In Our Time
Episodes
Handel's Messiah
07 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and his guests discuss the most famous oratorio of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and his librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773). Fo...
The Spanish-American War 1898
30 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss a turning point in world affairs in 1898 that left Spain greatly reduced as an imperial power and the US the owner of ...
Silicon
23 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the physics, biology and chemistry of the element silicon which is at the heart of some of the most useful and beautif...
Dadaism
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the provocative artistic phenomenon that first startled audiences in 1916 in Zurich. There, at the Cabaret Voltaire at...
Archaea
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the 20th century: the archaea microorganisms. In the 1970s the Am...
Margaret Beaufort
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who, as a child bride, became mother to the boy who would eventually become the first king in the Tudor dyna...
The Columbian Exchange
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exchange of cultures and biology across the Atlantic and Pacific after 1492. That was when Columbus reached the Ba...
John Keats
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the short life and lasting works of Keats (1795-1821), who in one year wrote some of the most loved poems in English. ...
The Code of Hammurabi
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq...
Henry IV Part 1
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most successful of Shakespeare's plays in his own time. Written with no Part 2 in mind as 'Henry the Fourth...
The Roman Arena
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the countless venues across the Roman Empire which for over five hundred years drew the biggest crowds both in the Rep...
The Mariana Trench
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Ma...
On Liberty
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist, author and historian Misha Glenny presents his first edition of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg who retired from this role last summe...
Welcoming Misha Glenny to the In Our Time studio
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Misha Glenny introduces himself to you ahead of his first episode on 15th January, answering some questions from producer Simon Tillotson and sharing ...
While you wait: The Death of Reading (from The Global Story)
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
While you wait for the new season of In Our Time with Misha Glenny, we’re introducing you to The Global Story, a new daily podcast from the BBC. In...
Melvyn Bragg meets Misha Glenny
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Before Misha Glenny's first edition on 15th January, BBC Radio 4's flagship news programme Today has brought Melvyn Bragg and Misha Glenny together so...
Dickens (Archive Episode)
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. The singer ...
Emily Dickinson (Archive Episode)
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Comedian Fr...
Shakespeare's Sonnets (Archive Episode)
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, some well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Historian a...
Margery Kempe and English Mysticism (Archive Episode)
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Author and ...
Eclipses (Archive Episode)
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Guy Garvey,...
Feathered Dinosaurs (Archive Episode)
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has s...
Pauli's Exclusion Principle (Archive Episode)
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has s...
Zeno's Paradoxes (Archive Episode)
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has s...
Thomas Hardy's Poetry (Archive Episode)
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has s...
The Moon (Archive Episode)
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has s...
The Waltz (Archive Episode)
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dance which, from when it reached Britain in the early nineteenth century, revolutionised the relationship between...
Civility: talking with those who disagree with you
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that Civility, in one of its meanings, is among the most valuable social virtues: the skill to discuss topics...
Dragons
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cult...
Barbour's 'Brus'
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Barbour's epic poem The Brus, or Bruce, which he wrote c1375. The Brus is the earliest surviving poem in Older Sc...
The Evolution of Lungs
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolution of lungs and of the first breaths, which can be traced back 400 million years to when animal life spread...
The Vienna Secession
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1897, Gustav Klimt led a group of radical artists to break free from the cultural establishment of Vienna and found a movement that became known as...
Hypnosis
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since Franz Anton Mesmer induced trance-like states in his Parisian subjects in the late eighteenth century, dressed in long purple robes, hypnos...
Paul von Hindenburg
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and role of one of the most significant figures in early 20th Century German history. Paul von Hindenburg (18...
Copyright
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1710, the British Parliament passed a piece of legislation entitled An Act for the Encouragement of Learning. It became known as the Statute of Ann...
Lise Meitner
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the decisive role of one of the great 20th Century physicists in solving the question of nuclear fission. It is said ...
The Korean Empire
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Korea's brief but significant period as an empire as it moved from the 500-year-old dynastic Joseon monarchy towards m...
Molière
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great figures in world literature. The French playwright Molière (1622-1673) began as an actor, aiming to ...
Typology
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore typology, a method of biblical interpretation that aims to meaningfully link people, places, and events in the Hebrew ...
The Battle of Clontarf
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the best known events and figures in Irish history. In 1014 Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, defeated the Hib...
The Gracchi
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus whose names are entwined with the end of Rome's Republic and the rise of the ...
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), who was part of the movement known as phenomenology. While l...
Thomas Middleton
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most energetic, varied and innovative playwrights of his time. Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) worked across t...
Cyrus the Great
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the history and reputation of the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Second of Persia as he was known then was b...
Pollination
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since plants have to mate and produce offspring while rooted to the spot, they have to be pollinated – by wind, water, or animals – most commonly ...
Kali
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hindu goddess Kali, often depicted as dark blue, fierce, defiant, revelling in her power, and holding in her four ...
Oliver Goldsmith
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the renowned and versatile Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774). There is a memorial to him in Westminster Abbe...
Catherine of Aragon
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the youngest child of the newly dominant Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella. When...
Sir John Soane
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the architect Sir John Soane (1753 -1837), the son of a bricklayer. He rose up the ranks of his profession as an archi...
Pope Joan
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a story that circulated widely in the middle ages about a highly learned woman who lived in the ninth century, dressed...
Socrates in Prison
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's Crito and Phaedo, his accounts of the last days of Socrates in prison in 399 BC as he waited to be executed by...
The Battle of Valmy
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most consequential battles of recent centuries. On 20th September 1792 at Valmy, 120 miles to the east of P...
Slime Moulds
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss slime mould, a basic organism that grows on logs, cowpats and compost heaps. Scientists have found difficult to catego...
Vase-mania
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss eighteenth century 'vase-mania'. In the second half of the century, inspired by archaeological discoveries, the Grand ...
Plutarch's Parallel Lives
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek biographer Plutarch (c46 AD-c120 AD) and especially his work 'Parallel Lives' which has shaped the way succe...
The Habitability of Planets
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the great unanswered questions in science: how and where did life on Earth begin, what did it need to thrive a...
Nizami Ganjavi
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest romantic poets in Persian literature. Nizami Ganjavi (c1141–1209) is was born in the city of Ga...
The Hanoverian Succession
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the intense political activity at the turn of the 18th Century, when many politicians in London went to great lengths ...
Italo Calvino
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Italian author of Invisible Cities, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, Cosmicomics and other celebrated novels, f...
The Antikythera Mechanism
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2000-year-old device which transformed our understanding of astronomy in ancient Greece. In 1900 a group of spong...
George Herbert
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poet George Herbert (1593-1633) who, according to the French philosopher Simone Weil, wrote ‘the most beautiful ...
The Venetian Empire
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable rise of Venice in the eastern Mediterranean. Unlike other Italian cities of the early medieval period, ...
Little Women
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, credited with starting the new genre of young adult fiction. When Alcott (1832-88) wro...
Hayek's The Road to Serfdom
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian-British economist Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944) in which Hayek (1899-1992) warned that the...
Robert Graves
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of 'I, Claudius' who was also one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. Robert Graves (1895 -1985) ...
The Haymarket Affair
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the notorious attack of 4th of May 1886 at a workers rally in Chicago when somebody threw a bomb that killed a policem...
Wormholes
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the tantalising idea that there are shortcuts between distant galaxies, somewhere out there in the universe. The idea ...
Benjamin Disraeli
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and,...
Bacteriophages
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most abundant lifeform on Earth: the viruses that 'eat' bacteria. Early in the 20th century, scientists noticed ...
Monet in England
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of the great French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926) in London, initially in 1870 and then from 1899. H...
Karma
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the doctrine of Karma as developed initially among Hindus, Jains and Buddhists in India from the first millennium BCE....
Fielding's Tom Jones
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss "The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling" (1749) by Henry Fielding (1707-1754), one of the most influential of the early...
The Orkneyinga Saga
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Saga of the Earls of Orkney, as told in the 13th Century by an unknown Icelander. This was the story of arguably t...
Marsilius of Padua
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the canonical figures from the history of political thought. Marsilius of Padua (c1275 to c1343) wrote 'Defenso...
Empress Dowager Cixi
20 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) started ou...
Philippa Foot
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century, Philippa Foot (1920 - 2010). Her central question...
Sir Thomas Wyatt
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'the greatest poet of his age', Thomas Wyatt (1503 -1542), who brought the poetry of the Italian Renaissance into the...
Mercury
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet which is closest to our Sun. We see it as an evening or a morning star, close to where the Sun has just se...
Bertolt Brecht
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the greatest European playwrights of the twentieth century. The aim of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was to make t...
Napoleon's Hundred Days
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrive...
Lysistrata
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' comedy in which the women of Athens and Sparta, led by Lysistrata, secure peace in the long-running war ...
Nikola Tesla
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and his role in the development of electrical systems towards t...
The Kalevala
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Finnish epic poem that first appeared in print in 1835 in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Ru...
Julian the Apostate
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the last pagan ruler of the Roman Empire. Fifty years after Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and intro...
The Waltz
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dance which, from when it reached Britain in the early nineteenth century, revolutionised the relationship between...
The Mokrani Revolt
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revolt that broke out in 1871 in Algeria against French rule, spreading over hundreds of miles and countless towns...
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German physicist who, at the age of 23 and while still a student, effectively created quantum mechanics for which ...
The Sack of Rome 1527
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous assault of an army of the Holy Roman Emperor on the city of Rome in 1527. The troops soon broke through t...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lewis Carroll's book which first appeared in print in 1865 with illustrations by John Tenniel. It has since become one...
Hormones
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss some of the chemical signals coursing through our bodies throughout our lives, produced in separate areas and spreadin...
The Hanseatic League
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League or Hansa which dominated North European trade in the medieval period. With a trading network that...
Panpsychism
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that some kind of consciousness is present not just in our human brains but throughout the universe, right d...
Nefertiti
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who inspired one of the best known artefacts from ancient Egypt. The Bust of Nefertiti is multicoloured and ...
Condorcet
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-94), known as the Last of the Philosophes, the intellectuals in the French Enlightenment wh...
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare’s great comedies, which plays in the space between marriage, love and desire. By convention a wed...
Vincent van Gogh
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dutch artist famous for starry nights and sunflowers, self portraits and simple chairs. These are images known the...
Tiberius
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman emperor Tiberius. When he was born in 42BC, there was little prospect of him ever becoming Emperor of Rome. ...
Karl Barth
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Karl Barth (1886 - 1968) rejected the liberal theol...
Edgar Allan Poe
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Poe (1809-1849), the American author who is famous for his Gothic tales of horror, madness and the dark interiors of t...
Marguerite de Navarre
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renai...