The Kalevala

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the epic poem that helped build the Finnish nation.

• 50 mins

Nikola Tesla

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Serbian-American inventor.

• 52 mins

Lysistrata

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' comedy in which a sex strike brings peace.

• 55 mins

Napoleon's Hundred Days

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise coup in 1815 before Waterloo

• 58 mins

Bertolt Brecht

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great 20th-century German playwright.

• 59 mins

Mercury

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet closest to our Sun.

• 53 mins

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing poet at the heart of Henry VIII's court

• 58 mins

Philippa Foot

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century

• 58 mins

Empress Dowager Cixi

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who dominated China's court for almost 50 years.

• 50 mins

Marsilius of Padua

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great figures in the history of political ideas

• 56 mins

The Orkneyinga Saga

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Saga of the Earls of Orkney up to the 13th century.

• 51 mins

Fielding's Tom Jones

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great English comic novels.

• 54 mins

Karma

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the doctrine on how you answer for your own actions.

• 50 mins

Monet in England

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Claude Monet's fascination with the foggy Thames.

• 50 mins

Bacteriophages

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how viruses can help us track and cure bacterial illnesses

• 50 mins

Tocqueville: Democracy in America (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy

• 50 mins

The Sistine Chapel (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome

• 56 mins

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's novel on totalitarianism, truth and surveillance

• 50 mins

Walter Benjamin (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential thinkers of the last century

• 50 mins

Rawls' Theory of Justice (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Rawls' influential ideas on liberty and equality

• 50 mins

The Fish-Tetrapod Transition (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great stages in the evolution of life on Earth

• 50 mins

Elizabeth Anscombe (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential 20th-century moral philosopher

• 55 mins

Charisma (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Max Weber's idea of charismatic authority in leadership

• 53 mins

Thomas Hardy's Poetry (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded

• 50 mins

Mitochondria (Summer Repeat)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth.

• 50 mins