The Forum Episodes Episode guide
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Unravelling the history of knitting
What are the origins of knitting and how did it spread to different parts of the world?
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One Hundred Years of Solitude: The story of Latin America
Gabriel GarcΓa MΓ΅rquez’s modern classic that fuses the magical with real life
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Rabindranath Tagore: The Bard of Bengal
A portrait of the prolific writer who was an environmental thinker before his time
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Pauline Viardot: 19th-Century diva
The Franco-Spanish singer and composer who charmed European society on and off stage
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The One Thousand and One Nights
The ancient magical tales whose origins stretch from India to Persia to Arabia
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Adventures with dentures: The story of dentistry
The painful early roots of a profession we all rely on
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BR Ambedkar: The Dalit hero of India
The life of perhaps the greatest social reformer in 20th-century India
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Making waves: the history of swimming
Different strokes for different folks, embracing the story of swimming around the world
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Abraham Maslow’s psychology of human needs
An influential 20th-century thinker who identified what motivates us
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The Kalevala: the Finnish epic that inspired a nation
The collection of folk songs and poetry that articulated Finnish independence
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Sister Juana, a great mind of Mexico
An outspoken nun who was also a daring poet
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Mermaids: Tales from the deep
A history of sea creature folklore from around the world
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Eleusinian Mysteries: Secret ceremonies promising happiness
The enigma at the centre of ancient Greek religion
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Toussaint L’Ouverture: Hero of the Haitian slave rebellion
The charismatic freed slave who was the true embodiment of French Revolutionary ideals
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Olympe de Gouges: France’s forgotten revolutionary heroine
The French social activist, feminist and playwright who was executed at the guillotine
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Alexandre Yersin and the race to fight the plague
The life and work of a pioneering Swiss microbiologist
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Famous hats in history
The uses and meanings of headwear from prehistory to today
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Mugham: the sound of Azerbaijan
Transcendental music from the Caucasus
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The Kingdom of Aksum: Africa's trading empire
An ancient state in the Horn of Africa that is famed for its monumental stelae structures
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Umm Kulthum: Egypt’s singing superstar
Exploring the life of a woman whose voice still captivates people across the Middle East
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Alexandre Dumas: The man behind the Musketeers
The adventurous life of the much-loved French novelist
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Unlocking the mysteries of cuneiform tablets
We explore the system of writing that developed 5,000 years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia
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First impressions: The printing press
How the machine pioneered by 15th Century entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg changed history
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The woman whose cells changed medical history
The story of Henrietta Lacks who unwittingly left behind an extraordinary medical legacy
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Comenius, a pioneer of lifelong learning
The life and work of the father of modern education
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Dido of Carthage: A love story gone wrong
What makes the legend of Dido so appealing to the arts and beyond?
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Paul Robeson: Singer, actor and civil rights activist
Exploring the life of a man who campaigned for disenfranchised people around the world
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Telling the time: From sundials to satnav
A brief history of how we tell the time
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Writer Jorge Luis Borges: Mixing the magical with the mundane
Teasing and thought provoking: the works of the Argentinian master of pithy stories
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Elizabeth Fry: 'The angel of prisons'
How a nineteenth century Quaker philanthropist shook up the prison system
