2004

Cryptography 29 Jan

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and history of codes.
650 Management and public relations

Thermopylae 5 Feb

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Thermopylae.
930 History of the Ancient World
The Sublime 12 Feb

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a transcendental idea that took hold on the Age of Enlightenment.
110 Metaphysics
Rutherford 19 Feb

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ernest Rutherford.
530 Physics
The Mughal Empire 26 Feb

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Mughal Empire which, at its height, stretched from Bengal in the East to Gujarat in the West, and from Lahore in the North to Madras in the South.
950 History of Asia

Dreams 4 Mar

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the interpretation of dreams.
150 Psychology
The Norse Gods 11 Mar

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Vikings’ myths.
290 Other religions
The Roman Empire’s Collapse in the 5th century 18 Mar

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.
930 History of the Ancient World
Theories of Everything 25 Mar

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 30 year search to solve all the biggest questions in physics.
530 Physics

China’s Warring States period 1 Apr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing productivity of the Chinese Golden Age.
950 History of Asia
The Fall 8 Apr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the concept of original sin and its influence in Christian Europe.
230 Christianity
The Later Romantics 15 Apr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry, the tragedy and the idealism of the Later Romantics.
820 English and Old English literatures
Hysteria 22 Apr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a problematic notion which can be an emotional condition, a syndrome, an extreme or over-reaction, or the physical signs of trauma.
610 Medicine and health
Tea 29 Apr

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss tea, the first truly global commodity.
640 Home and family management

Heroism 6 May

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what defines a hero and what place they had in classical society.
930 History of the Ancient World
Zero 13 May

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the number between 1 and -1, which has strange and uniquely beguiling qualities.
510 Mathematics
Toleration 20 May

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and politics behind the idea of religious toleration.
270 History of Christianity
The Planets 27 May

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss our knowledge of the planets in both our and other solar systems.
520 Astronomy

Babylon 3 Jun

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the truth about Babylon.
930 History of the Ancient World
Empiricism 10 Jun

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Empiricism, England’s greatest contribution to philosophy.
190 Modern Western Philosophy
Renaissance Magic 17 Jun

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Renaissance obsession with Magic.
130 Parapsychology and occultism
Washington and the American Revolution 24 Jun

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the first President of the US, George Washington, and the people and ideas that caused the American Revolution.
970 History of North America

Pi 2 Sep

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of the most detailed number in nature.
510 Mathematics
The Odyssey 9 Sep

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Odyssey by Homer, often claimed as the great founding work of Western Literature.
880 Classical and modern Greek literatures
Agincourt 16 Sep

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Agincourt.
940 History of Europe
The Origins of Life 23 Sep

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the emergence of the world’s first organic matter nearly four billion years ago.
570 Biology
Politeness 30 Sep

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of Politeness.
390 Customs, etiquette and folklore

Sartre 7 Oct

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jean-Paul Sartre, the French novelist, playwright, and philosopher who became the king of intellectual Paris and a focus of post war politics and morals.
840 French and related literatures
The Han Synthesis 14 Oct

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Han Synthesis philosophies of China.
950 History of Asia
Witchcraft 21 Oct

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss witchcraft in Reformation Europe.
130 Parapsychology and occultism
Rhetoric 28 Oct

Melvyn Bragg and guests discusses rhetoric.
800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism

Electrickery 4 Nov

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dawn of the age of electricity.
500 Science
Zoroastrianism 11 Nov

Melvyn Bragg and guests discusses Zoroastrianism.
290 Other religions
Higgs Boson 18 Nov

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Higgs Boson particle.
530 Physics
The Venerable Bede 25 Nov

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Venerable Bede.
270 History of Christianity

Jung 2 Dec

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the extraordinary mind of the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.
150 Psychology
Machiavelli and the Italian City States 9 Dec

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli.
320 Political science
The Second Law of Thermodynamics 16 Dec

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Second Law of Thermodynamics which can be very simply stated like this: “Energy spontaneously tends to flow from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused and spread out”.
530 Physics
Faust 23 Dec

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myth of Faustus.
800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
The Roman Republic 30 Dec

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.
930 History of the Ancient World