Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of penicillin. Read more
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Penicillin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of penicillin.
The Bronze Age Collapse
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bronze Age collapse.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
Sovereignty
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the idea of sovereignty.
The Invention of Photography
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the invention of photography.
Zeno's Paradoxes
Does an arrow in flight move and could Achilles overtake a tortoise? Not according to Zeno
Animal Farm
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Lakshmi
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the goddess Lakshmi.
Plasma
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter.
The 12th Century Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a period of great change in western Europe.
John Dalton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton.
Epic of Gilgamesh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gilgamesh, the great epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia.
The Fighting Temeraire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.
Justinian's Legal Code
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great impact of legal changes under emperor Justinian.
Baltic Crusades
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss crusades against Baltic pagans from 12th Century onwards.
Garibaldi and the Risorgimento
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, for our Listener Week.
Harriet Martineau
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Harriet Martineau, writer.
The Gin Craze
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cause and impact of the gin craze in the 18th century.
Four Quartets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss TS Eliot's Four Quartets, known as his great last work.
Johannes Kepler
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Parasitism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Parasitism, where one species gains at the cost of another
Hannah Arendt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of Hannah Arendt, political philosopher
John Clare
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, poet and farm labourer.
Maths in the Early Islamic World
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flourishing of maths in the Islamic world from C8th.
Seneca the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works, life and times of Seneca the Younger.
The Kuiper Belt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the icy Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune, home to Pluto.
North and South
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South from 1855.
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the highest global temperatures in the last 65m years.
The Battle of Salamis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the significance of The Battle of Salamis, 480BC.