Essay writing

From Montaigne to modern Scottish writing - Rana Mitter discusses what makes a good Essay

• 45 mins

Octavia Butler's Kindred

A novel from 1979 which uses time travel to explore race, slavery and trauma

• 43 mins

Dust, dirt and domesticity

From mould to desertification Naomi Paxton and guests on the impact of dirt,heat and damp

• 44 mins

Shakespeare's Women

The women who crop up in Shakespeare's life, his plays and who helped conserve his legacy

• 45 mins

What is normal?

Sarah Chaney, Louise Creechan and Robert Chapman on neurodiversity, with Matthew Sweet

• 45 mins

Heidegger & Antisemitism

Matthew Sweet discusses the influential German philosopher's relationship with Nazism

• 48 mins

The Kyoto School

Chris Harding investigates the flourishing of Japanese philosophy in the 1930s and beyond

• 45 mins

Holocaust history

Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan 27) Anne McElvoy hears testimony and new research

• 45 mins

Secrets, Lies & Irish History

Clair Wills, Martin Doyle, Scott McKendry & Louise Brangan discuss secrets and conflict

• 45 mins

East West religious connections

Authors Rowan Williams & Christopher Harding and artist Gayle Chong Kwan join Rana Mitter

• 45 mins

On The Silver Globe

Take a mind-bending trip to a distant planet with Andrzej Zulawski's cult 1987 SF film

• 45 mins

Iris Murdoch's The Sovereignty of Good

Matthew Sweet and guests on Iris Murdoch's thought and writing (15 July 1919-8 Feb 1999)

• 44 mins

Picnics

From Picnic at Hanging Rock to an Iron Curtain Pan European picnic

• 45 mins

The Greenwich Outrage

The attempt by an anarchist to blow up the Royal Observatory in 1894 and its consequences

• 45 mins

Chocolate

Shahidha Bari discusses the confection that has conquered the world

• 45 mins

Chocolate

Shahidha Bari discusses the confection that has conquered the world

• 45 mins

The Condom and V.D.

Matthew Sweet and guests talk about sexual health, VD clinics, sex work and condoms

• 45 mins

Myths, ships and history

Anna McKay, Lloyd Belton and Oliver Finnegan delve in the deep for seafaring histories

• 44 mins

Can - Future Days

Matthew Sweet and guests take a deep dive into the influential German group's 1973 album.

• 44 mins

New Thinking: Stitching Stories

Shahidha Bari visits a textile art show + research on embroidery, stage outfits, vintage

• 43 mins

Hitchhiking

Matthew Sweet considers examples from Texas Chainsaw Massacre to a system of Polish tokens

• 45 mins

The Dutch Connection

John Gallagher hears about new research into Anglo-Dutch trade and early publishing

• 45 mins

Sarah Maldoror, Storm Jameson, the Hague Congress

Ahead of International Women's Day Shahidha Bari hears stories linking women with war

• 45 mins

Muses and women's creativity

From Pre-Raphaelite models to the daughter of Maud Gonne: Naomi Paxton with new research

• 45 mins

Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation

Matthew Sweet and guests look at the 1974 Gene Hackman film about surveillance and murder

• 45 mins

Images of Persia

Poetry by Hafez, Nowruz (New Year) and the Haft Sin table, the Mongol invasion, music

• 44 mins

Sleep justice and sleeplessness

Laurence Scott talks to researchers exploring how we sleep and the idea of sleep justice

• 44 mins

Edward Bond

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the playwright Edward Bond (18 July 1934 – 3 March 2024)

• 45 mins

Call Me Mother

How the shape of words for mother helps babies eat their food. Rebecca Woods explains

• 15 mins

Free speech, censorship and modern China

The writings of Chinese women, from Ding Ling to coming of age in the 1990s

• 44 mins