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Nero

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.

• 51 mins

The Gordon Riots

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.

• 50 mins

Bergson and Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henri Bergson's ideas about our experience of time passing

• 51 mins

Frankenstein

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's Gothic story of a monster brought to life

• 55 mins

Kinetic Theory

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how we know gas molecules move rather than keep still.

• 51 mins

President Ulysses S Grant

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in reconstructing the USA after the Civil War

• 55 mins

Sir Thomas Browne

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the physician with a curious mind in dangerous times

• 52 mins

The Inca

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the advanced Andean empire, dominant until Pizarro arrived

• 52 mins

The Mytilenaean Debate

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' change of mind in the Peloponnesian War.

• 54 mins

Doggerland

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Stone Age human habitats now covered by the North Sea.

• 54 mins

Lorca

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish poet and playwright's work, life and death.

• 53 mins

Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812.

• 54 mins

The Rapture

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that believers will vanish from the world.

• 51 mins

Dorothy Hodgkin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

• 52 mins

Rousseau on Education

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas on the education of children

• 51 mins

The Time Machine

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.

• 51 mins

Robert Burns

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, ideas and life of Robert Burns (1759-1796).

• 52 mins

Hybrids

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how parents from different species can reproduce

• 50 mins

The Treaty of Limerick

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaty ending the Williamite War in Ireland in 1691

• 52 mins

Crime and Punishment

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....

• 52 mins

Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful woman in the C12th Kingdom of Jerusalem

• 52 mins

Li Shizhen

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heights of medical knowledge under the Ming dynasty

• 51 mins

Lawrence of Arabia

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week

• 51 mins

Coffee

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee and its impact

• 55 mins

Auden

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss WH Auden's life and his poetry from the 1930s.

• 53 mins

Tutankhamun

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed

• 53 mins

Catullus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems of Catullus from the late Roman Republic

• 52 mins

The Siege of Paris 1870-71

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paris under Prussian siege and then under the Commune

• 52 mins

Solar Wind

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss solar wind, from auroras to the edge of the solar system.

• 55 mins

Alcuin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scholar who revived learning for its own sake in C8th

• 56 mins