The Forum Podcast
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.
Episodes to download
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Insulin: The discovery that transformed diabetic care
Thu 26 May 2022
Tracing the discovery of a hormone that has helped millions manage diabetes
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Vikings and their quest for silver
Thu 12 May 2022
How Viking trade and raids transformed medieval economy and society
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Fertiliser and poison gas: The legacy of chemist Fritz Haber
Thu 5 May 2022
The scientist who helped feed billions, and unleashed a new kind of death
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Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome
Thu 28 Apr 2022
Historical accounts of the notorious Roman emperor skew our interpretation of his legacy
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Mirror Mirror on the wall: The history of the looking glass
Thu 21 Apr 2022
The magical role of the mirror that's revealing ground-breaking secrets of the universe
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Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana’s Pan-African idealist
Thu 14 Apr 2022
Assessing the complex legacy of a man who campaigned for a United States of Africa
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The Truman Doctrine: Beginnings of the Cold War
Thu 7 Apr 2022
The speech that committed the USA to a 40-year struggle with the Soviet Union
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Margaret Fuller: Early feminist and war correspondent
Thu 31 Mar 2022
A brilliant American journalist determined to live her life to the full
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Money: From coin to cryptocurrency
Sun 20 Mar 2022
The origins of coins, paper money, shares and other financial instruments
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Pinocchio: The real story of the mischievous wooden puppet
Thu 17 Mar 2022
The original Italian novel about the wooden puppet with the growing nose
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Vincent van Gogh: The struggling artist
Thu 3 Mar 2022
Charting the highs and lows of the influential Dutch post-Impressionist painter
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Franz Liszt: Hungarian pianist and painter in sound
Thu 24 Feb 2022
A charismatic musician who transformed classical concerts
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Joseph Heller's Catch-22: A novel of twisted logic and absurd bureaucracy
Thu 17 Feb 2022
Bridget Kendall explores a novel that gave rise to a new term in the English language
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Sofya Kovalevskaya: The eventful life of a maths pioneer
Thu 10 Feb 2022
A brilliant Russian whose scientific discoveries helped to reshape European universities
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Pleasure and pain: The philosophy of Jeremy Bentham
Thu 27 Jan 2022
The radical ideas of the 18th-century legal reformer Jeremy Bentham
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Copper: From mining to microprocessors
Thu 20 Jan 2022
The shiny red metal our lives depend on that has powered human development
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Writer Agatha Christie: Murder and mystery
Thu 13 Jan 2022
How the queen of crime achieved her extraordinary success
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Boudica, warrior queen
Thu 6 Jan 2022
The Iron Age English warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans
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Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman
Thu 30 Dec 2021
Pulling back the curtain on the master of illusion
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Antarctic Treaty: Protecting the icy continent
Thu 23 Dec 2021
Safeguarding peace and wilderness with the Antarctic Treaty
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Don Quixote: Spanish masterpiece
Thu 16 Dec 2021
The multi-layered masterpiece by Miguel de Cervantes
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The original Goths
Thu 2 Dec 2021
How did a Germanic tribe come to inspire an architectural style and a global subculture?
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Laskarina Bouboulina, the mother of modern Greece
Thu 25 Nov 2021
An intrepid sea captain who commanded daring naval attacks with her own fleet of ships
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Mary Somerville: The queen of 19th-Century science
Thu 18 Nov 2021
The 19th-Century polymath who popularised science for generations of readers
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The Devils: Dostoevsky’s novel of political evil
Thu 4 Nov 2021
Dostoevsky’s study of terrorism and poisoned ideals in pre-revolutionary Russia
Do you find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep?
The next Forum programme is about insomnia and we would love to hear your experiences.
