In Our Time

The Invention of Radio

04 Jul 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio. In the early 1860s the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell derived four equations which...

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

27 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, widely regarded as one of the greatest works of Chinese literature. Written 600...

The Physiocrats

20 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, an important group of economic thinkers in eighteenth-century France. The Physiocrats believed th...

Prophecy

13 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the meaning and significance of prophecy in the Abrahamic religions. Prophets, those with the ability to convey di...

Relativity

06 Jun 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Einstein's theories of relativity. Between 1905 and 1917 Albert Einstein formulated a theoretical framework which ...

Queen Zenobia

30 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, a famous military leader of the ancient world. Born in around 240 AD, Zenobia was Empress of the Pa...

Lévi-Strauss

23 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. One of twentieth-century France's most celebrated intellectua...

Cosmic Rays

16 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays. In 1912 the physicist Victor Hess discovered that the Earth is under constant bombardment from radiat...

Icelandic Sagas

09 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic Sagas. First written down in the 13th century, the sagas tell the stories of the Norse settlers of I...

Gnosticism

02 May 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a sect associated with early Christianity. The Gnostics divided the universe into two domains: the vis...

Montaigne

25 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Born near Bordeaux in 1533, Montaigne retired from a life of public service age...

The Putney Debates

18 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of...

The Amazons

11 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric...

Japan's Sakoku Period

04 Apr 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period, two centuries when the country deliberately isolated itself from the Western world. Sakoku ...

Water

28 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the simplest and most remarkable of all molecules: water. Water is among the most abundant substances on E...

Alfred Russel Wallace

21 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer of evolutionary theory. Born in 1823, Wallace travelled extensively, ...

Chekhov

14 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Anton Chekhov. Born in 1860, Chekhov trained as a doctor and for most of his adult life divi...

Absolute Zero

07 Mar 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In a programme first broadcast in 2013, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the lowest conceivable temperature.  In the early eighteen...

Pitt-Rivers

28 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian anthropologist and archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Over many years he amas...

Decline and Fall

21 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

David Bradshaw, John Bowen and Ann Pasternak Slater join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall. Set partly in a substand...

Ice Ages

14 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Francis, Richard Corfield and Carrie Lear join Melvyn Bragg to discuss ice ages, periods when a reduction in the surface temperature of the Earth...

Epicureanism

07 Feb 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Angie Hobbs, David Sedley and James Warren join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Epicureanism, the system of philosophy based on the teachings of Epicurus and ...

The War of 1812

31 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the War of 1812, the conflict between America and the British Empire sometimes referred to as the second American ...

Romulus and Remus

24 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Romulus and Remus, the central figures of the foundation myth of Rome. According to tradition, the twins were aba...

Comets

17 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss comets, the 'dirty snowballs' of the Solar System. In the early 18th century the Astronomer Royal Sir Edmond Halle...

Le Morte d'Arthur

10 Jan 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Thomas Malory's "Le Morte Darthur", the epic tale of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Sir Thomas Ma...

The Cult of Mithras

27 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the cult of Mithras, a mystery religion that existed in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD. Als...

The South Sea Bubble

20 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The South Sea Bubble, the speculation mania in early 18th-century England which ended in the financial ruin of man...

Shahnameh of Ferdowsi

13 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic poem the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the 'Book of Kings', which has been at the heart of Persian culture for t...

Bertrand Russell

06 Dec 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the influential British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Born in 1872 into an aristocratic family, Russell is widely ...

Crystallography

28 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of crystallography, the study of crystals and their structure. The discovery in the early 20th century...

The Borgias

22 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Borgias, the most notorious family in Renaissance Italy. Famed for their treachery and corruption, the Borgias...

Simone Weil

15 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil. Born in Paris in 1909 into a wealthy, agnostic Jewish fami...

The Upanishads

08 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Upanishads, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism. Dating from about 700 BC, the Upanishads were passed down th...

The Anarchy

01 Nov 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Anarchy, the civil war that took place in mid-twelfth century England. The war began as a succession dispute b...

Fermat's Last Theorem

25 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Fermat's Last Theorem. In 1637 the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat scribbled a note in the margin of one of ...

Caxton and the Printing Press

18 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and influence of William Caxton, the merchant who brought the printing press to the British Isles. After ...

Hannibal

11 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and achievements of Hannibal. One of the most celebrated military leaders in history, Hannibal was the Ca...

Gerald of Wales

04 Oct 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales. Born around the middle of the twelfth century, Gerald was a cleric and court...

The Ontological Argument

27 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ontological Argument. In the eleventh century St Anselm of Canterbury proposed that it was possible to prove t...

The Druids

20 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Druids, the priests of ancient Europe. Active in Ireland, Britain and Gaul, the Druids were first written abou...

The Cell

13 Sep 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the cell, the fundamental building block of life. First observed by Robert Hooke in 1665, cells occur in nature in...

Hadrian's Wall

12 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hadrian's Wall, the largest Roman structure and one of the most important archaeological monuments in Britain. Str...

Scepticism

05 Jul 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Scepticism, the idea that it may be impossible to know anything with complete certainty. Scepticism was first outl...

Al-Kindi

28 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Arab philosopher al-Kindi. Born in the early ninth century, al-Kindi was heavily influenc...

Annie Besant

21 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the prominent 19th-century social reformer Annie Besant. Born in 1847, Annie Besant espoused a range o...

James Joyce's Ulysses

14 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss James Joyce's novel Ulysses. First published ninety years ago in Paris, Joyce's masterpiece is a sprawling and sta...

King Solomon

07 Jun 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the biblical king Solomon, celebrated for his wisdom and as the architect of the First Temple in Jerusalem. Accord...

The Trojan War

31 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trojan War, one of the best known events of Greek mythology. According to the traditional version of the story...

Marco Polo

24 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the celebrated Venetian explorer Marco Polo. In 1271 Polo set off on an epic journey through Asia. He was away for...

Clausewitz and On War

17 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss On War, a treatise on the theory and practice of warfare written by the Prussian soldier and intellectual Carl von...

Game Theory

10 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss game theory, the mathematical study of decision-making. First formulated in the 1940s, the discipline entails devi...

Voltaire's Candide

03 May 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's novel Candide. First published in 1759, the novel follows the adventures of a young man, Candide, and h...

The Battle of Bosworth Field

26 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Bosworth Field, the celebrated encounter between Lancastrian and Yorkist forces in August 1485. The ...

Neoplatonism

19 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Neoplatonism, the school of thought founded in the 3rd century AD by the philosopher Plotinus. Born in Egypt, Plot...

Early Geology

12 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the emergence of geology as a scientific discipline. A little over two hundred years ago a small group of friends ...

George Fox and the Quakers

05 Apr 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins of Quakerism. In the mid-seventeenth century an itinerant preacher, George Fox, became the central fig...

The Measurement of Time

29 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the measurement of time. Early civilisations used the movements of heavenly bodies to tell the time, but even in t...

Moses Mendelssohn

22 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of the eighteenth-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. A prominent figure at the court of...

Vitruvius and De Architectura

15 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Vitruvius' De Architectura. Written almost exactly two thousand years ago, Vitruvius' work is a ten-volume treatis...

Lyrical Ballads

08 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge first published in 1798. The w...

Benjamin Franklin

01 Mar 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin. A printer, statesman, diplomat, writer and scientist, Franklin was one of ...

Conductors and Semiconductors

23 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the physics of electrical conduction. Although electricity has been known for several hundred years, it was only i...

The An Lushan Rebellion

16 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion, a major uprising against the imperial rule of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. In 755 AD a senio...

Erasmus

09 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus. In his lifetime Erasmus was almost universally...

The Kama Sutra

02 Feb 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Kama Sutra, one of the most celebrated and often misunderstood texts of Indian literature. Probably composed d...

The Scientific Method

26 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the evolution of the Scientific Method, the systematic and analytical approach to scientific thought. In 1620 the ...

1848: Year of Revolution

19 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss 1848, the year that saw Europe engulfed in revolution. Across the continent, from Paris to Palermo, liberals rose ...

The Safavid Dynasty

12 Jan 2012

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Safavid Dynasty, rulers of the Persian empire between the 16th and 18th centuries.In 1501 Shah Ismail, a boy o...

Macromolecules

29 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the giant molecules that form the basis of all life. Macromolecules, also known as polymers, are long chains of atoms....

Robinson Crusoe

22 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic...

The Concordat of Worms

15 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Concordat of Worms. This treaty between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, signed in 1122, put an end, at l...

Heraclitus

08 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Writing in the 5th century BC, Heraclitus believed that everything is co...

Christina Rossetti

01 Dec 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti. Rossetti was born into an artistic family and her sibl...

Judas Maccabeus

24 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the revolutionary Jewish leader Judas Maccabeus. Born in the second century BC, Judas led his followers, the Macca...

Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy

17 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, and consider how and why his geocentric theory of the univ...

The Continental-Analytic Split

10 Nov 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Continental-Analytic split in Western philosophy. Around the beginning of the last century, philosophy began t...

The Moon

03 Nov 2011

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 ...

The Siege of Tenochtitlan

27 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Siege of Tenochtitlan. In 1521 the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes led an army of Spanish and native forces...

Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People

20 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People. In 1830 revolution once more overtook France, when a popular upri...

The Ming Voyages

13 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages. In 1405 a Chinese admiral, Zheng He, set sail with an enormous fleet of ships carrying more than...

David Hume

06 Oct 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the philosopher David Hume. A key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Hume...

The Etruscan Civilisation

29 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Etruscan civilisation.Around 800 BC a sophisticated civilisation began to emerge in the area of Italy now know...

Shinto

22 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Japanese belief system Shinto.A religion without gods, scriptures or a founder, Shinto is perhaps better descr...

The Hippocratic Oath

15 Sep 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Hippocratic Oath. The Greek physician Hippocrates, active in the fifth century BC, has been described as the f...

The Minoan Civilisation

07 Jul 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Minoan Civilisation.In 1900 the British archaeologist Arthur Evans began excavating some ancient ruins at Knos...

Tennyson's In Memoriam

29 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Alfred, Lord Tennyson's long poem In Memoriam.In 1850, shortly before his appointment as Poet Laureate, Tennyson p...

Malthusianism

22 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malthusianism.In the eighteenth century, as expanding agriculture and industry resulted in a rapid increase in the...

Wyclif and the Lollards

16 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss John Wyclif and the Lollards.John Wyclif was a medieval philosopher and theologian who in the fourteenth century i...

The Origins of Infectious Disease

08 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins of infectious disease. Infectious disease has been with us for millennia. There are reports of ancient...

The Battle of Stamford Bridge

02 Jun 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Stamford Bridge.In the first week of 1066 the English king, Edward the Confessor, died. A young nobl...

Xenophon

26 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Xenophon.Xenophon, an aristocratic Athenian, was one of the most celebrated writers of the an...

Custer's Last Stand

19 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.In 1876 a dispute between the American federal...

The Anatomy of Melancholy

12 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Robert Burton's masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy.In 1621 the priest and scholar Robert Burton published a boo...

Islamic Law and its Origins

05 May 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins and early development of Islamic law. The legal code of Islam is known as Sharia, an Arabic word meani...

Cogito Ergo Sum

28 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the most famous statements in philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum".In his Discourse on the Method, published in 16...

The Pelagian Controversy

21 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Pelagian Controversy.In the late 4th century a British monk, Pelagius, travelled to Rome, where he became a th...

The Neutrino

14 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the neutrino.In 1930 the physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed the existence of an as-yet undiscovered subatomic parti...

Octavia Hill

07 Apr 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian social reformer Octavia Hill.From the 1850s until her death in 1912, Octavia Hill was an energetic c...

The Bhagavad Gita

31 Mar 2011

Contributed by Lukas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bhagavad Gita.The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse section of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, is one of the most ...