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What does it mean to be a father? When did people first start talking about men as 'father figures'? And how has the concept of fatherhood changed over the millennia? In conversation with David Musgro...
· 38 min 24 sec
During the Cold War, the CIA book programme was a covert campaign to smuggle books into the Eastern Bloc using everything from balloon drops to baked bean tins. But why was literature such a significa...
· 34 min 27 sec
From Michelangelo's David and Machiavelli's The Prince to the plays of Shakespeare, the Renaissance produced some of history's most astounding works of culture, art and innovation. But can focusing on...
· 47 min 33 sec
He’s best known for his Eureka moment, but Archimedes was far more than a naked man in a bathtub. Speaking to Kev Lochun, Professor Michael Scott takes us through the wild imagination of this Ancient...
· 32 min 32 sec
For the ancient Egyptians, wine played a pivotal part in mythology, ritual and the natural processes that enabled their survival. This Long Read written by Islam Issa explores six key roles it fulfill...
· 17 min 58 sec
Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis killed nearly 300,000 people with learning disabilities or psychiatric illnesses. Some 400,000 more were forcibly sterilised. Historian Dagmar Herzog speaks to Ellie C...
· 38 min 24 sec
What happens when you step inside a fairy ring? Where did the figure of the Green Man come from? And why have so many East Anglians been terrorised by a menacing, dog-like creature called Black Shuck?...
· 45 min 59 sec
Shakespeare is now a towering figure of global theatre. But in the 1590s, he was just an up-and-coming young playwright, trying to scratch out a living in Shoreditch's emerging theatre scene. Daniel S...
· 35 min 42 sec
Plague, war, regicide, famine, revolt – during the 14th century, life for people in England was turned on its head. Historian Helen Carr charts this extraordinarily turbulent period through the lives...
· 52 min 4 sec
From medieval Islamic roots and conquest by successive dynasties, to French colonial rule and a modern evolution, Marrakech has a rich heritage – and many eye-catching monuments. Travel writer and his...
· 37 min 22 sec
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the past behind the present, historians Rana Mitter and Hannah Skoda explore the ways the Second World War continues to shape the world of today. P...
· 45 min 40 sec
Men committed the majority of violent crimes in Tudor and Stuart England. But when women murdered, the press had a field day. This Long Read, written by author and historian Blessin Adams, asks what d...
· 18 min 40 sec
From merriment to mummification, new year revelries to funerary rites, wine played a key role in ancient Egyptian culture. Islam Issa speaks to Matt Elton about why the alcoholic drink was so importan...
· 35 min 19 sec
In everything from the social sciences and technology to art and architecture, 18th-century Scotland saw a flowering of ideas and innovation. But what made the Enlightenment in Scotland different to t...
· 37 min 58 sec
During the Second World War, a promise by President Roosevelt to provide supplies to nationalist China led to the creation of an ill-fated air supply route from India, across a perilous stretch of the...
· 45 min 27 sec
Victoria, Ella, Irene and Alix of Hesse were four young European princesses and granddaughters of Queen Victoria, whose marriages would change the face of early 20th-century Europe. Speaking to Elinor...
· 36 min 47 sec
Calamity Jane roars into the popular imagination atop the Deadwood Stage with a 'whip-crack-away' and her pistol ready-loaded. A bold and resourceful frontierswoman, Calamity held her own among the me...
· 44 min 15 sec
Travel writer and history buff Paul Bloomfield and historian Laila Ellmoos explore the history of an iconic Australian tourist destination – Sydney. Together they introduce the Aboriginal peoples; tra...
· 35 min 44 sec
When the remains of Richard III were rediscovered under a car park, Turi King led the verification team that worked on the skeleton – proving with 99.999% certainty that it was indeed that of the long...
· 20 min 46 sec
Tahra Bey became a celebrity with his apparent ability to control his pulse, stab himself without pain and even bury himself alive. Dr Dahesh, meanwhile, was a spiritualist who sparked an entire relig...
· 34 min 40 sec