2021-12-31T05:00
Throughout 1996, Albanians sold their houses and their livestock to buy into pyramid schemes that were doomed to fail. By the year’s end, this new kind of financial product had swallowed up almost ...
ListenA Family of Strangers from 2021-12-28T05:00
How a simple DNA test turned a world upside down, leading to profound questions of identity. When 71-year-old Philip was given a genetic testing kit for Christmas, he assumed he would stumble ac...
ListenThe Army Girls from 2021-12-24T05:00
80 years after female conscription, the final few tell their extraordinary World War Two stories as part of the ATS. By war's end, 290,000 women of all backgrounds had served in the Auxiliary Te...
ListenThe Lotte Berk Technique from 2021-12-17T05:00
Barre, a series of minuscule, punishing exercises which mix pilates, ballet, and yoga, is the global fitness phenomenon of the 2020s, but its history is complicated and controversial. Lotte Berk, a...
ListenA Line in the Water from 2021-12-14T05:00
At the start of 2021 and the implementation of Brexit, a trade border was created between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What does this mean for ordinary people who cross the Irish Sea? And...
ListenUnder the Influence from 2021-12-10T05:00
Philosopher and author James Garvey examines the rise of behavioural science at the heart of our politics and its key role during the pandemic.
There was a large amount of attention paid t...
The River Man from 2021-12-07T05:00
100 years ago the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, bringing to a formal end the Irish War of Independence and ending centuries of British colonial control. During the war members of the IRA were p...
ListenWill-of-the-Dump from 2021-12-03T05:00
Will Self tells the story of his black bin bag... from his back door... to its final destination. It's the story of a modern-day dump - an extraordinary, alien, nauseating world - where, instead...
ListenShaking up the Shanty from 2021-11-30T12:00
The musical duo The Rheingans Sisters compose a contemporary sea shanty for an unusual cargo boat that has ditched diesel in favour of sails.
Take a look around your home, and it’s likely ...
Could I Regenerate My Farm To Save The Planet? from 2021-11-26T05:00
Regenerative Farming is gaining traction around the world as a means of increasing biodiversity, improving soil quality, sequestering carbon, restoring watersheds and enhancing the ecosystems of...
ListenStolen Honour from 2021-11-23T16:30
In November 2020, former army Sergeant Deacon Cutterham sold his medal collection to a private collector for £140,000. Having served for 19 years, completing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said ...
ListenJan Morris: Writing a Life from 2021-11-19T05:00
Horatio Clare examines how the pioneering writer Jan Morris authored her own life, from her nationality to her sexual identity, trying to get behind the myths and masks she created.
Jan Mo...
ListenA Mother Tongue from 2021-11-16T05:00
What is the etymology of your being?
Axel Kacoutié offers a vivid personal essay reflecting on language, bilingualism and the curated gaps they have to navigate in order to access their c...
How America Learned to Laugh Again from 2021-11-12T05:00
Twenty years ago - in the mind-numbing aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America - the immediate, mind-numbing response of the media was to ban laughter. All laughter, including jokes, chuck...
ListenNo Ball Games from 2021-11-09T05:00
Who gets to tell the story of a 100-year old housing estate? Who shapes its future? And where does art fit into this?
Becontree, in Dagenham, is only a few miles from the City of London – ...
The Hack That Changed the World: Ep 5 - The Sceptics from 2021-11-02T10:00
Who was behind the 2009 hack and leak of emails that fuelled climate change sceptics?
Gordon Corera tracks down some of the sceptics engaged in a long-running battle with the climate scien...
ListenThe Hack That Changed the World: Ep 4 - Dark Money from 2021-11-02T09:45
Who was behind the 2009 hack and leak of emails that fuelled climate change sceptics?
Who benefited most from the ‘Climategate’ hack? Powerful corporate interests have been fighting an ac...
ListenThe Hack That Changed the World: Ep 3 - The Russia Mystery from 2021-11-02T09:33
Who was behind the 2009 hack and leak of emails that fuelled climate change sceptics?
The investigation turns East – towards Russia. Could the mystery hacker have come from there, or was ...
ListenThe Hack That Changed the World: Ep 2 - On the Trail from 2021-11-02T09:27
Who was behind the 2009 hack and leak of emails that fuelled climate change sceptics?
Tracking down the police officer in charge of the original investigation into ‘Climategate’, Gordon Co...
ListenThe Hack That Changed the World: Ep 1 - The Cold Case from 2021-11-02T09:21
In 2009, someone broke into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and stole emails. The material was distributed online - mainly on blogs linked to climate change sceptics....
ListenPlastic: The Biography from 2021-10-29T04:00
The remarkable story of how plastic became such a major player in the worlds of industry, medicine and design (among many others) before becoming persona-non-grata thanks to its intimate involve...
ListenThe Nuremberg Legacy from 2021-10-26T04:00
It's 75 years since the judgement at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Nineteen high ranking Nazis were found guilty of war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity ...
ListenLights Out: A Service for Society from 2021-10-22T04:00
Documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen.
Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded th...
The Black and the Green from 2021-10-19T04:00
British-Jamaican audio artist and DJ Weyland McKenzie-Witter explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between the Black and the Green, as political movements and ideas.
It's the untold s...
The Hidden History of the Window from 2021-10-15T04:00
Rachel Hurdley opens the window on an architectural feature which reveals a story of conflict, hierarchy, status and ventilation.
The history of windows in our homes begins with simple ope...
Lights Out: Kaleidoscope from 2021-10-12T04:00
Part of the 'Lights Out' series, documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen.
What does it feel like to be a child or teenager navigating the ups and downs of youth, ...
Teen Spirit: Nevermind at 30 from 2021-10-08T04:00
On the 30th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s album Nevermind, leading figures from music, literature, fashion, and activism reflect on the impact it had on their lives.
Presenter Do...
The Ballad of the Bet from 2021-10-05T04:00
In the small hours of the night, we are up in our thousands watching a wheel spin on our phones - a roulette wheel. It may be virtual, yet for many of us it has a power beyond the real. Gambling...
ListenPoison: Episode 5 - A Toxic Aftertaste from 2021-09-27T04:40
In July this year South Africa’s former President, Jacob Zuma, was jailed for contempt of court. The 79-year-old is now facing trial for corruption. But Zuma insists he is a victim of a vast, in...
ListenPoison: Episode 4 - The Russian Antidote from 2021-09-27T04:30
When South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, falls ill from what he suspects to be poison, he flies to Moscow for treatment. But why the need to go abroad? The implication is that Zuma believes We...
ListenPoison: Episode 3 - How Do You Like Your Tea? from 2021-09-27T04:20
Home after years in exile during the liberation struggle, South Africa’s future President Jacob Zuma is quickly engulfed in corruption scandals. But when one of his wives is accused of trying to...
ListenPoison: Episode 2 - A Pinch of Paranoia from 2021-09-27T04:10
South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma is convinced he’s been the target of repeated poisoning attempts. But why? In this episode we dive into the murkiest corners of the long struggle again...
ListenPoison: Episode 1 - The Chuckling Pensioner from 2021-09-27T04:00
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma believes he has been poisoned, repeatedly. He claims to be the victim of a long, sophisticated, and unfinished plot to assassinate him. But who would want to ...
ListenThe Delirium Wards from 2021-09-24T04:00
Ten years ago, in 2011, David Aaronovitch felt like he was losing his grip on reality. He'd been placed in a coma, after a surgery gone wrong. Now he was awake and in Intensive Care.
Every...
ListenSafe Space from 2021-09-21T04:00
The idea of ‘safe space’ has migrated into the arts - in all aspects of performance, in arts education and practice, from theatre, public galleries and museums to spoken word, music and dance. It h...
ListenThe Imperilled Adventures of the Adventure Playground from 2021-09-17T04:00
“Better a broken bone than a broken spirit.” So runs the mantra for adventure playgrounds - as coined by the woman who did more than anyone to establish them in the UK, Lady Marjory Allen.
Listen
The Nuclear Priesthood from 2021-09-14T04:00
How do we send a warning a hundred millennia into the future?
Poet Paul Farley considers how we might warn people three thousand generations from now about the radioactive waste we’ve left...
ListenLights Out: Fallout from 2021-09-10T04:00
Part of the 'Lights Out' series, documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen.
The image of the atomic mushroom cloud is powerfully symbolic, yet the grainy black and ...
Song of the Thames from 2021-09-07T04:00
Singer and song collector Sam Lee traces a map in stories, folklore and song along England’s longest and most famous river, the Thames.
Beginning at its underground source in the idyllic G...
Behind the Crime from 2021-09-03T04:00
As a society, we send close to 100,000 people to prison each year. But what happens to people while they’re behind bars?
Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who wor...
ListenWrite Her Story from 2021-08-31T04:00
Why are women not used as the dramatic engines in drama more? asks double Oscar-winning, recent Tony, Bafta and Emmy Award-winning actress Glenda Jackson.
Despite improvements, the statist...
ListenA Long Way from Vietnam from 2021-08-27T04:00
BBC journalist Nga Pham asks why irregular Vietnamese migration is the second highest into the UK (Albanian nationals are the first), and why the numbers are rising every year.
Even the tr...
Planet Bach from 2021-08-24T04:00
It seems that every minute of every day, a musician is playing Bach’s music somewhere on our planet. Clemency Burton-Hill charts the playing of Bach across a day and around the globe with stories f...
ListenGenetics and the longer arm of the law from 2021-08-20T04:00
It is almost 40 years since Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered genetic fingerprints in his University of Leicester laboratory. Now DNA is an integral part of criminal investigations worldwid...
ListenTrading Blows? from 2021-08-17T04:00
Brexit has been a reality for seven months – long enough for fears and speculation to give way to actual experience of individual business people. How is British business faring outside the EU? ...
ListenWell Hello: The Release of John McCarthy from 2021-08-13T04:00
It's 30 years since the end of the Lebanon hostage crisis and the moment when Brian Keenan, John McCarthy, Terry Waite and American hostage Terry Anderson were freed from captivity.
August...
Breaking Through from 2021-08-10T04:00
Breaking, also known as break-dancing, borne in New York City in the 1970s, is set to make its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Four-time breaking world champion, BoxWon (Benya...
ListenMTV - A British Invention? from 2021-08-03T04:00
Adam Buxton uncovers the influence of British music videos in the early years of MTV, 40 years after the network first launched.
Going live on 1st August 1981, MTV made British new wave ar...
Black Hill, Bleak Summer from 2021-07-30T04:00
Twenty years after the UK's worst outbreak of the livestock disease foot-and-mouth, Dave Howard recalls how it affected the Herefordshire hill-farming community where he grew up.
Images of...
China in Slogans from 2021-07-27T04:00
As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China. Throughout its existence, the party has use...
ListenWaiting for the Van from 2021-07-23T04:00
"I couldn't stand back anymore and just watch people die."
In September 2020, drug policy activist Peter Krykant decided he'd had enough. The former heroin addict, turned frontline campaig...
ListenKing Louis the First of Britain from 2021-07-20T04:00
The great jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong died 50 years ago today, in New York. In his near 70 years on Earth, the man known to his fans as "Satchmo" and "Pops" made friends and created...
ListenReflections on Hi-Vis from 2021-07-16T04:00
Chances are at some point today you’ve come across someone wearing a hi-vis vest or jacket - seeing a cyclist, accepting a delivery, passing a construction site, watching a protest on TV, being tol...
ListenThank You & Goodbye from 2021-07-13T04:00
Love or loathe it, once the News of the World bit the dust after 168 years in print — engulfed in phone-hacking scandals — it was clear that the British media would never be the same again. The pap...
ListenMy Cat, The Judge from 2021-07-09T04:00
Meet Velma: a cat with attitude. (Possibly...)
And her owner, comedian Suzi Ruffell, who adores her pet - but thinks she's been getting a tad tetchy since they started spending more time ...
ListenLost for Words from 2021-07-06T04:00
Struggling to find words might be one of the first things we notice when someone develops dementia, while more advanced speech loss can make it really challenging to communicate with loved ones....
ListenThe Woman-Machine from 2021-07-02T04:00
While the history of electronic music includes many notable men whose stories have been frequently celebrated, the genre has also provided a space for a wide range of extraordinary women to create ...
ListenDetoxifying the Classics from 2021-06-29T04:00
Why are white nationalists and the far right so fond of Ancient Greece and Rome? Katherine Harloe, Professor of Classics and Intellectual History at the University of Reading, looks at the ways in ...
ListenBlue: Pain and Pleasure from 2021-06-25T04:00
Marking the 50th anniversary of the release of Joni Mitchell's seminal album Blue, Laura Marling tells the story behind the writing and recording of the album, and explains why Blue is regarded by ...
ListenReturn to the Homeless Hotel from 2021-06-22T04:00
A year after rough sleepers were given emergency accommodation during the first coronavirus lockdown, has the unprecedented operation had a lasting impact?
In March 2020, Simon’s life was ...
ListenAdults, Almost from 2021-06-18T04:00
Frank and fearless teenagers from Company Three youth theatre spent 2020 making a time capsule of their lives in lockdown, from the day their schools shut down to the present. Re-cording on thei...
ListenSchool for Communists from 2021-06-15T04:00
A witty and surprising personal view of communism from Alexei Sayle, whose parents were Communists and took him on holidays to the Eastern bloc during the Cold War. Alexei soon rejected their brand...
ListenA Sense of Music from 2021-06-11T04:00
Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musicality that binds us together. But music is reg...
ListenThe Tulsa Tragedy that Shamed America from 2021-06-08T04:00
Alvin Hall tells the story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history - using newspaper archives, manuscripts, oral history interviews, and local ex...
ListenWhy Time Flies (and how to slow it down) from 2021-06-04T04:00
Armando Iannucci travels through time - discovering why it seems to accelerate alarmingly as he gets older and what, if anything, can be done to slow it down.
How exactly does the human br...
Descendants: Episode One from 2021-06-01T04:00
One year on from the toppling of the Colston Statue in Bristol, Descendants asks... how close is each of us to the legacy of Britain's role in slavery? And who does that mean our lives are conne...
ListenDo Not Resuscitate from 2021-05-28T04:00
Recalling the discovery of her father’s DNR notice in his medical notes six years ago, Yasmeen Khan investigates clinical resuscitation, talking to terminally ill patients and bereaved family membe...
ListenDaft Punk Is Staying at My House, My House from 2021-05-25T04:00
It was 1994, and legendary techno duo Slam were booked to play an event in Disneyland Paris. “We had a couple of days to kill, and a friend got in touch to say he knew these two young French mus...
ListenOne Night in March from 2021-05-21T04:00
One night in 2012, Anthony Grainger went out and never came home. He was shot dead by Greater Manchester Police in an operation beset with errors and blunders. Why is his family still fighting f...
ListenThinking In Colour from 2021-05-18T04:00
Passing is a term that originally referred to light skinned African Americans who decided to live their lives as white people. The civil rights activist Walter White claimed in 1947 that every y...
ListenLife On Hold from 2021-05-14T04:00
The number of people accessing mental health services in the UK has reached record levels since the start of the pandemic. Many are seeking help for the first time, for others delays in treatmen...
ListenOur Bodies, Ourselves from 2021-05-11T04:00
Five decades on, Laura Barton looks back at the creation of Our Bodies, Ourselves - a revolutionary text in the history of women's liberation.
Written and published by a group of women who...
Dancers at Dawn from 2021-05-07T04:00
On the 1st May 1987 Martin Green’s dad takes him Morris dancing before dawn on Wandlebury Hill outside Cambridgeshire. Many years later, at sunrise on his twenty-third birthday, he walks home from ...
ListenAfter a Death from 2021-05-04T04:00
News of people being killed in knife attacks recurs with tragic regularity, but the reports rarely touch on the impact on the victim’s family and friends. In this programme Sarah O'Connell sets ...
ListenJames Baldwin’s Last Amen from 2021-04-30T04:00
The work of the American writer James Baldwin gained a new audience in the months following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Europe and the USA.
His observations on race, power and ...
The Northern Bank Job: Episode One from 2021-04-27T04:00
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With f...
ListenAble to Parent from 2021-04-23T04:00
Emily Yates and her partner Christopher ' CJ' Johnston have been together four years. CJ really wants a baby but Emily - a wheelchair-user with Cerebral Palsy - has fears and barriers that she feel...
ListenA Pyrotechnic History of Humanity: Fire from 2021-04-20T04:00
This is the first in a four-part series looking at the energy revolutions that drove human history. In this programme Justin Rowlatt goes right back to the origin of our species two million year...
ListenIran’s Secret Art Collection from 2021-04-16T04:00
In the decade leading up to the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Shah's wife, Farah Pahlavi spent much of her time encouraging the building of museums and institutions intended to celebrate the a...
ListenWhere is Jack Ma? from 2021-04-13T04:00
On the eve of what would have been the world's largest share listing, Ant Financial, estimated to float for over $300bn, it's founder Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire mysteriously disappeared. T...
ListenThe Day the Muzak Died from 2021-04-09T06:00
When Major General George Owen Squier coined the term Muzak, back in the early 1930s, the idea according to elevator music enthusiast Joseph Lanza was “to have a civic use of music”.
At Mu...
The Nazi Next Door from 2021-04-06T04:00
In a dusty attic in the Yorkshire hills sits the life’s work of John Kingston, a man who spent decades investigating whether his own stepfather, Stanislaw Chrzanowski, was, in fact, a Nazi war c...
ListenMaking Demille from 2021-04-02T04:00
In 2016 when producer Georgia first met him, Demille was a cycle courier in his early twenties, taking his company to a tribunal over better working conditions. He was fired-up, political, and e...
ListenLaura Barton's Notes on Music from 2021-03-30T11:05
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
At the age of seventeen we stand on the cusp of adulthood, on th...
Mitchell on Meetings: The Thing from 2021-03-26T05:00
David Mitchell investigates meetings from the ancient "thing" to zoom. Also on the agenda: executive coach Sophie Bryan teaches David to chair a meeting; fellow comedian Russell Kane explores ho...
ListenA Life Less Vertical from 2021-03-23T06:00
When Melanie Reid spent a year recovering on the spinal ward in Glasgow after falling off a horse, her world collided with an unlikely collection of ordinary people with incredible stories. Despite...
ListenInventions in Sound from 2021-03-19T06:00
[Sound of sky splitting]
[Sound of heart accelerating]
[Sound of shadows behind a door]
The poet Raymond Antrobus explores the art of translating sound for the eye, looki...
Search for a Common Culture from 2021-03-16T06:00
Author Lynsey Hanley and Mykaell Riley, founding member of the British roots reggae group Steel Pulse, tell the story of the search for a ‘common culture’, following its permutations in the post-wa...
ListenThe Jump: Covid-19 from 2021-03-12T05:00
Chris van Tulleken explores the human behaviours causing pandemics, paying the price for getting too close to animals by degrading their territory and allowing viruses to jump. What's clear is t...
ListenFaith, Lies and Conversion Therapy from 2021-03-09T05:00
Despite the overwhelming evidence that human sexuality is innate and immutable over time, proponents of conversion 'therapies' have sought to change or 'fix' queer peoples' sexuality for much of...
ListenThe Price of Song from 2021-03-05T05:00
Seriously is home to the world’s best audio documentaries and podcast recommendations, and host Vanessa Kisuule brings you two fascinating new episodes every week.
ListenClub 18-30 from 2021-03-02T06:00
Marie Le Conte explores the shared experiences of people aged 29 to 33, members of the so-called crisis cohort, who have had their adult lives book-ended by the financial crash of 2008 and the huge...
ListenMade of Stronger Stuff: The Heart from 2021-02-26T05:00
Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body, to find out what it can tell us about our innate capacity for change. In this episode, Kimberley and ...
ListenThe Battersea Poltergeist – Ep1: 63 Wycliffe Road from 2021-02-23T05:00
63 Wycliffe Road is an ordinary house on a quiet South London street, but in 1956, it becomes famous as the site of an alleged poltergeist. The strange events focus around teenager Shirley Hitch...
ListenEngland's Level Best from 2021-02-19T06:00
When Boris Johnson won the 2019 election, he did so pledging to tackle regional inequality and invest in parts of the country that felt left behind .
His desire to 'level up' the UK is not...
Sideways: Siding with the Enemy from 2021-02-16T05:00
Best-selling author Matthew Syed explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.
A criminal walks into a Swedish bank brandishing a machine gun. He ta...
ListenThe Lost Sounds Orchestra from 2021-02-12T06:00
For the vast majority of the 200,000 years humans have been on the earth, let alone its first 4.6 billion years of existence, the sonic story has been a fleeting, unrepeatable live show. Miss it, a...
ListenBlack and Blue from 2021-02-09T06:00
Hugh Muir has spent much of his journalistic career chronicling the working lives of Britain’s black and minority ethnic police officers. In this programme, he investigates claims that racism is on...
ListenAfterlives: Harry and Anne from 2021-02-05T06:00
Two parents share their stories of life’s pain - but also its unexpected gifts - after the death of their sons, who each took their own life. They have never met but Afterlives brings them together...
ListenUnplayable: Disability and the Gaming Revolution from 2021-02-02T06:00
There has long been a sizeable gap between the popularity of video games and their accessibility. Disabled gamers can find themselves thwarted by changes to controller settings, frozen out of story...
ListenThe Flipside with Paris Lees: Beyond Touch from 2021-01-29T05:00
Paris Lees hears from two women learning to cope as they deal with the complexities of human touch. One who struggles with intimacy and the other who misses it.
Presenter: Paris Lees
P...
Battle for the Capitol from 2021-01-25T11:30
In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, journalist Leah Sottile explored the motivations and agendas of America’s far right for the Radio 4 series Two Minutes Past Nine. Recordings were...
Listen39 Ways to Save the Planet: Wood for Good from 2021-01-20T05:00
Tom Heap introduces an episode of Radio 4's new environmental podcast which looks at 39 great ideas to relieve the stress that climate change is exerting on the planet.
Trees soak up carbo...
ListenI Am Robert Chelsea from 2021-01-08T05:00
The first African-American to have a face transplant tells his own story - in a documentary about faith, identity and character. Robert suffered horrific burns in a car accident - but survived a...
ListenSci-Fi Blindness from 2021-01-05T05:00
From Victorian novels to the latest Hollywood blockbusters, sci-fi regularly returns to the theme of blindness. Peter White, who was heavily influenced as a child by one of the classics, sets ou...
ListenCan I Talk About Heroes? from 2020-12-29T05:00
Vicky Foster's award-winning Radio 4 Audio Drama Bathwater looked at the effect the murder in 2005 in Hull of the father of her children, a firefighter, is still having on her family .
In ...
ListenScientists in the Spotlight from 2020-12-22T05:00
Back in 2019, most scientists struggled to get any media attention. Now scientists involved in fighting the pandemic are generating media headlines, daily. On top of working harder than ever to ...
ListenApocalypse How from 2020-12-08T05:00
In the first of a series looking at existential threats to humanity, Jolyon Jenkins asks whether an electromagnetic pulse bomb could send us literally back to the dark ages
The arrival of ...
ListenGeneration Covid from 2020-12-04T05:00
What has the experience of children and young people living in the era of Covid-19 done for their mental health and wellbeing?
Mental health researcher Sally Marlow speaks to epidemiologis...
ListenInside the Brain of Jeff Bezos from 2020-12-01T05:00
David Baker reveals the thinking and the values that have made Jeff Bezos the richest man on the planet, and Amazon the most wildly successful company, even in a year when the global economy fac...
ListenLiving with the Dragon from 2020-11-27T05:00
How have recent British governments handled the UK's relationship with China and what does this tell us about the way to live with China today? Nick Robinson talks to former leading politicians,...
ListenThe Corrections:Trojan Horse from 2020-11-24T05:00
In 2014 an anonymous letter was sent to journalists detailing a 5 step plan to Islamise schools in Birmingham. The so-called Trojan Horse Affair sparked hundreds of articles and several investig...
ListenCan I Still Read Harry Potter? from 2020-11-13T05:00
Journalist and fan Aja Romano examines their decision to close the books on the boy wizard and hears different viewpoints toward Harry Potter and contemporary readership.
Aja Romano has be...
ListenEast Meets West from 2020-11-10T05:00
The UK may have a divide north and south, but how about east and west? Chris Mason takes a virtual journey from Whitby in the east to the Lake District in the west to find out. Chris was born an...
ListenPlaying With The Dead from 2020-11-03T05:00
Art has long promised to transport us, to enable us to step outside ourselves and encounter experiences we never would otherwise. Now Jordan Erica Webber explores a possibility only video games ...
ListenThe Year the Music Stopped from 2020-10-29T16:00
For musician and poet Arlo Parks, 2020 was set to be massive. Festivals, a US tour. Then the world shifted. Her gigs were postponed, festivals cancelled. We watched Glastonbury's empty fields fr...
ListenThe Karen Meme from 2020-10-23T04:00
Tricky is the place to discuss difficult questions away from the bear pit of social media.
Drag artist Vanity Von Glow, poet Iona Lee, relationship & sex educator, Esther De La Ford an...
ListenA History of Ghosts: Ancient Ghosts from 2020-10-20T04:00
'When was the first time a human felt haunted?'
Kirsty Logan travels back to the world’s earliest civilisations to uncover where tales of ghosts first emerged.
From the earliest evid...
ListenFalse Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures - Episode 3 from 2020-09-22T05:00
False Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures is a three-part investigate series into the death of young musician, Sean Walsh.
Sean was 20 when he found out his cancer was back. He’d been in remis...
ListenFalse Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures - Episode 2 from 2020-09-22T04:30
False Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures is a three-part investigate series into the death of young musician, Sean Walsh.
Sean was 20 when he found out his cancer was back. He’d been in remis...
ListenFalse Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures - Episode 1 from 2020-09-22T04:00
False Hope? Alternative Cancer Cures is a three-part investigative series into the death of young musician Sean Walsh.
Sean was 20 when he found out his cancer was back. He’d been in remi...
ListenBlood Lands: Common Purpose – Episode 5 from 2020-09-14T07:15
The final episode of Blood Lands - a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.
A group of white men are on trial accused of murdering two black Sou...
ListenBlood Lands: Betrayal – Episode 4 from 2020-09-14T07:00
Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.
A family betrayal leads to a murder trial in a small farming town in South Africa. But w...
ListenBlood Lands: Shaking the Tree – Episode 3 from 2020-09-14T04:00
Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.
Police investigating a suspected double murder in a small South African farming communit...
ListenBlood Lands: Say Nothing – Episode 2 from 2020-09-14T03:30
Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.
A white farming family falls silent following the brutal deaths of two black workers. We...
ListenBlood Lands: Blood on the Wall – Episode 1 from 2020-09-14T03:00
Blood Lands is a true story told in five parts which takes us to the heart of modern South Africa.
At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South Afric...
ListenBroad Spectrum from 2020-09-11T04:00
Autism is a lifelong condition, often seen as particularly ‘male’. Yet a growing number of women, and those assigned female at birth, are being diagnosed as autistic in their 30s, 40s, 50s - and...
ListenUniversities in Crisis from 2020-09-04T04:00
Sam Gyimah, former minister for universities in Theresa May's government, asks if Britain's universities can survive the crisis they now face.
Many are calling the immense challenge that B...
ListenCode-Switching from 2020-08-26T04:00
Like many young black people, Lucrece Grehoua is an expert in code-switching - used to changing her voice, accent and mannerisms when she enters white-majority spaces. But should she really have...
ListenLed by the Science from 2020-08-14T05:00
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic the UK government has stated that its decisions have been “led by the science”. This pithy phrase implies there is a fixed body of knowledge from a consensus of ...
ListenTaking on Trump from 2020-08-11T04:00
James Naughtie examines Joe Biden's chances in the forthcoming US election as he tries to beat president Donald Trump at the polls this November.
Donald Trump was elected on the promise to...
ListenFothermather from 2020-08-07T04:00
When Belfast poet Gail McConnell's son was growing in her partner's womb, Gail was writing poems exploring what it means to be a non-biological parent in a same-sex relationship. Gail's poem 'Un...
ListenThe Homeless Hotel from 2020-08-04T04:00
Simon had been sleeping in shop doorways in Manchester for three years when the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK. Suddenly, as the government released emergency funding to get people sleeping...
ListenHow They Made Us Doubt Everything: 1. Big Oil's Big Crisis from 2020-07-29T04:00
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured.
In this episode we take you to an oil company’s boardroom as they plan their response to th...
ListenA Deadly Trade from 2020-07-21T04:00
The bodies of 39 Vietnamese men and women discovered in a lorry container in Essex highlighted the growing problem of illegal and dangerous journeys into the UK. With police and governments pled...
ListenSummer with Greta from 2020-07-10T05:00
Everywhere she goes, people ask for selfies and tell her how wonderful she is. But what’s it really like to be the world’s most famous climate campaigner when you’re still a teenager? In this re...
ListenYour Call Is Important to Us from 2020-07-07T04:00
Nearly two million people are now known to have applied for Universal Credit since the start of the Coronavirus lockdown. For many of them it’s their first time, and is in sharp contrast to how ...
ListenOn the Menu from 2020-06-30T04:00
Shark, bear and crocodile attacks tend to make the headlines but humans fall prey to a much wider variety of predators every year, from big cats and snakes, to wolves, hyenas and even eagles tha...
ListenThe New Tech Cold War from 2020-06-19T04:00
Gordon Corera asks if the West is losing the technological race with China. Why did the decision to let the Chinese company Huawei build the UK’s 5G telecoms network turn into one of the most di...
ListenLife, Uncertainty and VAR from 2020-06-12T04:00
When football introduced the Video Assistant Referee, better known as VAR, fans thought it would cut out bad refereeing decisions but, as we limp toward some conclusion of this Covid-19 interrup...
ListenThe Wellness Phenomenon from 2020-06-05T04:00
Today there's a booming wellness industry, including luxury spas and hotels as well as personal trainers and supplements, claimed to be worth over $4 trillion a year. Online at least, self-care ...
ListenThe Global Ventilator Race from 2020-05-26T04:00
The coronavirus outbreak revealed an international shortage of ventilators. Across the world, govenrments scrambled to acquire new ones, not just from traditional manufacturers, but from anyone ...
ListenArt of Now: Raw Meat from 2020-05-12T04:00
Susan Bright gets bloody and fleshy with sculptors, performance artists and filmmakers who use animal parts as their raw material.
Images of meat in still life paintings have been a staple...
ListenThe Virus Hunters from 2020-05-05T04:00
Tracking the virus hunters who race to understand and extinguish new pathogens. Sars Cov 2 is the virus responsible for the pandemic of 2020. But there are millions of other viruses living aroun...
ListenHow to Cure Viral Misinformation from 2020-04-24T04:00
The World Health Organisation calls it an “infodemic” – a flood of information about the coronavirus pandemic. Amid the good advice and the measured uncertainty, there’s a ton of false claims, c...
ListenThe Phoney War from 2020-04-21T04:00
Edward Stourton tells the story of the BBC in the ”phoney war” of 1939-1940 and the period’s strange echoes of Covid-19 today. When war was declared in September 1939, everyone in Britain expect...
ListenThe Art of Raising a Child from 2020-04-10T04:00
To survive and thrive in an uncertain world, our children need to be creative and resilient. But how do you build these things? What does it take to make creativity a life skill and where might ...
ListenThe Science of Dad from 2020-04-03T04:00
Whilst most men become fathers, and men make up roughly half the parental population, the vast majority of scientific research has focused on the mother.
But studies have started to reveal...
ListenThe Californian Century: A Twist of Fate from 2020-04-01T04:00
Stanley Tucci continues his history of California with the story of Silicon Valley's troubled founder, William Shockley.
Shockley was the man who first brought silicon to Silicon Valley in...
ListenThe Ugly Truth from 2020-03-31T04:00
The value society places on physical appearance has never quite made sense to blind presenter Lyndall Bywater and yet she's intrigued to discover why it matters so much to those of us in the sig...
ListenPreview: Girl Taken - Episode 1 from 2020-03-25T05:00
Across the world people were presented with what appeared to be a heart-breaking but straightforward story of a father and his motherless daughter struggling to get to Britain. But behind those ...
ListenClass Talk from 2020-03-10T05:00
Kerry Hudson, author of Lowborn, has learned to code switch with the literary elite, but how can people stuck in poverty or middle class bubbles make meaningful connections?
Kerry starts ...
ListenLift Going Up from 2020-03-03T05:00
The lift comes to life and tells the story of how the elevator changed the way we live.
Emma Clarke plays the voice of the lift in this cultural history of the elevator. As we step inside,...
ListenA Sense of Direction from 2020-02-25T05:00
Many animals can navigate by sensing the earth's magnetic field. Not humans, though. But might we have evolved the sense but forgotten how to access it? 40 years ago a British zoologist thought ...
ListenThe Inside Story of Election 19 from 2020-02-18T05:00
What lies behind Boris Johnson's overwhelming election victory? In this programme, Anne McElvoy talks to the key figures across the political spectrum about how the 2019 general election was fou...
ListenMy Name Is... Immie from 2020-02-11T05:00
"When I was in primary school, I remember being asked to draw our house. I drew our temporary accommodation, which back then was just an ordinary house. And I think about children living in thes...
ListenArt of Now: Filth from 2020-01-31T05:00
In the hands of artists, smog, landfill and sewage become beautiful, witty and challenging statements.
As the scale of pollution intensifies, Emma meets the artists who are finding origin...
ListenThe Remarkable Resistance of Lilo from 2020-01-28T05:00
In the heart of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, members of the Resistance worked tirelessly and at great risk to themselves to help those whose lives were threatened. Amongst them was Elisabeth Charlotte...
ListenThe People's Pyramid from 2020-01-21T05:00
The KLF aka The Jams aka The Timelords aka The K Foundation aka K2 Plant Hire aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu... it's complicated.
Whatever name or weird mythology they happened to be...
ListenThe Last Exposure from 2020-01-17T05:00
Photographer Garry Fabian-Miller has spent much of the last 30 years either in his dark room, or out walking on Dartmoor. That is about to end.
Fabian-Miller began his career in the 1960’...
ListenThe Diagnosis from 2020-01-14T05:00
For most of her life, Janice Wilson suffered from strange and terrifying attacks at night. She would wake up, suddenly, feeling as though she was being choked or strangled. The next day, there w...
ListenA Small Matter of Hope from 2020-01-03T05:00
Life is getting better. Child mortality rates have tumbled worldwide, more girls are in education, malaria is in decline and hunger is a thing of the past for most of us. So why don't we believe...
ListenA Guide to Disagreeing Better from 2019-12-17T05:00
Why do we hold our opponents in contempt? Former politician Douglas Alexander believes that disagreement is good, it's how the best arguments get refined. But, today, public discourse has become...
ListenArt of Now: Playing Well - Frightened Rabbit from 2019-11-15T05:00
In the first of the three-part series "Playing Well" Chris Hawkins has an intimate conversation with the band mates of Scott Hutchison, who took his own life in May 2018.
In conversation w...
ListenThe 21st Century Curriculum from 2019-11-12T05:00
As a teenager, the writer Varaidzo lost interest in school. She investigates the so-called "educational dip" and talks to teenagers about ways they think the school curriculum might be made more...
ListenWelcome Money from 2019-11-08T05:00
Between the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the policy's hastily enforced end on 29 December 1989, East German citizens claimed an estimated four billion Deutschmarks in so-called...
ListenInto the Manosphere from 2019-11-05T05:00
Young men are facing a crisis of masculinity. To deal with it, they have options - the manosphere, a mainly online world where the challenges facing 21st century men are exclusively the fault of...
ListenThe Hand Detectives from 2019-10-29T05:00
“At the end of the day, with DNA, we have difficulty in the forensic arena of separating identical twins, we can do it with a hand no problem at all.” - Professor Dame Sue Black
In 2006 th...
ListenMiddlesbrough, Money and Me from 2019-10-25T04:00
Steph McGovern returns to her home town of Middlesbrough to ask why we aren’t better equipped to deal with the practical maths that we need to work out phone contracts, energy tariffs and any nu...
ListenMake Me a Programme from 2019-10-18T04:00
Can a robot host a radio show? Georgia Lewis-Anderson is a conversation designer for voice technology, writing answers to the more human questions that people ask voice assistants like 'what's y...
ListenRussell Kane's Right to Buy from 2019-10-15T04:00
The comedian Russell Kane traces his success back to the day his Dad bought his council house in Enfield in the 80s. Now, in 2019, he wrestles with the impact of the Thatcher policy which allowe...
ListenThe Corrections: The Carbonara Case from 2019-10-11T04:00
The Corrections re-visits four news stories which left the public with an incomplete picture of what really happened.
In August 2017, The Times published a piece with the headline ‘Christi...
ListenShappi Khorsandi Gets Organised from 2019-10-08T04:00
Shappi Khorsandi’s life is disorganised. A single mother of two and a stand-up comedian and writer, Shappi is busy. She doesn’t know what money is coming into or out of her account, her love of ...
ListenGeneration Z and the Art of Self-Maintenance from 2019-10-04T04:00
Generation Z is self-taught. No-one any older really gets that. The children born around the turn of the millennium came into a digital world and had to find out for themselves how to navigate i...
ListenThe Ballad of the Fix from 2019-09-27T04:00
The story of Scotland's deadly drug crisis narrated by the voice of the narcotic itself. Scotland has the highest rate of reported drug deaths in the European Union. There has been a rapid rise ...
ListenThe Sound Odyssey: Loyle Carner in Guyana from 2019-09-20T04:00
Gemma Cairney brings together artists from two different countries to combine their talents to make a new piece of music.
In this episode Gemma invites 24-year-old London rapper Loyle Carn...
ListenGoing to the Gay Bar from 2019-09-17T04:00
LGBTQ+ venues are closing across the UK.
Research from the UCL Urban Laboratory indicates that, since 2006, the number of venues in London has fallen from 125 to 53 - with some still at ri...
ListenArt of Now: The World in Their Hands from 2019-09-06T04:00
We hear from one of the world’s last remaining globemakers and reflect on the globe’s cultural and symbolic currency.
While Google Earth may give us intricate detail of every inch of land,...
ListenWhat’s Eating Rotherham from 2019-08-27T04:00
Why do you keep going back to the fridge after dinner? Fruit and vegetables, a balanced diet, low salt, low sugar and moderate exercise seem to be the silver bullets loaded into a revolver that ...
ListenThe Courage of Ambivalence from 2019-08-23T04:00
In an age of certainty, of assertions without facts, and sometimes assertions with facts, Mark O’Connell makes the case for a different virtue – ambivalence. Six years on from his thought-provok...
ListenCan Facebook Survive? from 2019-08-13T04:00
David Baker, contributing editor of Wired, explores the challenges Facebook must meet and overcome in order to survive after a disastrous period which has seen the reputation and the business mo...
ListenPower of Deceit from 2019-08-09T04:00
Lucy Cooke sets out to discover why honesty is almost certainly not the best policy, be you chicken, chimp or human being. It turns out that underhand behaviour is rife throughout the animal kin...
ListenHannah Walker Is a Highly Sensitive Person from 2019-08-06T04:00
Hannah Jane Walker argues that sensitivity is overlooked, dismissed and under-utilised, and argues that our society would be much better off if we embraced it instead.
Two years ago, Hanna...
ListenThe Upside of Anxiety from 2019-07-30T04:00
Anxiety has become one of the defining characteristics of our modern age, with millions of us suffering from its various damaging effects. It comes in many shapes and sizes - status anxiety, soc...
ListenFrom College to Clink from 2019-07-26T04:00
What happens when top graduates work behind bars as prison officers? Lucy Ash meets young people who have forsaken lucrative careers in the City or elsewhere, for what many see as one of the wor...
ListenAmerica's Child Brides from 2019-06-28T04:00
A tense debate is taking place in states across America. At what age should someone be allowed to marry? Currently in 48 out of 50 states a child can marry, usually with parental consent or a ju...
ListenA History of Hate - Bosnia: The Weaponisation of History from 2019-06-11T04:00
Hate seems to be everywhere - whether it’s white supremacists marching on the streets of America, jihadists slaughtering Christians in Sri Lanka or the massacre of Muslims in New Zealand. In thi...
ListenWhat's in a Game? from 2019-06-07T04:00
While the video games industry is big business, it's also breaking new ground in the arts.
We're at a cultural tipping point for the industry. For the past decade the process of producing ...
ListenThe Prototype from 2019-05-17T04:00
We assume the instruments we know and love today will be around forever. What if they're not? What new forms and ideas could take their place? Hannah Catherine Jones takes you into the world of ...
ListenThe Fast and the Curious from 2019-04-30T04:00
Tom Heap sets off on a guilt trip road trip to find out why people like him won't give up the things they know are destroying the planet.
Tom loves his powerful car. Despite a pretty thoro...
ListenThe Bubble from 2019-04-26T04:00
Social media, especially Twitter has changed the way we consume the news. Articles, commentaries and opinions are put into our news feeds by the people we choose to follow. We tend to only follo...
ListenPeach Fuzz from 2019-04-23T04:00
Mona Chalabi asks why female facial hair still seems to be a source of such shame.
Last year, when she sent a lighthearted tweet about hairy women, she was deluged with replies. Hundreds o...
ListenA Sense of Time from 2019-04-12T04:00
Animal senses reveal a wealth of information that humans can't access. Birds can see in ultra violet, and some fish can 'feel' electricity. But how do different species sense time?
If you'...
ListenThe Monster Downstairs from 2019-04-09T04:00
Life for the child of an alcoholic can be lonely, locked inside a house of secrets.
A code of silence means they don't want to talk to friends, or neighbours, or even their brothers and si...
ListenA Job for the Boys from 2019-04-02T04:00
Women once made up 80% of the computer industry. They are now less than 20%. Mary Ann Sieghart explores the hidden and disturbing consequences of not having women at the heart of the tech.
The Puppet Master – Episode 5. Enemies from 2019-03-25T10:40
Effigies, aliases, and a 'golden cage': it all comes down to this in the series finale about Vladislav Surkov, the most powerful man you’ve never heard of. Presented by Gabriel Gatehouse.
ListenThe Puppet Master – Episode 4. Unravelling from 2019-03-25T10:30
Is it all getting too much for the hero – or is he the villain of our series? His name is Vladislav Surkov and his enemies are circling. Gabriel Gatehouse continues the story of the most powerfu...
ListenThe Puppet Master – Episode 3. Impresario from 2019-03-25T10:20
The story of Vladislav Surkov, the most powerful man you’ve never heard of, continues. His background is in theatre and PR, but his profession is politics. And in this episode, Gabriel Gatehouse...
ListenThe Puppet Master – Episode 2. Ascension from 2019-03-25T10:10
This is the story of the most powerful man you’ve never heard of.
He can spot an ex-spy with presidential potential and help turn him into a world leader. He creates opposition movements ...
ListenThe Puppet Master – Episode 1. Snipers from 2019-03-25T10:00
The Puppet Master is a series that gets to the bewildering heart of contemporary Russia by exploring the fortunes of a secretive, complicated and controversial man called Vladislav Surkov.
<... ListenFlat 113 at Grenfell Tower from 2019-03-22T05:00
On the 14th floor of Grenfell Tower, firefighters moved eight residents into flat 113. Only four would survive. Using evidence from stage 1 of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry, Katie Razzall pi...
ListenMacpherson: What Happened Next from 2019-03-15T05:00
In April 1993, a black teenager, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in the London suburb of Eltham. The Metropolitan Police bungled the investigation into his killers. The Inquiry ...
ListenNB - Episode 1: Realising from 2019-03-04T05:00
What do you do when you realise you’re non-binary? How do you come out to yourself? How do you find people like you? Caitlin Benedict is coming out. But before they begin, they need to really un...
Listen#OurBoysAsWell from 2019-03-01T05:00
With “toxic masculinity” high on the agenda, are we are now viewing boys as potential perpetrators of sexism and violence? Is this fair - and what should we be teaching them? After #MeToo with p...
ListenBranding Genius from 2019-02-22T05:00
Who owns Shakespeare? The English? The tourist industry? The world? Branding and Graphic Designer Teresa Monachino goes in search of the 21st century phenomenon that is William Shakespeare and u...
ListenHow To Burn A Million Quid: Rule 1 from 2019-01-28T05:00
Bill sets off on a mission to shake up the music industry by causing chaos and confusion.
ListenMillennials in the Workplace from 2019-01-25T11:30
Beanbags! Beanbags are what Millenials want from a job - along with free food and the lofty idea of ‘making an impact’. That’s what academic Simon Sinek's video about "Millennials in the Workpla...
ListenI Feel for You: Narcs and narcissists from 2019-01-15T11:03
At a time when we're being told we need more empathy, some experts claim that narcissism - empathy's evil twin - is on the rise. Narcissism has vaulted off the psychotherapist’s couch, sprinted ...
ListenI Feel for You: Empaths and empathy from 2019-01-15T11:00
Empathy is the psycho-political buzzword of the day. President Obama said - frequently - that America's empathy deficit was more important than the Federal deficit. Bill Clinton said "I feel you...
ListenBehind the Scenes: Marianela Nunez at Covent Garden from 2019-01-11T05:00
As she prepares to perform two roles in a new production of the classic "White ballet", La Bayadere, the Royal Ballet's charismatic Argentinian-born principal dancer, Marianela Nunez shares her ...
ListenThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward - Episode One from 2019-01-09T05:00
From H.P. Lovecraft: The investigation into a mysterious disappearance.
ListenLet's Raise the Voting Age from 2019-01-08T05:00
In 1969 Harold Wilson's Government lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Fifty years on, with calls for votes at 16 gaining support, Professor James Tilley explores not just whether reducing it ...
ListenDoorstep Daughter from 2019-01-01T05:00
Two families from very different backgrounds, one street and a baby on a doorstep. This series charts the story of how a young Christian couple came to entrust the care of their little daughter ...
ListenThe Power of Twitter from 2018-12-25T05:00
How did Twitter, invented to allow friends to keep track of each other's social lives and interests, become a key forum for political debate? And what effect has the social media platform had on...
ListenIntroducing Life Lessons from 2018-12-20T05:00
Young UK adults talk about the issues that matter most to them - and why they should matter to all of us.
A new podcast from Radio 4.
ListenContracts of Silence from 2018-12-18T05:00
'Gagging clauses' - NDAs or non-disclosure agreements - have been rarely out of the headlines in recent months. High profile cases in business, politics and celebrity life have prompted calls fo...
ListenPursuit of Beauty: The Spider Orchestra from 2018-12-07T05:00
The Berlin-based Argentinian artist, Tomás Saraceno, trained as an architect. He was struck by the beauty of spider webs, their structural intricacy and began making them into sculptural works. ...
ListenPursuit of Beauty: Dead Rats and Meat Cleavers from 2018-11-23T05:00
The sounds of casting, chiming, singing and clanging are fused together to make a magical sound track to the story of how meat cleavers have been used as musical instruments for over 300 years.....
ListenPursuit of Beauty: Art Beneath the Waves from 2018-11-16T05:00
Artist Emma Critchley meets filmmakers, photographers, sculptors and painters who are drawn beneath the sea to create underwater art. Julie Gautier performs a graceful, lyrical ballet on the flo...
ListenGhosts in the Machine from 2018-10-30T05:00
Laurie Taylor investigates the people who hear the voices of the dead in recorded sounds - and uncovers the strange and haunting world of auditory illusion. Believers in EVP, or Electronic Voice Ph...
ListenThe Supercalculators from 2018-10-19T04:00
Alex Bellos is brilliant at all things mathematical, but even he can't hold a candle to the amazing mathematical feats of the supercalculators. Alex heads to Wolfsburg in Germany to meet the contes...
ListenThe Art of Now: Border Wall from 2018-10-05T04:00
Donald Trump's pledge to build a "big beautiful wall" along the US-Mexico border has inserted a political urgency into the mainstream art world and made the Latino experience a point of inspiration...
ListenThe Eternal Life of the Instant Noodle from 2018-09-28T10:30
How instant noodles, now 60 years old, went from a shed in Japan to global success. What is the most traded legal item in US prisons? Instant Noodles. According to the World Instant Noodles Associa...
ListenThe Ballad of the Blade from 2018-09-25T04:00
The story of knife crime, told in verse by the weapon itself. Why do teenagers carry knives? How does it feel to live in a world where that's normal? How should we respond to the moral panic genera...
ListenThe Sound Odyssey: Nadine Shah travels to Beirut from 2018-09-21T04:00
The Sound Odyssey is a new series in which Gemma Cairney takes British artists for musical collaborations in different countries around the world, hearing the musicians in a new light, and exposing...
ListenIntrigue: The Ratline from 2018-09-19T04:00
A story of love, denial and a curious death. Philippe Sands investigates the mysterious disappearance of senior Nazi, Otto Wachter, and journeys right to the heart of the Ratline.
ListenWhat Happened Last Night in Sweden? from 2018-08-28T04:00
In February 2017, President Trump made a speech to his supporters. He moved on to the topic of immigration and Sweden. "You look at what's happening last night in Sweden," he told the crowd at a ra...
ListenThe Five Foot Shelf from 2018-08-21T04:00
According to Charles W. Eliot - President of Harvard and cousin of T.S. - everything required for a complete, liberal education could fit on a shelf of books just 5-feet in length. In 1909 the firs...
ListenGame Changer: Fortnite on 4 from 2018-08-14T04:00
If you are a parent, you probably do not need an introduction to Fortnite Battle Royale. It's the online video game that's been absorbing the minds and time of millions of children and young adults...
ListenThe Infinite Monkey Cage from 2018-08-13T07:38
In a special edition of the science and comedy podcast to mark the 100th episode, Brian Cox and Robin Ince reminisce about their favourite moments from the show.
ListenPop Star Philosophy from 2018-08-07T04:00
Broadcaster and comedian Steve Punt scours the archives to exhume the often pretentious and opinionated philosophical outpourings of pop stars through the ages. With the help of music journalis...
ListenIn Search Of Sovereignty from 2018-08-03T04:00
The American satirist Joe Queenan goes in search of sovereignty. He wants to know what it is, what's it for, and how old it is "Now I know this is a big issue for you all right now. Over here w...
ListenThe Silence and the Scream from 2018-07-31T14:00
Donegal is an Irish county where silence is a virtue. You can find it in the desolate landscape, the big skies and far horizons - but silence can be found in the people too. Maybe it's discretion o...
ListenCould the PM Have a Brummie Accent? from 2018-07-27T14:00
BBC political correspondent Chris Mason examines the changing accents of politics and politics of accents, with help from politicians, language experts and an impersonator. The programme examine...
ListenOut of Tredegar from 2018-07-06T14:00
Michael Sheen explores Aneurin Bevan's roots in Tredegar. A spectre is haunting Tredegar. It feels a little like that at least. This town high in the South Wales Valleys is understandably proud ...
ListenPink Rabbits and Other Animals from 2018-06-22T14:00
The writer and illustrator Judith Kerr has created some of our best-loved books for children since publishing her first, and perhaps most famous book, 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea', which celebrates ...
ListenThe Sisters of the Sacred Salamander from 2018-06-15T14:00
A convent of Mexican nuns is helping to save the one of the world's most endangered and most remarkable amphibians: the axolotl, a truly bizarre creature of serious scientific interest worldwide an...
ListenPursuit of Beauty: Slow Art from 2018-06-08T09:00
So - how slow are we talking about, when it comes to art? French anarchist vegetarian artists Elizabeth Saint-Jalmes&Cyril Leclerc rescue snails bound for the cooking pot, and display them as a ...
ListenCommuterville from 2018-05-29T14:00
It is 175 years since the word "commuter" was used for the first time. (The word does not in fact describe a traveller, it describes a transaction: regular travellers on the railroad into Manhattan...
ListenA Church in Crisis from 2018-05-22T14:00
Since Ireland's independence, the Catholic Church has played a preeminent role in defining morality south of the border. However in recent decades, its position as moral arbiter has come under atta...
ListenIs Eating Plants Wrong? from 2018-05-15T14:00
Are plants rather cleverer than once thought? Scientists from around the world are claiming that plants cannot just sense, but communicate, learn and remember. In an experiment in Australia, plants...
ListenThe Opt Out from 2018-04-20T14:00
In 2014 Polly Weston's sister Lara died. She had just turned 22. Lara and her family had never discussed organ donation, and she wasn't on the register. But when the family were asked if they would...
ListenThe Turban Bus Dispute from 2018-04-17T14:00
Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his home town of Wolverhampton where a battle raged over the right to wear the turban on the buses in Enoch Powell's constituency at the time he ma...
ListenThe Vet with Two Brains from 2018-04-06T14:00
Adam Tjolle is a vet with two brains - who once starred on the BBC's Animal Hospital. His second brain - in reality a slow-growing tumour - was discovered by accident on a scan when he fell off his...
ListenThe Art of Now - Band Politics from 2018-03-30T14:00
BBC 6 Music's Chris Hawkins listens to new music every day - and he's noticing a trend. More and more of the bands he plays on the station are writing about politics. Acts like Nadine Shah, Cabbag...
ListenWhat Are the Odds? from 2018-03-20T15:00
Rajesh speaks with Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University who has been collecting stories of coincidence since 2011. Rajesh wants to find out why he is so prone to coincidence. Along...
ListenMums and Sons from 2018-03-11T13:45
The relationship between mothers and sons as depicted in the arts is complex and, as anyone familiar with Medea's story will attest, not always terribly positive. As Lauren Laverne discovers, ho...
ListenThe Bald Truth from 2018-03-06T15:00
For thousands of years, bald men have been the subject of ridicule. As a result they've felt ashamed and have resorted to desperate measures to hide their condition. During the decades when hair st...
ListenIn the Wake of Wakefield from 2018-02-27T15:00
Twenty years ago, in February 1998, one of the most serious public health scandals of the 20th century was born, when researcher, Andrew Wakefield and his co-authors published a paper in the medica...
ListenBehind the Scenes: Dawn Walton from 2018-02-23T15:00
Dawn Walton, artistic director of Eclipse, the black theatre touring company, was bored of only ever coming across three black stories in British theatres - slavery stories, immigrant stories, and ...
ListenA Brief History of Cunning from 2018-02-20T15:00
How cunning is Donald Trump? In Queenan on Cunning, the satirist Joe Queenan explores a word rarely associated with the current President of the USA."From Odysseus to Bismarck, via Brer Rabbit a...
ListenInside the Killing Jar from 2018-02-16T15:00
The work of the entomologist very often involves the killing of insects in large numbers. This happens in the search for new species in the exploration of the planet's biodiversity and in ecologica...
ListenFind Me a Cure from 2018-02-13T15:00
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia or CLL, is the most common form of leukaemia. It's a disease which kills. The most common treatment is with chemotherapy. If that doesn't work, most patients can only ...
ListenThe Death of Illegitimacy from 2018-02-09T15:00
Illegitimacy once meant you were a 'bastard'. The MP Caroline Flint wants to know what the word 'illegitimate' means now. Caroline has always been open about her unmarried Mum having her when sh...
ListenInside the Brain of Gerald Scarfe from 2018-01-30T15:00
The brain - the final frontier. Radio 4 is setting out on an exploration of the creative mind. Gerald Scarfe's drawings have intrigued and alarmed for more than fifty years but where do his idea...
ListenFrom the Steppes to the Stage from 2018-01-23T15:00
From the nomads of the vast steppe - to the glamour and adulation of the stage. Kate Molleson unravels the story of Mongolia's remarkable rise to being an opera superpower. And, in this special do...
ListenThe Dawn of British Jihad from 2018-01-16T15:00
Before 9/11 British attitudes to partaking in faith-inspired armed combat were... different. British Muslims travelled freely to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burma and Kashmir for a few weeks o...
ListenGood Luck Professor Spiegelhalter from 2018-01-12T15:00
Rhianna Dhillon brings you another seriously interesting story from Radio 4. This week, luck.Whether we believe in luck or not, we do use the word- a lot! More as a figure of speech than an art...
ListenWhy the Moon, Luke? from 2018-01-09T15:00
Luke Jerram is that rare bird, a genuinely popular yet acclaimed contemporary artist. And he's obsessed with the moon. So he's made one: seven metres wide featuring 120dpi detailed NASA imagery, an...
ListenThe Far Future from 2018-01-05T15:00
How do we prepare for the distant future? Helen Keen meets the people who try to. If our tech society continues then we can leave data for future generations in huge, mundane quantities, detaili...
ListenThinking Outside the Boxset: How Technology Changed the Story from 2017-12-29T15:00
For centuries tales were shared around the camp-fire; modern settlements share data via wi-fi. But what hasn't changed across the ages is our passion for histories and information - we shape and ma...
ListenThe Power of Sloth from 2017-12-26T15:00
Zoologist and founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, Lucy Cooke, unleashes her inner sloth to discover why being lazy could actually be the ultimate evolutionary strategy. The explorers of t...
ListenIceland's Dark Lullabies from 2017-12-22T15:00
Dreaming of a Dark Christmas, in Iceland At the darkest time of the year in Iceland scary creatures come out to play. Storyteller Andri Snær Magnason used to be terrified by his grandmother's Ch...
ListenThe Unconscious Life of Bombs from 2017-12-19T15:00
Historian and psychoanalyst Daniel Pick of Birkbeck College, University of London tells the story of how aerial bombardment - from Zeppelins to B52s, from H-Bombs to drones - has made the unconscio...
ListenMysteries of Sleep - Sleepwalking from 2017-12-12T15:00
Why do some of us do bizarre things in our sleep? Like riding a motorbike, using a shoe to 'phone for a pizza or even having sex while sleeping? These are complex behaviours and yet sleepwalkers ar...
ListenThe Glasgow Boys: Chaos and Calm from 2017-11-29T10:30
Byron Vincent joins the Violence Reduction Unit in Glasgow to see how they turn young men away from lives of violence and chaos. Three years ago, after he discussed his own violent and chaotic ...
ListenWhere Are All the Working Class Writers? from 2017-11-24T15:00
"The more we reinforce the stereotypes of who writes and who reads, the more the notion of exclusivity is reinforced. It takes balls to gatecrash a party." Kit de Waal, published her first novel...
ListenClose to the Edit from 2017-11-07T15:00
Filmmaker Mike Figgis explores the story of edited film, audio and culture, and how the simple process of cutting and splicing has changed the way people view the world. We are living in an age ...
ListenBONUS: Russia – 100 Years on from Revolution from 2017-11-06T20:30
A century ago, the Russian Revolution took place. It was a seismic event that changed the course of the 20th century.In this special, bonus episode of Seriously…, we visit four cities closely link...
ListenSavitri Devi: From the Aryans to the Alt-right from 2017-11-03T15:00
Savitri Devi-devotee of Hitler, proponent of Hindu nationalism, associate of both the British BNP and the American Nazi party-was a prolific author and energetic member of the international Nazi ne...
ListenThe Trainspotter's Guide to Dracula from 2017-10-31T15:00
"3 May. Bistritz. Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late." The first line of Bram Stoker's Dracula m...
ListenPolitical Violence in America from 2017-10-27T14:00
The events in Charlottesville were just one example of the sharp rise in the number of violent confrontations in America between far-right white nationalists and left-wing groups known as 'antifa' ...
ListenWho's Looking At You? from 2017-10-17T14:00
Once upon a time, total surveillance was the province of George Orwell and totalitarian states, but we now live in a world where oceans of data are gathered from us every day by the wondrous digita...
ListenDads and Daughters from 2017-10-13T04:00
The relationship between fathers and daughters has been the subject of countless cultural explorations down the centuries, from Elektra's distress to Bonjour Tristesse. Some of them are idealised (...
ListenIt's Just a Joke, Comrade: 100 Years of Russian Satire from 2017-10-10T14:00
The Russian Revolution unleashed a brand of humour that continues to this day. In this two-part series, comedian and Russophile Viv Groskop explores a century of revolutionary comedy and asks how i...
ListenPassing Dreams from 2017-10-03T14:00
A portrait of singer, songwriter and truck driver Will Beeley. The myth of the road is deeply rooted in America - it's the thing that delivers escape, promises freedom, fuels new hopes and, once...
ListenMy Muse: Lynne Truss on Joni Mitchell from 2017-09-29T14:00
Not everyone appreciates the tonalities, lyrics or even the shrieky voice of Canadian artist and musician Joni Mitchell but in a dusty class room in 1971 Lynne Truss decided she loved the writer of...
ListenArt in Miniature from 2017-09-26T14:00
Tiny bathers relax in a puddle of oily water on a pavement; a galleon sails on the head of a pin, a dancer twirls next to a mote of dust under a microscope - Dr Lance Dann, lover of miniature world...
ListenMy Secret Wig from 2017-09-19T14:00
Lots of people wear wigs, and go to great lengths to keep them secret - but why? Perhaps it's because the hair on top of our heads means so much to us. It's a crucial part of our identity, the pers...
ListenPowerPointless from 2017-09-15T14:00
With more than 30 million presentations being given around the world every day, PowerPoint has become the single most ubiquitous tool for presenting ideas. Yet it's the software many of us love to ...
ListenQueens of Chapeltown from 2017-09-05T14:00
After the violence directed at black people in Nottingham and Notting Hill in the 1950s, and the naked racism expressed in Smethwick during the 1964 general election, a group of pioneering West Ind...
ListenDiana: A Life Backwards from 2017-08-31T05:00
Marking the 20th anniversary of her untimely death, Archive on 4 presents a unique and moving portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales - her life documented in reverse chronology. Diana, Princess of...
ListenThe Edge of Life from 2017-08-29T14:00
Suicide is the number one killer of men under-50 in England and Wales. A 'zero suicide' approach to prevention first devised in Detroit is now changing attitudes to care in the UK. Merseyside is le...
ListenGrayson Perry: En Garde from 2017-08-22T14:00
Grayson Perry goes backwards in the archive in search of the moment the avant-garde died. It's a century since Marcel Duchamp submitted his artwork called Fountain to an exhibition staged by the...
ListenDriving Bill Drummond from 2017-08-18T14:00
Bill Drummond is many things. As well as an artist, a writer and former pop-star - he's the owner of an old curfew tower in Northern Ireland which he runs as an artists' residency. Last year some p...
ListenA Brief History of the Truth from 2017-08-01T14:00
It's time to travel down the rabbit hole of truth as American satirist Joe Queenan explores a murky world of fake news, prejudice and alternative facts. "Recent politics have shown that the truth...
ListenThe Pigeon Whistles from 2017-07-28T14:00
The sound of music flying through the air, carried on the tails of pigeons. "I knew it was a noise maker, but it was the only thing in the museum that I had no idea what it might sound like. Beca...
ListenAnd Then There Were Nun from 2017-07-25T14:00
What is life like for nuns and monks today? With a lack of new blood coming into the traditional monasteries and convents, Bishop Martin Shaw supports some of these aging communities in their painf...
Listen999 - Which Service Do You Require? from 2017-06-30T14:00
999 was the first emergency telephone number in the world when it was launched on June 30th, 1937. Within the first week, more than a thousand calls were made to the service with one burglar arrest...
ListenPort Talbot Paradiso from 2017-06-27T14:00
Actor Michael Sheen explores the history of Port Talbot's Plaza Cinema. A beautiful art-deco building , first opening in 1940, the Plaza was the heart of cinema entertainment for the people of Port...
ListenButterbeer and Grootcakes from 2017-06-16T14:00
Aleks Krotoski takes her seat at the table to explore the amazing world of fictional food made real. Food is not a new force in fiction, but increasingly fictional food is finding its way onto t...
ListenWhen Women Wore the Trousers from 2017-06-13T14:00
Laura Barton explores the little known story of a pioneering group of women who unknowingly challenged conventional notions of femininity and their working roles. The Pit Brow Lasses worked within ...
ListenMiss Simpson's Children from 2017-05-12T14:00
The story of how one woman offered refuge to leading intellectuals fleeing from the Nazis, helping transform the cultural and intellectual landscape of Britain and the United States. Shortly after ...
ListenThe Invention of the USA: Borderlands from 2017-05-09T14:00
Just two centuries ago, no one had a clue where the borders of the USA actually were. Hemmed in by the Atlantic, the Appalachian mountains and Canada to the north, early Americans could only dream ...
ListenThe Organ Beauty Pageant from 2017-05-05T14:00
Is it fair to find your own kidney donor on the internet? UK patients who need new organs are using social media to advertise their plight and appeal directly for a Good Samaritan who's willing to ...
ListenTrump at Studio 54 from 2017-04-28T14:00
Frances Stonor-Saunders explores how the young Donald Trump stormed into Manhattan from the outer boroughs in the late 1970s and headed straight for New York's most outrageous nightclub. He didn't ...
ListenA Woman Half in Shadow from 2017-04-18T05:00
Zora Neale Hurston. You might not recognise her name. She was an African American novelist and folklorist, a queen of the Harlem Renaissance and a contemporary of Langston Hughes and Richard Wright...
ListenRock Transition from 2017-03-31T14:00
For centuries musicians have defied gender boundaries to create some of the most evocative and provocative art and music. Journalist and culture critic Laura Snapes joins the dots of a fascinati...
ListenThe Mind in the Media from 2017-03-21T15:00
If you ask the author, Nathan Filer, when he first came into contact with mental illness, he'll tell you it was in 1999 when he first became a psychiatric nurse. But, like many of us, he'd actually...
ListenMoving to the Red Planet from 2017-03-14T15:00
As we dream of sending humans to Mars, the psychological problems of a mission loom large. As part of Radio 4's Mars season. Claudia Hammond investigates the mind-set behind the desire of those of ...
Listen1917: Eyewitness in Petrograd from 2017-03-10T15:00
Emily Dicks visits St Petersburg to trace her grandfather's teenage memories of the excitement and fear of the 1917 Revolutions - as preserved on a never-previously-revealed tape. This extraordi...
ListenWriting a New Caribbean: Under the Surface from 2017-03-07T15:00
A picture of the Caribbean, as seen by a new generation of writers and poets. Elisha Efua Bartels talks to Trinidadian writers Sharon Millar, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, and Andre Bagoo about t...
ListenRadioactive Art from 2017-03-03T15:00
Radioactive waste can remain dangerous to humans for 100,000 years. Nations with nuclear power are building underground storage facilities to permanently house it, but how might they mark these sit...
ListenMark Steel Does Hip Hop from 2017-02-28T15:00
Mark Steel loves Hip Hop in foreign languages. Even though he can't understand a word; he loves the energy and attitude. In this programme he hopes to persuade you that far from the violent, misogy...
ListenIntrigue: Murder in the Lucky Holiday Hotel from 2017-02-26T15:00
A true story of death, sex and elite politics in China.
ListenA Brief History of Lust from 2017-02-21T15:00
Does what makes the heart beat faster really make the world go round? Oh yes. Welcome to a new history of lust presented by the American satirist Joe Queenan. From Helen and Paris of Troy to Bill a...
ListenA Brief History of Failure from 2017-02-14T15:00
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal," said Winston Churchill. The American satirist Joe Queenan thinks he might be wrong. In this archive hour follow up to his previous programmes on Blame,...
ListenLate Returns from 2017-02-10T15:00
The writer Nicholas Royle is a passionate supporter of libraries and a devoted bibliophile. As a young man his passion for books was so strong, in fact, that some of the books he borrowed from libr...
ListenTunes from the Trash from 2017-02-07T15:00
Just outside the Paraguayan capital city of Asuncion lies the town of Cateura. It's an impoverished settlement ranged along the banks of a stinking, polluted river, in the shadow of a giant landfil...
ListenMeet the Cyborgs from 2017-02-03T15:00
Frank Swain can hear Wi-Fi. Diagnosed with early deafness aged 25, Frank decided to turn his misfortune to his advantage by modifying his hearing aids to create a new sense. He documented the st...
ListenGeneration Grime from 2017-01-31T15:00
Radio 4 explores why the music genre of Grime has blown up in the UK in the last few years by following Wales' Astroid Boys on their recent UK tour. Once just the sound of the London underground, G...
ListenLaura Mvula's Miles Davis from 2017-01-27T15:00
Singer-songwriter and composer Laura Mvula meets jazz musicians Jason Yarde and Laura Jurd, and music broadcaster journalist Kevin Le Gendre, to discuss her musical inspiration, the visionary Ameri...
ListenI, by the Tide of Humber from 2017-01-24T15:00
BBC coverage of Hull City of Culture will be extensive across 2017. At its very start, the award-winning poet Sean O'Brien reflects upon why his native city, its waterscape and landscape, have insp...
ListenOn a Knife Edge from 2017-01-20T15:00
This hospital based youth violence work is taking place in the four London major trauma centres and Producer Sue Mitchell was given exclusive access to follow what happens. The charity, Redthread, ...
ListenExonerated from 2017-01-13T15:00
John Toal meets former death-row inmates Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle at the retreat they have set up in rural Ireland to offer restorative treatment to other victims of wrongful conviction in or...
ListenThe Green Book from 2016-12-06T15:00
In the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, travelling in the United States was fraught with difficulties if you were black. At best it was inconvenient, as white-owned businesses refused to serve A...
ListenBursting the Social Network Bubble from 2016-12-02T15:00
Bobby Friction has started to realise that his day-to-day online activities are not only being monitored but in some senses manipulated. How often he interacts with specific friends, pages or sites...
ListenGCHQ: Minority Report from 2016-11-29T15:00
The domestic challenge facing Britain's biggest secret intelligence service. What's stopping members of the ethnic minorities from playing a key part in Britain's spy network: discrimination, loyal...
ListenBeing Bored: The Importance of Doing Nothing from 2016-11-22T15:00
Is boredom under threat? There are more TV channels than we can count, Smartphones keep us engaged around the clock, and the constant white noise of social media coerces us to always 'interact'. In...
ListenSteve Earle's Songwriting Bootcamp from 2016-11-11T15:00
Legendary country singer-songwriter Steve Earle unveils the secrets of composing a great song. Every year he runs a four-day intensive training session in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York...
ListenButterfly Mind from 2016-11-08T15:00
Can a Shaman cure writer's block? David Greig goes on a very personal quest in an attempt to find out. David Greig is one of our most respected and successful playwrights. He's also the Artisti...
ListenSearching for Tobias from 2016-11-04T15:00
In 2008 Chloe Hadjimatheou was covering Barack Obama's first election campaign when she came across a 15 year old black boy in a Mississippi trailer park. Back then the young Tobias was full of pot...
ListenKeepsake for My Lover from 2016-11-01T15:00
'Like talking on the phone but a thousand times more thrilling,' voice recording booths invite you to 'hear yourself as others hear you' by entering a weird machine to cut a record. Once a technolo...
ListenA Cello in the Desert from 2016-10-25T14:00
Winner of this year's prestigious BBC/RGS dream journey award is Nina Plapp who sets off from the Isle of Wight with her cello 'Cuthbert' en route to India via Transylvania in a search for the root...
ListenGunning For Education from 2016-10-18T14:00
On 1st August 2016, Texas became the first big American state to allow students aged over 21 to carry concealed handguns on campus. Ian Peddie explores the impact of the new law.
Arthur Russell: Vanished into Music from 2016-10-04T14:00
The writer Olivia Laing presents an imaginative portrait of Arthur Russell.
Arthur Russell was a cellist, a composer, a songwriter and a disco auteur. He was active in the New Yo...
The Villain in 6 Chapters from 2016-09-30T13:30
Exploring characters from literature, stage and screen, actor Toby Jones celebrates the mercurial world of the villain.
There are the characters we love, and then there are the c...
Songs for the Dead from 2016-08-19T13:30
Keeners were the women of rural Ireland who were traditionally paid to cry, wail and sing over the bodies of the dead at funerals and wakes. Their role was to help channel the grief of the bereaved...
ListenFrightened of Each Other's Shadows from 2016-08-16T13:30
It's part of contemporary life we experience but are ashamed to discuss. But Nihal Arthanayake wants to talk it: about the things that are left unsaid. The empty chair next to a person from an ethn...
ListenStalking under Scrutiny from 2016-08-05T13:30
'Stalking' - repeated, unwanted contact or intrusive behaviour from another person which causes fear or distress - affects huge numbers of people. The public perception is that only celebrities are...
ListenYou May Now Turn Over Your Papers from 2016-07-08T13:30
Cambridge Classics professor, Mary Beard, tells the intriguing story of the history of exams and asks what are exams really for. In her quest for an answer, she scales the rooftops of King's Colleg...
ListenRoald Dahl: In His Own Words from 2016-07-05T13:30
With the help of his granddaughter Sophie, Roald Dahl tells his own remarkable story in the style of one of his much-loved books. Illustrated with newly discovered archive recordings and songs and ...
ListenIn Wales the Ball is Round from 2016-06-17T13:30
Football is the Welsh national sport. Yes, you read that right. Comedian and writer Elis James gives a polemical appraisal of football's role in constructing modern Welsh identity. (1/2)
<...
While My Guitar Gently Bleeps from 2016-06-14T13:30
A plumber eating a mushroom, and a spiny mammal jumping on a golden ring - you'd be forgiven for thinking these actions would make pretty indistinct or ambiguous sounds. But comedian, writer and mu...
ListenMoss Side Gym Stories from 2016-06-10T13:30
Moss Side Gym Stories -
Part 1:
Moss Side is a small neighbourhood just outside of Manchester's city centre. In the 19th century Elizabeth Gaskell, inspired by the area, made her...
Life Under Glass from 2016-05-31T13:30
At Coney Island amusement park between 1903 and 1943 there was an extraordinary exhibit: tiny, premature babies. 'Dr. Martin Couney's infant incubator' facility was staffed by nurses in starched wh...
ListenThe Camera Never Lies from 2016-05-27T13:30
Does documentary ever really tell the truth?
BAFTA award winning filmmaker Molly Dineen examines the concept of truth and the creation of narrative in documentary film making. Ro...
The Power of Cute from 2016-05-24T13:30
Zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke explores the science behind our seeming obsession with all things adorable. There has been an explosion in interest in cuteness, particularly online, with an ev...
ListenReturn to Subtopia from 2016-05-13T13:30
The distinguished architectural writer Gillian Darley retraces the story of "Subtopia", one of the most significant architectural debacles of the post-war era, and considers its long shadow.
The Force of Google from 2016-05-10T13:30
Google dominates internet searching across most parts of the globe. The algorithm which produces its search results is highly secret and always changing, but is crucial in influencing the informati...
ListenFor Better or Worse from 2016-05-06T13:30
Writer and activist Peter McGraith married his long-term partner David in March 2014, the first gay wedding registered in the UK.
Two years on he meets gay and lesbian couples an...
The Drop Out Boogie from 2016-04-22T13:30
There can surely have never been so much pressure on young people to go to university and get a degree, but while for many it remains the best option for securing a decent future, many thousands of...
ListenHow to Turn Your Life Around from 2016-04-05T13:30
What does it take to succeed if you are born into poverty and neglect? Two people who have done just that explore whether it was down to personality, circumstances or plain luck. Why do so few peop...
ListenSuck It and See from 2016-04-01T13:30
Grammy Award-Winning songwriter Amy Wadge fell in love with the harmonica after winning one in a fancy dress competition (she was dressed in a bin liner!). Now she investigates the history and pote...
ListenThe Women Who Wrote Rock from 2016-03-29T13:30
Kate Mossman tells the story of the long-overlooked female pop and rock writers of the 1960s.
As a music journalist herself, when Kate entered the profession she found herself su...
The Returnees from 2016-03-25T14:30
On an August bank holiday in 2014, Shiraz Maher at the International Centre for Study of Radicalisation at Kings College London received an email sent by a disillusioned British jihadist from Syria...
ListenThe Actors' Gang & The Actors' Gang on the Outside from 2016-03-22T14:30
A two part Seriously following actor Tim Robbins and Rajesh Mirchandani and the theatre programme the Actors' Gang in Norco prison.
Part 1: The Actors' Gang
Ju...
The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Anarchy Must Be Organised from 2016-03-18T14:30
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band going "professional" - kick-starting the chaos with a performance on the bastion of psychedelia and avant-garde: Blue Peter.
<...
Tim Key Delves Into Daniil Kharms and That's All from 2016-03-15T14:30
Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) is one of Russia's great lost absurdists - a writer whose world still alarms, shocks and bewitches more than half a century after he died in prison during the siege of Len...
ListenA Brief History of Disobedience from 2016-03-11T15:27
"Oh my goodness, look at that sign over there. Keep Off The Grass. Makes me wonder who put it there. Makes me wonder why I should keep off the grass. And it makes me want to go on the grass!"
<...
Glad to Be Grey from 2016-03-08T14:30
Professor Mary Beard is a distinguished Cambridge Classical scholar with a string of highly-regarded books on Ancient Rome to her name, so it's slightly irksome to her that she is almost better kno...
ListenLaverne in the Willows from 2016-03-04T14:30
Lauren Laverne has long been a firm fan of Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book 'The Wind in the Willows', in particular that most sparky of characters Mr. Toad, whose desire to have everythin...
ListenSix Degrees of Connection from 2016-03-01T14:30
Is everyone in the world really connected by only six links?
A famous experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s claimed that it took on average only six step...
Musical Variations: The Life of Angela Morley from 2016-02-26T14:30
Stuart Barr uncovers the colourful career of British composer and transgender pioneer, Angela Morley.
In 1972, Wally Stott's transition to Angela Morley made front page news. Wal...
Batman and Ethan from 2016-02-19T14:30
Ethan was born blind. He's now a 10 year-old boy who collects sounds on his 51 dictaphones, composes music, and performs on stage in concerts. Until now he's been home-schooled, but last year he wa...
ListenReaction Time from 2016-02-14T14:30
"Your breasts look fantastic in that dress."
From abysmal chat-up lines like this, to love at first sight in Victoria Train Station, BBC Radio Four listeners have some incredible relation...
Jarvis on McCullers from 2016-02-09T14:30
The writing of Carson McCullers has perhaps never been as popular or acclaimed as that of contemporaries such as Harper Lee and Tennessee Williams, but nonetheless she remains one of the most remar...
ListenGay Bombay from 2016-02-05T14:30
Why is homosexuality still illegal in the world's so-called largest democracy?
In his celebrated family memoir 'And All is Said', historian Dr Zareer Masani made no bones about his own ho...
Raising the Dead from 2016-01-26T14:30
For the past few decades music teacher and pianist Francesco Lotoro has been collecting music written in concentration camps from the Second World War. Francesco's life is entirely given over to re...
ListenDeciding Fast and Slow from 2016-01-22T14:30
What is it really like to make decisions affecting millions of people, knowing that a mistake might be pounced upon instantly and your career left in tatters? Government ministers face this challen...
ListenWork Is a Four Letter Word from 2016-01-08T15:30
Many of us have grown up with the belief that a strong work ethic is a positive thing, and that by contrast idle hands are the devil's playthings. According to Professor Andrew Hussey, that argumen...
ListenMiles Jupp and the Plot Device from 2016-01-05T15:30
How many stories are there in the world? According to William Wallace Cook, dime novelist and prolific producer of American pulp, there were precisely 1,462 and in Plotto, his "Master Book of All P...
ListenBrain Tingles from 2015-12-29T15:30
The comedian and actor Isy Suttie sets out to explore how creativity is influenced by the mysterious and medically controversial phenomenon ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). Ever since s...
ListenHippy Internet - The Whole Earth Catalog from 2015-12-22T15:30
Sukhdev Sandhu travels to the epicentres of countercultural America in Woodstock and San Francisco to tell the story of a book of hippy philosophy that defined the 1960s and intimated how the inter...
ListenInside Putin's Russia: The Rosenberg Reports from 2015-12-20T15:30
How is Russian President Vladimir Putin perceived by the people in his own country? How is his intervention in Syria shaping the public mood? In a series of reports, Steve Rosenberg investigates Pu...
ListenThe Art of StarCraft from 2015-12-15T14:30
Stephen Evans goes deep into the Milky Way to look at the phenomenon of StarCraft and reveals how, in South Korea, it is more than just a computer game and is a key part of the rapidly growing mult...
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