Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss history and culture of the Picts. Read more
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The Picts
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss history and culture of the Picts.
Germaine de Stael
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and works of the great woman of letters.
Thebes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek city of Thebes in myth, drama and history.
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gauss, one of the great mathematicians.
Moby Dick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most popular idea sent in by listeners.
Thomas Becket
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, murder and impact of Thomas Becket (c 1118-1170)
Beethoven
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Hamlet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's best known, longest and most quoted play.
The Siege of Malta, 1565
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ottoman attack on the Knights Hospitaller in Malta.
Anna Akhmatova
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the celebrated Russian poet.
Cicero
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Cephalopods
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the biology of squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus.
Frederick Douglass
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, born to slavery.
Fungi
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss fungi.
Rosalind Franklin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin.
Sun Tzu and The Art of War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential ancient Chinese work on military strategy.
The Highland Clearances
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss evictions and migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Augustine's Confessions
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine's account of his conversion to Christianity.
Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy.
Roman Slavery
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between slavery and the power of Rome.
George and Robert Stephenson
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George and Robert Stephenson and the birth of railways.
Middlemarch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Eliot's greatest novel, published 1871-72.
The Proton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Proton, found in the nuclei of all elements.
The Almoravid Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great empires of the Islamic west.
The Mabinogion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval Welsh stories of Celtic mythology.
The Emancipation of the Serfs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the freeing of a third of Russians from serfdom in 1861.
Margaret of Anjou
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses
Henrik Ibsen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the playwright and his tragedies of middle-class life.
Persepolis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Achaemenid Empire's great ceremonial capital.
Montesquieu
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss republicanism, despotism and the separation of powers.
Echolocation
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how some animals sense their world with sound not sight.