2018

January

• The Siege of Malta, 1565 11 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the event of which Voltaire, two hundred years later, said ‘nothing was more well known’.
  940 History of Europe
• Anna Akhmatova 18 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work, ideas and life of the Russian poet whose work was celebrated in C20th both for its quality and for what it represented, written under censorship in the Stalin years.
  890 Other literatures
• Cicero 25 Jan
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) to support and reinvigorate the Roman Republic when, as it transpired, it was in its final years, threatened by civil wars, the rule of Julius Caesar and the triumvirates that followed.
  320 Political science

February

• Cephalopods 1 Feb
  The octopus, the squid, the nautilus and the cuttlefish are some of the most extraordinary creatures on this planet, intelligent and yet apparently unlike other life forms.
  590 Animals (Zoology)
• Frederick Douglass 8 Feb
  In a programme first broadcast in 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818 and, once he had escaped, became one of that century’s most prominent abolitionists.
  970 History of North America
• Fungi 15 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss fungi.
  570 Biology
• Rosalind Franklin 22 Feb
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958).
  570 Biology

March

• Sun Tzu and The Art of War 1 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas attributed to Sun Tzu (544-496BC, according to tradition), a legendary figure from the beginning of the Iron Age in China, around the time of Confucius.
  350 Public administration and military science
• The Highland Clearances 8 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Highlanders and Islanders were cleared from their homes in waves in C18th and C19th, following the break up of the Clans after the Battle of Culloden.
  940 History of Europe
• Augustine’s Confessions 15 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine of Hippo’s account of his conversion to Christianity and his life up to that point.
  270 History of Christianity
• Tocqueville: Democracy in America 22 Mar
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and his examination of the American democratic system.
  320 Political science

April

• Roman Slavery 5 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of slavery in the Roman world, from its early conquests to the fall of the Western Empire.
  300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• George and Robert Stephenson 12 Apr
  In a programme first broadcast on April 12th 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the contribution of George Stephenson (1781-1848) and his son Robert (1803-59) to the development of the railways in C19th.
  380 Commerce, communications and transportation
• Middlemarch 19 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what Virginia Woolf called ‘one of the few English novels written for grown-up people’.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Proton 26 Apr
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery and growing understanding of the Proton, formed from three quarks close to the Big Bang and found in the nuclei of all elements.
  530 Physics

May

• The Almoravid Empire 3 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Berber people who grew to dominate the western Maghreb, founded Marrakesh and took control of Al-Andalus.
  960 History of Africa
• The Mabinogion 10 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eleven stories of Celtic mythology and Arthurian romance known as The Mabinogion, most of which were told and retold for generations before being written down in C14th.
  890 Other literatures
• The Emancipation of the Serfs 17 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1861 declaration by Tsar Alexander II that serfs were now legally free of their landlords.
  940 History of Europe
• Margaret of Anjou 24 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most remarkable queens of the Middle Ages who took control when her husband, Henry VI, was incapable.
  940 History of Europe
• Henrik Ibsen 31 May
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Norwegian playwright and poet, best known for his middle class tragedies such as The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, A Doll’s House and An Enemy of the People.
  830 German and related literatures

June

• Persepolis 7 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of the great ‘City of the Persians’ founded by Darius I as the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire that stretched from the Indus Valley to Egypt and the coast of the Black Sea.
  930 History of the Ancient World
• Montesquieu 14 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) whose works on liberty, monarchism, despotism, republicanism and the separation of powers were devoured by intellectuals across Europe and New England in the eighteenth century, transforming political philosophy and influencing the American Constitution.
  320 Political science
• Echolocation 21 Jun
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how some bats, dolphins and other animals emit sounds at high frequencies to explore their environments, rather than sight.
  590 Animals (Zoology)
• The Mexican-American War 28 Jun
  Melvyn and guests discuss the 1846-48 conflict after which the United States of Mexico lost half its territory to the United States of America.
  970 History of North America

July

• William Morris 5 Jul
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of William Morris, known in his lifetime for his poetry and then his contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement, and increasingly for his political activism.
  820 English and Old English literatures

September

• The Iliad 13 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great epic poem attributed to Homer, telling the story of an intense episode in the Trojan War.
  880 Classical and modern Greek literatures
• Automata 20 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of real and imagined machines that appear to be living, and the questions they raise about life and creation.
  620 Engineering
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer 27 Sep
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of the German theologian, born in Breslau/Wroclaw in 1906 and killed in the Flossenburg concentration camp on 9th April 1945.
  230 Christianity

October

• Edith Wharton 4 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works of Wharton (1862-1937) such as The Age of Innocence for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and was the first woman to do so, The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country.
  810 American literature in English
• Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets 11 Oct
  In the first of two programmes marking In Our Time’s 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare’s versions of history, starting with the English Plantagenets.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• Is Shakespeare History? The Romans 18 Oct
  In the second of two programmes marking In Our Time’s 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare’s versions of history, continuing with the Roman plays.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Fable of the Bees 25 Oct
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) and his critique of the economy as he found it in London, where private vices were condemned without acknowledging their public benefit.
  330 Economics

November

• Free Radicals 1 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the properties of atoms or molecules with a single unpaired electron, which tend to be more reactive, keen to seize an electron to make it a pair.
  540 Chemistry
• Marie Antoinette 8 Nov
  In a programme first broadcast in November 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess Maria Antonia, child bride of the future French King Louis XVI.
  940 History of Europe
• Horace 15 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Horace (65-8BC), who flourished under the Emperor Augustus.
  870 Latin and Italic literatures
• Hope 22 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope.
  120 Epistemology
• The Long March 29 Nov
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a foundation story for China as it was reshaped under Mao Zedong.
  950 History of Asia

December

• The Thirty Years War 6 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years.
  940 History of Europe
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 13 Dec
  In a programme first broadcast in 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the jewels of medieval English poetry.
  820 English and Old English literatures
• The Poor Laws 20 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, from 1834, poor people across England and Wales faced new obstacles when they could no longer feed or clothe themselves, or find shelter.
  360 Social problems and social services
• Venus 27 Dec
  Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet Venus which is both the morning star and the evening star, rotates backwards at walking speed and has a day which is longer than its year.
  520 Astronomy