List of In Our Time programmes
In Our Time is a radio discussion programme exploring a wide variety of historical topics, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom since 1998 and hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Since 2011, all episodes have been available to download as individual podcasts.[1]
Programmes
1998-1999
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 15 October 1998 | War in the 20th Century | Michael Ignatieff, writer, broadcaster and biographer of Isaiah Berlin Michael Howard, formerly Regius Professor of History, Oxford University and joint editor of the new Oxford History of the Twentieth Century |
| 22 October 1998 | Politics in the 20th Century | Gore Vidal, American writer, commentator and author of The Smithsonian Institution Alan Clark, historian, politician and author of The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State, 1922–97 |
| 29 October 1998 | Science's Revelations | Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist, reader in Zoology and Fellow of New College, Oxford Charles Simonyi Chair of Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University and author of Unweaving The Rainbow: Science, Delusion and The Appetite For Wonder Ian McEwan, novelist, and author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Amsterdam |
| 5 November 1998 | Science in the 20th century | John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy, University of Sussex and consultant to New Scientist Mary Midgley, moral philosopher and former Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Newcastle |
| 12 November 1998 | The City in the 20th Century | Peter Hall, Professor of Planning at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London, Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europaea Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University and recipient of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society |
| 19 November 1998 | The Brain and Consciousness | Steven Rose, Professor of Biology and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group, Open University Dan Robinson, Distinguished Research Professor, Georgetown University and visiting lecturer in Philosophy and Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford |
| 26 November 1998 | Work in the 20th Century | Richard Sennett, visiting professor, London School of Economics and author of The Corrosion of Character – the Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism Theodore Zeldin, historian and Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford Melanie Phillips, columnist on The Sunday Times and currently working on a book about The Sex Change State |
| 3 December 1998 | History's relevance in the 20th century | Simon Schama, Old Dominion Professor of Humanities, Columbia University in New York and currently filming a 16-part series for BBC Television on the history of Britain Lady Antonia Fraser, historian, writer and author of biographies of Mary Queen of Scots, Cromwell and Charles II |
| 10 December 1998 | Cultural rights in the 20th Century | Homi Bhabha, Professor in English Literature and Art, Chicago University, and Visiting Professor of the Humanities, University College London John N. Gray, Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics |
| 17 December 1998 | The American Century | Harry Evans, former editor of The Sunday Times and author of The American Century John Lloyd, associate editor of the New Statesman and former Times correspondent in Moscow and East European Editor of the Financial Times |
| 24 December 1998 | Neuroscience in the 20th Century | Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, Professor of Pharmacology, Oxford University and Professor of Physics at Gresham College Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Director of the Brain Perception Laboratory, University of California, San Diego and Professor at the Salk Institute |
| 31 December 1998 | The British Empire's Legacy | Catherine Hall, Professor Modern British Social and Cultural History, University College, London Linda Colley, currently holder of the Leverhulme Research Professorship at the London School of Economics and former Professor of History, Yale University |
| 7 January 1999 | Feminism | Helena Cronin, Co-director of the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics Germaine Greer, Professor of English and Comparative Studies, Warwick University |
| 14 January 1999 | Genetic Engineering | Grahame Bulfield, geneticist, honorary professor, Edinburgh University and Director of the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh Bryan Appleyard, features writer for The Sunday Times and author of Brave New Worlds: Genetics and the Human Experience |
| 21 January 1999 | Modern Culture | Will Self, writer and novelist Roger Scruton, novelist, philosopher and former Professor at Birkbeck College, London |
| 28 January 1999 | Ageing | Alan Walker, social gerontologist, advisor to the UN's programme on Ageing and has chaired the European Commission's observatory on Ageing and Older People Tom Kirkwood, Britain's first professor of Biological Gerontology, University of Manchester and President of the British Society for Research into Ageing |
| 4 February 1999 | Psychoanalysis and its Legacy | Juliet Mitchell, psychoanalyst, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, Department of Political and Social Sciences Adam Phillips, psychoanalyst and author of The Beast in the Nursery |
| 11 February 1999 | Language and the Mind | Jonathan Miller, medical doctor, performer, broadcaster, author and film and opera director Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 18 February 1999 | Space in Religion and Science | John Polkinghorne, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge and Canon Theologian of Liverpool Margaret Wertheim, science writer and author of The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet |
| 25 February 1999 | The Avant Garde's Decline and Fall in the 20th Century | Eric Hobsbawm, eminent historian and author of Behind The Times: The Decline and Fall of the Twentieth Century Avant-Gardes Frances Morris, specialist in contemporary art and Art Programme Curator for the Tate Gallery of Modern Art |
| 4 March 1999 | Shakespeare and Literary Criticism | Harold Bloom, literary critic, Professor of Humanities, Yale University and Berg Professor of English, New York University Jacqueline Rose, literary critic and Professor of English, University of London |
| 11 March 1999 | History as Science | Jared Diamond, ecologist and physiologist at the Los Angeles Medical School, University of California, and author of Guns, Germs and Steel Richard J. Evans, Professor of Modern History, Cambridge University |
| 18 March 1999 | Animal Experiments and Rights | Colin Blakemore, Professor of Physiology, Oxford University, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Royal Society and targeted in the 1980s by animal welfare activists protesting at his research methods Lynda Birkebiologist, teacher at Lancaster and Warwick Universities, and previously worked for 7 years in animal behaviour at the Open University |
| 25 March 1999 | Architecture in the 20th Century | Daniel Libeskind, architect of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Spiral Extension to London's Victoria and Albert Museum Richard Weston, architect and lecturer at De Montfort University |
| 1 April 1999 | Good and Evil | Leszek Kołakowski, author and Professor of Philosophy, Oxford University Galen Strawson, author and Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy, Jesus College, Oxford |
| 8 April 1999 | Writing and Political Oppression | Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist Ariel Dorfman, Chilean journalist, scholar and author of Death and the Maiden |
| 15 April 1999 | Evolution | John Maynard Smith, evolutionary biological theorist and Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex Colin Tudge, writer, journalist and research fellow at the Centre for Philosophy |
| 22 April 1999 | Fundamentalism | Karen Armstrong, writer on the history of religious ideas and author of A History of God: From Abraham to the Present Tariq Ali, film-maker, writer and author of The Book of Saladin |
| 29 April 1999 | Artificial Intelligence | Igor Aleksander, professor, Imperial College London and inventor of Magnus – a neural computer which he says is an artificially conscious machine John Searle, Professor of Philosophy, University of California and one of only two people in the world to invent an argument, the Chinese Room Argument, which destroys the plausibility of the idea of conscious machines |
| 6 May 1999 | Mathematics | Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics and Gresham Professor of Geometry, University of Warwick Brian Butterworth, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College, London |
| 13 May 1999 | Multiculturalism | Stuart Hall, former Professor of Sociology, Open University and currently on a Commission set up by the Runnymede Trust looking at the future of multi-ethnic Britain Avtar Brah, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Birkbeck College, London University |
| 20 May 1999 | The Universe's Origins | Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Royal Society Research Professor in Astronomy and Physics, Cambridge University Paul Davies, theoretical physicist and Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London |
| 27 May 1999 | Memory and Culture | Malcolm Bowie, Marshall Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University and Director of Oxford's European Humanities Research Centre Nancy Wood, Chair of Media Studies, University of Sussex and author of Vectors of Memory |
| 3 June 1999 | Just War | John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Westminster and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy Niall Ferguson, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Jesus College, Oxford and author of The Pity of War |
| 10 June 1999 | The Monarchy | David Cannadine, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, London and former Lecturer in History and Fellow, Christ's College, Cambridge Bea Campbell, sociologist, journalist and author of Diana, Princess of Wales |
| 17 June 1999 | The Great Disruption | Francis Fukuyama, Hirst Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University, Washington, D.C., and author of The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order Amos Oz, author and Professor of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva |
| 24 June 1999 | Capitalism | Anatole Kaletsky, economics commentator and Associate Editor of The Times, and author of The Costs of Default and In the Shadow of Debt Edward Luttwak, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. and author of Turbo Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy |
| 1 July 1999 | Intelligence | Ken Richardson, educational psychologist, former Senior Lecturer, Open University and author of The Making of Intelligence Michael Ruse, Philosopher of Biology, University of guelph, Ontario and author of Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction? |
| 8 July 1999 | Africa | Henry Louis Gates Jr, Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, Harvard University and presenter of the BBC 2 series Into Africa Anthony Sampson, writer, journalist and author of Mandela: The Authorised Biography |
| 15 July 1999 | Truth, Lies and fiction | Elena Lappin, novelist and author of an investigative essay published in Granta called "Truth and Lies", where she questions the veracity of the account of the Holocaust in the book Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski Nick Groom, lecturer in English, University of Exeter |
| 22 July 1999 | Pain | Patrick Wall, Professor of Physiology at St Thomas' Hospital, London and author of Pain: The Science of Suffering Semir Zeki, Professor of Neurobiology at University College, London |
1999-2000
From 6 April 2000, and the discussion on “The Natural Order” the programme moved from 30 minutes to a 45-minute format.
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 23 September 1999 | Genetic Determinism | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, University College London and author of Almost Like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated Matt Ridley, science journalist, chairman of the International Centre for Life and author of Genome: The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters |
| 30 September 1999 | Maths and Storytelling | John Allen Paulos, Presidential Scholar of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia and author of Once Upon a Number – The hidden mathematical logic of stories Marina Warner, novelist, historian, critic, former Reith Lecturer and Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, London |
| 7 October 1999 | Utopia | A. C. Grayling, human rights campaigner, lecturer in philosophy at Birkbeck College, London and Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford John Carey, distinguished critic, journalist, broadcaster, Merton Professor of English, Oxford University and editor of the Faber Book of Utopias |
| 14 October 1999 | The Nation State | Norman Davies, Emeritus Professor, London University and author of The Isles: A History Andrew Marr, former editor of The Independent and author of Ruling Britannia: the Failure and Future of British Democracy |
| 21 October 1999 | The Individual | Richard Wollheim, Professor of Philosophy, University of California in Berkeley Jonathan Dollimore, Professor of English, York University |
| 28 October 1999 | Atrocity in the 20th Century | Jonathan Glover, philosopher and Director of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King's College, London Gwen Adshead, consultant psychiatrist, Broadmoor Special Hospital |
| 4 November 1999 | Education | Mary Warnock, philosopher and educationalist Ted Wragg, Professor of Education, University of Exeter |
| 11 November 1999 | The Novel | D. J. Taylor, novelist, critic, biographer of Thackeray and author of After the War Gillian Beer, King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge University and Chairman of the Booker Prize judges 1997 |
| 18 November 1999 | Progress | Anthony O'Hear, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bradford Adam Phillips, psychoanalyst and author of Darwin's Worms |
| 25 November 1999 | Consciousness | Ted Honderich, philosopher and former Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London Roger Penrose, physicist, mathematician and author of The Large, The Small, and the Human Mind |
| 2 December 1999 | Tragedy | George Steiner, critic, Extraordinary Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge and author of The Death of Tragedy Catherine Belsey, Chair of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, University of Cardiff and author of The Subject of Tragedy |
| 9 December 1999 | Childhood | Christina Hardyment, social historian and author of The Future of the Family Theodore Zeldin, Senior Fellow, St Antony's College, Oxford and author of An Intimate History of Humanity |
| 16 December 1999 | Medical Ethics | Barry Jackson, consultant surgeon and President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Sheila McLean, Director of the Institute of Law and Ethics in Medicine, Glasgow University |
| 23 December 1999 | Prayer | Russell Stannard, physicist, religious writer and author of The God Experiment Andrew Samuels, Jungian analyst and Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex |
| 30 December 1999 | Time | Neil Johnson, theoretical physicist at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University and Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 1999 on the subject of Time Lee Smolin, cosmologist and Professor of Physics, Pennsylvania State University |
| 6 January 2000 | Climate Change | John Houghton, Co-Chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change – the United Nations' global warming science committee George Monbiot, environmentalist, journalist and Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Bristol University |
| 13 January 2000 | Information Technology | Charles Leadbeater, Demos Research Associate and author of Living on Thin Air: The New Economy Ian Angell, Professor of Information Systems, London School of Economics and author of The New Barbarian Manifesto: How to Survive the Information Age |
| 20 January 2000 | Masculinity in Literature | Martin Amis, author of Money, Success and The Information Cora Kaplan, feminist cultural critic and Professor of English, Southampton University |
| 27 January 2000 | Economic Rights | Amartya Sen, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science Will Hutton, former Editor of The Observer, Director of The Industrial Society and author of The State We're In |
| 3 February 2000 | Republicanism | Sarah Barber, lecturer in the Department of History, Lancaster University and author of Regicide and Republicanism: Politics and Ethics in the English Revolution 1646–1659 Andrew Roberts, historian, journalist, conservative thinker and author of Salisbury: Victorian Titan |
| 10 February 2000 | Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment | Nicholas Boyle, Reader in German Literary and Intellectual History, Magdalene College, Cambridge, and biographer of Goethe Simon Schaffer, Reader in the History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University and Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge |
| 17 February 2000 | Reading | Kevin Sharpe, Professor of History, University of Southampton Jacqueline Pearson, Professor of English Literature, Manchester University |
| 24 February 2000 | Grand unified theory | Brian Greene, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Columbia University and Cornell University Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Royal Society Research Professor in Astronomy and Physics at Cambridge University |
| 2 March 2000 | Metamorphosis | A. S. Byatt, novelist and one of the contributors to Ovid Metamorphosed Catherine Bates, critic and research fellow, University of Warwick |
| 9 March 2000 | The Age of Doubt | A. N. Wilson, novelist, biographer, journalist and author of God's Funeral Victoria Glendinning, author, journalist and biographer of Anthony Trollope and Jonathan Swift |
| 16 March 2000 | Lenin | Robert Service, lecturer in Russian History and Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford and biographer of Lenin Vitali Vitaliev, author, columnist, broadcaster former Soviet Journalist of the Year |
| 23 March 2000 | Materialism and the Consumer | Rachel Bowlby, Professor of English, University of York and author of Carried Away: The Invention of Modern Shopping William Gibson, science fiction writer and author of Neuromancer and All Tomorrow's Parties |
| 30 March 2000 | History and Understanding the Past | Richard J. Evans, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge Eric Hobsbawm, historian and author of The New Century |
| 6 April 2000 | The Natural Order | Colin Tudge, writer, scientist and author of The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures that Have Ever Lived Sandy Knapp, Research Botanist, Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, London Henry Gee, Senior Editor of Nature and author of Deep Time: Cladistics, the Revolution in Evolution |
| 13 April 2000 | New Wars | Michael Howard, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Oxford University Mary Kaldor, Director of the Programme on Global Civil Society, London School of Economics Michael Rose, General. former Commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia and author of Fighting for Peace: Lessons from Bosnia |
| 20 April 2000 | Englishness | Paul Langford, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern History at London Guildhall University Lola Young, Director of the National Museum and Archives of Black History and Culture. |
| 27 April 2000 | Human Origins | Leslie Aiello, Professor of Biological Anthropology, University College London Robert Foley, evolutionary ecologist, writer and lecturer in biological anthropology at Cambridge University Mark Roberts, Field Archaeologist, Project Leader of Boxgrove excavation and the discoverer of Boxgrove Man |
| 4 May 2000 | Death | Jonathan Dollimore, Professor of English, York University Thomas Lynch, poet, essayist, funeral director and author of The Undertaking – Life Studies from the Dismal Trade Marilyn Butler, Professor of English Literature and Rector of Exeter College, Oxford |
| 11 May 2000 | Shakespeare's Work | Frank Kermode, literary critic and author of Shakespeare's Language Michael Bogdanov, theatre, television, opera and film director and a founder member of the English Shakespeare Company Germaine Greer, Professor of English and Comparative Studies, Warwick University |
| 18 May 2000 | The Wars of the Roses | Helen Castor, Fellow and Director of Studies in History, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Colin Richmond, Emeritus Professor of History, Keele University Steven Gunn, Tudor historian and Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Merton College, Oxford |
| 25 May 2000 | Chemical elements | Paul Strathern, former lecturer in philosophy and science, Kingston University and author of Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements Mary Archer, Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College, London John Murrell, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of Sussex |
| 1 June 2000 | The American Ideal | Christopher Hitchens, writer, journalist and author of No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Westminster and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy Susan Sontag, cultural critics and essayists, and author of the novel In America |
| 8 June 2000 | The Renaissance | Francis Ames-Lewis, Professor of History of Art, Birkbeck College Peter Burke, Professor of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Evelyn Welch, Reader in the History of Art, University of Sussex |
| 15 June 2000 | Inspiration and Genius | Arthur I. Miller, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Science & Technology, University College London Michael Howe, Professor of Psychology, Exeter University Juliet Mitchell, psychoanalyst and lecturer at Cambridge University |
| 22 June 2000 | Biography | Richard Holmes, writer, biographer and the author of Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer Nigel Hamilton, biographer, Director of the British Institute of Biography and Professor of Biography, De Montfort University Amanda Foreman, biographer of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. |
| 29 June 2000 | Imagination and Consciousness | Gerald Edelman, Director of the Neurosciences Institute in California and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1972 Igor Aleksander, Professor of Neural Engineering Systems, Imperial College, London Margaret Boden, Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, University of Sussex |
2000-2001
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2000 | London | Peter Ackroyd, author of London: The Biography Claire Tomalin, author and biographer of Samuel Pepys Iain Sinclair poet, novelist and author of Liquid City and Lights Out for the Territory. |
| 5 October 2000 | Hitler in History | Ian Kershaw, historian and biographer of Hitler Niall Ferguson, fellow and tutor in Modern History at Jesus College Oxford Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History at University College London. |
| 12 October 2000 | The Romantics | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English, University of Liverpool Rosemary Ashton, Professor of English, University College London Nicholas Roe, Professor of English, University of St Andrews |
| 19 October 2000 | Laws of Nature | Mark Buchanan, physicist and author of Ubiquity Frank Close, theoretical physicist and author of Lucifer's Legacy: The Meaning of Asymmetry Nancy Cartwright, Professor of Philosophy, LSE |
| 26 October 2000 | The Tudor State | John Guy, Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews Christopher Haigh, Tutor of Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford Christine Carpenter, Fellow in History at New Hall, Cambridge |
| 2 November 2000 | Evolutionary Psychology | Janet Radcliffe Richards, Reader in Bioethics, University College, London Nicholas Humphrey, Professor of Psychology, New School For Social Research, New York Steven Rose, Professor of Physic, Open University |
| 9 November 2000 | Psychoanalysis and Literature | Adam Phillips, author of Promises Promises: Essays on Psychoanalysis and Literature Malcolm Bowie, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature, Oxford University Lisa Appignanesi, novelist and co-author of Freud's Women. |
| 16 November 2000 | Nihilism | Rob Hopkins, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Birmingham Raymond Tallis, doctor and philosopher Catherine Belsey University of Cardiff |
| 4 January 2001 | Gothic | Chris Baldick, Professor of English at Goldsmiths College, London and author of In Frankenstein's Shadow A. N. Wilson, novelist, biographer, journalist and author of God's Funeral Emma Clery, senior lecturer in the English Department at Sheffield Hallam University and author of The Rise of Supernatural Fiction |
| 11 January 2001 | Mathematics and Platonism | Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics and Gresham Professor of Geometry, University of Warwick Margaret Wertheim, science writer, journalist and author of Pythagoras' Trousers John D. Barrow, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. |
| 18 January 2001 | The Enlightenment in Britain | Roy Porter, Professor in the Social History of Medicine, Wellcome Trust Centre of University College London Linda Colley, Leverhulme Research Professor and School Professor of History, London School of Economics Jeremy Black, Professor of History at Exeter University. |
| 25 January 2001 | Science and Religion | Stephen Jay Gould, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology, Harvard University John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy, University of St Andrews and Stanton Lecturer in Divinity, Cambridge University Hilary Rose, sociologist and Visiting Professor of Social Policy, Bradford University. |
| 1 February 2001 | Imperial Science | Richard Ayton, Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the ‘Improvement' of the World Maria Misra, Lecturer in Modern History and fellow of Keble College Oxford Ziauddin Sardar, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, Middlesex University. |
| 8 February 2001 | Humanism | Tony Davies, Professor and Head of the Department of English, University of Birmingham and author of Humanism Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of King's College Cambridge Simon Goldhill, Reader in Greek Literature and Culture at King's College Cambridge. |
| 15 February 2001 | The Restoration | Mark Goldie, lecturer in History, Churchill College, University of Cambridge Richard Ollard, author of The Image of the King: Charles I and Charles II Clare Jackson, lecturer and Director of Studies in History, Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
| 22 February 2001 | Quantum Gravity | John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy, University of Sussex Lee Smolin, Professor of Physics, Centre for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London Janna Levin, Advanced Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University |
| 1 March 2001 | Money | Niall Ferguson, Professor of Political and Financial History at the University of Oxford Richard J. Evans, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge Jane Humphries, reader in Economic History at Oxford University |
| 15 March 2001 | Shakespeare's Life | Katherine Duncan-Jones, Professor of English at Somerville College, Oxford John Sutherland, Professor of Modern English at University College, London and textual scholar Grace Ioppolo, lecturer in English at the University of Reading |
| 22 March 2001 | Fossils | Richard Corfield, Research Associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University Dianne Edwards, Distinguished Research Professor in Palaeobotany at Cardiff University Richard Fortey, Senior Research Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum |
| 29 March 2001 | The Philosophy of Love | Roger Scruton, author of many books including Sexual Desire Angie Hobbs, lecturer in philosophy at Warwick University Thomas Docherty, Professor of English at the University of Kent |
| 5 April 2001 | The Roman Empire's Collapse in the 5th century | Charlotte Roueché, historian of late antiquity at King's College London David Womersley, Fellow and Tutor at Jesus College, Oxford and editor of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Richard Alston, Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 12 April 2001 | Black Holes | Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal – 2001, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Cambridge University Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Professor of Physics at The Open University Martin Ward, director of the X-Ray Astronomy Group at the University of Leicester |
| 19 April 2001 | The Glorious Revolution | John Spurr, Reader in History at the University of Wales, Swansea Rosemary Sweet, Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester Scott Mandelbrote, Fellow and Director of Studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| 26 April 2001 | Literary Modernism | John Carey, Merton Professor of English Literature at Oxford University Laura Marcus, Reader in English at the University of Sussex Valentine Cunningham, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford |
| 3 May 2001 | Evil | Jones Erwin, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Limerick Stephen Mulhall, Tutor in Philosophy at New College, Oxford University Margaret Atkins, Lecturer in Theology at Trinity and All Saints College, University of Leeds |
| 14 June 2001 | The French Revolution's Legacy | Stefan Collini, Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at Cambridge University Anne Janowitz, Professor of Romantic Poetry at Queen Mary College, London Andrew Roberts, nineteenth century historian |
| 21 June 2001 | The Sonnet | Frank Kermode, author of many books including Shakespeare's Language Phillis Levin, Poet in Residence and Professor of English at Hofstra University Jonathan Bate, King Alfred Professor of English at the University of Liverpool |
| 28 June 2001 | Existentialism | A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Christina Howells, Professor of French at the University of Oxford, fellow of Wadham College Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and author of A Companion to Continental Philosophy. |
| 5 July 2001 | The Earth's Origins | Simon Winchester, author of The Map That Changed the World: the Tale of William Smith and the Birth of A Science Cherry Lewis, geologist and author of The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth John Cosgrove, Structural Geologist from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College, London |
| 12 July 2001 | Dickens | Rosemary Ashton, Professor of English at University College London Michael Slater, Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London and editor of The Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens' Journalism John Bowen, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Keele. |
| 19 July 2001 | Byzantium | Charlotte Roueché, Reader in Classical and Byzantine Greek, King's College London John Julius Norwich, author of a three-part history of Byzantium: The Early Centuries, The Apogee and Decline and Fall Liz James, Senior Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Sussex. |
2001-2002
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 18 October 2001 | Democracy | Melissa Lane, University Lecturer in the History of Political Thought David Wootton, Professor of Intellectual History at Queen Mary College, London Tim Winter, Assistant Muslim Chaplain at Cambridge University where he is lecturer in Islamic Studies |
| 25 October 2001 | Napoleon and Wellington | Andrew Roberts, military historian Mike Broers, University of Aberdeen Belinda Beaton, from the Department of History of Art, at Oxford University |
| 1 November 2001 | Confucius | Frances Wood, Curator of the Chinese section of the British Library Tim Barrett, Professor of East Asian History at SOAS, the School of African and Oriental Studies at London University Tao Tao Liu, Tutorial Fellow in Oriental Studies at Wadham College, Cambridge University |
| 8 November 2001 | The British Empire | Maria Misra, Lecturer in Modern History and Fellow of Keble College Oxford Peter Cain, Research Professor in History at Sheffield Hallam University Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern Social and Cultural History at University College London |
| 15 November 2001 | Surrealism | Dawn Adiss, Professor of Art History and Theory at the University of Essex Malcolm Bowie, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University and a fellow of All Souls College Darian Leader, the psychoanalyst |
| 22 November 2001 | Oceanography | Margaret Deacon, visiting research fellow at Southampton Oceanography Centre and author of Scientists and the Sea Tony Rice, biological oceanographer and author of Deep Ocean Simon Schaffer, Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Darwin College. |
| 29 November 2001 | Third Crusade | Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University and author of many books on the Crusades Carole Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh Tariq Ali, novelist, playwright and author of The Book of Saladin |
| 6 December 2001 | Oscar Wilde | Valentine Cunningham, Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University Regenia Gagnier, Professor of English at the University of Exeter Neil Sammells, Dean of Humanities at Bath Spa University and author of Wilde Style |
| 13 December 2001 | Genetics | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics and Head of the Galton Laboratory at University College London Richard Dawkins, genetic scientist, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University Linda Partridge, Natural Environment Research Council Research Professor at the Galton Laboratory, University College London |
| 20 December 2001 | Rome and European Civilization | Mary Beard, Reader in Classics at Cambridge University Catharine Edwards, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck College, London University Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University. |
| 27 December 2001 | History of food in Modern Europe | Rebecca Spang, Lecturer in Modern History at University College London Ivan Day, food historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University |
| 3 January 2002 | Sensibility | Claire Tomalin, literary biographer and author of Jane Austen: A Life and The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft John Mullan, Senior Lecturer in English at University College London Hermione Lee, Goldsmiths Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford |
| 10 January 2002 | Nuclear Physics | Jim Al-Khalili, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Surrey Christine Sutton, Particle Physicist and Lecturer in Physics at St Catherine's College Oxford John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex |
| 17 January 2002 | Catharism | Malcolm Barber, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London Euan Cameron, Professor of Modern History at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne |
| 24 January 2002 | Happiness | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 31 January 2002 | W. B. Yeats and Mysticism | Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford University Warwick Gould, Director of the Institute of English Studies, University of London Brenda Maddox, author of George's Ghosts: A New Life of W B Yeats |
| 7 February 2002 | The Universe's Shape | Martin Rees, Royal Society Research Professor in Astronomy and Physics, Cambridge University Julian Barbour, Independent Theoretical Physicist Janna Levin, Advanced Fellow in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge |
| 14 February 2002 | Anatomy – 2000 years of anatomical study | Harold Ellis, Clinical Anatomist, School of Biomedical Sciences, King's College, London Ruth Richardson, historian, and author of Death, Dissection and the Destitute, Phoenix Press Andrew Cunningham, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in the History of Medicine, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University |
| 21 February 2002 | The Celts – what were the Celts in Britain really like? | Barry Cunliffe, Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford University Alistair Moffat, Historian and author of The Sea Kingdoms – The Story of Celtic Britain and Ireland Miranda Aldhouse Green, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Wales |
| 28 February 2002 | Virtue – is it derived from reason? | Galen Strawson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading Miranda Fricker, Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Roger Crisp, Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford. |
| 7 March 2002 | John Milton – poet or politician? | John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of King's College Cambridge Blair Worden, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Sussex |
| 14 March 2002 | The Buddha – why has it captured the spirit of our age? | Peter Harvey, Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland Kate Crosby, Lecturer in Buddhist Studies, SOAS Mahinda Deagallee, Lecturer in the Study of Religions, Bath Spa University College and a Buddhist Monk from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka |
| 21 March 2002 | Marriage – its various forms and the role of the State | Janet Soskice, Reader in Modern Theology and Philosophical Theology, Cambridge University Frederik Pedersen, Lecturer in History, Aberdeen University Christina Hardyment, Social historian and journalist |
| 28 March 2002 | The Artist – a special kind of human being? | Emma Barker, Lecturer in Art History, The Open University Thomas Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck University of London Tim Blanning, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge |
| 4 April 2002 | Extraterrestrial life – new life within our solar system | Simon Goodwin, Researcher in Astronomy, Cardiff University Heather Couper, Space expert Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics, Warwick University |
| 11 April 2002 | Bohemia – what did it mean to be Bohemian? | Norman Davies, Professor Emeritus, University of London Karin Friedrich, Lecturer in History, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London Robert Pynsent, Professor of Czech and Slovak Literature, University College London |
| 25 April 2002 | Tolstoy – the influence of the Russian Novel | A. N. Wilson, novelist, journalist and biographer of Tolstoy Catriona Kelly, Reader in Russian, Oxford University Sarah Hudspith, Lecturer in Russian, University of Leeds |
| 2 May 2002 | Physics of Reality – Quantum Mechanics | Roger Penrose, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, Oxford University Fay Dowker, Lecturer in Theoretical Physics, Queen Mary, University of London Tony Sudbery, Professor of Mathematics, University of York |
| 9 May 2002 | The Examined Life – is an unexamined life worth living? | A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London Janet Radcliffe Richards, Philosopher of Science and Reader in Bioethics, University College, London Julian Baggini, editor, The Philosopher's Magazine and co-editor of New British Philosophy: The Interviews |
| 16 May 2002 | Chaos Theory – was the universe chaotic or orderly? | Susan Greenfield, senior research fellow, Lincoln College, Oxford David Papineau, Professor of the Philosophy of Science, King's College London Neil Johnson, University Lecturer in Physics at Oxford University |
| 23 May 2002 | History of Drugs – their role in medicine and the arts | Richard Davenport-Hines, historian and author of The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics Sadie Plant, author of Writing on Drugs Mike Jay, historian and author of Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century |
| 30 May 2002 | The Grand Tour – what drove this desire for travel? | Chloe Chard, Literary historian Jeremy Black, Professor of History, University of Exeter Edward Chaney, Professor of Fine and Decorative Arts, Southampton Institute |
| 6 June 2002 | The Soul – the key to our individuality as humans? | Richard Sorabji, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College Ruth Padel, poet and author Martin Palmer, Theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture |
| 13 June 2002 | The American West – was it an "experiment of liberty"? | Frank McLynn, Visiting Professor in the Department of Literature, University of Strathclyde Jenni Calder, author of There Must Be a Lone Ranger: The myth and reality of the American Wild West Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art |
| 20 June 2002 | Richard Wagner – his influence on the German spirit. | John Deathridge, King Edward the Seventh Professor of Music, King's College London Lucy Beckett, author of Richard Wagner: Parsifal Michael Tanner, philosopher and author of Wagner and Nietzsche |
| 27 June 2002 | Cultural Imperialism – should we try to prevent it? | Linda Colley, School Professor of History, London School of Economics Phillip Dodd, director, Institute of Contemporary Arts Mary Beard, Reader in Classics, Cambridge University |
| 4 July 2002 | Freedom – a principle worth fighting and dying for? | John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Westminster Bernard Williams, Professor of Philosophy, University of California Annabel Brett, Lecturer in History, University of Cambridge |
| 11 July 2002 | Psychoanalysis – do people crave dictatorship? | Adam Phillips, general editor of the new Penguin translations of Freud Sally Alexander, Professor of History, Goldsmiths College, University of London Malcolm Bowie, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature and Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford |
| 18 July 2002 | History of Heritage | David Cannadine, Director of the University of London's Institute of Historical Research Miri Rubin, Professor of European History at Queen Mary, University of London Peter Mandler, Fellow in History, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
2002-2003
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 17 October 2002 | Slavery and Empire – were Britons also captives? | Linda Colley, School Professor of History, LSE Catherine Hall, Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History, University College London Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Professorial Research Fellow, Queen Mary College London |
| 24 October 2002 | The Scientist in History – missionary or monster? | John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy, University of Sussex Patricia Fara, Lecturer on the History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University Hugh Pennington, Head of the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Aberdeen |
| 31 October 2002 | Architecture and Power – imagery of imperialism | Adrian Tinniswood, Architectural historian Gavin Stamp, Senior Lecturer, Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art Gillian Darley, Architectural historian and biographer of John Soane |
| 7 November 2002 | Human nature – innate or nurtured? | Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre of Cognitive Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Janet Radcliffe Richards, philosopher, Reader in Bioethics, University College London John Gray, Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics |
| 14 November 2002 | Victorian Realism – how real? | Philip Davis, Reader in English Literature at the University of Liverpool and author of "The Victorians", a volume of the New Oxford English Literary History A. N. Wilson, novelist, biographer and author of The Victorians Dinah Birch, Fellow and tutor in English at Trinity College, Oxford |
| 21 November 2002 | Muslim Spain – a culture of tolerance? | Tim Winter, a convert to Islam and lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University Martin Palmer, Anglican lay preacher and theologian and author of The Sacred History of Britain Mehri Niknam, executive director of the Maimonides Foundation, a joint Jewish-Muslim Interfaith Foundation in London |
| 28 November 2002 | Imagination – just what is it? | Susan Stuart, Lecturer in Philosophy of Mind at the University of Glasgow Steven Mithen, Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading Semir Zeki, Professor of Neurobiology at the University of London and author of Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain |
| 5 December 2002 | The Scottish Enlightenment – how enlightened? | Tom Devine, Professor and Director of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen Karen O'Brien, Reader in English and American Literature at the University of Warwick Alexander Broadie, Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of Glasgow |
| 12 December 2002 | Man and Disease – the fight against diseases and plagues | Anne Hardy, Reader in the History of Medicine at the Wellcome Trust Centre at University College London David Bradley, Professor of Tropical Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Chris Dye, epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation |
| 19 December 2002 | The Calendar – a history of the Calendar | Robert Poole, Reader in History at St Martin's College Lancaster and author of Time's Alteration, Calendar Reform in Early Modern England Kristen Lippincott, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich Peter Watson, Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University and author of A Terrible Beauty – A History of the People and Ideas that Shaped the Modern Mind |
| 6 February 2003 | The Epic – from Homer to Joyce | John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University Karen Edwards, Lecturer in English at Exeter University Oliver Taplin, Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford |
| 13 February 2003 | Chance and Design in Evolution – Design in Nature | Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at Cambridge University and author of The Crucible of Creation – the Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals Sandy Knapp, botanist at the Natural History Museum John Brooke, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University |
| 20 February 2003 | The Lindisfarne Gospels – unifying Christianity in Britain | Richard Gameson, Reader in Medieval History at Kent University and editor of St Augustine and the Conversion of England Clare Lees, Professor of Medieval Literature at King's College London and author of Tradition and Belief: Religious Writing in Late Anglo-Saxon England Michelle Brown, Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library and author of A Guide to Western Historical Scripts |
| 27 February 2003 | The Aztecs – looking behind the myths | Alan Knight, Professor of the History of Latin America at Oxford University and author of Mexico: From the Beginning to the Spanish Conquest Adrian Locke, co-curator of the Aztecs exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts Elizabeth Graham, Senior Lecturer in Mesoamerican Archaeology at University College London |
| 6 March 2003 | Meteorology – why does it still fascinate us? | Vladimir Janković, Wellcome Research Lecturer at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Manchester University Richard Hamblyn, writer Liba Taub, Director of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science at Cambridge University |
| 13 March 2003 | Redemption – the concept of salvation | Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford Janet Soskice, Reader in Modern Theology and Philosophical Theology at Cambridge University Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Oxford University |
| 20 March 2003 | Originality – is it just a romantic notion? | John Deathridge, King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London Jonathan Rée, philosopher and author of Philosophical Tales Catherine Belsey, Professor and Chair of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University |
| 27 Mar 2003 | Supernovas – the life cycle of stars | Paul Murdin, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge Janna Levin, Advanced Fellow in Theoretical Physics in the Department of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge Phil Charles, Professor of Astronomy at Southampton University |
| 3 April 2003 | The Spanish Civil War – causes and legacy | Paul Preston, Principe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish History at the London School of Economics Helen Graham, Professor of Spanish History at Royal Holloway, University of London Mary Vincent, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at Sheffield University |
| 17 April 2003 | Proust – his life and work | Jacqueline Rose, Professor of English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London and author of Albertine Malcolm Bowie, Master of Christ's College, Cambridge and author of Proust among the Stars Robert Fraser, senior research fellow in the Literature Department at the Open University and author of Proust and the Victorians |
| 24 April 2003 | Youth – from Adonis to James Dean | Tim Whitmarsh, Lecturer in Hellenistic Literature at Exeter University Thomas Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, London Deborah Thom, Lecturer in History at Robinson College, Cambridge |
| 1 May 2003 | Roman Britain – the effects of 400 years of occupation | Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University Mary Beard, Reader in Classics at Cambridge University Catharine Edwards, Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck College, London University |
| 8 May 2003 | The Jacobite Rebellion – could it have succeeded? | Murray Pittock, Professor of English Literature at the University of Strathclyde Stana Nenadic, Senior Lecturer in Social History at Edinburgh University Allan Macinnes, Burnett-Fletcher Professor of History at Aberdeen University. |
| 15 May 2003 | The Holy Grail – just a medieval myth? | Carolyne Larrington, Tutor in Medieval English at St John's College, Oxford Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh at the University College of Wales in Cardiff |
| 22 May 2003 | Blood – its religious, medical and moral significance | Miri Rubin, Professor of European History at Queen Mary, University of London Anne Hardy, Reader in the History of Medicine at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London Jonathan Sawday, Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde |
| 29 May 2003 | Memory – and the brain | Martin Conway, Professor of Psychology at Durham University Mike Kopelman, Professor of Neuropsychiatry at King's College London and St Thomas' Hospital Kim Graham, Senior Scientist at the Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit |
| 5 June 2003 | The Lunar Society – scientific ferment 200 years ago. | Simon Schaffer, Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Jenny Uglow, Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick and author of The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future Peter Jones, Professor of French History at the University of Birmingham |
| 12 June 2003 | The Art of War – maintaining the objective? | Michael Howard, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter |
| 19 June 2003 | The Aristocracy – how the ruling class survives | David Cannadine, Director of the University of London's Institute of Historical Research and author of The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy Rosemary Sweet, Lecturer in History at the University of Leicester Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Professorial Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 26 June 2003 | The East India Company – a corporate route to Empire. | Huw Bowen, Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester Linda Colley, School Professor of History at the London School of Economics Maria Misra, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Keble College, Oxford |
| 3 July 2003 | Vulcanology – significance of volcanoes. | Hilary Downes, Professor of Geochemistry at Birkbeck, University of London Steve Self, Professor of Vulcanology at the Open University Bill McGuire, Benfield Professor of Geophysical Hazards at University College London. |
| 10 July 2003 | Nature – from Homer to Darwin | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick Roger Scruton, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham Karen Edwards, Lecturer in English at the University of Exeter |
| 17 July 2003 | The Apocalypse – was it a revelation? | Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Marina Benjamin, journalist and author of Living at the End of the World Justin Champion, Reader in the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway College, University of London |
2003-2004
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 2 October 2003 | James Clerk Maxwell – great 19th century physicist | Simon Schaffer, Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Peter Harman, Professor of the History of Science at Lancaster University and editor of The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell Joanna Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London |
| 9 October 2003 | Bohemianism – a life of art, freedom and poverty | Hermione Lee, Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and biographer of Virginia Woolf Virginia Nicholson, author of Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900–1939 Graham Robb, writer and biographer of Balzac, Victor Hugo and Rimbaud |
| 16 October 2003 | The Schism – between East and West in Christianity. | Henrietta Leyser, medieval historian and Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford Norman Housley, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Leicester Jonathan Shepard, editor of the Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire |
| 23 October 2003 | Infinity – a brief history. | Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick Robert D. Kaplan, co-founder of The Math Circle at Harvard University and author of The Art of the Infinite: Our Lost Language of Numbers Sarah Rees, Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of Newcastle |
| 30 October 2003 | Robin Hood – the greatest of English myths. | Stephen Knight, Professor of English Literature at Cardiff University and author of Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography Thomas Hahn, Professor of English Literature at the University of Rochester, New York Juliette Wood, Secretary of the Folklore Society |
| 6 November 2003 | Sensation – the best sellers of the 19th century. | John Mullan, Senior Lecturer in English at University College London Lyn Pykett, Professor of English and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth Dinah Birch, Professor of English at the University of Liverpool |
| 13 November 2003 | Duty – concepts of obligation. | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Annabel Brett, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 20 November 2003 | Ageing the Earth – a journey in geological time. | Richard Corfield, Research Associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University Hazel Rymer, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Open University Henry Gee, Senior Editor at Nature |
| 27 November 2003 | St Bartholomew's Day Massacre – slaughter in Paris. | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University and author of a new book: Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700 Mark Greengrass, Professor of History at the University of Sheffield Penny Roberts, Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick |
| 4 December 2003 | Wittgenstein – a philosophy of linguistics | Ray Monk, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton and author of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius Barry Smith, Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Marie McGinn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of York |
| 11 December 2003 | The Devil – a brief biography | Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Alison Rowlands, Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Essex David Wootton, Professor of Intellectual History at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 18 December 2003 | The Alphabet – its creation and development | Eleanor Robson, historian of Ancient Iraq and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford Alan Millard, Rankin Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages at the University of Liverpool Rosalind Thomas, Professor of Greek History at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 26 December 2003 | Lamarck and Natural Selection – the Lamarckian Heresy | Sandy Knapp, Senior Botanist at the Natural History Museum Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics in the Galton Laboratory at University College London and author of Almost Like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology at Cambridge University |
| 29 January 2004 | Cryptography – secret history of ciphers and codes | Simon Singh, science writer and author of The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-Breaking Fred Piper, Professor and Director of the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London and co-author of Cryptography: A Very Short Introduction Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London and author of Ingenious Pursuits |
| 5 February 2004 | The Battle of Thermopylae – battle that defined East and West | Tom Holland, historian and author of Persian Fire Simon Goldhill, Professor in Greek Literature and Culture at King's College, Cambridge Edith Hall, Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History at the University of Durham and author of Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy |
| 12 February 2004 | The Sublime – defining the state of awe | Janet Todd, Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow Annie Janowitz, Professor of Romantic Poetry at Queen Mary, University of London Peter de Bolla, Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge |
| 19 February 2004 | Rutherford – the father of nuclear physics | Simon Schaffer, Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Jim Al-Khalili, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Surrey Patricia Fara, Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge |
| 26 February 2004 | The Mughal Empire – the glory of India | Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Professor of Indian History and Culture at the University of Oxford Susan Stronge, Curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Imperial History at the University of St Andrews |
| 4 March 2004 | Dreams – is there a science of dreams? | VS Ramachandran, Professor and Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego Mark Solms, Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town Martin Conway, Professor of Psychology at the University of Durham |
| 11 March 2004 | The Norse Gods – the great myths of pagan Europe | Carolyne Larrington, Tutor in Medieval English at St John's College, Oxford Heather O'Donoghue, Vigfusson Rausing Reader in Ancient Icelandic Literature in the Department of English at Oxford University John Hines, Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University |
| 25 March 2004 | Theories of Everything – still the holy grail of physics? | Brian Greene, Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University and author of The Fabric of the Cosmos John Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and author of The Constants of Nature Val Gibson, particle physicist from the Cavendish Laboratory and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge |
| 1 April 2004 | China: The Warring States period – the fiery beginnings of Chinese civilisation | Chris Cullen, Director of the Needham Research Institute at Cambridge University Vivienne Lo, Lecturer at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine Carol Michaelson, Assistant Keeper of Chinese Art in the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum |
| 8 April 2004 | The Fall – how Adam and Eve affect us all | Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Griselda Pollock, Professor of Art History at the University of Leeds John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University |
| 15 April 2004 | The Later Romantics – the world of Byron, Keats and Shelley | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick Robert Woof, Director of the Wordsworth Trust Jennifer Wallace, Director of Studies in English at Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| 22 April 2004 | Hysteria – the normal state of human beings? | Juliet Mitchell, Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge and author of Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria and the Effects of Sibling Relations on the Human Condition Rachel Bowlby, Professor of English at the University of York who has written the introduction to the latest Penguin translation of Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer's Studies in Hysteria Brett Kahr, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London |
| 29 April 2004 | Tea – an empire in a teacup | Huw Bowen, Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester James Walvin, Professor of History at the University of York Amanda Vickery, Reader in History at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 6 May 2004 | Heroism – do we live in an heroic age? | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick and author of Plato and the Hero: Courage, Manliness and the Impersonal Good A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge |
| 13 May 2004 | Zero – everything about nothing | Robert D. Kaplan, co-founder of the Maths Circle at Harvard University and author of The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 20 May 2004 | Toleration – from medieval intolerance to religious freedom | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London David Wootton, Professor of Intellectual History at Queen Mary, University of London Sarah Barber, Senior Lecturer in History at Lancaster University |
| 27 May 2004 | Planets – the astronomy of the 21st century | Paul Murdin, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge Hugh Jones, planet hunter and Reader in Astrophysics at Liverpool John Moores University Carolin Crawford, Royal Society Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge |
| 3 June 2004 | Babylon – the great forgotten civilisation | Eleanor Robson, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University Irving Finkel, Curator in the Department of the Ancient Near East at the British Museum Andrew George, Professor of Babylonian at the School of Oriental and African Studies |
| 10 June 2004 | Empiricism – the English philosophy? | Judith Hawley, Senior Lecturer in English at Royal Holloway, University of London Murray Pittock, Professor of Scottish and Romantic Literature at the University of Manchester Jonathan Rée, philosopher and author of Philosophy and its Past |
| 17 June 2004 | Renaissance Magic – the great passion of the age | Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London Valery Rees, Renaissance historian and a translator of Ficino's letters Jonathan Sawday, Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde |
| 24 June 2004 | George Washington and the American Revolution – the most significant event in history | Carol Berkin, Professor of History at The City University of New York Simon Middleton, Lecturer in American History at the University of East Anglia Colin Bonwick, Professor Emeritus in American History at Keele University |
2004-2005
In 2005 listeners were invited to vote in a poll for the greatest philosopher in history. The winner was the subject of the final programme before the summer break. The vote was won by Karl Marx with 27.9% of the votes. Other shortlisted figures were David Hume (12.7%), Ludwig Wittgenstein (6.8%), Friedrich Nietzsche (6.5%), Plato (5.6%), Immanuel Kant (5.6%), Thomas Aquinas (4.8%), Socrates (4.8%), Aristotle (4.5%) and Karl Popper (4.2%).[2]
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2004 | Pi – the number that doesn't add up | Robert D. Kaplan, co-founder of the Maths Circle at Harvard University Eleanor Robson, Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick |
| 9 September 2004 | The Odyssey – Homer's epic tale of Odysseus' return home | Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek at King's College, Cambridge Edith Hall, Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History at Durham University Oliver Taplin, Classics Scholar and Translator at Oxford University |
| 16 September 2004 | Agincourt – the real facts behind the battle. | Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History at Southampton University Michael Jones, medieval historian and write John Watts, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford |
| 23 September 2004 | The Origins of Life – how it all began | Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University Linda Partridge, Biology and Biotechnology Research Council Professor at University College London |
| 30 September 2004 | Politeness – the great 18th century craze | Amanda Vickery, Reader in History at Royal Holloway, University of London David Wootton, Professor of History at the University of York John Mullan, Senior Lecturer in English at University College London |
| 7 October 2004 | Jean-Paul Sartre – a man condemned to be free | Jonathan Rée, philosopher and historia Benedict O'Donohoe, Principal Lecturer in French at the University of the West of England and Secretary of the ;UK Society for Sartrean Studies Christina Howells, Professor of French at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wadham College |
| 14 October 2004 | The Han Synthesis – creating the Chinese cosmos | Christopher Cullen, Director of the Needham Research Institute Carol Michaelson, Assistant Keeper of Chinese Art in the Department of Asia at the British Museum Roel Sterckx, Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge |
| 21 October 2004 | Witchcraft – Reformation Europe turned upon itself | Alison Rowlands, Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Essex Lyndal Roper, Fellow and Tutor in History at Balliol College, University of Oxford Malcolm Gaskill, Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Churchill College, Cambridge |
| 28 October 2004 | Rhetoric – from the original sophists to latter-day demagogues | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Thomas Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London Ceri Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Wales, Bangor |
| 4 November 2004 | Electrickery – the origins of electricity | Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Darwin College Patricia Fara, historian of science and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge Iwan Morus, Lecturer in the History of Science at Queen's University Belfast |
| 11 November 2004 | Zoroastrianism – was the religion of the Persian Empire the first monotheism? | Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Curator of Ancient Iranian Coins in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum Farrokh Vajifdar, Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society Alan Williams, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of Manchester |
| 18 November 2004 | Higgs Boson – the search for the God particle | Jim Al-Khalili, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Surrey David Wark, Professor of Experimental Physics at Imperial College London and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Roger Cashmore, Professor and former Research Director at CERN and now Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford |
| 25 November 2004 | The Venerable Bede – the father of English history | Richard Gameson, Reader in Medieval History at the University of Kent at Canterbury Sarah Foot, Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Sheffield Michelle Brown, manuscript specialist from the British Library |
| 2 December 2004 | Carl Gustav Jung – Discovering the Self | Brett Kahr, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London and a practising Freudian Ronald Hayman, writer and biographer of Jung |
| 9 December 2004 | Machiavelli and the Italian City States – high politics and low cunning in the Italian Renaissance | Quentin Skinner, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London Lisa Jardine, Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 16 December 2004 | The Second Law of Thermodynamics – the most important thing you will ever know | John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex Peter Atkins, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University Monica Grady, Head of Petrology and Meteoritics at the Natural History Museum |
| 23 December 2004 | Faust – the original pact with the Devil | Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh at the University College of Wales in Cardiff and Secretary of the Folklore Society Osman Durrani, Professor of German at the University of Kent at Canterbury Rosemary Ashton, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London |
| 30 December 2004 | The Roman Republic – what were Rome's republican ideals? | Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University Catherine Steel, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow Tom Holland, historian and author of Rubicon: the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic |
| 6 January 2005 | The Assassination of Tsar Alexander II – did his killing cause the Russian Revolution? | Orlando Figes, Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London Dominic Lieven, Professor of Russian Government, London School of Economics Catriona Kelly, Professor of Russian, Oxford University |
| 13 January 2005 | The Mind/Body Problem – does the mind rule the body or the body rule the mind? | A. C. Grayling, Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers' Magazine Sue James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 17 February 2005 | The Cambrian Explosion – the big bang of evolutionary history | Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology, Cambridge University Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, Open University Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds |
| 24 February 2005 | Alchemy – seeking the perfection of all things | Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London Lauren Kassell, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster |
| 3 March 2005 | Stoicism – the search for inner calm | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Warwick Jonathan Rée, philosopher and historian David Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of Cambridge |
| 10 March 2005 | Modernist Utopias – the original 21st century | John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Oxford University and editor of The Faber Book of Utopias Steve Connor, Professor of Modern Literature at Birkbeck, University of London Laura Marcus, Professor of English, University of Sussex |
| 17 March 2005 | Dark Energy – the unknown force breaking the universe apart | Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, Cambridge University Carolin Crawford, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge Roger Penrose, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Maths at Oxford University |
| 24 March 2005 | Angels – how they got their wings | Martin Palmer, theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Valery Rees, Renaissance Scholar at the School of Economic Science John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy, University of St Andrews |
| 31 March 2005 | John Ruskin – a different kind of Victorian | Dinah Birch, Professor of English, Liverpool University Keith Hanley, Professor of English Literature and Director of the Ruskin Programme, Lancaster University Stefan Collini, Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge |
| 7 April 2005 | Alfred and the Battle of Edington – without Alfred, no England? | Richard Gameson, Reader in Medieval History, University of Kent at Canterbury Sarah Foot, Professor of Early Medieval History, University of Sheffield John Hines, Professor in the School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University |
| 14 April 2005 | Archaeology and Imperialism – conquest of the past | Tim Champion, Professor of Archaeology, University of Southampton Richard Parkinson, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum Eleanor Robson, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford |
| 21 April 2005 | The Aeneid – the Roman history of the world | Edith Hall, Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History, Durham University Philip Hardie, Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at the University of Oxford Catharine Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History, Birkbeck College University of London |
| 28 April 2005 | Perception and the Senses – how do we see what we see? | Richard Gregory, senior research fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology, Bristol University David Moore, Director of the Medical Research Council Institute of Hearing Research, University of Nottingham Gemma Calvert, Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bath |
| 5 May 2005 | Abelard and Heloise – love, sex and theology in 12th century Paris | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Henrietta Leyser, Medieval Historian and Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford Michael Clanchy, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the Institute of Historical Research |
| 19 May 2005 | Beauty – the philosophy of beauty | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Julian Baggini, Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine |
| 26 May 2005 | The Terror – when Madame Guillotine ruled France | Mike Broers, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall Rebecca Spang, Lecturer in Modern History at University College London Tim Blanning, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge |
| 2 June 2005 | Renaissance Maths – the birth of modern mathematics? | Robert D. Kaplan, co-founder of the Maths Circle at Harvard University Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of Science and Fellow of Linacre College, University of Oxford Jackie Stedall, research fellow in the History of Mathematics, The Queen's College, Oxford |
| 9 June 2005 | The Scriblerus Club – the satirists-in-chief of the 18th century | John Mullan, Senior Lecturer in English, University College London Judith Hawley, Senior Lecturer in English, Royal Holloway, University of London Marcus Walsh, Kenneth Allott Professor of English Literature, University of Liverpool |
| 16 June 2005 | Paganism in the Renaissance – how the classical gods returned to the Christian cities | Tom Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London Charles Hope, Director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition, University of London Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 23 June 2005 | The K–T boundary – did the dinosaurs burn out or fade away? | Simon Kelley, Head of Department in the Department of Earth Sciences, Open University Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol |
| 30 June 2005 | Merlin – the original Welsh wizard | Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh at Cardiff University Stephen Knight, Distinguished Research Professor in English Literature at Cardiff University Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 7 July 2005 | Christopher Marlowe – poet, spy, atheist, murder victim? | Katherine Duncan-Jones, senior research fellow in the English Faculty of Oxford University Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature, University of Warwick Emma J. Smith, Lecturer in English, Oxford University |
| 14 July 2005 | Karl Marx – In Our Time's Greatest Philosopher | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Francis Wheen, journalist and author of a biography of Karl Marx Gareth Stedman Jones, Professor of Political Science at Cambridge University |
2005-2006
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2005 | Magnetism – an attractive history | Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster John Heilbron, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley |
| 6 October 2005 | Field of the Cloth of Gold – a Renaissance entente cordiale | Steven Gunn, Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University John Guy, Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge |
| 13 October 2005 | The Rise of the Mammals – life in a cold climate | Richard Corfield, Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the Open University Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London |
| 20 October 2005 | Cynicism – bold and populist, the history of a shocking philosophy | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Warwick Miriam Griffin, Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford |
| 27 October 2005 | Samuel Johnson and His Circle – life with the professional man of letters | John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London Jim McLaverty, Professor of English at Keele University |
| 3 November 2005 | Asteroids – celestial bodies from the beginning of time | Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, Open University Carolin Crawford, Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Cambridge |
| 10 November 2005 | Greyfriars and Blackfriars – philosophy, evangelism and fund-raising in the 13th century Church | Henrietta Leyser, medieval historian and Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford Alexander Murray, medieval historian and emeritus fellow of University College, Oxford |
| 17 November 2005 | Pragmatism – a practical philosophy fit for 20th century America | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Applied Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London and a Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers' Magazine |
| 24 November 2005 | The Graviton – the quest for the theoretical gravity particle | Roger Cashmore, Former Research Director at CERN and Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey |
| 1 December 2005 | Thomas Hobbes and the political philosophy of Leviathan | Quentin Skinner, Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge David Wootton, Professor of History at the University of York |
| 8 December 2005 | Artificial Intelligence – the quest for a machine that can think | Jon Agar, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge Alison Adam, Professor of Information Systems, Salford University |
| 15 December 2005 | The Peterloo massacre – democratic protest and brutal repression | Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter Sarah Richardson, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick |
| 22 December 2005 | Heaven – a journey through the afterlife | Valery Rees, Renaissance scholar and senior member of the Language Department at the School of Economic Science Martin Palmer, Theologian and Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture |
| 29 December 2005 | Aeschylus' Oresteia – the birth of tragedy | Edith Hall, Professor of Greek Cultural History at Durham University Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge |
| 5 January 2006 | The Oath – guaranteeing law, government and the army in the Classical world | Alan Sommerstein, Professor of Greek at the University of Nottingham Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge |
| 12 January 2006 | Prime Numbers – the building blocks of mathematics | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics and Fellow of Wadham College at the University of Oxford Robin Wilson, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University and Gresham Professor of Geometry |
| 19 January 2006 | Relativism – the battle against transcendent knowledge | Barry Smith, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Jonathan Rée, freelance philosopher who holds visiting professorships at the Royal College of Art and Roehampton University |
| 26 January 2006 | Seventeenth Century Print Culture – piety, populism and political protest | Kevin Sharpe, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Keele |
| 2 February 2006 | The Abbasid Caliphs – when Baghdad ruled the Muslim world. | Hugh Kennedy, Professor of History at the University of St Andrews Robert Irwin, Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |
| 9 February 2006 | Geoffrey Chaucer – the first Great English Poet | Carolyne Larrington, Tutor in Medieval English at St John's College, Oxford Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge |
| 16 February 2006 | Human Evolution – from early hominids to Homo sapiens | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics in the Galton Laboratory at University College London Fred Spoor, Professor of Evolutionary Anatomy at University College London |
| 23 February 2006 | Catherine the Great – the Enlightened Despot of Eighteenth Century Russia | Janet Hartley, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics Simon Dixon, Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds |
| 2 March 2006 | Friendship – thinking philosophically about our close companions | Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Mark Vernon, Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Syracuse University and London Metropolitan University |
| 9 March 2006 | Negative numbers – how they spread across civilizations | Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick Colva Roney-Dougal, Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 16 March 2006 | Don Quixote – Spanish romance and the first novel | Barry Ife, Cervantes Professor Emeritus at King's College London Edwin Williamson, Professor of Spanish Studies at the University of Oxford |
| 23 March 2006 | The Royal Society – the first club for experimental science | Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 30 March 2006 | The Carolingian Renaissance – the revival of early medieval Western Europe | Matthew Innes, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London Julia Smith, Edwards Professor of Medieval History at Glasgow University |
| 6 April 2006 | Goethe – formation of a German cultural icon | Tim Blanning, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge Sarah Colvin, Professor of German at the University of Edinburgh |
| 13 April 2006 | The Oxford Movement – Anglicans and Catholics in the 19th century | Sheridan Gilley, Emeritus Reader in Theology at the University of Durham Frances Knight, Senior Lecturer in Church History at the University of Wales, Lampeter |
| 20 April 2006 | The Search for Immunisation – and the battle against smallpox | Nadja Durbach, associate professor of History at the University of Utah
Chris Dye, Co-ordinator of the World Health Organisation's work on tuberculosis epidemiology |
| 27 April 2006 | The Great Exhibition – a wonder of the Victorian world | Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter Hermione Hobhouse, Architectural Historian and writer |
| 4 May 2006 | Astronomy and Empire – the link between colonial expansion and scientific discovery | Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Kristen Lippincott, former Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich |
| 11 May 2006 | Fairies – supernatural creatures that are neither gods nor humans | Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh at Cardiff University and Secretary of the Folklore Society Diane Purkiss, Fellow and Tutor of English at Keble College, Oxford |
| 18 May 2006 | John Stuart Mill – one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th Century | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Janet Radcliffe Richards, Reader in Bioethics at University College London |
| 25 May 2006 | Mathematics and Music – the science behind sound and composition | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford Robin Wilson, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University |
| 1 June 2006 | The Heart – its anatomical and cultural history | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York Fay Bound Alberti, research fellow at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester |
| 8 June 2006 | Uncle Tom's Cabin – the novel that started the American Civil War | Celeste-Marie Bernier, Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Nottingham Sarah Meer, Lecturer and Director of Studies in English at Selwyn College, Cambridge |
| 15 June 2006 | Carbon – the basis of life | Harry Kroto, Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University |
| 22 June 2006 | The Spanish Inquisition – one of the most barbaric episodes in European history | John Edwards, research fellow in Spanish at the University of Oxford Alexander Murray, emeritus fellow in History at University College, Oxford |
| 29 June 2006 | Galaxies – extra-galactic nebulae, black holes, stars and dark matter | John Gribbin, Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex Carolin Crawford, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge |
| 6 July 2006 | Pastoral Literature – the romantic idealisation of the countryside | Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge Laurence Lerner, former Professor of English at the University of Sussex |
| 13 July 2006 | Greek Comedy – sing as you revel and rout | Paul Cartledge, Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge Edith Hall, Professor of ama and Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London |
2006-2007
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2006 | Alexander von Humboldt – the remarkable career of the Prussian naturalist | Jason Wilson, Professor of Latin American Literature at University College London Patricia Fara, Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge |
| 5 October 2006 | Averroes – the battle between faith and reason | Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge Peter Adamson, Reader in Philosophy at King's College London |
| 12 October 2006 | The Diet of Worms – Luther's stand against the Church | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University David Bagchi, Lecturer in the History of Christian Thought at the University of Hull |
| 19 October 2006 | The Needham Question – did China lay the foundations of modern science? | Chris Cullen, Director of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge Tim Barrett, Professor of East Asian History at SOAS |
| 26 October 2006 | The Encyclopédie – the great project of the Enlightenment | Judith Hawley, Senior Lecturer in English at Royal Holloway, University of London Caroline Warman, Fellow and Tutor in French at Jesus College, Oxford |
| 2 November 2006 | The Poincaré conjecture – how a 19th-century mathematician changed how we think about the shape of the universe | June Barrow-Green, Lecturer in the History of Mathematics at the Open University Ian Stewart, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick |
| 9 November 2006 | Alexander Pope – "short is my date, but deathless my renown" | John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London Jim McLaverty, Professor of English at Keele University |
| 16 November 2006 | The Peasants' Revolt – a lasting legacy for popular uprising? | Miri Rubin, Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London Caroline Barron, Professorial Research Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 23 November 2006 | Altruism – how can evolutionary biology explain it? | Miranda Fricker, Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University |
| 30 November 2006 | The Speed of Light – a cosmic speed limit? | John Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Gresham Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University Iwan Morus, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at The University of Wales, Aberystwyth |
| 7 December 2006 | Anarchism – a question of authority? | John Keane, Professor of Politics at University of Westminster Ruth Kinna, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University |
| 14 December 2006 | Indian Maths – laying the foundations for modern numerals and zero as a number | George Gheverghese Joseph, Honorary Reader in Mathematics Education at Manchester University Colva Roney-Dougal, Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 21 December 2006 | Hell – its representation through the ages | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Margaret Kean, Tutor and Fellow in English at St Hilda's College, Oxford |
| 28 December 2006 | The Siege of Constantinople – the end of a thousand years of the Byzantine Empire | Roger Crowley, author and historian Judith Herrin, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London |
| 4 January 2007 | Jorge Luis Borges – the life and work of Argentina's best loved short story writer | Edwin Williamson, Professor of Spanish Studies at Oxford University Efraín Kristal, Professor of Comparative Literature at University of California, Los Angeles |
| 11 January 2007 | Mars – the search for life on the Red Planet | John Zarnecki, Professor of Space Science at the Open University and a team leader on the ExoMars mission Colin Pillinger, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University and leader of the Beagle 2 expedition to Mars |
| 18 January 2007 | The Jesuits – the school masters of Europe | Nigel Aston, Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Leicester Simon Ditchfield, Reader in History at the University of York |
| 25 January 2007 | Archimedes – the Greek mathematician and his Eureka moments | Jackie Stedall, Junior Research Fellow in the History of Mathematics at Queen's College, Oxford Serafina Cuomo, Reader in the History of Science at Imperial College London |
| 1 February 2007 | Genghis Khan – founder of one of the world's largest ever land-based empires | Peter Jackson, Professor of Medieval History at Keele University Naomi Standen, Lecturer in Chinese History at Newcastle University |
| 8 February 2007 | Karl Popper – his ideas challenged our approach to the philosophy of science | John Worrall, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics Anthony O'Hear, Weston Professor of Philosophy at Buckingham University |
| 15 February 2007 | Heart of Darkness – one of the most influential novels of the 20th century | Susan Jones, Fellow and Tutor in English at St Hilda's College, Oxford Robert Hampson, Professor of Modern Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 22 February 2007 | William Wilberforce – the man and his legacy | This broadcast was a documentary rather than a discussion |
| 1 March 2007 | The History of Optics – from telescopes to microscopes, a new way of seeing the world | Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science and Fellow of Linacre College at the University of Oxford |
| 8 March 2007 | Microbiology – the story of the invisible masters of the universe | John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science at Exeter University Anne Glover, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Aberdeen University |
| 15 March 2007 | Epistolary Literature – great novels of fictional letters | John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London Karen O'Brien, Professor in English at the University of Warwick |
| 22 March 2007 | Bismarck – The Iron Chancellor | Richard J Evans, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge
Christopher Clark, Reader in Modern European History at the University of Cambridge |
| 29 March 2007 | Anaesthetics – from ether frolics to pain free surgery | David Wilkinson, Consultant Anaesthetist at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and President of the History of Anaesthesia Society Stephanie Snow, Research Associate at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine at the University of Manchester |
| 5 April 2007 | St Hilda – the life and times of the Abbess of Whitby | John Blair, Fellow in History at The Queen's College, Oxford Rosemary Cramp, Emeritus Professor in Archaeology at Durham University |
| 12 April 2007 | The Opium Wars – a conflict that was to affect British-Chinese relations for generations | Yangwen Zheng, Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at the University of Manchester Lars Laamann, research fellow in Chinese History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London |
| 19 April 2007 | Symmetry – the pattern at the heart of our physical world | Fay Dowker, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford |
| 26 April 2007 | Greek and Roman Love Poetry – the pursuit of the Beloved from Sappho to Catullus | Nick Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and ama at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 3 May 2007 | Spinoza – believed that God and Nature were the same thing | Jonathan Rée, historian and philosopher and Visiting Professor at Roehampton University Sarah Hutton, Professor of English at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth |
| 10 May 2007 | Victorian Pessimism – fear and loathing in the late 19th century | Dinah Birch, Professor of English at the University of Liverpool Rosemary Ashton, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London |
| 17 May 2007 | Gravitational Waves – a new window on the universe | Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey Carolin Crawford, Royal Society Research Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridgee |
| 24 May 2007 | The Siege of Orleans – did Joan of Arc really rescue France? | Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton Malcolm Vale, Fellow and Tutor in History at St John's College, Oxford |
| 31 May 2007 | Occam's Razor – cutting medieval philosophy down to size | Anthony Kenny, philosopher and former Master of Balliol College, Oxford Marilyn Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University |
| 7 June 2007 | Siegfried Sassoon – the poet who survived | Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Lecturer in English at Birkbeck, University of London and a biographer of Sassoon Fran Brearton, Reader in English and Assistant Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at the University of Belfast |
| 14 June 2007 | Renaissance Astrology – "we are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied which way please them" | Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London Lauren Kassell, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge |
| 21 June 2007 | common sense Philosophy – "there is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it" | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Melissa Lane, Senior University Lecturer in History at Cambridge University |
| 28 June 2007 | Permian-Triassic Boundary – when 95% of life was killed off | Richard Corfield, Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the Open University Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol |
| 5 July 2007 | The Pilgrim Fathers – the original American dream | Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Harry Bennett, Reader in History and Head of Humanities at the University of Plymouth |
| 12 July 2007 | Madame Bovary – the literary sensation caused by Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary | Andy Martin, Lecturer in French at the University of Cambridge Mary Orr, Professor of French at the University of Southampton |
2007-2008
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2007 | Socrates – the man and the myth | Angie Hobbs, associate professor of Philosophy at Warwick University David Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University |
| 4 October 2007 | Antimatter – where has it all gone? | Val Gibson, Reader in High Energy Physics at the University of Cambridge Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Exeter College, University of Oxford |
| 11 October 2007 | Divine Right of Kings – "there's such divinity doth hedge a king" | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London Thomas Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 18 October 2007 | The Arabian Nights – The art of story-telling | Robert Graham Irwin, Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex |
| 25 October 2007 | Taste – the good, the bad and the ugly in 18th century | Amanda Vickery, Reader in History at Royal Holloway, University of London John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London |
| 1 November 2007 | Guilt – what is it good for? | Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at New College, Oxford Miranda Fricker, Oliver Davies, Professor of Christian Doctrine at King's College London. |
| 8 November 2007 | Avicenna – wine, women and philosophy | Peter Adamson, Reader in Philosophy at King's College London Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge |
| 15 November 2007 | The Discovery of Oxygen – feuds and revolutions at the birth of modern chemistry | Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Jenny Uglow, Hasok Chang, Reader in Philosophy of Science at University College London |
| 22 November 2007 | The Prelude – the greatest poem in the English language? | Rosemary Ashton, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London Stephen Gill, University Professor of English Literature and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford |
| 29 November 2007 | The Fibonacci Sequence – – the numbers in nature | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford Jackie Stedall, Junior Research Fellow in History of Mathematics at Queen's College, Oxford |
| 6 December 2007 | Genetic Mutation – the error-strewn secrets of life | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics in the Galton Laboratory, University College London Adrian Woolfson, lectures in Medicine at Cambridge University |
| 13 December 2007 | The Sassanian Empire – – in the shadow of Ancient Persia | Hugh N. Kennedy, Professor of Arabic in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Curator of Iranian and Islamic Coins in the British Museum |
| 20 December 2007 | The Four Humours – yellow bile, blood, choler and phlegm in the original theory of everything | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York Vivian Nutton, Professor of the History of Medicine at University College London |
| 27 December 2007 | The Nicene Creed – when Christ became God | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Caroline Humfress, Reader in History at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 3 January 2008 | Albert Camus – Rebel with a Cause | Peter Dunwoodie, Professor of French Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London David Walker, Professor of French at the University of Sheffield |
| 10 January 2008 | The Charge of the Light Brigade – "All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred" | Mike Broers, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall Trudi Tate, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge |
| 17 January 2008 | The Fisher King – the wound that does not heal | Carolyne Larrington, Tutor in Medieval English at St John's College, Oxford Stephen Knight, Distinguished Research Professor in English Literature at Cardiff University |
| 24 January 2008 | Plate Tectonics – the day the Earth moved | Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the Open University Joe Cann, Senior Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds |
| 31 January 2008 | The Court of Rudolf II – the lost powerhouse of Renaissance ideas | Peter Forshaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter Howard Hotson, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Oxford |
| 7 February 2008 | The Social Contract – Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and the Origins of Society | Melissa Lane, Senior University Lecturer in History at Cambridge University Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 14 February 2008 | The Statue of Liberty – From France with love... | Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern Contemporary History at University College London |
| 21 February 2008 | The Multiverse – the universe is not enough | Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge Fay Dowker, Reader in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College |
| 28 February 2008 | King Lear – Shakespeare's finest fairy tale | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick Katherine Duncan-Jones, Tutorial Fellow in English at Somerville College, Oxford |
| 6 March 2008 | Ada Lovelace – prophet of the computer age | Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor at Clare College, Cambridge Doron Swade, Visiting Professor in the History of Computing at Portsmouth University |
| 13 March 2008 | The Greek Myths – soap opera of the gods | Nick Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London Richard Buxton, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 20 March 2008 | Søren Kierkegaard – fear and trembling in Copenhagen | Jonathan Rée, Visiting Professor at Roehampton University and the Royal College of Art Clare Carlisle, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool |
| 27 March 2008 | The Dissolution of the Monasteries – religion in ruins | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University Diane Purkiss, Fellow and Tutor at Keble College, Oxford |
| 3 April 2008 | Newton's Laws of Motion – they put a man on the Moon | Simon Schaffer, Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College Raymond Flood, University Lecturer in Computing Studies and Mathematics and Senior Tutor at Kellogg College, Oxford |
| 10 April 2008 | The Norman Yoke – 1067 and all that | Sarah Foot, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Christ Church, Oxford Richard Gameson, Professor in the Department of History at Durham University |
| 17 April 2008 | Yeats and Irish Politics – "a terrible beauty is born" | Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Oxford University and Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford Fran Brearton, Reader in English at Queen's University, Belfast and Assistant Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry |
| 24 April 2008 | Materialism – are we living in a material world? | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Caroline Warman, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford |
| 1 May 2008 | The Enclosures – dividing the country | Rosemary Sweet, Director of the Centre for Urban History at the University of Leicester Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow |
| 8 May 2008 | The Brain: A History – history of ideas about the human brain | Vivian Nutton, Professor of the History of Medicine at University College London Jonathan Sawday, Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde |
| 15 May 2008 | The Library at Nineveh – | Eleanor Robson, Senior Lecturer at Cambridge University and Vice-Chair of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq Karen Radner, Lecturer in the Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London |
| 22 May 2008 | The Black Death – a plague on all our houses | Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London Samuel Cohn, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow |
| 29 May 2008 | Probability – heads or tails? | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford Colva Roney-Dougal, Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 5 June 2008 | Lysenkoism – political campaign against genetics and science-based agriculture in the Soviet Union | Robert Service, Professor of Russian History at the University of Oxford Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London |
| 12 June 2008 | The Riddle of the Sands – how Britain learned to fear the Germans | Richard J. Evans, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge Rosemary Ashton, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London |
| 19 June 2008 | The Music of the Spheres – a dose of heavenly harmonies | Peter Forshaw, Postdoctoral Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford |
| 26 June 2008 | The Arab Conquests – the 7th century new world order | Hugh N. Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge |
| 3 July 2008 | The Metaphysical Poets – sex and death in the 17th century | Thomas Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and ama at the University of Nottingham |
| 10 July 2008 | Tacitus – The Decadence of Rome | Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London Ellen O'Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol |
2008-2009
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2008 | Miracles – will they never cease? Religion | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture Janet Soskice, Reader in Philosophical Theology at Cambridge University |
| 2 October 2008 | The Translation Movement – movement in Baghdad which translated Aristotle and Greek classics into Arabic | Peter Adamson, Reader in Philosophy at King's College London Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge |
| 9 October 2008 | Gödel's incompleteness theorems – the dirty secret of maths science |
Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Wadham College, University of Oxford John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Gresham Professor of Geometry |
| 16 October 2008 | Vitalism – the spark of life | Patricia Fara, Fellow of Clare College and Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University Andrew Mendelsohn, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science and Medicine at Imperial College, University of London |
| 23 October 2008 | Dante's Inferno – to Hell and back | Margaret Kean, University Lecturer in English and College Fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford John Took, Professor of Dante Studies at University College London |
| 30 October 2008 | Simón Bolívar – the liberator of Spanish America | Anthony McFarlane, Professor of Comparative American Studies at the University of Warwick John Fisher, Professor of Latin American History at the University of Liverpool |
| 6 November 2008 | Aristotle's Politics – a perfect society? | Angie Hobbs, associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick Paul Cartledge, AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge |
| 13 November 2008 | Neuroscience – does the brain rule the mind? | Martin Conway, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds, Gemma Calvert, Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at WMG, University of Warwick |
| 20 November 2008 | The Baroque – – the misshapen pearl of Europe | T. C. W. Blanning, Professor of Modern European History and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Nigel Aston, Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Leicester |
| 27 November 2008 | The Great Reform Act: reform – but was it great? | Dinah Birch, Professor of English at Liverpool University Michael Bentley, Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews |
| 4 December 2008 | Heat: A History -from fire to thermodynamics | Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College Hasok Chang, Professor of Philosophy of Science at University College London |
| 11 December 2008 | The Great Fire of London – London's burning, fetch the engines... | Lisa Jardine, Centenary Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London Vanessa Harding, Reader in London History at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 18 December 2008 | The Physics of Time – does time even exist? | Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University |
| 1 January 2009 | The Consolation of Philosophy – a new year's message from Boethius | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Melissa Lane, Senior University Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge |
| 5 January 2009 | Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin | Jim Moore, Professor of the History of Science at The Open University Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London |
| 6 January 2009 | Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle | Jim Moore, Professor of the History of Science at The Open University Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London |
| 7 January 2009 | Darwin: On the Origin of Species | Jim Moore, Steve Jones, geneticist at University College London Jim Secord, the Darwin Correspondence Project |
| 8 January 2009 | Darwin: Life After Origins | Jim Moore, geneticist at University College London Steve Jones, Darwin expert |
| 15 January 2009 | Thoreau and the American Idyll – America in the Wilderness | Kathleen Burk, Professor of American History at University College London Tim Morris, Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Dundee |
| 22 January 2009 | A History of History – how the writing of history has evolved | Paul Cartledge, AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge John Burrow, emeritus fellow of Balliol College, Oxford |
| 29 January 2009 | A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift – 18th century satire gets close to the bone | John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London Judith Hawley, Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 5 February 2009 | The Brothers Grimm: fairy tales, Grimm – but not as we know them | Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in Folklore at Cardiff University Marina Warner, Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex |
| 12 February 2009 | The Destruction of Carthage – "Delenda Carthago!" | Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge Jo Quinn, Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford |
| 19 February 2009 | The Observatory at Jaipur – Indian astronomy on the cusp of colonialism | Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews David Arnold, Professor of Asian and Global History at the University of Warwick |
| 26 February 2009 | The Waste Land and Modernity – "I will show you fear in a handful of dust" | Steve Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College, University of London Fran Brearton, Reader in English at Queen's University, Belfast |
| 5 March 2009 | The Measurement problem in Physics – Man is not the measure of all things | Basil Hiley, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Birkbeck, University of London Simon Saunders, Reader in Philosophy of Physics and University Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at the University of Oxford |
| 12 March 2009 | The Library of Alexandria – of all the books in all the world... | Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge Matthew Nicholls, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading |
| 19 March 2009 | The Boxer Rebellion – "Kill all Foreigners!" | Frances Wood, Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford R. G. Tiedemann, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Christianity in China |
| 26 March 2009 | The School of Athens – picturing Greece in Renaissance minds | Angie Hobbs, associate professor in Philosophy at the University of Warwick Valery Rees, Renaissance scholar and senior member of the Language Department at the School of Economic Science |
| 2 April 2009 | Baconian Science – Francis Bacon and the birth of modern science | Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Lancaster Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor at Clare College, Cambridge |
| 9 April 2009 | Brave New World – would Soma, free love and the feelies be so bad? | David Bradshaw, Reader and Tutor in English Literature at Worcester College, Oxford Daniel Pick, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 16 April 2009 | Suffragism – the long march towards votes for women | Krista Cowman, Professor of History at the University of Lincoln June Purvis, Professor of Women's & Gender History at the University of Portsmouth |
| 23 April 2009 | The Building of St Petersburg – "a window through which Russia looks on Europe" | Simon Dixon, Sir Bernard Pares Professor of Russian History at University College London Janet Hartley, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics |
| 30 April 2009 | The Vacuum of Space – a programme about nothing? | Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Exeter College, Oxford Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Professor in Astrophysics at Oxford University |
| 7 May 2009 | Magna Carta – foundation of law or rich man's charter? | Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia David Carpenter, Professor of Medieval History at King's College London |
| 14 May 2009 | The Siege of Vienna – a clash of civilisations? | Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter Andrew Wheatcroft, Professor of International Publishing at Stirling University |
| 21 May 2009 | The Whale: A History | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London Eleanor Weston, a mammalian palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London |
| 28 May 2009 | Saint Paul – the first Christian | John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University |
| 4 June 2009 | The Trial of Charles I – the original courtroom drama | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London Diane Purkiss, Fellow and Tutor at Keble College, Oxford |
| 11 June 2009 | The Augustan Age – art and propaganda at the birth of the Roman Empire | Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck College, University of Londo |
| 18 June 2009 | Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy – theatre of blood | Jonathan Bate, Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and ama at the University of Nottingham |
| 25 June 2009 | The Sunni-Shia Split: after Muhammad | Amira Bennison, Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge Robert Gleave, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter |
| 2 July 2009 | Logical Positivism – or is it? | Barry Smith, Professor of Philosophy at the University of London Nancy Cartwright, Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics |
| 9 July 2009 | Ediacara biota – the first animal? | Richard Corfield, Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the Open University Martin Brasier, Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford |
2009-2010
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2009 | St Thomas Aquinas – his profound influence on Western faith and philosophy | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews |
| 24 September 2009 | Leibniz vs Newton – who first calculated the calculus? | Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor at Clare College, Cambridge |
| 1 October 2009 | Akhenaten – history's first individual | Richard Parkinson, Egyptologist at the British Museum Elizabeth Frood, Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Oxford |
| 8 October 2009 | The Dreyfus Affair – the scandal that tore France apart | Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University Robert Tombs, Professor of French History at Cambridge University |
| 15 October 2009 | The Death of Elizabeth I – plots, plague and politics | John Guy, Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge Clare Jackson, Lecturer and Director of Studies in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge |
| 22 October 2009 | The Geological Formation of Britain – our long journey north | Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology, University of Leeds |
| 29 October 2009 | Schopenhauer – the tyranny of the Will | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London Beatrice Han-Pile, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex |
| 5 November 2009 | The Siege of Münster – Apocalypse 1535 | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford Charlotte Methuen, University Research Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and Lecturer in Church History and Liturgy at Ripon College Cuddesdon |
| 12 November 2009 | The Discovery of Radiation – from radio waves to gamma rays | Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Exeter College, University of Oxford |
| 19 November 2009 | Sparta – the anti-Athens | Paul Cartledge, A G Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and ama at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 26 November 2009 | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce's early masterpiece | Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History and Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford Katherine Mullin, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Leeds |
| 3 December 2009 | The Silk Road – from Dunhuang to Samarkand | Frances Wood, Head of the Chinese Section at the British Library Tim Barrett, Professor of East Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies |
| 10 December 2009 | Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans – maths and mysticism | Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick Serafina Cuomo, Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 24 December 2009 | The Samurai – from civil warriors to civil servants | Angus Lockyer, Lecturer in Japanese History and Chair of the Japan Research Centre at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Nicola Liscutin, Programme Director of Japanese Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 31 December 2009 | Mary Wollstonecraft – the Vindicator of the Rights of Woman | Karen O'Brien, Professor of English at the University of Warwick John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London |
| 4–7 January 2010 | The History of the Royal Society | Four daily programmes in documentary format |
| 14 January 2010 | The Frankfurt School – why no Revolution? | Jonathan Rée, a freelance historian and philosopher, currently Visiting Professor at Roehampton University and at the Royal College of Art Esther Leslie, Professor in Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 21 January 2010 | The Glencoe Massacre – "Murder Under Trust" | Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow Karin Bowie, Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow |
| 28 January 2010 | Silas Marner – George Eliot's 1861 novel | Rosemary Ashton, Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, London Dinah Birch, Professor of English at Liverpool University |
| 4 February 2010 | Ibn Khaldun | Robert Hoyland, Professor of Islamic History at the University of Oxford Robert Graham Irwin, Senior Research Associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London |
| 11 February 2010 | The Unintended Consequences of Mathematics | John D. Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London Colva Roney-Dougal, Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 18 February 2010 | The Indian Rebellion | Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Imperial and Indian History at the University of St Andrews Faisal Devji, University Reader in Indian History at St Antony's College, University of Oxford |
| 25 February 2010 | Calvinism | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London Susan Hardman Moore, Senior Lecturer in Divinity at the University of Edinburgh |
| 4 March 2010 | The Infant Brain | Usha Goswami, Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and Director of its Centre for Neuroscience in Education Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at the Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 11 March 2010 | Boudica | Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in Folklore at Cardiff University Richard Hingley, Professor of Roman Archaeology at Durham University |
| 18 March 2010 | The Scream and Edvard Munch | David Jackson, Professor of Russian and Scandinavian Art Histories at the University of Leeds Dorothy Rowe, Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Bristol |
| 25 March 2010 | The History of the City (1 of 2) | Peter Hall, Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London Julia Merritt, associate professor of History at the University of Nottingham |
| 1 April 2010 | The History of the City (2 of 2) | Peter Hall, Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London Tristram Hunt, lecturer in History at Queen Mary College at the University of London |
| 8 April 2010 | William Hazlitt | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 15 April 2010 | The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation | Saul David, Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham Saul Dubow, Professor of History at the University of Sussex |
| 22 April 2010 | Roman Satire | Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University Denis Feeney, Professor of Classics and Giger Professor of Latin at Princeton University |
| 29 April 2010 | The Great Wall of China | Julia Lovell, Lecturer in Chinese History at Birkbeck College, University of London Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford |
| 6 May 2010 | The Cool Universe | Carolin Crawford, Member of the Institute of Astronomy, and Fellow of Emmanuel College, at the University of Cambridge Paul Murdin, Visiting Professor of Astronomy at Liverpool John Moores University's Astronomy Research Institute |
| 13 May 2010 | The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James | Jonathan Rée, Freelance philosopher John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews |
| 20 May 2010 | The Cavendish Family | Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge |
| 27 May 2010 | Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists | Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies and Academic Dean for Arts at Queen Mary, University of London David Ekserdjian, Professor of History of Art and Film at the University of Leicester |
| 3 June 2010 | Edmund Burke | Karen O'Brien, Professor of English at the University of Warwick Richard Bourke, Senior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 10 June 2010 | Al-Biruni | James Montgomery, Professor of Classical Arabic at the University of Cambridge Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London |
| 17 June 2010 | The Neanderthals | Simon Conway Morris, Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum and Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 24 June 2010 | Antarctica | Jane Francis, Professor of Paleoclimatology at the University of Leeds Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute and Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Cambridge |
| 1 July 2010 | Athelstan | Sarah Foot, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Christ Church, Oxford John Hines, Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University |
| 8 July 2010 | Pliny's Natural History (Pliny) | Serafina Cuomo, Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck, University of London Aude Doody, Lecturer in Classics at University College, Dublin |
2010-2011
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 23 September 2010 | Imaginary numbers | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick |
| 30 September 2010 | The Delphic Oracle | Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 7 October 2010 | The Spanish Armada | Diane Purkiss, Fellow and Tutor at Keble College, Oxford Maria Jose Rodriguez-Salgado, [2], Professor in International History at the London School of Economics |
| 14 October 2010 | Sturm und Drang | T. C. W. Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at Cambridge University Susanne Kord, [3] Professor of German at University College, London |
| 21 October 2010 | History of logic | A. C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London Peter Millican, Gilbert Ryle Fellow in Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford |
| 28 October 2010 | The Unicorn | Juliette Wood, [6], Associate Lecturer in Folklore at Cardiff University Lauren Kassell, [7], Lecturer in the History and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge |
| 4 November 2010 | Women and Enlightenment Science | Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor at Clare College, Cambridge Karen O'Brien, [9], Professor of English at the University of Warwick |
| 11 November 2010 | The Volga Vikings | James Montgomery, professor of Classical Arabic at the University of Cambridge Neil Price, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen |
| 18 November 2010 | Foxe's Book of Martyrs | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of Church history at the University of Oxford Elizabeth Evenden, Lecturer in Book History at Brunel University |
| 25 November 2010 | The History of Metaphor | Steven Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London Tom Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Sussex |
| 2 December 2010 | Cleopatra | Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London |
| 9 December 2010 | Thomas Edison | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science, University of Cambridge Kathleen Burk, Professor of History, University College London |
| 16 December 2010 | Daoism | Tim Barrett, Professor of East Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture |
| 23 December 2010 | The Industrial Revolution | Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter Pat Hudson, Professor Emerita of History at Cardiff University |
| 30 December 2010 | Consequences of the Industrial Revolution | Jane Humphries, Professor of Economic History and Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford Emma Griffin, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of East Anglia |
| 6 January 2011 | Childe Harold's Pilgrimage | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick Jane Stabler, Reader in Romanticism at the University of St Andrews |
| 13 January 2011 | Random and Pseudorandom | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford Colva Roney-Dougal, Senior Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 20 January 2011 | The Mexican Revolution | Alan Knight, Professor of the History of Latin America at the University of Oxford Paul Garner, Cowdray Professor of Spanish at the University of Leeds |
| 27 January 2011 | Aristotle's Poetics | Angie Hobbs, associate professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick Nick Lowe, Reader in Classical Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 3 February 2011 | The Battle of Bannockburn | Matthew Strickland, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow Fiona Watson, Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Dundee |
| 10 February 2011 | The Nervous System | Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford Vivian Nutton, Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine at University College, London |
| 17 February 2011 | Maimonides | John Joseph Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews Sarah Stroumsa, Professor of Arabic Studies and currently Rector at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| 24 February 2011 | The Taiping Rebellion | Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford Frances Wood, Head of the Chinese Section at the British Library |
| 3 March 2011 | The Age of the Universe | Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge Carolin Crawford, Member of the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge |
| 10 March 2011 | Free Will (500th programme) | Simon Blackburn, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge Helen Beebee, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham |
| 17 March 2011 | The Medieval University | Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London Ian Wei, Senior Lecturer in Medieval European History at the University of Bristol |
| 24 March 2011 | The Dawn of the Iron Age | Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford Sue Hamilton, Professor of Prehistory at University College London |
| 31 March 2011 | The Bhagavad Gita | Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University Julius J. Lipner, Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion and Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge |
| 7 April 2011 | Octavia Hill | Dinah Birch, Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Liverpool University Lawrence Goldman, Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford |
| 14 April 2011 | The Neutrino | Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Exeter College at the University of Oxford Susan Cartwright, Senior Lecturer in Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield |
| 21 April 2011 | The Pelagian Controversy | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture Caroline Humfress, Reader in History at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 28 April 2011 | Cogito Ergo Sum | Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London John Cottingham, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London |
| 5 May 2011 | Islamic Law and its Origins | Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London Robert Gleave, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter |
| 12 May 2011 | The Anatomy of Melancholy | Julie Sanders, Professor of English Literature and ama at the University of Nottingham Mary Ann Lund, Lecturer in English at the University of Leicester |
| 19 May 2011 | Custer's Last Stand | Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Adam Smith, Senior Lecturer in American History at University College London |
| 26 May 2011 | Xenophon | Paul Cartledge, [12] A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University Edith Hall, [13] Professor of Classics and ama at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 2 June 2011 | Battle of Stamford Bridge | John Hines, [15] Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Lecturer in Scandinavian History of the Viking Age at Clare Hall, Cambridge |
| 9 June 2011 | The Origins of Infectious Disease | Steve Jones, [17] Professor of Genetics at University College London Roy Anderson, [18] Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London |
| 16 June 2011 | John Wycliff and the Lollards | Anthony Kenny, Philosopher and former Master of Balliol College, Oxford Anne Hudson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval English at the University of Oxford |
| 23 June 2011 | Malthusianism | Karen O'Brien, [20] Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Birmingham Mark Philp, [21] Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford |
| 30 June 2011 | Tennyson's In Memoriam | Dinah Birch, Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Liverpool University, Seamus Perry, Fellow and Tutor in English at Balliol College, University of Oxford, |
| 7 July 2011 | The Minoan Civilisation | John Bennet, [23] Professor of Aegean Archaeology at Sheffield University Ellen Adams, [24] Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at King's College London |
2011-2012
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 15 September 2011 | The Hippocratic Oath | Vivian Nutton, Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine at University College London Helen King, Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University |
| 22 September 2011 | Shinto | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture Richard Bowring, Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge |
| 29 September 2011 | The Etruscan Civilisation | Phil Perkins, Professor of Archaeology at the Open University David Ridgway, senior research fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies at the University of London |
| 6 October 2011 | David Hume | Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford Helen Beebee, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham |
| 13 October 2011 | The Ming Voyages | Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford Julia Lovell, Lecturer in Chinese History at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 20 October 2011 | Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People | Tim Blanning, Former Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge Tamar Garb, Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art at University College London |
| 27 October 2011 | The Siege of Tenochtitlan | Alan Knight, Professor of the History of Latin America at the University of Oxford Elizabeth Graham, Professor of Mesoamerican Archaeology at University College, London |
| 3 November 2011 | The Moon | Paul Murdin, Visiting Professor of Astronomy at Liverpool John Moores University Carolin Crawford, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College and Fellow and College Lecturer at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge |
| 10 November 2011 | The Continental-Analytic Split | Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy at New College, Oxford Beatrice Han-Pile, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex |
| 17 November 2011 | Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy | Liba Taub, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford |
| 24 November 2011 | Judas Maccabeus | Helen Bond, Senior Lecturer in the New Testament at University of Edinburgh Tessa Rajak, Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Reading |
| 1 December 2011 | Christina Rossetti | Dinah Birch, Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Liverpool University Rhian Williams, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century English Literature at the University of Glasgow |
| 8 December 2011 | Heraclitus | Angie Hobbs, associate professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick Peter Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London |
| 15 December 2011 | The Concordat of Worms | Henrietta Leyser, Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford Kate Cushing, Reader in Medieval History at Keele University |
| 22 December 2011 | Robinson Crusoe | Karen O'Brien, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education at the University of Birmingham Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 29 December 2011 | Macromolecules | Tony Ryan, Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College |
| 2–6 January 2012 | The Written World | Documentary series
|
| 12 January 2012 | The Safavid Dynasty | Robert Gleave, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter Emma Loosley, Senior Lecturer at the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at the University of Manchester |
| 19 January 2012 | 1848: Year of Revolution | Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cambridge Lucy Riall, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 26 January 2012 | The Scientific method | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge John Worrall, Professor of the Philosophy of Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science |
| 2 February 2012 | The Kama Sutra | Julius Lipner, Professor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion at the University of Cambridge Jessica Frazier, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies |
| 9 February 2012 | Erasmus | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge |
| 16 February 2012 | The An Lushan Rebellion | Frances Wood, Lead Curator of Chinese at the British Library Naomi Standen, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham |
| 23 February 2012 | Conductors and Semiconductors | Frank Close, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford Jenny Nelson, Professor of Physics at Imperial College London |
| 1 March 2012 | Benjamin Franklin | Simon Middleton, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Sheffield Simon Newman, Sir Denis Brogan Professor of American History at the University of Glasgow |
| 8 March 2012 | Lyrical Ballads | Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London Jonathan Bate, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford |
| 15 March 2012 | Vitruvius and De Architectura | Serafina Cuomo, Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck, University of London Robert Tavernor, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the London School of Economics |
| 22 March 2012 | Moses Mendelssohn | Christopher Clark, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge Abigail Green, Tutor and Fellow in History at the University of Oxford |
| 29 March 2012 | The Measurement of Time | Kristen Lippincott, Former Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich Jim Bennett, Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford |
| 5 April 2012 | George Fox and the Quakers | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London John Coffey, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leicester |
| 12 April 2012 | Early Geology | Stephen Pumfrey, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science at Lancaster University Andrew Scott, Professor of Applied Palaeobotany at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 19 April 2012 | Neoplatonism | Angie Hobbs, associate professor of Philosophy and Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Warwick Peter Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London |
| 26 April 2012 | Battle of Bosworth Field | Anne Curry, Professor of Medieval History and Dean of Humanities at the University of Southampton Steven Gunn, Tutor and Fellow in Modern History at Merton College, Oxford |
| 3 May 2012 | Voltaire's Candide | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York Nicholas Cronk, Professor of French Literature and Director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford |
| 10 May 2012 | Game Theory | Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick Andrew Colman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leicester |
| 17 May 2012 | Clausewitz and On War | Saul David, Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham Hew Strachan, Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford |
| 24 May 2012 | Marco Polo | Frances Wood, Lead Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library Joan Pau Rubies, Reader in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science |
| 31 May 2012 | The Trojan War | Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College London Ellen Adams, Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at King's College London |
| 7 June 2012 | King Solomon | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture Philip Alexander, Emeritus Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester |
| 14 June 2012 | James Joyce's Ulysses | Steven Connor, Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London Jeri Johnson, Senior Fellow in English at Exeter College, Oxford |
| 21 June 2012 | Annie Besant | Lawrence Goldman, Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford David Stack, Reader in History at the University of Reading |
| 28 June 2012 | Al-Kindi | Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic Elect at the University of Cambridge |
| 5 July 2012 | Scepticism | Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford Melissa Lane, Professor of Politics at Princeton University |
| 12 July 2012 | Hadrian's Wall | Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews David Breeze, Former Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland and Visiting Professor of Archaeology at the University of Durham |
2012-2013
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2012 | The Cell | Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London Cathie Martin, MBE,[3] Group Leader at the John Innes Centre and Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia |
| 20 September 2012 | The Druids | Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University |
| 27 September 2012 | The Ontological Argument | John Haldane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews Peter Millican, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford |
| 4 October 2012 | Gerald of Wales | Henrietta Leyser, Emeritus Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford Michelle Brown, Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London |
| 11 October 2012 | Hannibal | Ellen O'Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol Mark Woolmer, Senior Tutor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham |
| 18 October 2012 | Caxton and the Printing Press | Richard Gameson, Professor of the History of the Book at the University of Durham Julia Boffey, Professor of Medieval Studies in the English Department at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 25 October 2012 | Fermat's Last Theorem | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics & Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford Vicky Neale, Fellow and Director of Studies in Mathematics at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge |
| 1 November 2012 | The Anarchy | John Gillingham, Emeritus Professor of History at the London School of Economics and Political Science Louise Wilkinson, Reader in Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University |
| 8 November 2012 | The Upanishads | Jessica Frazier, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at the University of Oxford Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University |
| 15 November 2012 | Simone Weil | Beatrice Han-Pile, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex Stephen Plant, Runcie Fellow and Dean of Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge |
| 22 November 2012 | The Borgias | Evelyn Welch, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London Catherine Fletcher, Lecturer in Public History at the University of Sheffield |
| 29 November 2012 | Crystallography | Judith Howard, Director of the Biophysical Sciences Institute and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Durham Chris Hammond, Life Fellow in Material Science at the University of Leeds |
| 6 December 2012 | Bertrand Russell | A. C. Grayling, Master of the New College of the Humanities and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford Mike Beaney, Professor of Philosophy at the University of York |
| 13 December 2012 | Shahnameh of Ferdowsi | Narguess Farzad, Senior Fellow in Persian at SOAS, University of London Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| 20 December 2012 | The South Sea Bubble | Anne Murphy, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire Helen Paul, Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton |
| 27 December 2012 | The Cult of Mithras | Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews Almut Hintze, Zartoshty Professor of Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London |
| 10 January 2013 | Le Morte d'Arthur | Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge Helen Fulton, Professor of Medieval Literature and Head of Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York |
| 17 January 2013 | Comets | Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University Paul Murdin, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge |
| 24 January 2013 | Romulus and Remus | Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge Peter Wiseman, Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter |
| 31 January 2013 | The War of 1812 | Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Lawrence Goldman, Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford |
| 7 February 2013 | Epicureanism | Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield David Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge |
| 14 February 2013 | Ice ages | Jane Francis, Professor of Paleoclimatology at the University of Leeds Richard Corfield, research fellow in Geology at the University of Oxford |
| 21 February 2013 | Decline and Fall | David Bradshaw, Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, Oxford John Bowen, Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of York |
| 28 February 2013 | Pitt Rivers | Adam Kuper, Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Boston University Richard Bradley, Professor in Archaeology at the University of Reading |
| 7 March 2013 | Absolute Zero | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge Stephen Blundell, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford |
| 14 March 2013 | Chekhov | Catriona Kelly, Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford Cynthia Marsh, Emeritus Professor of Russian ama and Literature at the University of Nottingham |
| 21 March 2013 | Alfred Russel Wallace | Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London George Beccaloni, Curator of Cockroaches and Related Insects and Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project at the Natural History Museum |
| 28 March 2013 | Water | Hasok Chang, Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at University College London |
| 4 April 2013 | Japan's Sakoku Period | Richard Bowring, Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge Andrew Cobbing, associate professor of History at the University of Nottingham |
| 11 April 2013 | Amazons | Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University Chiara Franceschini, Teaching Fellow at University College London and an Academic Assistant at the Warburg Institute |
| 18 April 2013 | Putney Debates | Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University |
| 25 April 2013 | Montaigne | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at York University Terence Cave, Emeritus Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford |
| 2 May 2013 | Gnosticism | Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture Caroline Humfress, Reader in History at Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 9 May 2013 | Icelandic Sagas | Carolyne Larrington, Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John's College, Oxford Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, [26] Lecturer in Scandinavian History at the University of Cambridge |
| 16 May 2013 | Cosmic rays | Carolin Crawford, Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a member of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge Alan Watson, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds |
| 23 May 2013 | Lévi-Strauss | Adam Kuper, Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Boston University Christina Howells, Professor of French at Oxford University |
| 30 May 2013 | Queen Zenobia | Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College London Kate Cooper, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester |
| 6 June 2013 | Relativity | Ruth Gregory, Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Durham University Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge |
| 13 June 2013 | Prophecy | Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh Justin Meggitt, University Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion and the Origins of Christianity at the University of Cambridge |
| 20 June 2013 | The Physiocrats | Richard Whatmore, Professor of Intellectual History & the History of political thought at the University of Sussex Joel Felix, Professor of History at the University of Reading |
| 27 June 2013 | Romance of the Three Kingdoms | Frances Wood, Former Lead Curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library Craig Clunas, Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford |
| 4 July 2013 | The Invention of Radio | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge Elizabeth Bruton, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Leeds |
2013-2014
2014-2015
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2014 | e | Colva Roney-Dougal, [119] Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews June Barrow-Green, [120] Senior Lecturer in the History of Maths at the Open University |
| 2 October 2014 | Julius Caesar | Christopher Pelling, [122] Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford Catherine Steel, [123] Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow |
| 9 October 2014 | The Battle of Talas | Hilde de Weerdt, [125] Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University Michael Höckelmann, [126] British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at King's College London |
| 16 October 2014 | Rudyard Kipling | Howard Booth, [128] Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Manchester Daniel Karlin, [129] Research Fellow in English, William Wills of English, University of Bristol |
| 23 October 2014 | The Haitian Revolution | Kate Hodgson, [131] Doctor of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool Tim Lockley, [132] School of Comparative American Studies, University of Warwick |
| 30 October 2014 | Nuclear Fusion | Philippa Browning, [134] Professor of Astrophysics, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester Steve Cowley, [135] Professor in Plasma Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics Imperial College, London |
| 6 November 2014 | Hatshepsut | Elizabeth Frood, [137] Associate Professor of Egyptology; Fellow of St Cross College the University of Oxford Kate Spence, [138] Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge |
| 13 November 2014 | Brunel | Julia Elton, [139] Past President of the Newcomen Society Ben Marsden, [140] Senior Lecturer, School of Divinity, History and philosophy, University of Aberdeen |
| 20 November 2014 | Aesop | Pavlos Avlamis, [142] Faculty of Classics Research Lecturer, Trinity College, Oxford Lucy Grig, [143] Senior Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Edinburgh |
| 27 November 2014 | Kafka's The Trial | Elizabeth Boa, [145] Emeritus Professor of German, University of Nottingham Steve Connor, [146] Professor of English, Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| 4 December 2014 | Zen | Tim Barrett, [148] Emeritus Professor at Department of the Study of Religions, SOAS, University of London Lucia Dolce, [149] Numata Reader in Japanese Buddhism at SOAS, University of London |
| 11 December 2014 | Behavioural ecology | Steve Jones, [151] Emeritus Professor of Genetics, School of Life and Medical Sciences at University College London Rebecca Kilner, [152] Professor of Evolutionary biology at Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge |
| 18 December 2014 | Truth | Simon Blackburn, [154] Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and Professor of Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities Jennifer Hornsby, [155] Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 15 January 2015 | Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent |
Louise Milne, [157] Lecturer in Visual Culture in the School of Art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University Jeanne Nuechterlein, [158] Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of York |
| 22 January 2015 | Phenomenology | Simon Glendinning, [160] Professor of European Philosophy in the European Institute at the London School of Economics Joanna Hodge, [161] Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University |
| 29 January 2015 | Thucydides | Paul Cartledge, [163] Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture and AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge Katherine Harloe, [164] Associate Professor in Classics and Intellectual History at the University of Reading |
| 5 February 2015 | Ashoka the Great | Jessica Frazier, [166] Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Naomi Appleton, [167] Chancellor's Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh |
| 12 February 2015 | The Photon | Frank Close, [169] Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford Wendy Flavell, [170] Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester |
| 19 February 2015 | Wealth of Nations | Richard Whatmore, [172] Professor of Modern History and Director of the Institute of Intellectual History at the University of St Andrews Donald Winch, [173] Emeritus Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Sussex |
| 26 February 2015 | The Eunuch | Karen Radner, [175] Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London Shaun Tougher, [176] Reader in Ancient History at Cardiff University |
| 5 March 2015 | Beowulf | Laura Ashe, [178] Associate Professor in English at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Worcester College Clare Lees, [179] Professor of Medieval English Literature and History of the Language at King's College London |
| 12 March 2015 | Dark matter | Carolin Crawford, [181] Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge Gresham Professor of Astronomy Carlos Frenk, [182] Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics and Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at the University of Durham |
| 19 March 2015 | Al-Ghazali | Peter Adamson, [184] Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Carole Hillenbrand, [185] Professor of Islamic History at Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities |
| 26 March 2015 | The Curies | Patricia Fara, [187] Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge Robert Fox,[4] Emeritus Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oxford |
| 2 April 2015 | The California Gold Rush | Kathleen Burk, [189] Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Jacqueline Fear-Segal, [190] Reader in American History and Culture at the University of East Anglia |
| 9 April 2015 | Sappho | Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College, London Margaret Reynolds, Professor of English at Queen Mary University of London |
| 16 April 2015 | Matteo Ricci and the Ming dynasty | Mary Laven, Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge Craig Clunas, Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford |
| 23 April 2015 | Fanny Burney | Nicole Pohl, Reader in English Literature at Oxford Brookes University Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 30 April 2015 | The Earth's core | Stephen Blundell, Professor of Physics and Fellow of Mansfield College, University of Oxford Arwen Deuss, associate professor in Seismology at Utrecht University |
| 7 May 2015 | Rabindranath Tagore | Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews Bashabi Fraser, Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University |
| 14 May 2015 | Lancashire Cotton Famine | Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews Emma Griffin, Professor of History at the University of East Anglia |
| 21 May 2015 | Josephus | Tessa Rajak, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, University of Reading Philip Alexander, Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies, University of Manchester |
| 28 May 2015 | The Science of Glass | Paul McMillan, Professor of Chemistry at University College London Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge |
| 4 June 2015 | Prester John | Marianne O'Doherty, associate professor in English at the University of Southampton Martin Palmer, Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture |
| 11 June 2015 | Utilitarianism | Melissa Lane, The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University Janet Radcliffe Richards, Professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Oxford |
| 18 June 2015 | Jane Eyre | Dinah Birch, Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Liverpool Karen O'Brien, Vice Principal and Professor of English Literature at King's College London |
| 25 June 2015 | Extremophiles | Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 2 July 2015 | Frederick the Great | Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge Katrin Kohl, Professor of German Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College |
| 9 July 2015 | Frida Kahlo | Patience Schell, Chair in Hispanic Studies at the University of Aberdeen Valerie Fraser, Emeritus Professor of Latin American Art at the University of Essex |
2015-2016
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2015 | Perpetual motion | Ruth Gregory, Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Durham University Frank Close, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford |
| 1 October 2015 | Alexander the Great | Paul Cartledge, Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture and AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge Diana Spencer, Professor of Classics at the University of Birmingham |
| 15 October 2015 | Holbein at the Tudor Court | Susan Foister, Curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting at the National Gallery John Guy, a fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge |
| 22 October 2015 | Simone de Beauvoir | Christina Howells, Professor of French and Fellow of Wadham College at the University of Oxford Margaret Atack, Professor of French at the University of Leeds |
| 29 October 2015 | The Empire of Mali | Amira Bennison, Reader in the History and Culture of the Maghrib at the University of Cambridge Marie Rodet, Senior Lecturer in the History of Africa at SOAS |
| 5 November 2015 | P v NP | Colva Roney-Dougal, Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews Timothy Gowers, Royal Society Research Professor in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge |
| 12 November 2015 | Battle of Lepanto | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford Kate Fleet, Director of the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies and Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge |
| 19 November 2015 | Emma | Janet Todd, Professor Emerita of Literature, University of Aberdeen, and Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London |
| 29 November 2015 | The Salem Witch Trials | Susan Castillo, Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor of American Studies at King's College London Simon Middleton, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sheffield |
| 3 December 2015 | Voyages of James Cook | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge Rebekah Higgitt, Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Kent |
| 10 December 2015 | Chinese Legalism | Frances Wood, Former Curator of the Chinese Collections at the British Library Hilde de Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University |
| 17 December 2015 | Circadian rhythms | Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford Debra Skene, Professor of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Surrey |
| 25 December 2015 | Michael Faraday | Geoffrey Cantor, Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Leeds Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford |
| 31 December 2015 | Tristan and Iseult | Laura Ashe, associate professor of English at Worcester College, Oxford Juliette Wood, Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University |
| 14 January 2016 | Saturn | Carolin Crawford, Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Michele Dougherty, Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London |
| 21 January 2016 | Thomas Paine's Common Sense | Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London Nicholas Guyatt, University Lecturer in American History at the University of Cambridge |
| 28 January 2016 | Eleanor of Aquitaine | Lindy Grant, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia |
| 4 February 2016 | Chromatography | Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at University College London Apryll Stalcup, Professor of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University |
| 11 February 2016 | Rumi's Poetry | Alan Williams, British Academy Wolfson Research Professor at the University of Manchester Carole Hillenbrand, Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews and Professor Emerita of University of Edinburgh |
| 18 February 2016 | Robert Hooke | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York Patricia Fara, President Elect of the British Society for the History of Science |
| 25 February 2016 | Mary Magdalene | Joanne Anderson, Lecturer in Art History at the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London Eamon Duffy, Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Magdalene College |
| 3 March 2016 | The Dutch East India Company | Anne Goldgar, Reader in Early Modern European History at King's College London Chris Nierstrasz, Lecturer in Global History at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, formerly at the University of Warwick |
| 10 March 2016 | The Maya Civilization | Elizabeth Graham, Professor of Mesoamerican Archaeology at University College London Matthew Restall, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Latin American History and Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University |
| 17 March 2016 | Bedlam | Hilary Marland, Professor of History at the University of Warwick Justin Champion, Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London and President of the Historical Association |
| 24 March 2016 | Aurora Leigh | Margaret Reynolds, Professor of English at Queen Mary University of London Daniel Karlin, Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 31 March 2016 | Agrippina the Younger | Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London Alice König, Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews |
| 7 April 2016 | The Sikh Empire | Gurharpal Singh, Professor in Inter-Religious Relations and Development at SOAS, University of London Chandrika Kaul, Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews |
| 14 April 2016 | The Neutron | Val Gibson, Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity College Andrew Harrison, chief executive officer of Diamond Light Source and Professor in Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh |
| 21 April 2016 | 1816, the Year Without a Summer | Clive Oppenheimer, Professor of Volcanology at the University of Cambridge Jane Stabler, Professor in Romantic Literature at the University of St Andrews |
| 28 April 2016 | Euclid's Elements | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford Serafina Cuomo, Reader in Roman History at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 5 May 2016 | Tess of the d'Urbervilles | Dinah Birch, Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact at the University of Liverpool Francis O'Gorman, Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds |
| 12 May 2016 | Titus Oates and his Popish Plot | Clare Jackson, Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge Mark Knights, Professor of History at the University of Warwick |
| 19 May 2016 | The Muses | Paul Cartledge, Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture and A. G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy, University of Sheffield |
| 26 May 2016 | The Gettysburg Address | Catherine Clinton, Denman Chair of American History at the University of Texas and International Professor at Queen's University Belfast Susan-Mary Grant, Professor of American History at Newcastle University |
| 2 June 2016 | Margery Kempe and English Mysticism | Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London Katherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Huddersfield |
| 9 June 2016 | Penicillin | Laura Piddock, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Birmingham Christoph Tang, Professor of Cellular Pathology and Professorial Fellow at Exeter College at the University of Oxford |
| 16 June 2016 | The Bronze Age Collapse | John Bennet, Director of the British School at Athens and Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield Linda Hulin, Fellow of Harris Manchester College and Research Officer at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford |
| 23 June 2016 | Songs of Innocence and of Experience | Jonathan Bate, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford Sarah Haggarty, Lecturer at the Faculty of English and Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge |
| 30 June 2016 | Sovereignty | Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University Richard Bourke, Professor in the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 07 July 2016 | The Invention of Photography | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge Elizabeth Edwards, Emeritus Professor of Photographic History at De Montfort University |
2016-2017
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 22 September 2016 | Zeno's paradoxes | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford Barbara Sattler, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews |
| 29 September 2016 | Animal Farm | Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge Mary Vincent, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Sheffield |
| 6 October 2016 | Lakshmi | Jessica Frazier, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at the University of Oxford Jacqueline Suthren-Hirst, Senior Lecturer in South Asian Studies at the University of Manchester |
| 13 October 2016 | Plasma | Justin Wark, Professor of Physics and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Oxford Kate Lancaster, research fellow for Innovation and Impact at the York Plasma Institute at the University of York |
| 20 October 2016 | The 12th Century Renaissance | Laura Ashe, associate professor of English at Worcester College, Oxford Elisabeth van Houts, Honorary Professor of Medieval European History at the University of Cambridge |
| 27 October 2016 | John Dalton | Jim Bennett, Associate Former Director of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum Aileen Fyfe, Reader in British History at the University of St Andrews |
| 3 November 2016 | Epic of Gilgamesh | Andrew George, Professor of Babylonian at SOAS, University of London Frances Reynolds, Shillito Fellow in Assyriology at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford and Fellow of St Benet's Hall |
| 10 November 2016 | The Fighting Temeraire | Susan Foister, Curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting at the National Gallery David Blayney Brown, Manton Curator of British Art 1790–1850 at Tate Britain |
| 17 November 2016 | Justinian's Legal Code | Caroline Humfress, Professor of Medieval History at the University of St Andrews Simon Corcoran, Lecturer in Ancient History at Newcastle University |
| 24 November 2016 | Baltic Crusades | Aleks Pluskowski, associate professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading Nora Berend, Fellow of St Catharine's College and Reader in European History at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge |
| 1 December 2016 | Garibaldi and the Risorgimento | Lucy Riall, Professor of Comparative History of Europe at the European University Institute and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London Eugenio Biagini, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Cambridge |
| 8 December 2016 | Harriet Martineau | Valerie Sanders, Professor of English at the University of Hull Karen O'Brien, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford |
| 15 December 2016 | The Gin Craze | Angela McShane, research fellow in History at the Victoria and Albert Museum and University of Sheffield Judith Hawley, Professor of 18th century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 21 December 2016 | Four Quartets | David Moody, Emeritus Professor of English and American Literature at the University of York Fran Brearton, Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen's University Belfast |
| 29 December 2016 | Johannes Kepler | David Wootton, Professor of History at the University of York Ulinka Rublack, Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College |
| 12 January 2017 | Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality | Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow and Tutor at New College, Oxford Fiona Hughes, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Essex |
| 19 January 2017 | Mary, Queen of Scots | David Forsyth, Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland Anna Groundwater, Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of Edinburgh |
| 26 January 2017 | Parasitism | Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, London Wendy Gibson, Professor of Protozoology at the University of Bristol |
| 2 February 2017 | Hannah Arendt | Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Modern Literature and History at the University of East Anglia Frisbee Sheffield, Lecturer in Philosophy at Girton College, University of Cambridge |
| 9 February 2017 | John Clare | Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the Worcester College, Oxford University Mina Gorji, Senior Lecturer in the English Faculty and fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| 16 February 2017 | Maths in the Early Islamic World | Colva Roney-Dougal, Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews Peter Pormann, Professor of Classics & Graeco-Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester |
| 23 February 2017 | Seneca the Younger | Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London |
| 2 March 2017 | Kuiper belt | Carolin Crawford, Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University |
| 9 March 2017 | Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South | Sally Shuttleworth, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford Dinah Birch, Pro-vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool |
| 16 March 2017 | Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum | Dame Jane Francis, Professor of Palaeoclimatology at the British Antarctic Survey Mark Maslin, Professor of Palaeoclimatology at University College London |
| 23 March 2017 | Battle of Salamis | Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Professor in Ancient History at Cardiff University Lindsay Allen, Lecturer in Greek and Near Eastern History, King's College London |
| 30 March 2017 | Hokusai | Angus Lockyer, Lecturer in Japanese History at SOAS University of London Rosina Buckland, Senior Curator of Japanese Collections at the National Museum of Scotland |
| 6 April 2017 | Pauli exclusion principle | Frank Close, Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College, Oxford Michela Massimi, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh |
| 13 April 2017 | Rosa Luxemburg | Jacqueline Rose, Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London Mark Jones, Irish Research Council fellow at the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin |
| 20 April 2017 | Roger Bacon | Jack Cunningham, Academic Coordinator for Theology at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln Amanda Power, associate professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford |
| 27 April 2017 | Egyptian Book of the Dead | John Taylor, Curator at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum Kate Spence, Senior Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at Cambridge University and Fellow of Emmanuel College |
| 4 May 2017 | Battle of Lincoln (1217) | Louise Wilkinson, Professor of Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University Stephen Church, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia |
| 11 May 2017 | Emily Dickinson | Fiona Green, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College Linda Freedman, Lecturer in English and American Literature at University College London |
| 18 May 2017 | Louis Pasteur | Andrew Mendelsohn, Reader in the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London Anne Hardy, Honorary Professor at the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
| 25 May 2017 | Purgatory | Laura Ashe, associate professor of English and fellow of Worcester College at the University of Oxford Matthew Treherne, Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Leeds |
| 1 June 2017 | Enzymes | Nigel Richards, Professor of Biological Chemistry at Cardiff University Sarah Barry, Lecturer in Chemical Biology at King's College London |
| 8 June 2017 | Christine de Pizan | Helen Swift, Associate Professor of Medieval French at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Hilda's College Miranda Griffin, Lecturer in French and Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
| 15 June 2017 | American Populists and the Guilded age | Lawrence Goldman, Professor of History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London Mara Keire, Lecturer in US History at the University of Oxford |
| 22 June 2017 | Eugene Onegin | Andrew Kahn, Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Edmund Hall Emily Finer, Lecturer in Russian and Comparative Literature at the University of St Andrews |
| 29 June 2017 | Plato's Republic | Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield M.M. McCabe, Professor of Ancient Philosophy Emerita at King's College London |
| 6 July 2017 | Bird migration | Barbara Helm, Reader at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow Tim Guilford, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Tutorial Fellow of Zoology at Merton College, Oxford |
2017-2018
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2017 | Kant's Categorical Imperative | Alison Hills, Professor of Philosophy at St John's College, Oxford David S. Oderberg, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading |
| 28 September 2017 | Wuthering Heights | Karen O'Brien, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford John Bowen, Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of York |
| 5 October 2017 | Constantine the Great | Christopher Kelly, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and President of Corpus Christi College Lucy Grig, Senior Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Edinburgh |
| 12 October 2017 | Aphra Behn | Janet Todd, Former President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University Ros Ballaster, Professor of 18th Century Literature at Mansfield College, University of Oxford |
| 19 October 2017 | Congress of Vienna | Tim Blanning, Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London |
| 26 October 2017 | Feathered dinosaurs | Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol Steve Brusatte, Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh |
| 2 November 2017 | Picasso's Guernica | Mary Vincent, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Sheffield Gijs van Hensbergen, Historian of Spanish Art and Fellow of the LSE Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies |
| 9 November 2017 | The Picts | Katherine Forsyth, Reader in the Department of Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow Alex Woolf, Senior Lecturer in Dark Age Studies at the University of St Andrews |
| 16 November 2017 | Germaine de Staël | Catriona Seth, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford Alison Finch, Professor Emerita of French Literature at the University of Cambridge |
| 23 November 2017 | Thebes | Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College London Samuel Gartland, Lecturer in Ancient History at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford |
| 30 November 2017 | Carl Friedrich Gauss | Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics and Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford Colva Roney-Dougal, Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews |
| 7 December 2017 | Moby Dick | Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds Katie McGettigan, Lecturer in American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 14 December 2017 | Thomas Becket | Laura Ashe, Associate Professor of English at Worcester College, University of Oxford Michael Staunton, Associate Professor in History at University College Dublin |
| 21 December 2017 | Ludwig van Beethoven | Laura Tunbridge, Professor of Music and Henfrey Fellow, St Catherine's College, Oxford John Deathridge, Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London |
| 28 December 2017 | Hamlet | Jonathan Bate, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford Carol Rutter, Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick |
| 11 January 2018 | The Siege of Malta, 1565 | Helen Nicholson, Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford |
| 18 January 2018 | Anna Akhmatova | Katharine Hodgson, Professor in Russian at the University of Exeter Alexandra Harrington, Reader in Russian Studies at Durham University |
| 25 January 2018 | Cicero | Melissa Lane, Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Carlyle Lecturer at the University of Oxford Catherine Steel, Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow |
| 1 February 2018 | Cephalopods | Louise Allcock, Lecturer in Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway Paul Rodhouse, Emeritus Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey |
| 9 February 2018 | Frederick Douglass | Celeste-Marie Bernier, Professor of Black Studies in the English Department at the University of Edinburgh Karen Salt, Assistant Professor in Transnational American Studies at the University of Nottingham |
| 15 February 2018 | Fungi | Lynne Boddy, Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University Sarah Gurr, Professor of Food Security in the Biosciences Department at the University of Exeter |
| 22 February 2018 | Rosalind Franklin | Patricia Fara, President of the British Society for the History of Science Jim Naismith, Interim lead of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, Director of the Research Complex at Harwell and Professor at the University of Oxford |
| 1 March 2018 | Sun Tzu and The Art of War | Hilde de Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University Tim Barrett, Professor Emeritus of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London |
| 8 March 2018 | Highland Clearances | Tom Devine, Professor Emeritus of Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh Marjory Harper, Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen and Visiting Professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands |
| 15 March 2018 | Augustine's Confessions | Kate Cooper, Professor of History at the University of London and Head of History at Royal Holloway Morwenna Ludlow, Professor of Christian History and Theology at the University of Exeter |
| 22 March 2018 | Tocqueville: Democracy in America | Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford Susan-Mary Grant, Professor of American History at Newcastle University |
| 5 April 2018 | Roman Slavery | Neville Morley, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter Ulrike Roth, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh |
| 11 April 2018 | George and Robert Stephenson | Michael Bailey, Railway historian and editor of the most recent biography of Robert Stephenson Julia Elton Past, President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology |
| 18 April 2018 | Middlemarch | Rosemary Ashton, Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London Kathryn Hughes, Professor of Life Writing at the University of East Anglia |
| 26 April 2018 | Proton | Frank Close, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford Helen Heath, Reader in Physics at the University of Bristol |
| 3 May 2018 | Almoravid Empire | Amira Bennison, Professor in the History and Culture of the Maghreb at the University of Cambridge Nicola Clarke, Lecturer in the History of the Islamic World at Newcastle University |
| 10 May 2018 | Mabinogion | Sioned Davies, Professor in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University Helen Fulton, Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 17 May 2018 | Emancipation of the Serfs | Sarah Hudspith, Associate Professor in Russian at the University of Leeds Simon Dixon, The Sir Bernard Pares Professor of Russian History at University College London |
| 25 May 2018 | Margaret of Anjou | Katherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Huddersfield James Ross, Reader in Late Medieval History at the University of Winchester |
| 31 May 2018 | Henrik Ibsen | Tore Rem, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oslo Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Professor of English and Theatre Studies and Tutorial Fellow, St Catherine's College at the University of Oxford |
| 7 June 2018 | Persepolis | Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Curator of Middle Eastern Coins at the British Museum |
| 14 June 2018 | Montesquieu | Richard Bourke, Professor in the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary, University of London Rachel Hammersley, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History at Newcastle University |
| 21 June 2018 | Echolocation | Kate Jones, Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity at University College London Gareth Jones, Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol |
| 28 June 2018 | The Mexican-American War | Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Professor of American and Indigenous Histories at the University of East Anglia |
| 5 July 2018 | William Morris | Ingrid Hanson, Lecturer in 18th and 19th Century Literature at the University of Manchester Marcus Waithe, University Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Magdalene College |
2018-2019
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2018 | The Iliad | Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King's College London Barbara Graziosi, Associate Professor of Medieval History at Princeton University |
| 20 September 2018 | Automata | Simon Schaffer, Professor of the History of Science at Cambridge University Elly Truitt, Professor of Classics at Bryn Mawr College |
| 27 September 2018 | Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Stephen Plant, Dean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge Eleanor McLaughlin, Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at the University of Winchester and Lecturer in Ethics at Regent's Park College at the University of Oxford |
| 4 October 2018 | Edith Wharton | Hermione Lee, Biographer, former President of Wolfson College, Oxford Bridget Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds |
| 11 October 2018 | Is Shakespeare History: The Plantagenets | Emma J. Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford Gordon McMullan, Professor of English at King's College London and Director of the London Shakespeare Centre |
| 18 October 2018 | Is Shakespeare History: The Romans | Sir Jonathan Bate, Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford Catherine Steel, Professor of Classics and Dean of Research in the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow |
| 25 October 2018 | The Fable of the Bees | David Wootton, Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York Helen Paul, Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton |
| 1 November 2018 | Free Radicals | Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London Anna Croft, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham |
| 8 November 2018 | Marie Antoinette | Catriona Seth, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford Katherine Astbury, Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick |
| 15 November 2018 | Horace | Emily Gowers, Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge William Fitzgerald, Professor of Latin Language and Literature at King's College London |
| 22 November 2018 | Hope | Beatrice Han-Pile, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex Robert Stern, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield |
| 29 November 2018 | Long March | Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford Sun Shuyun, historian, writer and film maker |
| 6. December 2018 | Thirty Years War | Peter Wilson, Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford Ulinka Rublack, Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College |
| 13 December 2018 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Laura Ashe, Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of Oxford Ad Putter, Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 20 December 2018 | Poor Laws | Emma Griffin, Professor of Modern British History at the University of East Anglia Samantha Shave, Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Lincoln |
| 27 December 2018 | Venus | Carolin Crawford, Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Colin Wilson, Senior Research Fellow in Planetary Science at the University of Oxford |
| 10 January 2019 | Papal Infallibility | Tom O’Loughlin, Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham Rebecca Rist, Professor in Medieval History at the University of Reading |
| 17 January 2019 | Samuel Beckett | Steven Connor, Professor of English at the University of Cambridge Laura Salisbury, Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Exeter |
| 24 January 2019 | Emmy Noether | Colva Roney-Dougal, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews David Berman, Professor in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary, University of London |
| 31 January 2019 | Owain Glyndŵr | Huw Pryce, Professor of Welsh History at Bangor University Helen Fulton, Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 7 February 2019 | Aristotle's biology | Armand Leroi, Professor of Evolutionary Development Biology at Imperial College London Myrto Hatzimichali, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge |
| 14 February 2019 | Judith beheading Holofernes | Susan Foister, Curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting at the National Gallery John Gash, Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Aberdeen |
| 21 February 2019 | Pheromones | Tristram Wyatt, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford Jane Hurst, William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool |
| 28 February 2019 | Antarah ibn Shaddad | James Montgomery, Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge Marlé Hammond, Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture at SOAS, University of London |
| 7 March 2019 | William Cecil | Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford Susan Doran, Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Oxford |
| 14 March 2019 | Authenticity | Sarah Richmond, Associate Professor in Philosophy at University College London Denis McManus, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton |
| 21 March 2019 | Gerard Manley Hopkins | Catherine Phillips, R J Owens Fellow in English at Downing College, University of Cambridge Jane Wright, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol |
| 28 March 2019 | Danelaw | Judith Jesch, Professor of Viking Studies at the University of Nottingham John Hines, Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University |
| 4 April 2019 | Great Irish Famine | Cormac O'Grada, Professor Emeritus in the School of Economics at University College Dublin Niamh Gallagher, University Lecturer in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge |
| 11 April 2019 | The Evolution of Teeth | Gareth Fraser, Assistant Professor in Biology at the University of Florida Zerina Johanson, Merit Researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum |
| 18 April 2019 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Helen Hackett, Professor of English Literature and Leverhulme Research Fellow at University College London Tom Healy, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Sussex |
| 25 April 2019 | Nero | Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London Matthew Nicholls, Fellow and Senior Tutor at St John’s College, University of Oxford |
| 2 May 2019 | Gordon Riots | Ian Haywood, Professor of English at the University of Roehampton Catriona Kennedy, Senior Lecturer in Modern British and Irish History and Director of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York |
| 9 May 2019 | Bergson and Time | Keith Ansell-Pearson, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick Emily Thomas, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Durham University |
| 16 May 2019 | Frankenstein | Karen O'Brien, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford Michael Rossington, Professor of Romantic Literature at Newcastle University Jane Thomas, Professor of Victorian and Early 20th Century Literature at the University of Hull |
| 23 May 2019 | Kinetic Theory | Steven Bramwell, Professor of Physics at University College London Isobel Falconer, Reader in History of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews Ted Forgan, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham |
| 30 May 2019 | President Ulysses S Grant | Erik Mathisen, Lecturer in US History at the University of Kent Susan-Mary Grant, Professor of American History at Newcastle University Robert Cook, Professor of American History at the University of Sussex |
| 6 June 2019 | Thomas Browne | Claire Preston, Professor of Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary, University of London Jessica Wolfe, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kevin Killeen, Professor of English at the University of York |
| 13 June 2019 | Inca Empire | Frank Meddens, Visiting Scholar at the University of Reading Helen Cowie, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of York Bill Sillar, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London |
| 20 June 2019 | Mytilenian Debate | Angela Hobbs,Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield Lisa Irene Hau, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow Paul Cartledge, Emeritus AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Clare College |
| 27 June 2019 | Doggerland | Vincent Gaffney, Anniversary Professor of Landscape Archaeology at the University of Bradford Carol Cotterill, Marine Geoscientist at the British Geological Survey Rachel Bynoe, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Southampton |
| 4 July 2019 | Federico Garcia Lorca | Maria Delgado Professor of Creative Arts at the Royal Central of Speech and Drama, University of London Federico Bonaddio Reader in Modern Spanish at King’s College London Sarah Wright Professor of Hispanic Studies and Screen Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London |
2019-2020
| Broadcast date Listen again |
Title | Contributors |
|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2019 | Napoleon's Retreat from Russia | Janet Hartley, Professor emeritus of International History, LSE Michael Rowe, Reader in European History, King's College London Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History, University of Glasgow |
| 26 September 2019 | The Rapture | Elizabeth Phillips, research Fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University Crawford Gribben, professor of Early Modern British History at Queen's University Belfast Nicholas Guyatt, reader in North American History at the University of Cambridge |
| 3 October 2019 | Dorothy Hodgkin | Georgina Ferry, science writer and biographer of Dorothy Hodgkin
Judith Howard, professor of Chemistry at Durham University Patricia Fara, fellow of Clare College, Cambridge |
| 10 October 2019 | Rousseau on Education | Richard Whatmore, Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History
Caroline Warman, Professor of French Literature and Thought at Jesus College, Oxford Denis McManus, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton |
| 17 October 2019 | The Time Machine | Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science at Cambridge University
Amanda Rees, Historian of science at the University of York Simon James, Professor in the Department of English Studies at Durham University |
| 24 October 2019 | Robert Burns | Robert Crawford, Professor of Modern Scottish Literature and Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Poetry at the University of St Andrews
Fiona Stafford,Professor of English at the University of Oxford Murray Pittock, Bradley Professor of English Literature and Pro Vice Principal at the University of Glasgow |
| 31 October 2019 | Hybrids | Sandra Knapp, Tropical Botanist at the Natural History Museum
Nicola Nadeau, Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Sheffield Steve Jones, Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College London |
| 7 November 2019 | The Treaty of Limerick | Jane Ohlmeyer, Chair of the Irish Research Council and Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin
Clare Jackson, Member of the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge and Senior Tutor of Trinity Hall Thomas O'Connor, Professor of History at Maynooth University |
| 14 November 2019 | Crime and Punishment | Sarah Huspith, Associate Professor in Russian at the University of Leeds
Oliver Ready, Lecturer in Russian at the University of Oxford, Research Fellow at St Antony’s College and a translator of this novel Sarah Young, Associate Professor in Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London |
| 21 November 2019 | Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem | Natasha Hodgson, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History and Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Nottingham Trent University
Katherine Lewis, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Huddersfield Danielle Park, Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 28 November 2019 | Li Shizhen | Craig Clunas,Professor Emeritus in the History of Art at the University of Oxford
Anne Gerritsen,Professor in History at the University of Warwick Roel Sterckx, Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge |
| 5 December 2019 | Lawrence of Arabia | Hussein Omar, Lecturer in Modern Global History, University College Dublin Catriona Pennell, Associate Professor of Modern History and Memory Studies, University of Exeter |
| 12 December 2019 | Coffee | Judith Hawley, Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London Markman Ellis, Professor of 18th Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London Jonathan Morris, Professor in Modern History at the University of Hertfordshire |
| 19 December 2019 | Auden | Mark Ford, Poet and Professor, English at University College London Janet Montefiore, Professor Emerita of 20th Century English Literature at the University of Kent |
| 26 December 2019 | Tutankhamun | Elizabeth Frood, Associate Professor of Egyptology, Director of the Griffith Institute and Fellow of St Cross at the University of Oxford Christina Riggs,Professor of the History of Visual Culture at Durham University and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford John Taylor, Curator at the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum |
| 11 January 2020 | Catullus | Gail Trimble, Brown Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Trinity College at the University of Oxford Simon Smith, Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, poet and translator of Catullus Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London |
| 16 January 2020 | Siege of Paris (1870–71) | Karine Varley, Lecturer in French and European History at the University of Strathclyde Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford Julia Nicholls, Lecturer in French and European Studies at King’s College London |
| 23 January 2020 | Solar Wind | Andrew Coates,Professor of Physics and Deputy Director in charge of the Solar System at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London Helen Mason, Reader in Solar Physics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Fellow at St Edmund's College, Cambridge Tim Horbury, Professor of Physics at Imperial College London |
| 30 January 2020 | Alcuin | Joanna Story, Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester Andy Orchard, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College Mary Garrison, Lecturer in History at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York |
| 6 February 2020 | George Sand | Belinda Jack, Fellow and Tutor in French at Christ Church, University of Oxford Angela Ryan, Senior Lecturer in French at University College Cork Nigel Harkness, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of French at Newcastle University |
| 13 February 2020 | Battle of the Teutoburg Forest | Matthew Nicholls, Professor of Medieval History King's College London Ellen O'Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics University of Bristol Peter Heather, Fellow and Senior Tutor St. John's college, Oxford |
| 20 February 2020 | Valladolid Debate | Caroline Dodds Pennock,Senior Lecturer in International History at the University of Sheffield John Edwards, Faculty Fellow in Spanish at the University of Oxford Julia McClure, Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Modern Global History at the University of Glasgow |
| 27 February 2020 | Evolution of the horse | Alan Outram,Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Exeter Christine Janis, Honorary Professor in Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol and Professor Emerita in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University John Hutchinson, Professor in Evolutionary Biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College |
| 5 March 2020 | Paul Dirac | Graham Farmelo, Biographer of Dirac and Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge Valerie Gibson, Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity College David Berman, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary University of London |
| 12 March 2020 | Covenanters | Roger Mason, Professor of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews Laura Stewart, Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of York Scott Spurlock, Professor of Scottish and Early Modern Christianities at the University of Glasgow |
| 19 March 2020 | Fernando Pessoa |
References
- ^ "The complete in Our Time now available as podcasts". Radio Times. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
- ^ "In Our Times Greatest Philiosopher Vote", BBC Radio 4 site.
- ^ John Innes Centre – Newd. Prof Cathie Martin made an MBE
- ^ "Professor Robert Fox (M.A., D.Phil., F.S.A.)". University of Oxford. Retrieved 13 January 2016.