Podcasts by The Forum

Political parties and us from 2023-11-18T07:06

Political parties come in all shapes and sizes and their ideas are just as varied. But what kind of parties best reflect 21st-century society? How do we, as voters, choose between them at electi...

What makes a good boss? from 2023-10-21T06:06

We can probably all think of examples of bad bosses – the people who we love to gossip about with our colleagues outside work. And even if you’re lucky enough to have had good experiences of ma...

The joy and sorrow of roads from 2023-09-16T06:06

Whether we are pedestrians, cyclists or drivers, roads play a crucial role in our everyday lives. But where and how should we build any new ones? What kind of roads do we need? And how did we en...

Pets and us from 2023-08-19T06:06

For every young American under the age of 18, there are about two cats or dogs receiving free food and lodgings in US homes and that pattern is replicated in many other countries. So why do so m...

The evolution of teenagers from 2023-07-15T08:00

In some ways the 21st century is a very unusual time when it comes to adolescence - a study in the US found that teenagers smoke less, drink less and have less sex than the previous generation. ...

Global mass tourism from 2023-06-17T06:06

From Bhutan to The Bahamas and Iceland to Indonesia, mass tourism has grown at an unprecedented rate over the last few decades. Today’s top destinations are struggling with the sheer numbers of ...

A deep dive into deepfakes from 2023-05-20T09:00

Are we in a new age of information warfare? The technology to create deepfakes has progressed steadily over the past decade and enables anyone to create videos of people saying and doing things ...

How the mobile phone changed everything from 2023-04-15T10:06

When telecoms engineer Martin Cooper first chatted in public on a mobile phone 50 years ago few would have predicted that this brief telephone call would be the start of a revolution that would ...

The submarine: Stealth machine from 2023-04-13T06:06

Given the submarine's importance to many of the world's navies, it's perhaps surprising to learn that for many years it was considered an inventor's folly and of little use in maritime warfare. ...

Hazel Scott: Jazz star and barrier breaker from 2023-04-06T06:06

A child prodigy on the piano, then a glamorous jazz and popular music entertainer, a civil rights campaigner and the first black American woman to host her own TV show: for the first three decad...

The bittersweet tale of cocoa from 2023-03-30T06:06

Do you like cocoa? You are in good company: in South and Central America people have been enjoying the fruit of the cacao tree - the source of cocoa, chocolate and much else - for thousands of y...

The dam builders from 2023-03-23T07:06

The Hoover Dam in the US, the Aswan Dam in Egypt and the recently opened, and sumptuously named, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam. Since modern times, huge mega dams like these to tame rivers, cr...

Alexander the Great or not so great? from 2023-03-16T07:06

From Persia to India to Greece – they called him The Great – that is Alexander the Great. Also known as Alexander III of Macedon, he was one of the most successful military leaders of all time. ...

Rituals: Our anchors in a changing world from 2023-03-09T07:06

From coronations to cup finals, many of us love a big event, a ceremony with age-old observances. Indeed rituals, whether public spectaculars or more personal ones, such as a particular daily ro...

Tropicália: the movement that defied Brazil’s dictatorship from 2023-03-02T07:06

Drawing on traditional music, pop culture, kitsch, rock and modernist poetry to mention just a few of their sources of inspiration, the short-lived Tropicália movement in late 1960s Brazil was p...

How the shipping container changed the world from 2023-02-23T11:28

Nearly everything we consume is transported by ship. The biggest container ships in the world are among the largest moving structures made by man and can carry over 24,000 20-foot container unit...

Neanderthals: Meet the relatives from 2023-02-16T12:15

Developments in new technology such as DNA sequencing have transformed our understanding of the Neanderthals, one of a group of archaic humans who occupied Europe, the Middle East and Western As...

Cavalry and code-breaking: The Polish-Soviet war from 2023-02-09T07:06

A Russian army stands at the gates of the capital of another country, a country that Russia has previously occupied and one that, according to Russian politicians, has no right to independent ex...

How we work: Redesigning the office from 2023-02-02T10:00

The pandemic has made us all rethink how we work. Where once millions of people used to travel into work in tall glass buildings in big cities every day, now our idea of the office has come to i...

When money died: The world's worst inflation from 2023-01-26T00:01

In the summer of 1946 inflation in Hungary reached 41.9 quadrillion per cent. That’s 41.9 followed by 14 zeros – the highest rate of inflation ever recorded anywhere in the world. It meant price...

The writer Rachel Carson who fought insecticide wars from 2023-01-19T07:06

Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring has probably done more than any other to raise concerns about the damage that uncontrolled use of chemicals can cause to the natural world. Carson imagine...

Why do we have a seven-day week? from 2023-01-12T00:01

Why do we divide our lives into 7-day chunks? Unlike the day, month or year, there’s no natural reason for this cycle, but nevertheless the week is now deeply ingrained in us and has proven very...

Forugh Farrokhzad: A trailblazing voice for women in Iran from 2023-01-05T07:06

Forugh Farrokhzad burst into the public consciousness with a series of poems that sent shockwaves through Persian society in the mid-1950s. Her early poetry focused on the female experience and ...

The Cynics: Counter-culture from Ancient Greece from 2022-12-29T07:06

Today’s counter-culture and alternative movements question mainstream norms, such as putting too much value on material possessions. The Cynics, practical philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome...

Calories: How to fuel a human from 2022-12-22T00:01

Calories are fundamental to the way many of us view food and our own bodies - you’ll find them on supermarket shelves, restaurant menus, and in cookbooks. But they didn’t start out that way. Listen

Belarus: The crossroads of Eastern Europe from 2022-12-15T07:06

Belarusian lands have seen dramatic upheavals throughout the twentieth century and today, like its neighbour Ukraine to the south, Belarus finds itself on the cusp, in between the countries of t...

Margaret Sanger: Mother of birth control from 2022-12-08T00:01

Activist Margaret Sanger is responsible for one of the most significant medical and social changes of the 20th Century – giving women the means to control the size of their families.

The ...

Alice Guy: The first female movie mogul from 2022-12-01T07:06

In the late 19th Century, when the motion picture camera was invented and cinema was born, a young French woman called Alice Guy ended up becoming the first ever woman film-maker; rising from be...

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A quest for immortality from 2022-11-24T07:06

Unearthed from the ruins of ancient cities in modern-day Iraq, the reconstruction of the epic from fragments of clay tablets has been a labour of love for scholars of ancient Mesopotamia. This p...

Uruguay 1930: The first football World Cup from 2022-11-17T00:01

As the spotlight falls on Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, we tell the story of how the world's biggest sporting spectacle began, in Uruguay in 1930.

How did a small South American nati...

Moths: The story of the butterfly of the night from 2022-11-10T07:06

The moth is an insect that’s almost 200 million years old. Throughout human history, its attraction to light, its amazing ability to camouflage, and its nocturnal activity have given rise to myt...

The end of civilisation: Bronze Age collapse from 2022-11-03T00:01

More than 3,000 years ago a group of powerful and intricately connected Mediterranean kingdoms collapsed over the course of just a few decades.

The palaces of Mycenaean Greece were destro...

Mirror Mirror on the wall: The history of the looking glass from 2022-04-21T06:06

For the Ancient Egyptians they were seen as receptacles for the soul, for the Aztecs they were used to tell the future and for the early Christians, they were an aid for reaching self-knowledge. An...

Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana’s Pan-African idealist from 2022-04-14T06:06

Kwame Nkrumah was considered by some as a visionary hero who urged would-be leaders in Africa to embrace the idea of unity for the continent, and led Ghana to independence from British colonial rul...

The Truman Doctrine: Beginnings of the Cold War from 2022-04-06T23:01

President Harry Truman's address to the United States Congress, and the world, in March 1947 is seen by some historians as marking the start of the Cold War. In it, the President committed the USA...

Margaret Fuller: Early feminist and war correspondent from 2022-03-31T06:06

In in her 1843 essay The Great Lawsuit, the American journalist and early feminist Margaret Fuller forcefully argued for the rights of women to work, think and live on their own terms, not just as ...

Money: From coin to cryptocurrency from 2022-03-20T14:06

From Mesopotamian loan records which are over 4,000 years old to the cryptocurrencies of today, money has been with us for a long time. But how did we get from exchanging bits of metal or cowrie sh...

Pinocchio: The real story of the mischievous wooden puppet from 2022-03-17T07:06

Pinocchio is a cultural icon. He is the wooden puppet who can talk and walk. A cheerful headstrong character who keeps breaking the rules, and whose dream is to become a real boy. His story has bee...

Franz Liszt: Hungarian pianist and painter in sound from 2022-02-24T07:06

A proud Hungarian by birth, Franz Liszt was a pioneer both in his piano playing and in his compositions. He was also the nearest thing to a rock star that classical music had in the 19th century. F...

Joseph Heller's Catch-22: A novel of twisted logic and absurd bureaucracy from 2022-02-17T07:06

"That’s some Catch, that Catch 22". It’s a novel that gave rise to a new term in the English language and gave voice to American soldiers serving in Vietnam in the 1960s. Since its publication in 1...

Sofya Kovalevskaya: The eventful life of a maths pioneer from 2022-02-10T07:06

If you were a woman in the mid-19th century, some universities might let you attend public lectures on science, but very few would enrol women as regular students. The number of women allowed to si...

Machu Picchu: Secrets of a forgotten city from 2022-02-03T07:06

The ancient Inca town Machu Picchu is now the most visited tourist attraction in Peru – and yet it lay nearly forgotten for over three centuries until American and Peruvian explorers drew the world...

Pleasure and pain: The philosophy of Jeremy Bentham from 2022-01-27T07:06

How do you approach the decisions you make in life? Do you think about them in terms of the maximum pleasure and minimum pain that any choice would lead to for yourself and others around you? If so...

Copper: From mining to microprocessors from 2022-01-20T06:06

Copper is a metal that has been with us since the dawn of civilisation. The Romans used it to build their empire, and its high thermal and electrical conductivity led to the 19th century discovery ...

Writer Agatha Christie: Murder and mystery from 2022-01-13T07:06

Agatha Christie put her decision to become a writer down to a lack of education and a capacity for day-dreaming. Her murder mysteries, full of ingenious plot twists, are still regarded by many as t...

Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman from 2021-12-30T07:06

Harry Houdini’s story is the classic American tale of an immigrant who from impoverished beginnings made it big in the United States. Perhaps it is this early hand to mouth existence in a large fam...

Antarctic Treaty: Protecting the icy continent from 2021-12-23T07:06

It’s widely regarded as the most successful treaty in the world, and it was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. The Antarctic Treaty, which came into force in 1961, pr...

Don Quixote: Spanish masterpiece from 2021-12-16T07:06

With its multiple narrators, superb and complex characterisation, the influence of Don Quixote de la Mancha has been acknowledged by great writers through the ages as a masterpiece, and hailed as o...

Algae: Slime life from 2021-12-09T07:06

They’re slimy and slippery. They’re part of the green film you see on garden ponds. They can clump together and wash up on the shores of beautiful beaches. A lot of them are invisible to the naked ...

Laskarina Bouboulina, the mother of modern Greece from 2021-11-25T07:06

The 1821 Greek war for independence from the Ottoman empire became an inspiration for people all over Europe who wanted to dismantle the old multi-ethnic empires. But it is less well known that a n...

Mary Somerville: The queen of 19th-Century science from 2021-11-18T07:06

For someone who was largely self-taught, Mary Somerville's rise to renown in the male-dominated world of science was quite remarkable. Although women were barred from being members of the learned s...

The Malayan Emergency from 2021-11-11T07:06

One of the earliest Cold War conflicts was a 12-year guerrilla war commonly known as the Malayan Emergency and fought from 1948 in the jungles of what is now Malaysia. This communist insurgency was...

The Devils: Dostoevsky’s novel of political evil from 2021-11-04T07:06

The Devils, The Possessed, or Demons, as it’s also known in translation, is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s most political novel but it’s also his bleakest and funniest. It’s a hundred and fifty years since it...

A focus on spectacles from 2021-10-28T06:06

If you had to name the innovations that have transformed human civilisation, you might suggest the printing press or the Internet, but the humble pair of spectacles has also revolutionised the way ...

Sarah Bernhardt: Queen of stage and screen from 2021-10-21T10:21

Whether photographed in a coffin or depicted on an Art Nouveau poster, the French actor Sarah Bernhardt knew exactly how to get maximum publicity. Although her first outings on the stage were unre...

A dirty history of diamonds from 2021-10-14T09:00

We seem to have an almost insatiable appetite for the glitter and sparkle of diamonds. Yet transforming these stones into jewels fit for princesses and film stars involves a long chain of productio...

Sushi: The Japanese dish with an ancient tradition from 2021-09-30T09:00

It’s one of the most popular dishes in the world today, but the story of sushi can be traced back more than 2,000 years. The earliest records document a preserved fish dish in ancient China and it ...

Toni Morrison: The legacy of a literary legend from 2021-09-23T09:00

The American writer Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” It was an urge which in her case yielded a rich array...

Algorithms: From the ancients to the internet from 2021-09-16T06:06

Hidden from view, complex to understand and often controversial, algorithms are at the heart of computer coding that underpins modern society. Every time we search the internet, every time we pay ...

Louder! How the electric guitar conquered popular music from 2021-09-09T06:06

Whether it be a kerrang, a chop, a blistering solo, some finger picking or a subtle flange, the electric guitar is one of the defining sounds of the 20th century. Without it – and its constant comp...

Luigi Pirandello: Italian dramatist who brought chaos to the stage from 2021-09-02T06:06

It’s a hundred years since the infamous premiere of Luigi Pirandello’s experimental play Six Characters in Search of an Author, when an enraged Rome theatre audience yelled abuse at the Italian pla...

Mars: A history of the Red Planet from 2021-08-26T06:06

With three separate missions exploring the Red Planet in 2021, Mars is once again under the spotlight. But to tell the truth, it’s never been away. Mars has fascinated people for centuries with its...

A radiant light: The Indonesian poet Amir Hamzah from 2021-08-19T06:06

The writer Amir Hamza is a national hero in Indonesia celebrated for both his poetry and his role in the development of the country’s national language. Hamza was an emotional man who struggled wit...

Sailing by the stars: The pioneering voyages of David Lewis from 2021-08-12T06:06

David Lewis was of one of the most remarkable nautical explorers of modern times. In the mid-1960s, he took his wife and two small daughters - who were less than five years old - on a sailing trip ...

Inside the mind of crime writer Patricia Highsmith from 2021-08-05T09:00

Patricia Highsmith was one of the most successful suspense writers of the 20th century. Known especially for her novels The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train, she created complex ...

Ibn Sina: The Persian polymath from 2021-08-02T08:00

Over a thousand years ago in the city of Bukhara in modern-day Uzbekistan, a young man was gaining a reputation for his great medical knowledge. His name was Ibn Sina and he was to go on to become ...

The Panama Canal: The real story behind the engineering triumph from 2021-07-29T06:06

Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has long been regarded as a triumph of American ingenuity, a conquest over nature that helped secure the United States’ position as a world power. Taking ten yea...

Ida Pfeiffer: 19th Century globetrotter from 2021-07-22T06:06

Ida Pfeiffer's desire to see the world was like many childhood fantasies - destined to remain just that. And yet at the age of 44 once her sons had reached adulthood, she set off from her home in ...

Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone from 2021-07-08T06:06

A young immigrant to the USA who started out working in a draper's shop, Emile Berliner ended up paving the way for the world of recordings and home entertainment that we delight in today. But even...

Tracing the roots of ancient trees from 2021-07-01T09:00

Have you ever sat against the trunk of a large old tree, looked up into its canopy and wondered what it’s seen in its lifetime? There are many species of tree that survive well beyond a human lifes...

The Wizard of Oz: A homegrown American fairy tale from 2021-06-24T06:06

The Wizard of Oz is best known as one of the most watched films of all time, or as one of its many re-incarnations, such as the hugely successful Broadway musical Wicked or the Soviet, The Wizard o...

Falconry: The history of hunting with birds of prey from 2021-06-17T06:06

The practice of hunting with birds of prey is thought to stretch back thousands of years. In early nomadic societies, falconry was used to hunt animals to provide food and clothing in places such a...

Aramaic: An imperial language without an empire from 2021-06-10T06:06

Aramaic is a language that for some three thousand years facilitated the exchange of ideas across large tracts of the Middle East and Asia. In its heyday it was the main official and written langua...

X-rays: New ways of seeing from 2021-06-03T06:06

The discovery of X-rays by the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895 was nothing short of ground-breaking, opening up a new era in medicine. For the first time, doctors could see inside the hum...

The birth of the modern car from 2021-05-20T06:06

The motor car is a feature of contemporary life the world over but when and where did motor vehicles begin? How did we get from the slow, noisy, dangerous, early vehicles of the 19th century to the...

Ukulele - a history of Hawaii's national instrument from 2021-05-13T06:06

Throughout its 130-year-old history, the ukulele has often been underrated – for many, this tiny four stringed instrument is a musical joke, a plastic toy or a cheap airport souvenir, but in fact, ...

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, groundbreaking fort builder from 2021-05-06T06:06

The American president Thomas Jefferson called Tadeusz Kosciuszko "as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known". Kosciuszko was born in what is today Belarus, trained as an engineer in Poland and...

The census: A snapshot of life from 2021-04-29T06:06

Anyone who has ever researched their family tree will have most likely come across the census, the process by which every citizen or subject of a country is counted and classified. Data collected ...

Unravelling the history of knitting from 2021-04-22T09:00

Like many traditional domestic crafts, knitting has experienced a huge surge in popularity in the 21st century, making it fashionable and even radical. But the history of hand knitting is still rel...

One Hundred Years of Solitude: The story of Latin America from 2021-04-15T06:06

Considered to be one of literature’s supreme achievements, One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez is reported to be the most popular work of Spanish-language...

Rabindranath Tagore: The Bard of Bengal from 2021-04-08T06:06

So prodigious was the polymath Rabindranath Tagore, there’s a saying in Bengal that one lifetime is not enough to consume all of his work. Poet, playwright, thinker, activist, educator, social refo...

Pauline Viardot: 19th-Century diva from 2021-04-01T09:00

While the name of Pauline Viardot may be unfamiliar to many, in her lifetime she was one of the most celebrated performers in Europe. Her interpretation of Orpheus in a revival of Gluck’s opera mad...

Adventures with dentures: The story of dentistry from 2021-03-18T10:00

Until the eighteenth century there were no professional dentists. The only way to deal with a serious case of toothache was to call on the services of blacksmiths, travelling showmen or so-called b...

BR Ambedkar: The Dalit hero of India from 2021-03-11T07:06

Educate, Agitate, Organise. This was the motto of the Indian scholar BR Ambedkar who led an extraordinary life of activism and achievement. It put him in conflict with many other political forces i...

Making waves: the history of swimming from 2021-03-04T07:06

Common to many cultures across the world, swimming appears on the surface to be a benign leisure activity. But in fact it has much to tell us about such things as the development of societies, our ...

Abraham Maslow’s psychology of human needs from 2021-02-25T07:06

Many students of psychology, business, nursing and other disciplines are taught about "Maslow's pyramid of human needs", a diagram that shows a progression from our basic needs, such as food and sh...

The Kalevala: the Finnish epic that inspired a nation from 2021-02-18T07:06

When the Kalevala was published in 1835, Finland had a distinct cultural and linguistic identity but it had always been part of either the Swedish or the Russian empire. Neither did Finland have mu...

Sister Juana, a great mind of Mexico from 2021-02-11T07:06

Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz is celebrated today as one of the finest poets in the history of Mexico. She was not just a creative and intellectual force but also a campaigner for women’s education ...

Mermaids: Tales from the deep from 2021-02-04T10:00

We delve into the watery depths of sea creature folklore, with a round-the-world tour of different variations on the concept of mermaids – from the Sirens of Greek mythology to the Selkies or Seal ...

Eleusinian Mysteries: Secret ceremonies promising happiness from 2021-01-28T07:06

In ancient Greece, thousands of people flocked each year to join the religious rites known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. Based on the cult of the goddess of fertility Demeter and her daughter Persep...

Toussaint L’Ouverture: Hero of the Haitian slave rebellion from 2021-01-21T04:00

Late 18th-Century Saint Domingue in the Caribbean – now known as Haiti – was one of the richest countries in the world. Known as ‘the pearl of the Antilles’, its wealth was built almost entirely on...

Olympe de Gouges: France’s forgotten revolutionary heroine from 2021-01-14T10:00

She fought to give women the right to divorce and campaigned on behalf of children born out of wedlock. But in late 18th century France, her radical thinking proved too much for her contemporaries ...

Alexandre Yersin and the race to fight the plague from 2021-01-07T07:06

When Alexandre Yersin discovered one of the most lethal bacteria in human history, the tiny bacillus of the plague that over the centuries had killed tens of millions of people, he earned his place...

Famous hats in history from 2020-12-31T07:06

There have been so many, probably hundreds, different styles and types of hat in history that a question inevitably arises: why? Why did something that began as a simple protection against inclemen...

Mugham: the sound of Azerbaijan from 2020-12-24T07:06

Azerbaijan’s strategic location along the old Silk Road and its wealth of natural resources has made it a prime target for warring empires over centuries. The conquests and the invasions by Turkic ...

The Kingdom of Aksum: Africa's trading empire from 2020-12-17T10:00

At its height, the Aksumite Empire extended across the northern Ethiopian and Eritrean highlands, and even included parts of Sudan, Somalia and modern-day Yemen. From the first century BC to the se...

Umm Kulthum: Egypt’s singing superstar from 2020-12-10T12:25

Umm Kulthum’s powerful voice and talent for communicating poetry was spotted early, when she accompanied her family to perform at weddings and special occasions. It wasn’t long before she was perfo...

Alexandre Dumas: The man behind the Musketeers from 2020-12-03T07:06

The word 'swashbuckling' is often used to describe the novels of Alexandre Dumas the Elder, the creator of D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo and the Man in the Iron Mas...

Unlocking the mysteries of cuneiform tablets from 2020-11-26T10:00

Cuneiform is an ancient writing system distinguished by wedge-shaped marks made into clay. It developed over 5,000 years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia. At its height it was used to write languages acr...

First impressions: The printing press from 2020-11-19T07:06

When the fifteenth century German entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg pioneered the printing press, he made an indelible mark on the history of communication. Here was a way to print pages in high qual...

The woman whose cells changed medical history from 2020-11-12T10:00

The story of a young mother who unwittingly left behind a vast medical legacy. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in Baltimore in 1951 and though she never gave consent to her tissue being used for res...

Comenius, a pioneer of lifelong learning from 2020-11-05T07:06

Teaching not by rote but through play? That's credited to the 17th-century Czech pastor and thinker called Jan Amos Comenius. Splitting schoolchildren up into year groups? That's Comenius. Universa...

Dido of Carthage: A love story gone wrong from 2020-10-29T07:06

A Phoenician princess, who fled into exile to escape the cruel king of Tyre, sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa, where she founded the great city of Carthage in the ninth century B...

Paul Robeson: Singer, actor and civil rights activist from 2020-10-22T06:06

The multi-talented Paul Robeson could have turned his hand to pretty much anything he set his mind to: lawyer, athlete and linguist were just some of the career paths he could have taken. But he ch...

Writer Jorge Luis Borges: Mixing the magical with the mundane from 2020-10-08T06:06

‘We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.' A typically paradoxical quote from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges whose works have become classics and an i...

Elizabeth Fry: 'The angel of prisons' from 2020-10-01T08:00

Life behind bars in English prisons in the early nineteenth century was, to put it mildly, grim. Prisons at the time were often damp, dirty and over-crowded. Common punishments included shipping co...

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre from 2020-09-24T11:40

Greenwood was an African American success story: a thriving, wealthy district of Tulsa. Over the course of two days at the end of May 1921 it was the scene of looting, rioting and murder. After 18 ...

Queen Tamar: The myth of a perfect ruler from 2020-09-17T06:06

Queen Tamar was one of Georgia’s most iconic and colourful rulers, a powerful medieval sovereign who controlled large parts of the Caucasus and the eastern side of the Black Sea and forged strong c...

Who were the Huguenots? from 2020-09-10T08:06

The Huguenots gave the word 'refugee' to the English language - they were French protestants escaping religious persecution, who fled from France to neighbouring states between the 16th and 18th ce...

Smallpox: The defeat of the speckled monster from 2020-09-03T06:06

As scientists around the world look for ways to combat COVID-19, the only human disease ever to be eradicated by vaccination could provide us with some insights. Since 1979 the world has been free...

Lal Ded, mystical Kashmiri poet from 2020-08-27T06:06

There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the poems attributed to the female Kashmiri poet, mystic and sage known as Lal Ded or Lalla. There are no records of her life but what is beyond doubt i...

Ray Bradbury, a master of science fiction from 2020-08-13T06:06

”People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it.” Ray Bradbury has been acclaimed as the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mai...

The Fall of the Roman Empire from 2020-08-06T06:06

In 476, the last of the Roman emperors in the West was deposed; in 1776, historian Edward Gibbon wrote “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, and Rome’s fate became a major poin...

Picasso, artist of reinvention from 2020-07-30T06:06

Pablo Picasso is commonly regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, changing our way of seeing with his radical innovation and revolutionary approach. As pioneer of Cubis...

Tolstoy: War and Peace from 2020-07-23T06:06

'War and Peace' by the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy charts the story of Russia during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, covering the pandemonium and brutality of the battlefield, as we...

Chaucer, father of English poetry from 2020-07-16T06:06

Geoffrey Chaucer has been called the father of English poetry and the greatest poet in English before Shakespeare. He is best known for The Canterbury Tales, stories told by a band of pilgrims on t...

Valkyries: Fierce women of war from 2020-07-02T06:06

In Norse mythology, Valkyries were women who went out into battles to choose the slain warriors who deserved to be in Valhalla, Odin’s place in Asgard, to carry on fighting in preparation for the f...

Silk routes: 2000 years of trading from 2020-06-25T06:06

China, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Uzbekistan and India: if you went to any of these places a thousand years ago, you would find goods and produce from the others. But how did they get there and why?...

Bertha von Suttner: A champion of peace from 2020-06-18T06:06

Bertha von Suttner’s path to becoming a leading 19th-century pacifist and the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize was far from straightforward. The product of the aristocratic and militaristic...

Babylon, city of wonders from 2020-06-04T06:06

With its Hanging Gardens and huge walls, Babylon was celebrated as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world; to the Israelites enslaved there under Nebuchadnezzar, it was a lasting emblem of o...

Aesop and the Fables from 2020-05-28T06:06

Aesop, with his tales of tortoises and hares, foxes and grapes, and wolves in sheep's clothing has been a part of world literature for over two thousand years. Since the time of the Ancient Greeks ...

The California Gold Rush from 2020-05-14T06:06

From 1849, hundreds of thousands of prospectors from across the USA headed for California in the hope of finding gold. Some made great fortunes, and there was a new Californian dream for these 49er...

The 1918 Spanish Flu: The mother of all pandemics from 2020-04-30T06:06

A century ago a deadly flu virus swept the planet, uniting the world in a disaster on a par with World War One.Over 50 million people died. Social distancing was put in place but drugs were ineffec...

Gerard Mercator: The man who revolutionised mapmaking from 2020-04-23T06:06

It’s the map of the world we all recognise today, but until Gerard Mercator came up with his elegant solution in 1569, the question of how to turn the earth’s three dimensional sphere into a flat i...

Gretta Cousins: champion of Irish and Indian women from 2020-04-16T06:06

How many people can lay claim to playing a key role in three different 20th century protest movements across the world, each of which largely succeeded in their aims? Margaret ‘Gretta’ Cousins, the...

Natsume Soseki: Japan’s great novelist from 2020-04-09T06:06

Natsume Soseki is one of the greatest writers in the history of Japan. The backdrop to his work is the disorientation and social anxiety of the early 20th Century as Japan undertook rapid moderniza...

In search of the good life: Epicurus and his philosophy from 2020-04-02T06:06

The popular view of an Epicurean is that of somebody who focuses on pleasure as our guiding principle, indulging in the finer things of life to achieve happiness. And yet what the Ancient Greek ph...

Artemisia Gentileschi: The painter who took on the men from 2020-03-26T09:06

One of the most celebrated female painters of the 17th century, Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence. Through her talent an...

Guide dogs for the blind: A history from 2020-03-19T07:06

We are now familiar with dogs helping people with sight loss but where did the idea come from? And how have the ways of selecting, training and using guide dogs changed over time? Bridget Kendall...

Oscar Niemeyer: Brazil's king of curves from 2020-03-12T07:06

Best known for his curvaceous buildings and his design of Brasilia, Oscar Niemeyer was one of Brazil’s greatest architects and a leading pioneer of modernism. During his seven- decade career, Nieme...

Haile Selassie: the last emperor of Ethiopia from 2020-03-05T07:06

Emperor Haile Selassie was the last in the line of Ethiopia’s ancient monarchy. During his long rule he was revered as an internationalstatesman and reformer, demonised as a dictator, and even wo...

Emilie du Chatelet: a free-spirited physicist from 2020-02-27T07:06

Emilie du Chatelet was esteemed in 18th-century France as a brilliant physicist, mathematician, thinker and linguist whose pioneering ideas and formidable translations were known all across Europe....

Man v mosquito from 2020-02-20T09:00

Mosquitos are a fast-adapting, elusive enemy which humans have been trying to combat for thousands of years. As vectors of dangerous diseases, these tiny insects have killed more people in human hi...

The magic of bronze from 2020-02-13T07:06

From Cellini's magnificent Perseus statue to the humblest of tools, people have been using bronze for at least five thousand years. So what makes bronze such a versatile material, how did we first ...

Li Bai: The revered Chinese poet from 2020-02-06T07:06

A nomadic wanderer and free-spirited romantic, Li Bai ??, also known as Li Po, lived some 1300 years ago and yet his poems are still cherished for their wild imagination and effortless artistry. Th...

Nefertiti: The beguiling Egyptian Queen from 2020-01-30T09:00

A mysterious Egyptian Queen who lived more than 3,000 years ago, Nefertiti still dazzles the modern imagination. Once the wife of a Pharaoh, she might have faded into obscurity, but for the 1912 di...

The amazing Dr Darwin from 2020-01-23T07:06

Erasmus Darwin was a man of many talents; not only was he a successful physician, a popular poet, an ardent abolitionist and a pioneering botanist, he also worked out how organisms evolve, some 70 ...

A history of honey from 2020-01-16T10:06

It takes twelve honey bees their entire lifetimes to make one spoonful of honey. From sweetening and preserving food, to treating wounds and sore throats, this sweet, viscous substance has played a...

Highlife: The sound of Ghana from 2020-01-09T07:06

The name Highlife is thought to have been coined in the early 20th Century when people on the streets outside clubs reserved for the Gold Coast elite observed the elegant clothes and dancing of the...

Yiddish: A story of survival from 2020-01-02T07:06

At its height, Yiddish, the language of the European Jews, was spoken by more than ten million people, from Russia in the east to the Netherlands in the West. But by the mid -20th century, these nu...

A history of the restaurant from 2019-12-26T07:06

The practice of having your food prepared by strangers in a public place goes back millennia but what makes a restaurant different from the many other dining options is that you can choose from a l...

Eleanor Roosevelt: Redefining the First Lady from 2019-12-19T09:00

A First Lady who broke the mould: Eleanor Roosevelt was not just a hostess at her husband’s side, but a spokeswoman for the disadvantaged, a journalist, and an early civil rights campaigner, who pl...

Ibn Khaldun: 14th Century sage from 2019-12-12T07:06

There were many sides to Ibn Khaldun - a top scholar, a scheming political mastermind, a peripatetic political guru to many a dynasty in North Africa, an inventor of a social science or two. He als...

Cyrano de Bergerac: Big-nosed hero from 2019-12-05T09:50

Although the name conjures up the image of a swashbuckling poet with an enormous nose, little is known about the life of the maverick 17th-century writer and philosopher Cyrano de Bergerac. Born fo...

The Scythians: Masters of the steppe from 2019-11-28T07:06

They were the ancient horse lords of the Eurasian steppe, nomadic warriors whose influence extended over thousands of kilometres from Mongolia to the Ukraine. The spectacular gold jewellery and mum...

The Russian civil war: How the Soviets rose to power from 2019-11-21T07:06

The Russian Civil war was a struggle for power at every level – from the villages to the imperial centre, with more than 11 foreign powers involved as well as nationalists, from Ukraine, Poland and...

Fridtjof Nansen: Norway's great explorer from 2019-11-14T07:06

Mention famous polar explorers to most people and they will probably come up with the names Scott and Amundsen. But really there should be another name before these, Fridtjof Nansen, a man who can ...

Rudolf Nureyev: Superstar Russian dancer from 2019-11-07T07:06

From the moment the seven-year-old Rudolf Nureyev saw a ballet on stage in his local theatre, he lived and breathed dance. That overwhelming desire to be on stage carried him throughout his life –...

John Harvey Kellogg: The ‘wellness’ pioneer from 2019-10-31T07:06

John Harvey Kellogg is best known, along with his brother, for changing the way the world ate breakfast. But cornflakes were actually a by-product of Dr Kellogg’s lifelong mission to improve the di...

Indigo: the bluest blue from 2019-10-24T06:06

Indigo: not only one of the seven colours of the rainbow and the dye that makes your jeans look like they do but and a highly valued pigment which is naturally found in some plants and whose use ca...

The Cat: In from the wild from 2019-10-17T06:06

Domesticated cats are thought to have started living alongside humans more than 9000 years ago. Unlike dogs, it's believed cats domesticated themselves, entering the homes of early arable farmers i...

Manuela Sáenz: South America’s revolutionary heroine from 2019-10-10T06:06

Manuela Sáenz was an Ecuadorian revolutionary who for many years was most famous for her role as the lover of Simón Bolívar - the Venezuelan military leader who secured independence from Spain for ...

Electric telegraph: the first worldwide web from 2019-10-03T06:06

The invention of the electric telegraph in the mid-19th century brought about a revolution in human communication that some argue rivals the printing press and the internet. Suddenly the ‘tyranny o...

The history of opium from 2019-09-26T08:45

Made from the simple juice of the poppy, opium is arguably the oldest and most widely used drug in the world. Since prehistoric times it has been used to relieve physical pain and quieten troubled ...

Albert Camus: Embracing life’s absurdity from 2019-09-19T06:06

‘There is no sun without shadows, and it is essential to know the night,’ the words of Albert Camus, a writer whose exploration of the absurd nature of the human condition made him a literary and i...

Fernando Pessoa: The man who multiplied himself from 2019-09-05T08:30

Fernando Pessoa is Portugal’s national poet and a giant of 20th Century literature but he’s also a writer who multiplied himself, who wrote under dozens of alter egos, ranging from an engineer trai...

Einstein: Revolution in time and space from 2019-08-29T08:30

Albert Einstein’s inability to get a job on graduating has given hope to generations of students. Knowing what we know now about the genius scientist, it’s hard to avoid smiling on reading his fat...

Imhotep: The man behind The Mummy from 2019-08-22T08:30

Fans of Hollywood cinema may recognise the name Imhotep from the original The Mummy film from 1932, and its various remakes. In the movie, Imhotep (played by Boris Karloff) is an Ancient Egyptian h...

Andy Warhol: The prince of Pop Art from 2019-08-15T08:06

"In the future everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes” is probably the best known quote attributed to Andy Warhol. Warhol was an American artist who became a superstar in the visual art...

Coco Chanel: French style icon from 2019-08-08T08:06

“I didn’t like my life, so I created my life,” the French fashion designer, Coco Chanel declared. And what a life it was: from her humble beginnings in an orphanage, Chanel blazed a trail as a fie...

Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell's dystopian classic from 2019-08-01T08:06

The vision of the future evoked in George Orwell’s last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was so terrifying to its first readers that some claimed to be unable to sleep at night. When the book was adapte...

The Spartans: Ancient Greece’s fighting machine from 2019-07-25T08:06

For over two and a half thousand years the Ancient Greek Spartans have been known for their military might, discipline and self-sacrifice. Recent popular culture has portrayed them as the ultimate ...

Leeuwenhoek: The fabric seller who discovered bacteria from 2019-07-18T06:06

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek opened up a whole new world to us; he was the first to observe bacteria and other microscopic lifeforms which could not be seen by the naked eye. He is now regarded as the f...

Kafka's The Metamorphosis: A man turns into a monstrous bug from 2019-07-11T08:06

A man wakes up in the body of a verminous insect – this is the plot of one of the most celebrated short stories of all time – Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella The Metamorphosis. Dealing with the isolatio...

Hugh Masekela: The iconic South African musician from 2019-07-04T08:06

The story of Hugh Masekela’s life is intertwined with the history of South Africa itself. Born into a relatively privileged family in a mining town east of Johannesburg, Masekela was aware from an...

James Watt: The power of steam from 2019-06-27T06:06

In this 200th year since his death, we look at the life and work of James Watt, the Scottish innovator whose ground-breaking ideas helped power the Industrial Revolution and lay the basis for much ...

The Bhagavad Gita: A guide to spiritual wisdom from 2019-06-20T08:06

The Bhagavad Gita didn't start life as an exclusively religious text but over the two thousand years since it was composed the verses have taken on many different layers of meaning. For millions o...

Cnut: England's Viking king from 2019-06-13T08:06

King Cnut the Great started life as a young Viking warrior, but quickly became one of the most successful kings in Anglo-Saxon history, reigning over a huge empire covering England, Denmark and Nor...

How Afghanistan won its freedom from Britain from 2019-06-06T06:06

The months between May and August 1919 were a crucial time for Afghanistan: it was the period of the Third Anglo-Afghan War followed by the declaration of Afghan independence from Britain. So how ...

Rasputin: The Siberian mystic who charmed the Tsar from 2019-05-30T08:06

Rasputin’s story is a familiar one – an illiterate Siberian peasant who managed to secure the confidence of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, while indulging his legendary sexual appetite and lo...

The Moon from Earth from 2019-05-23T08:06

For as long as humans have gazed up at the moon it has been an object of fascination. From the Aztecs to the Romans to the Romantics, the moon has inspired everything from artistic outpourings to r...

Pearls: Treasures of the sea from 2019-05-16T08:06

Pearls are the most chameleon-like of jewels: they can sell for millions or for just a few dollars, they have been used to symbolize both chastity and debauchery, they have been conspicuously worn ...

Thoreau: the writer who went to the woods from 2019-05-09T08:06

Rajan Datar and guests explore the life and legacy of the American thinker Henry David Thoreau and his famous work 'Walden', which describes the young writer's experiment in living simply at Walden...

Fado: Portuguese soul music from 2019-05-02T08:06

In its 200-year lifetime the Portuguese song known as fado has been intertwined with the country's politics. At first it was an expression of the woes of Lisbon's underclass, which perhaps explain...

Queen Njinga of Angola: Fearless fighter from 2019-04-25T06:06

The 17th Century Queen Njinga was among the most successful of Africa's rulers in resisting European colonialism: she defied no fewer than 13 different Portuguese governors of modern-day Angola and...

Inside the mind of Leonardo da Vinci from 2019-04-18T08:06

Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his paintings - creating masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. But through his notes and drawings we know him also to have been a sculptor, mathem...

Chess: a chequered history from 2019-04-11T08:06

It’s been called the 'gymnasium of the mind', both mental exercise and a way to build self-esteem. Born some 1,500 years ago, the game of chess was one of the world’s first strategy board games, th...

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas from 2019-04-04T06:06

It is an all-time adventure classic, a novel by Jules Verne that started life in serialized form 150 years ago and has gripped readers ever since, making it one of the most translated works in publ...

Napoleon: From empire to exile from 2019-03-28T09:06

The story of how an average-sized artillery officer from a small Mediterranean island came to dominate revolutionary France and become the international celebrity of his age is an extraordinary one...

The spice trade: Selling the scents of luxury from 2019-03-21T09:06

The trade in spices goes back to ancient times: from the Frankincense trails that originated in the Dhofar Highlands in present day Yemen to the Queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem with camel...

Moomin Creator Tove Jansson from 2019-03-14T09:06

Tove Jansson was a Finnish-Swedish author and illustrator best known for her children's books about the Moomins. These white, hippo-like characters live in the imaginary world of Moominvalley whe...

Anaesthesia: Unwrapping oblivion from 2019-03-07T09:06

Millions of us around the world have undergone an anaesthetic, putting our trust in specialists who keep us alive while surgeons carry out complex operations. Huge advances have been made in this ...

Calouste Gulbenkian: The architect of Middle East oil from 2019-03-01T00:06

Today, the Istanbul-born Armenian financier Calouste Gulbenkian is mostly remembered as a great art collector and philanthropist; at his death in 1955 he was thought of as the world's richest man. ...

Robinson Crusoe: The man and his island from 2019-02-21T09:06

The story of Robinson Crusoe and his many years of survival alone on a deserted island has enchanted the English-speaking world for centuries. Many people first come across the story as a children’...

Lu Xun: Writing the story of New China from 2019-02-14T07:06

Lu Xun has been often been called the father of modern Chinese literature. His short stories about the misery and cruelty of ordinary life in China have been interpreted both as revolutionary polit...

The talking drums of West Africa from 2019-02-07T09:06

The Talking Drum is one of the most sacred instruments of West Africa. Shaped like an hourglass, the drum has a unique melodic sound which means it can imitate the tones of language and in this way...

The Top of the World from 2019-01-31T09:06

The North Pole lies at the very top of our world. Covered in a thick layer of sea ice, this uninhabitable frozen point in the Arctic Sea has fascinated us for centuries as both a physical location ...

The Heel and the Sneaker from 2019-01-24T07:06

What’s in a shoe - apart from a foot? Shoes can be so much more than a protection and ‘dressing’ of our feet: from Egyptian pharaohs to European paupers, footwear has been linked not just with the ...

Goya: Seeking truth through art from 2019-01-17T09:06

The 18th Century Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes has been called the “most radical artist that ever lived”. He was not afraid to shock with his depictions of the darkest sides of ...

Antigone: A drama of defiance from 2019-01-10T09:06

The play Antigone by the Greek playwright Sophocles was written almost 2,500 years ago, but to this day it is believed to be the most performed play- anywhere in the world. It tells the story of An...

The Master and Margarita: Devilish satire from 2019-01-03T09:06

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which tells the fantastical story of a visit of the devil to the Soviet Union, is considered to be one of the most successful Russian novels of the 20t...

Fermentation: Ancient Food Alchemy from 2018-12-27T09:06

Whether it’s kimchi, kombucha, kefir or kraut, fermented foods are today all the rage. And yet people have been fermenting food and beverages for thousands of years – to preserve food stuffs, to b...

The Emergence of Modern Turkey from 2018-12-20T09:06

100 years ago, Turkish defeat in World War One signalled the end of the once great Ottoman Empire. What emerged was a European orientated secular republic led by a man who used social engineering t...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Revealing the Gulag from 2018-12-13T07:06

The Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a towering literary figure whose novels, chronicles and essays have lifted the lid on the horrors of the Soviet gulag network, which over several decad...

The Iranian Coup of 1953: Overthrow of a Prime Minister from 2018-12-06T09:06

In 1953 Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq was overthrown in a coup. It was billed as a popular uprising in support of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, yet behind the scenes ...

Diaghilev and the ballet revolution from 2018-11-29T09:06

The Russian dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev transformed not only ballet, but all the arts in the 20th century. His ground-breaking Ballets Russes burst onto the scene in Paris in 1909 and replace...

Charlie Chaplin from 2018-11-22T07:06

For many people, Charlie Chaplin and the Tramp, a character he created at the start of his film career, are synonymous. This funny little man with a black moustache and a waddling gait, dressed in ...

Coal: a Burning Legacy from 2018-11-15T09:06

Coal is a commodity that’s often been considered dirty, old fashioned and cheap, a humble black stone that evokes images of soot covered workers. And yet this lump of energy became the essential fu...

Lifting the lid: The history of the toilet from 2018-11-08T09:06

Toilets come in many shapes and sizes around the world: squat and throne, dry and flush, indoor and outdoor. Most of us use one every day, but over two billion people still do not have access to f...

Calm in the chaos: The story of the Stoics from 2018-11-01T07:06

Stoicism is a school of thought over two thousand years old that asked how to live "a good life" in an unpredictable world, and how to make the best of what is in our power, while accepting the res...

Cambodia's ancient Khmer Empire from 2018-10-27T14:06

Around the twelfth and thirteenth century CE Angkor was thought to be one of the world's biggest cities. Its massive temple complex at Angkor Wat covered hundreds of acres adorned with majestic tow...

Who was the real Cleopatra? from 2018-10-20T19:06

The myths that have grown up around Cleopatra since her eventful reign in the first century BCE are so vivid and alluring that they seem to have taken on a life of their own. The Egyptian queen has...

Karl Kraus: Austria’s fearless satirist from 2018-10-13T14:06

The Austrian satirical writer Karl Kraus used his forensic pen to expose the Hapsburg Empire and 20th century Vienna for its dishonesty and decay. He was the master of the punchy one liner, as well...

Cool: Sunglasses, style and American counter-culture from 2018-10-06T19:06

We probably know ‘cool’ when we see it, but what lies behind it and where did it originate? Most scholars agree that cool is a mode of being, an attitude or aesthetic. Some argue it arose out of...

Frida Kahlo: A life in colour from 2018-09-29T14:06

Frida Kahlo, the iconic and flamboyant Mexican painter, is one of the most famous female artists of our age. Her rebellious and subversive works are instantly recognisable. Many are self-portraits ...

The Jet Engine from 2018-09-22T19:06

Quentin Cooper and guests follow the twists and turns of jet engine development: from its 1930s origins and the often highly dangerous early fighters in World War 2, through Korea, Vietnam and the ...

Edgar Allan Poe: Master of horror from 2018-09-15T19:06

Edgar Allan Poe is a 19th century American writer whose spine-chilling gothic tales have inspired generations of horror and mystery fiction writers. His poem ‘The Raven’, and short stories such as ...

The Making of Modern Japan from 2018-09-08T19:06

In the mid-19th century Japan transformed itself from feudal state to economic powerhouse at breakneck speed. Taking their cue from Western imperial powers, the rebel samurai who seized power in 1...

The American author James Baldwin from 2018-09-01T19:06

Born in 1924, the prolific writer and thinker James Baldwin is a landmark figure in twentieth century American culture. The author of popular novels such as Go Tell It on the Mountain and bold essa...

The Acropolis: Cradle of democracy from 2018-08-25T19:06

The Acropolis of Athens, with its crowning glory the Parthenon and its massive marble pillars, is one of the most recognisable sites in the world. In the 5th and 6th century BCE, it was where the...

Friedrich Engels: The Man Behind Karl Marx from 2018-08-18T14:06

A champagne-loving industrialist who enjoyed hunting, a literary critic and an upstanding Victorian gentleman: this does not sound like a description of your typical advocate of proletarian revolut...

Empress Nur Jahan: Leader of the Mughals from 2018-08-11T19:06

Empress Nur Jahan was the most powerful woman in 17th century India, wielding an unparalleled control over the Mughal Empire. Born as Mehr-un-Nissa, she came from a wealthy Iranian family who came ...

Waiting for Godot: The play that changed the rules of theatre from 2018-08-04T19:06

Waiting for Godot is a play by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett that revolutionised 20th century theatre when it was first performed more than 60 years ago. Often referred to as a play in which noth...

Christina of Sweden: Queen of surprises from 2018-07-28T14:06

An accomplished young horsewoman who loved fencing and male attire, the 17th-century Swedish Queen Christina was anything but a conventional princess. And she kept springing surprises on her court ...

Vincent van Gogh: The struggling artist from 2018-07-21T19:06

The Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh is one of the most influential painters in western art. His series of still life sunflowers are known around the world today, but during his li...

Mark Twain: The 'father of American literature' from 2018-07-14T19:06

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was known for his piercing wit, irreverent satire and social commentary. Leaving school early following the death of his father, he lived many lives in on...

Pioneers of surgical hygiene from 2018-07-07T19:06

The Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis, born 200 years ago this month, saved the lives of hundreds, possibly thousands, of new mothers with his forward-looking ideas about hospital hygiene. H...

The invention of numbers from 2018-06-30T19:06

Try and imagine a world without numbers. Telling people how many siblings you have, counting your wages or organising to meet a friend at a certain time would all be much more difficult. If you’re ...

The life and works of William Blake from 2018-06-23T19:06

William Blake is now one of England’s best-loved poets and artists, associated with the well-known poem “The Tyger” and the hymn “Jerusalem”, regularly coined England’s unofficial national anthem. ...

J. William Fulbright: Scholarships and Soft Power from 2018-06-16T19:06

In many countries, the word 'Fulbrighter' has become almost synonymous with US-sponsored scholarships. But what about the man whose idea it was to set up this international scholar exchange program...

The tales of Timbuktu from 2018-06-09T19:06

The fabled city of Timbuktu is a curiosity. To 16th century Muslim scholars, it was the cosmopolitan hub of Islamic learning in West Africa; to European explorers 300 years later, it was a place of...

The piano: Hitting the right keys from 2018-06-02T19:06

What’s the secret to the 300 year-old success of the piano, an instrument that was hardly a huge hit when it was invented around the turn of the 18th century? Perhaps it’s the ability of the instr...

Simone de Beauvoir: Feminist thinker for modern times from 2018-05-26T19:06

Simone de Beauvoir was a French philosopher and writer whose work exploring what it is to be a woman shaped feminist thinking today. A pioneering intellectual, she used her existential ideas around...

Catherine the Great of Russia from 2018-05-19T19:06

Famous for her lovers and satirised for her colourful personal life, Catherine the Great was in many ways one of Russia’s most progressive and moderate rulers, modernising 18th century Russia, impr...

Material World: Making the Modern Factory from 2018-05-12T19:06

Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the key components of the global story of the factory, tracing its development from eighteenth century Britain to twenty-first century China and beyond. Exploring...

Machu Picchu: The secrets of a forgotten city from 2018-05-05T19:06

The ancient Inca town Machu Picchu is now the most visited tourist attraction in Peru - and yet it lay nearly forgotten for over three centuries until American and Peruvian explorers drew the world...

Plastic: How it Changed the World from 2018-04-28T19:06

The birth of modern plastic began in 1907 with the invention of Bakelite, one of the first plastics to be made from entirely synthetic components. But plastic in a particular form was being used m...

Sugar: A Sweet Menace from 2018-04-21T19:06

Rarely has one foodstuff had such global influence as Sugar – on our trade and economy, movement of people around the world, and health and treatment of fellow humans. Once a costly luxury called “...

What is Zoroastrianism? from 2018-04-14T19:06

It is a religion that has lasted three millennia, claims to be the world's first monotheistic creed and to have influenced major faiths such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, inspired artists fro...

Votes for Women: the Global Story from 2018-04-10T11:54

It was exactly a hundred years ago that women in the UK won the right to vote: though at first it was only for property owning women over thirty. But Britain wasn’t the trail blazer. Seven countrie...

From Straw Poll to Opinion Poll from 2018-03-30T19:06

Today, we can’t imagine an election without an opinion poll gauging public opinion on who’s leading, who’s won a debate or who’s more popular with a specific group of voters. Even our favourite cho...

Lawrence of Arabia from 2018-03-24T20:06

T.E Lawrence was a British scholar and adventurer whose involvement with the Arab Revolt during the World War One inspired one of the most celebrated films in cinema history. So how did a man who w...

Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion revolutionary from 2018-03-17T21:00

In the ten years since his death, the impact of designer Yves Saint Laurent on women’s fashion remains undimmed. The pea coat, the trench, the trouser suit – many of his designs are now staples of...

Herman Melville: Moby Dick from 2018-03-10T20:06

Moby Dick is the story of a crazed and vengeful sailor, Captain Ahab, hunting a giant whale that bit off his leg. It's a large and challenging book and its author, Herman Melville died without know...

The original Goths from 2018-03-03T20:06

The Goths were a Germanic tribe infamous for their brief sack of Rome in 410 AD, but their cultural and political influence was felt throughout Europe for centuries. They re-shaped the Balkans, pre...

Dante’s Inferno: The poetry of Hell from 2018-02-24T20:06

Inferno is the 14th century epic that tells the story of Dante Alighieri’s imaginary journey through the underworld. It is the first part of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and is widely considered to b...

Magellan: First Man Round the Globe? from 2018-02-17T20:06

Portuguese sailor and explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find a route to the riches of the spice islands, north east of present day Indonesia. Through a series of adventures and ...

The Little Prince: Lessons from an aviator’s life from 2018-02-10T20:06

‘It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’ Words of advice from a wily desert fox to a little boy who fell to Earth from an asteroid. That quo...

Chinua Achebe: Rewriting the African story from 2018-02-03T20:06

The Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is regarded as a giant of world literature. Best known as the author of the ground-breaking novel Things Fall Apart, he was also acclaimed for his works of non-fic...

Boudica: Warrior queen from 2018-01-29T13:58

Boudica, also known as Boadicea, was a member of Iron Age aristocracy in Roman-occupied England, and her husband was the ruler of the Iceni people. When he died in around 60AD, Boudica, driven by R...

The alphabet of chemistry from 2018-01-20T15:06

The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev attempted nothing less than to pull apart the fabric of reality and expose the hidden patterns that lie beneath everything in existence, from shoes and ships an...

Kubla Khan: A vision in a dream from 2018-01-13T20:06

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree … “ - Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is one of the most famous poems in the English Language. But it is also one of the strangest. It...

The story of Evita from 2018-01-06T20:06

Eva Peron rose from a childhood of poverty to become one of the most powerful figures in Latin America. An illegitimate small town girl, she smashed class and gender barriers to become Argentina’s ...

Flamenco: Darkness and light from 2017-12-30T20:06

Flamenco is easily recognised across the world thanks to certain stereotypes, namely spotty dresses, shirt-tearing and lots of foot stamping. The reality however is far more nuanced, and this ex...

Sankara: Africa’s Revolutionary President from 2017-12-23T20:00

Thomas Sankara is the revolutionary who became the first president of Burkina Faso in West Africa, and gave the country its name, meaning 'the land of upright people'. In his short time as leader ...

Cotton: a Yarn with a Twist from 2017-12-16T20:06

It is a fibre and a fabric that is part of many people's daily lives, it grows wild on at least three continents, it has been woven into cloth and traded all over the world for thousands of years. ...

Life Support: The Story of the Red Cross from 2017-12-11T09:00

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was formed in 1863 and its objectives have been to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict ever since. It's a story abo...

Stanislavsky: Founder of modern acting from 2017-12-02T20:06

It was at the Moscow Art Theatre from the 1890’s onwards that Stanislavsky developed an innovative acting system that demanded actors really inhabit the role they are playing. This then inspired Me...

Nikola Tesla’s electric dreams from 2017-11-25T15:40

The extraordinary life and prophetic inventions of the Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla. Bridget Kendall and guests discuss not just Tesla's key contributions to the design of modern electric...

Adam Smith: Father of Capitalism from 2017-11-20T09:00

Adam Smith, a moral philosopher and economist, was born in Scotland, the son of a customs officer. In 1776 he published a book called 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...

The First Skyscrapers from 2017-11-13T09:00

From Chicago to Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur to Dubai, the towering modern skyscraper has become a global icon. Touching the clouds worldwide and shaping our cities’ skylines, these bold structures have ...

Rain or shine? A short history of the weather forecast from 2017-11-06T08:01

How did we get from not having any reliable way of predicting the weather just 150 years ago, to today's accurate, tailor-made forecasts for places as small as a village? Bridget Kendall and guests...

The Reformation: A World Divided from 2017-10-30T09:00

Five-hundred years ago, in a remote part of Germany, a little known friar called Martin Luther set in train a series of events that led to the permanent splintering of Western Christianity. It chan...

Detroit: Migration Motors&Music from 2017-10-21T19:06

Bridget Kendall and guests examine the story of Detroit. Founded in 1701 by a French man named Cadillac, this American city became famous in the twentieth century for its automobile industry, the m...

The Real Pirates of the Caribbean from 2017-10-14T19:15

They are familiar figures in folklore and popular culture, swashbuckling across the silver screen, snarling on stage as pantomime villains or committing daring deeds in childhood literary classics....

Rumi: Sufi poet of love from 2017-10-09T08:00

From East to West, Rumi is one of the most universally respected poets of all time. A 13th Century Islamic scholar, his encounter with a wandering dervish transformed him into a globally celebrated...

The story of the guitar from 2017-10-02T12:45

Bridget Kendall and guests explore the history of the guitar which stretches back over several thousand years. From early instruments made of tortoise shells the guitar emerged as one of the great ...

The rise and fall of Julius Caesar from 2017-09-25T08:00

Bridget Kendall and guests examine the rise and fall of Julius Caesar, the Roman politician and general, who conquered vast areas of Europe, defied his political peers, and acquired great levels of...

Bram Stoker's Dracula from 2017-09-19T12:51

Few novels have had such a huge impact on modern popular culture as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story and its terrifying main character have fascinated readers, critics, writers and film-makers eve...

Secrets of the Great Pyramid from 2017-09-11T08:01

The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is one of the greatest wonders of the ancient World. It is the largest pyramid ever built and even today, with advanced satellite and thermal imaging and other hi...

The first heart transplant from 2017-08-28T08:00

The race to carry out the first human heart transplant 50 years ago was as dramatic as the race between the Americans and the Soviets to the moon. Four surgeons were days away from completing the o...

Making Scents: The Story of Perfume from 2017-08-14T08:00

Throughout history, fragrance has been used to scent both the body and our surroundings. With just one drop, perfume has the potential to stir memories, awaken the senses and even influence how we ...

Total eclipse of the Sun from 2017-08-07T08:00

A total eclipse of the Sun is a spectacular cosmic event that can even be life changing. The 21st August 2017 sees one of the most accessible eclipses for years, an all-American eclipse crossing th...

The One Thousand and One Nights from 2017-07-31T08:00

The One Thousand and One Nights are a collection of fantastical stories of flying carpets, magic and genies whose ancient origins go back to the 7th century or earlier. The tales are told by Scheh...

Joan of Arc: Making a martyr from 2017-07-24T08:00

Born six centuries ago, Joan of Arc is regarded as a French national heroine: a peasant girl who, inspired by saintly visions, battled to break the Siege of Orléans and see Charles VII finally crow...

Up close with tango from 2017-07-15T19:50

Tango is easy to recognise: those daring steps, the tight hold of the dancing partners, the intense yet melancholy music dominated by the plaintive sounds of the bandoneon. But if you ask what ex...

Carl Linnaeus: Naming nature from 2017-07-10T08:10

Carl Linnaeus, today a largely unknown figure, is one of the giants of natural science. He devised the formal two-part naming system we use to classify all life forms. With Quentin Cooper is botan...

Silk Routes: Two Thousand Years of Trading from 2017-07-01T14:06

China, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Uzbekistan and India: if you went to any of these places a thousand years ago, you would find goods and produce from the others. But how did they get there and why?...

Indian Princely States from 2017-06-27T12:22

At the time of the Partition of India 70 years ago this year, there were more than 500 Princely States. These were states nominally ruled by Indian Princes but ultimately under the control of the B...

The Creation of Modern Canada from 2017-06-19T08:00

150 years ago three British North American colonies came together to form what was to become the world’s second largest country. To explain how this union came about and who the key players were, ...

Childhood: From Toddlers to Teenagers from 2017-06-12T07:01

Why do humans have such a long period of immaturity? And how have our ideas about childhood changed through the ages and across the world? Bridget Kendall explores some of the key moments and figu...

Arthur Conan Doyle: The man behind Sherlock Holmes from 2017-06-05T08:00

Since appearing in print in the late nineteenth century, Sherlock Holmes has become one of the world’s most famous detectives, known for solving crime and mystery in London and beyond. But who was ...

Telling the time: From sundials to satnav from 2017-05-30T14:30

Many of us can find the time of day quickly and accurately but where did the idea of time keeping originate and how did our ancestors manage without the instant access we take for granted today? F...

Taiwan: An Island History from 2017-05-15T08:00

Perhaps the island of Taiwan makes you think of those familiar "Made in Taiwan" labels on computer and electrical goods but it was nicknamed 'Ilha Formosa' or the 'beautiful island' by the Portugu...

Amelia Earhart: Trailblazer in the skies from 2017-05-08T07:01

This year is the 80th anniversary of the record-breaking attempt by the US aviator Amelia Earhart to circumnavigate the globe. It was a mission that cost her life, but helped to cement her place in...

How the metre changed the world from 2017-05-01T07:01

Nowdays, if you want to find out how long one metre is, you can use a tape measure or, if you are a scientist, you can calculate the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 seconds...

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland from 2017-04-24T08:01

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is said to be one of the most quoted books in the world. It has been translated into 174 languages, from Catalan to Zulu, and its fantastical creatures, nonsense wo...

The Belle Epoque: A Golden Age? from 2017-04-17T08:00

The Moulin Rouge in Paris is the risqué cabaret venue that encapsulates for many the 'Belle Epoque', a period of French and especially Parisian history around the turn of the 19th Century, where pe...

Machiavelli - Master of Power from 2017-04-10T08:01

Over five hundred years ago, dismissed diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli produced his most famous work, ‘The Prince’. Written on the fringes of the Italian city of Florence, the book has long been read ...

The KGB: Secrets and Spies from 2017-03-27T08:00

2017 is the centenary of the Cheka – the Bolshevik secret police organisation from which the KGB eventually emerged in 1954. The KGB was not just an intelligence agency like its adversaries in the ...

Marie Curie: A pioneering life from 2017-03-13T09:00

The Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, and the first person to be awarded twice in two different fields. Her discoveries in the field of radioact...

Beethoven: The genius rule breaker from 2017-03-06T14:19

Beethoven revolutionised music - how we listen to it and how we play it. Bridget Kendall explores Beethoven’s universal appeal and the anguished genius himself with Emeritus Professor of music and...

Yellow fever: Man against mosquito from 2017-02-27T08:01

Outbreaks of yellow fever, such as the notorious 1878 'American plague' which swept through Memphis, Tennessee, used to kill thousands in a matter of weeks. So why was it so devastating? How did w...

The real story of Frankenstein from 2017-02-20T09:00

In the nearly 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the story has taken on a life of its own. But the original tale is much more psychologically complex than the horror film versions sug...

The birth of hip hop from 2017-02-13T08:01

The story of early hip hop, from 1970s 'block parties' in the South Bronx to the next decade when some musicians used rap for harsh social critique while others looked to it for big commercial succ...

Seven Samurai: A Japanese masterpiece from 2017-02-04T09:00

The 1954 Japanese epic Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa has been described as one of the most influential films in the history of cinema. Set in 16th century rural Japan it tells the story of a smal...

Goethe: The story of colour from 2017-01-30T08:01

The German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe considered his monumental book known in English as The Theory of Colours to be his greatest achievement. The book is a record of hundreds of Goethe's ...

Mata Hari: Dancer, lover, spy from 2017-01-23T09:00

It is 100 years since the exotic dancer and legendary ‘femme fatale’ Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad for passing secrets to the Germans during World War One. She was described at th...

The Silicon Chip: A Tech Revolution from 2017-01-16T09:00

It’s forty five years since the commercial introduction of the first microcomputer chip set which evolved into the modern microprocessor, changing computers from tools for scientists into the engin...

The Powers of the American President from 2017-01-09T08:01

What powers does the American President have, and how have these changed over the years to reflect the demands of the modern world?

Fela Kuti: King of Afrobeat from 2017-01-02T08:01

Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti was a maverick performer, a musical pioneer, and is a continuing inspiration across the world. But he was also a thorn in the side of the Nigeria’s successive m...

Cali-topia: a New Vision of Thomas More's Utopia? from 2016-12-26T08:01

Is Thomas More's vision of an ideal society becoming reality in modern-day California? The Forum travels to Singularity University at the heart of Silicon Valley to ask why California keeps attract...

Utopia: Mr More’s Wondrous Islands from 2016-12-21T17:00

Thomas More’s Utopia, published 500 years ago this month, is full of radical ideas and has provided food for thought to generations of people trying to find new ways to organise society. On his fic...

Thomas More's Utopia from 2016-12-19T08:01

Five-hundred years ago, in what is now the Belgian city of Leuven, Thomas More published his vision for an ideal society which he called Utopia.To mark the anniversary, The Forum travels to Leuven ...

Winner or Cheat? Doping in Sport from 2016-12-12T08:01

A battle is raging over the future of sport. Advances in retrospective testing have seen champions stripped of their medals years after they stood on the podium. Allegations of state-sponsored dopi...

The Iliad: Beauty, brutes and battles from 2016-12-05T08:01

Nearly 3,000 years after it was written down, The Iliad is still one of the most influential and inspiring stories ever told. Homer’s epic poem is a tale of war, but puts human emotions centre-stag...

Korea: Two Countries, One Past from 2016-11-26T08:01

For over a thousand years the Korean Peninsula was one nation, with a unique identity and character. So what caused it to be divided into two countries that have become so radically different, cult...

Unpicking the UN from 2016-11-21T08:01

What is the United Nations for, what brought it about, and has it lived up to expectations? As a new Secretary-General takes over, Bridget Kendall and guests give all you need to know about the wo...

Drones and their Impact on the World from 2016-11-14T08:00

Drones have been hailed as the most important technological development in aviation since the invention of the jet engine. They have changed the nature of modern warfare and they are also catalysin...

DNA: The code for making life from 2016-11-07T08:01

Bridget Kendall and guests explore the current understanding of how DNA works, why it needs constant repair in every living organism and how new DNA-altering techniques can help cure some medical c...

The new curators: Who decides what’s culturally important? from 2016-11-01T11:00

Some of us live in an age of super abundance – more things are being made and more information and goods are offered online than ever before. Yet the internet also means that we no longer have to ...

Do we Need Artificial Intelligence? from 2016-10-24T07:01

Look out of the window and you won’t see many robots – but the AI revolution is here. The relentless encroachment of machine-thinking into every aspect of our lives is transforming the way we think...

Concrete: Foundation of the modern world from 2016-10-17T07:00

It has been around since before 6,000BC, the Ancient Egyptians used a version of it and so did the Romans. Nowadays it is the most common man-made building material in the world, used for some of t...

Why Are We Generous? from 2016-10-10T07:00

Generosity feels like a good idea - most of us enjoy being generous from time to time and having people be generous to us. But what drives our altruistic tendencies? From local volunteering to b...

Reducing Urban Poverty from 2016-10-03T07:01

With half the world’s population now living in just 1% of the land area, urban poverty is a growing problem. We head to a gathering of leading global thinkers at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio...

Using Other People’s Water from 2016-09-26T07:01

Bridget Kendal is joined by Professor in Water Management Arjen Hoekstra to discuss the idea that we urgently need to change industrial and agricultural practices to reduce our water footprint and ...

How Shyness and Introversion can be a Strength from 2016-09-19T07:01

Shyness and introversion are both very common human characteristics, but why do they have so many different guises? Rajan Datar asks the developmental psychologist Louis Schmidt, the behavioural sc...

Turmoil Around the World and in Ourselves from 2016-09-12T07:00

Turmoil is all around us – in politics, in our mental health and in fantasy fiction, which often seems to excite our hunger for nightmare scenarios. With threats of terrorism, environmental cata...

Underground: How Deep Can Life Survive? from 2016-09-05T07:01

This week, The Forum delves into the subterranean world of life underground – from the forgotten tunnels and catacombs of our cities to life found in the stifling sunless world two miles below the ...

Fire: How Climate Change is Altering our Attitudes to Wildfires from 2016-08-29T07:01

As fire risks change due to climate change, how should we deal with fire to protect human health and property without compromising the integrity of our environment? Bridget Kendall asks the geologi...

What is the Best Way to Deal with Anxiety? from 2016-08-22T07:01

Anxiety is a universal human emotion that has been described as the price-tag on freedom. It is the price we pay for a brain that can anticipate the future. But when anxiety spirals out of control ...

Image overload: Coping with the modern world's visual clutter from 2016-08-15T07:01

Our lives are increasingly cluttered by images, not just in the world around us, but on advertising bill-boards, television screens, and even on our mobile phones. So how are we to process this ba...

Balloons and How they Changed the World from 2016-08-08T07:01

A small toy balloon floating free into the sky. A giant hot air balloon filled with passengers peering down at the ground. Classic images, but what about the huge balloons now being developed to h...

Sharing and Why it is Essential for the Human Race from 2016-08-01T07:01

Everyone likes to be alone sometimes, but we also all spend much of our lives collaborating and sharing things with others. Many argue that on this increasingly crowded planet, we need to master th...

The Unpredictable Planet: Understanding Volcanoes and Earthquakes from 2016-07-25T07:01

New ideas about volcanoes, earthquakes and other geological processes that both enrich and threaten us. Jack Stewart is joined by four leading Earth scientists in the city of Yokohama at the 2016 G...

Do You Know What You’re Eating? from 2016-07-18T07:01

If you think of your favourite foods – chocolate, maybe, or samosas, or pizza – do you really know where all the ingredients came from? Bridget Kendall asks the food scientist Chris Elliott, the so...

Radioactivity: Friend or Foe? from 2016-07-11T07:01

One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of radioactivity is often a nuclear accident or dangerous rays. But radioactivity is in fact a much more varied phenomenon, one that can bri...

Defiance: Why Are Some People More Defiant than Others? from 2016-07-04T07:01

Acts of defiance small or large have proved to be incredibly powerful throughout history, but when does defiance spill into aggression? Bridget Kendall asks the employment lawyer Lewis Maltby, the ...

Microbes and Humans: The Science of Living Together from 2016-06-27T07:01

The Obama administration recently announced it will spend over a hundred million dollars on deepening our knowledge of the human microbiome - the bacteria, fungi, viruses and other organisms which ...

Unfinished: The Art of the Incomplete from 2016-06-20T07:01

We are at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York at The Met Breuer, where the exhibition "Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible", is a springboard to explore the notion of things unfinished or inco...

Talking Rubbish: Clever Ways with Waste from 2016-06-13T07:01

According to the United Nations, we probably throw away over one billion tonne of waste every year. Some goes into landfill, some is destroyed and some is recycled. The mountain of cast-off litter ...

Resilience: A Survivor's Guide to Adversity from 2016-06-06T07:01

These days everyone from schoolchildren to business owners is being told to become more resilient, but what does resilience mean in geological time? How and why do some organisms survive mass extin...

When Does Healthy Competition Become Destructive? from 2016-05-30T07:01

What is the place of rivalry in human behaviour? What drives it? And where is the dividing line between competition as a positive force and one that wreaks havoc? Samira Ahmed discusses rivalry in ...

After Dark: How we Respond to Darkness from 2016-05-23T07:01

Dr Janina Ramirez explores our relationship with, and attitudes to, darkness and the night. From the beginning of humanity when night was a time to sleep and hide from predators, over millennia the...

Brain Drain: Can We Stem the Flow? from 2016-05-16T07:01

The Forum is in Cape Town, South Africa, as guests of The British Council at the Going Global Conference. As globalisation enables the transit and relocation of people ever more quickly and easily,...

Wheel Revolutions from 2016-05-09T07:01

People have come up with the idea of the wheel many times and in different places, but what were the key turning points which led to mass transport and the miracle of modern logistics? Bridget Kend...

Rules and how they govern us from 2016-05-02T07:01

We all need rules - nature has them and we impose them on our communities in order to function; sometimes fairly and sometimes not- depending on your perspective. But just how important are rules a...

Balance: How we Find Equilibrium from 2016-04-25T07:01

Balance is essential. It stops us falling over or getting too cross and it stops machines failing catastrophically. There are also very fine balances present, more generally in nature and across th...

Lost and Found from 2016-04-16T14:07

From the horrors of human suffering and plunder of ancient artefacts in war to the reshaping of musical traditions, we examine the notion of things lost and found.

British journalist Juli...

A Single World, Many Identities? from 2016-04-11T07:01

Bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, Nick Bostrom from Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute and Ann Phoenix from UCL's Institute of Education trace the evolution of 21st century identity with...

Living at the Edge: Life in Extreme Environments from 2016-04-06T12:30

Bridget Kendall explores extreme living and what it tells us, from human exploration to deep sea fish and synthetic biology. Bridget and her guests explore hot dry deserts and sub-zero polar ice, d...

Taming Nature from 2016-03-30T12:41

Is the idea of a pristine landscape an illusion, given that over thousands of years human activity has almost everywhere left its mark? Bridget Kendall asks the gardener Gilly Drummond, the land ar...