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Edith Wharton

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.

• 49 mins

Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)

• 51 mins

Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).

• 42 mins

The Fable of the Bees

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.

• 42 mins

Free Radicals

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the molecules linked to cell functioning and ageing

• 42 mins

Marie Antoinette

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France.

• 49 mins

Horace

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.

• 48 mins

Hope

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope - a weakness or a strength?

• 53 mins

The Long March

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934

• 50 mins

The Thirty Years War

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648

• 50 mins

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest poems from medieval England

• 51 mins

The Poor Laws

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse

• 50 mins

Venus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to Earth, sometimes called Earth's twin

• 50 mins

Papal Infallibility

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Popes cannot err in exercise of their office

• 51 mins

Samuel Beckett

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and novelist, author of Waiting for Godot

• 48 mins

Emmy Noether

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians.

• 48 mins

Owain Glyndwr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century

• 48 mins

Aristotle's Biology

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific study of life, originated by Aristotle.

• 50 mins

Judith beheading Holofernes

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how this Bible story has inspired artists for centuries.

• 49 mins

Pheromones

A discussion of the chemicals that animals use in order to affect others of their species.

• 49 mins

Antarah ibn Shaddad

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight

• 49 mins

William Cecil

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth I.

• 51 mins

Authenticity

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what it means to be oneself

• 50 mins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age'.

• 47 mins

The Danelaw

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries.

• 50 mins

The Great Irish Famine

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49.

• 57 mins

The Evolution of Teeth

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how teeth evolved in our toothless ancestors - and why.

• 49 mins

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's comedy, one of his most popular plays

• 54 mins

Nero

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.

• 51 mins

The Gordon Riots

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.

• 50 mins