The culture, history and legacy of the eastern Byzantine Empire. Read more
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Byzantium
The culture, history and legacy of the eastern Byzantine Empire.
Democracy
Melvyn Bragg examines the origins of the most cherished form of government in the world.
Napoleon and Wellington
The comparative histories of two titans of 19th century history.
Confucius
Melvyn Bragg and guests examine the chinese philosophy of Confucianism.
The British Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ethos and legacy of the British Empire.
Surrealism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss surrealism, the art of the unconscious.
Oceanography
Melvyn Bragg explores what science has revealed, and we still don't know, about the sea.
Third Crusade
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the highs and lows of the Third Crusade.
Oscar Wilde
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Oscar Wilde, his literary legacy and the Aesthetes.
Genetics
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the development of the science of genetics.
Rome and European Civilization
Melvyn Bragg and guests assess the role that Rome has played in European civilization.
Food
The cultural history of food in Modern Europe since the Renaissance.
Sensibility
Melvyn Bragg examines the ideas behind the 18th century literary cult of sensibility.
Nuclear Physics
Melvyn Bragg examines the 20th century development of nuclear physics as a science.
Catharism
Melvyn Bragg examines the Cathars, a medieval European Christian sect accused of heresy.
Happiness
Melvyn Bragg considers whether 'happiness' means living a life of pleasure or of virtue.
Yeats and Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg explores the strange and mystical world of the Irish poet W B Yeats.
The Universe's Shape
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the shape, size and topology of the universe.
Anatomy
The 2000 year old history of mankind's quest to understand the human body.
The Celts
Melvyn Bragg examines what we really know about the Celts of pre-Roman Britain.
Virtue
Melvyn Bragg explores the meaning and purpose of the philosophical concept of virtue.
Milton
Melvyn Bragg examines both the literary and political careers of the poet John Milton.
The Buddha
The life of Siddhartha Gautama and the legacy of his teachings.
Marriage
The history of marriage from ancient Greek and Babylonian times to today.
The Artist
Melvyn Bragg explores the history and changing the status of the artist.
Extra Terrestrials
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss our chances of ever discovering life on another planet.
Bohemia
The history of the ancient kingdom and its religious, national and ethnic ideologies.
Tolstoy
Melvyn Bragg explores the life and work of the 19th century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.
The Physics of Reality
Melvyn Bragg examines the attempt to reconcile Quantum Theory and classical physics.
The Examined Life
Melvyn Bragg investigates how our preoccupations about how to live have altered over time.
Chaos Theory
Melvyn Bragg examines how Chaos Theory has affected our understanding of the universe.