Audio in this Podcast

1. IOT: The Norman Yoke

   

   Melvyn Bragg discusses the Norman Yoke: the idea that the Battle of Hastings sparked the cruel op... (37 days ago)

2. IOT: Socrates 27 Sep 07

   

   Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and legacy of one of the world’s greatest philosophers, Soc... (233 days ago)

3. The Pilgrim Fathers: 05 Jul 07

   

   Every year on the fourth Thursday in November, Americans go home to their families and sit down t... (317 days ago)

4. The Permian-Triassic Boundary: 28 Jun 07

   

   250 million years ago, in the Permian period of geological time, the most ferocious predators on ... (324 days ago)

5. William of Ockham: 31 May 07

   

   In the small village of Ockham stands a church. Made of grey stone with a pitched roof and an una... (352 days ago)

6. Victorian Pessimism: 10 May 07

   

   On 1 September 1851 the poet Matthew Arnold was on his honeymoon. Catching a ferry from Dover to ... (373 days ago)

7. Bismarck - the Iron Chancellor: 22 Mar 07

   

   The Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck – one of Europe’s leading statesmen in the 19t... (422 days ago)

8. History of Optics: 03 Mar 07

   

   As Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens in the early 1600s, Kepler began to formulate a th... (443 days ago)

9. Heart of Darkness: 15 Feb 07

   

   Written in 1899 by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness draws on his own adventures for the plot. The... (457 days ago)

10. Karl Popper: 8 Feb 07

    

    Karl Popper is one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th Century, whose ideas about sc... (464 days ago)

11. Ghengiz Khan: 01 Feb 07

    

    When Temujin, born in the 12th Century, was just a child he was cast out by his tribe and left to... (471 days ago)

12. Archimedes: 25 Jan 07

    

    Archimedes – the Greek mathematician reputed to have shouted ?Eureka!? as he leapt from his... (478 days ago)

13. Jesuits: 18 Jan 07

    

    The Jesuits were a Catholic religious order who became known as ?the school masters of Europe?. F... (485 days ago)

14. Life on Mars: 11 Jan 07

    

    Named after the Roman god of war, Mars has been a source of continual fascination. It is one of o... (492 days ago)

15. Jorge Luis Borges - 4 Jan 07

    

    Jorge Luis Borges is one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, best known for his intrigui... (499 days ago)

16. The siege of Constantinople: 28 Dec 06

    

    When Sultan Mehmet the Second rode into the city of Constantinople on a white horse in 1453, it m... (506 days ago)

17. The history of hell: 21 Dec 06

    

    A fiery vault beneath the earth or as Sartre put it, other people – it seems our ideas of h... (513 days ago)

18. Indian Maths: 14 Dec 06

    

    Mathematics from the Indian subcontinent has provided foundations for much of our modern thinking... (520 days ago)

19. Anarchism: 07 Dec 06

    

    Anarchy comes from the Greek word ?anarchos?, meaning ?without rulers?, and the movement draws on... (527 days ago)

20. The speed of light: 30 Nov 06

    

    Scientists and thinkers have been fascinated with the speed of light for millennia. Aristotle wro... (534 days ago)