Alle afleveringen van In Our Time – pagina 10 van 23

Al-Ghazali

19 maart 2015 · 44 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Al-Ghazali, a major philosopher and theologian of the late 11th century. Born in Persia, he was one of the most prominent intellectuals of his age, working in such centres of learning as Baghdad, Damascus and Jerusalem. He is now seen as a key figure in the development of Islamic thought, not just refining the theology of Islam but also building on the existing philosophical tradition inherited from the ancient Greeks. Lees meer

With:

Peter Adamson
Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the LMU in Munich

Carole Hillenbrand
Professor of Islamic History at Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities

Robert Gleave
Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Exeter

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

Dark Matter

12 maart 2015 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance which is believed to make up most of the Universe. In 1932 the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort noticed that the speed at which galaxies moved was at odds with the amount of material they appeared to contain. He hypothesized that much of this 'missing' matter was simply invisible to telescopes. Today astronomers and particle physicists are still fascinated by the search for dark matter and the question of what it is. Lees meer

With

Carolin Crawford
Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and Gresham Professor of Astronomy

Carlos Frenk
Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics and Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at the University of Durham

Anne Green
Reader in Physics at the University of Nottingham

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Beowulf

5 maart 2015 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the epic poem Beowulf, one of the masterpieces of Anglo-Saxon literature. Composed in the early Middle Ages by an anonymous poet, the work tells the story of a Scandinavian hero whose feats include battles with the fearsome monster Grendel and a fire-breathing dragon. It survives in a single manuscript dating from around 1000 AD, and was almost completely unknown until its rediscovery in the nineteenth century. Since then it has been translated into modern English by writers including William Morris, JRR Tolkien and Seamus Heaney, and inspired poems, novels and films. Lees meer

With:

Laura Ashe
Associate Professor in English at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Worcester College

Clare Lees
Professor of Medieval English Literature and History of the Language at King's College London

Andy Orchard
Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Eunuch

26 februari 2015 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and significance of eunuchs, castrated men who were a common feature of many civilisations for at least three thousand years. Eunuchs were typically employed as servants in royal households in the ancient Middle East, China and classical antiquity. In some civilisations they were used as administrators or senior military commanders, sometimes achieving high office. The tradition lingered until surprisingly recently, with castrated singers remaining a feature of Vatican choirs until the nineteenth century, while the last Chinese eunuch of the imperial court died in 1996. Lees meer

With:

Karen Radner
Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London

Shaun Tougher
Reader in Ancient History at Cardiff University

Michael Hoeckelmann
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at King's College London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Wealth of Nations

19 februari 2015 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's celebrated economic treatise The Wealth of Nations. Smith was one of Scotland's greatest thinkers, a moral philosopher and pioneer of economic theory whose 1776 masterpiece has come to define classical economics. Based on his careful consideration of the transformation wrought on the British economy by the Industrial Revolution, and how it contrasted with marketplaces elsewhere in the world, the book outlined a theory of wealth and how it is accumulated that has arguably had more influence on economic theory than any other. Lees meer

With:

Richard Whatmore
Professor of Modern History and Director of the Institute of Intellectual History at the University of St Andrews

Donald Winch
Emeritus Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Sussex

Helen Paul
Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Photon

12 februari 2015 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the photon, one of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. Generations of scientists have struggled to understand the nature of light. In the late nineteenth century it seemed clear that light was an electromagnetic wave. But the work of physicists including Planck and Einstein shed doubt on this theory. Today scientists accept that light can behave both as a wave and a particle, the latter known as the photon. Understanding light in terms of photons has enabled the development of some of the most important technology of the last fifty years. Lees meer

With:

Frank Close
Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Oxford

Wendy Flavell
Professor of Surface Physics at the University of Manchester

Susan Cartwright
Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Ashoka the Great

5 februari 2015 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Indian Emperor Ashoka. Active in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka conquered almost all of the landmass covered by modern-day India, creating the largest empire South Asia had ever known. After his campaign of conquest he converted to Buddhism, and spread the religion throughout his domain. His edicts were inscribed on the sides of an extraordinary collection of stone pillars spread far and wide across his empire, many of which survive today. Our knowledge of ancient India and its chronology, and how this aligns with the history of Europe, is largely dependent on this important set of inscriptions, which were deciphered only in the nineteenth century. Lees meer

With:

Jessica Frazier
Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Naomi Appleton
Chancellor's Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh

Richard Gombrich
Founder and Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies and Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Thucydides

29 januari 2015 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. In the fifth century BC Thucydides wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War, an account of a conflict in which he had himself taken part. This work is now seen as one of the first great masterpieces of history writing, a book which influenced writers for centuries afterwards. Thucydides was arguably the first historian to make a conscious attempt to be objective, bringing a rational and impartial approach to his scholarship. Today his work is still widely studied at military colleges and in the field of international relations for the insight it brings to bear on complex political situations. Lees meer

With:

Paul Cartledge
Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture and AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge

Katherine Harloe
Associate Professor in Classics and Intellectual History at the University of Reading

Neville Morley
Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Phenomenology

22 januari 2015 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss phenomenology, a style of philosophy developed by the German thinker Edmund Husserl in the first decades of the 20th century. Husserl's initial insights underwent a radical transformation in the work of his student Martin Heidegger, and played a key role in the development of French philosophy at the hands of writers like Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Lees meer

Phenomenology has been a remarkably adaptable approach to philosophy. It has given its proponents a platform to expose and critique the basic assumptions of past philosophy, and to talk about everything from the foundations of geometry to the difference between fear and anxiety. It has also been instrumental in getting philosophy out of the seminar room and making it relevant to the lives people actually lead.

GUESTS

Simon Glendinning, Professor of European Philosophy in the European Institute at the London School of Economics

Joanna Hodge, Professor of Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University

Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy and Tutor at New College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent

15 januari 2015 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting of 1559, 'The Fight Between Carnival And Lent'. Created in Antwerp at a time of religious tension between Catholics and Protestants, the painting is rich in detail and seems ripe for interpretation. But Bruegel is notoriously difficult to interpret. His art seems to reject the preoccupations of the Italian Renaissance, drawing instead on techniques associated with the new technology of the 16th century, print. Was Bruegel using his art to comment on the controversies of his day? If so, what comment was he making? Lees meer

CONTRIBUTORS

Louise Milne, Lecturer in Visual Culture in the School of Art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University

Jeanne Nuechterlein, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of York

Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History and Head of the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Truth

18 december 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of truth. Pontius Pilate famously asked: what is truth? In the twentieth century, the nature of truth became a subject of particular interest to philosophers, but they preferred to ask a slightly different question: what does it mean to say of any particular statement that it is true? What is the difference between these two questions, and how useful is the second of them? Lees meer

With:

Simon Blackburn
Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and Professor of Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities

Jennifer Hornsby
Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London

Crispin Wright
Regius Professor of Logic at the University of Aberdeen, and Professor of Philosophy at New York University

Producer: Victoria Brignell and Luke Mulhall.

Behavioural Ecology

11 december 2014 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Behavioural Ecology, the scientific study of animal behaviour. Lees meer

What factors influence where and what an animal chooses to eat? Why do some animals mate for life whilst others are promiscuous? Behavioural ecologists approach questions like these using Darwin's theory of natural selection, along with ideas drawn from game theory and the economics of consumer choice.

Scientists had always been interested in why animals behave as they do, but before behavioural ecology this area of zoology never got much beyond a collection of interesting anecdotes. Behavioural ecology gave researchers techniques for constructing rigorous mathematical models of how animals act under different circumstances, and for predicting how they will react if circumstances change. Behavioural ecology emerged as a branch of zoology in the second half of the 20th century and proponents say it revolutionized our understanding of animals in their environments.

GUESTS

Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London

Rebecca Kilner, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Cambridge

John Krebs, Principal of Jesus College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Zen

4 december 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Zen. It's often thought of as a form of Buddhism that emphasises the practice of meditation over any particular set of beliefs. In fact Zen belongs to a particular intellectual tradition within Buddhism that took root in China in the 6th century AD. It spread to Japan in the early Middle Ages, where Zen practitioners set up religious institutions like temples, monasteries and universities that remain important today. Lees meer

GUESTS

Tim Barrett, Emeritus Professor in the Department of the Study of Religions at SOAS, University of London

Lucia Dolce, Numata Reader in Japanese Buddhism at SOAS, University of London

Eric Greene, Lecturer in East Asian Religions at the University of Bristol

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Kafka's The Trial

27 november 2014 · 43 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Franz Kafka's novel of power and alienation 'The Trial', in which readers follow the protagonist Joseph K into a bizarre, nightmarish world in which he stands accused of an unknown crime; courts of interrogation convene in obscure tenement buildings; and there seems to be no escape from a crushing, oppressive bureaucracy. Lees meer

Kafka was a German-speaking Jew who lived in the Czech city of Prague, during the turbulent years which followed the First World War. He spent his days working as a lawyer for an insurance company, but by night he wrote stories and novels considered some of the high points of twentieth century literature. His explorations of power and alienation have chimed with existentialists, Marxists, psychoanalysts, postmodernists - and Radio 4 listeners, who suggested this as our topic for listener week on In Our Time.

GUESTS

Elizabeth Boa, Professor Emerita of German at the University of Nottingham
Steve Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge
Ritchie Robertson, Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Aesop

20 november 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aesop. According to some accounts, Aesop was a strikingly ugly slave who was dumb until granted the power of speech by the goddess Isis. In stories of his life he's often found outwitting his masters using clever wordplay, but he's best known today as the supposed author of a series of fables that are some of the most enduringly popular works of Ancient Greek literature. Some modern scholars question whether he existed at all, but the body of work that has come down to us under his name gives us a rare glimpse of the popular culture of the Ancient World. Lees meer

WITH

Pavlos Avlamis, Junior Research Fellow in Classics at Trinity College at the University of Oxford

Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge

Lucy Grig, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Edinburgh

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Brunel

13 november 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Victorian engineer responsible for bridges, tunnels and railways still in use today more than 150 years after they were built. Brunel represented the cutting edge of technological innovation in Victorian Britain, and his life gives us a window onto the social changes that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. Yet his work was not always successful, and his innovative approach to engineering projects was often greeted with suspicion from investors. Lees meer

Guests:

Julia Elton, former President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering and Technology

Ben Marsden, Senior Lecturer in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen

Crosbie Smith, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Kent

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Hatshepsut

6 november 2014 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose name means 'foremost of noble ladies'. She ruled Egypt from about 1479 - 1458 BC and some scholars argue that she was one of the most successful and influential pharaohs. When she came to the throne, Egypt was still recovering from a period of turbulence known as the Second Intermediate Period a few generations earlier. Hatshepsut reasserted Egyptian power by building up international trade and commissioned buildings considered masterpieces of Egyptian architecture. She also made significant changes to the ideology surrounding the pharaoh and the gods. However, following her death, her name was erased from the records and left out of ancient lists of Egyptian kings. Lees meer

With:

Elizabeth Frood
Associate Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford

Kate Spence
Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge

Campbell Price
Curator of Egypt and Sudan at The Manchester Museum

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

Nuclear Fusion

30 oktober 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss nuclear fusion, the process that powers stars. In the 1920s physicists predicted that it might be possible to generate huge amounts of energy by fusing atomic nuclei together, a reaction requiring enormous temperatures and pressures. Today we know that this complex reaction is what keeps the Sun shining. Scientists have achieved fusion in the laboratory and in nuclear weapons; today it is seen as a likely future source of limitless and clean energy. Lees meer

Guests:

Philippa Browning, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Manchester

Steve Cowley, Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Justin Wark, Professor of Physics and fellow of Trinity College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Haitian Revolution

23 oktober 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution. In 1791 an uprising began in the French colonial territory of St Domingue. Partly a consequence of the French Revolution and partly a backlash against the brutality of slave owners, it turned into a complex struggle involving not just the residents of the island but French, English and Spanish forces. By 1804 the former slaves had won, establishing the first independent state in Latin America and the first nation to be created as a result of a successful slave rebellion. But the revolution also created one of the world's most impoverished societies, a legacy which Haiti has struggled to escape. Lees meer

Contributors

Kate Hodgson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in French at the University of Liverpool

Tim Lockley, Reader in American Studies at the University of Warwick

Karen Salt, Fellow in History in the School of Language and Literature at the University of Aberdeen

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Rudyard Kipling

16 oktober 2014 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Rudyard Kipling. Born in Bombay in 1865, Kipling has been described as the poet of Empire, celebrated for fictional works including Kim and The Jungle Book. Today his poem 'If--' remains one of the best known in the English language. Kipling was amongst the first writers in English to develop the short story as a literary form in its own right, and was the first British recipient of a Nobel Prize for Literature. A literary celebrity of the Edwardian era, Kipling's work for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission played a major role in Britain's cultural response to the First World War. Lees meer

Contributors:

Howard Booth, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Manchester

Daniel Karlin, Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol

Jan Montefiore, Professor of Twentieth Century English Literature at the University of Kent

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

The Battle of Talas

9 oktober 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Talas, a significant encounter between Arab and Chinese forces which took place in central Asia in 751 AD. It brought together two mighty empires, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Tang Dynasty, and although not well known today the battle had profound consequences for the future of both civilisations. The Arabs won the confrontation, but the battle marks the point where the Islamic Empire halted its march eastwards, and the Chinese stopped their expansion to the west. It was also a point of cultural exchange: some historians believe that it was also the moment when the technology of paper manufacture found its way from China to the Western world. Lees meer

GUESTS

Hilde de Weerdt, Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University

Michael Höckelmann, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at King's College London

Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Julius Caesar

2 oktober 2014 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life, work and reputation of Julius Caesar. Famously assassinated as he entered the Roman senate on the Ides of March, 44 BC, Caesar was an inspirational general who conquered much of Europe. He was a ruthless and canny politician who became dictator of Rome, and wrote The Gallic Wars, one of the most admired and studied works of Latin literature. Shakespeare is one of many later writers to have been fascinated by the figure of Julius Caesar. Lees meer

With:

Christopher Pelling
Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford

Catherine Steel
Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow

Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

e

25 september 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Euler's number, also known as e. First discovered in the seventeenth century by the Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli when he was studying compound interest, e is now recognised as one of the most important and interesting numbers in mathematics. Roughly equal to 2.718, e is useful in studying many everyday situations, from personal savings to epidemics. It also features in Euler's Identity, sometimes described as the most beautiful equation ever written. Lees meer

With:

Colva Roney-Dougal
Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews

June Barrow-Green
Senior Lecturer in the History of Maths at the Open University

Vicky Neale
Whitehead Lecturer at the Mathematical Institute and Balliol College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Sun

10 juli 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Sun. The object that gives the Earth its light and heat is a massive ball of gas and plasma 93 million miles away. Thanks to the nuclear fusion reactions taking place at its core, the Sun has been shining for four and a half billion years. Its structure, and the processes that keep it burning, have fascinated astronomers for centuries. After the invention of the telescope it became apparent that the Sun is not a placid, steadily shining body but is subject to periodic changes in its appearance and eruptions of dramatic violence, some of which can affect us here on Earth. Recent space missions have revealed fascinating new insights into our nearest star. Lees meer

With:

Carolin Crawford
Gresham Professor of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Yvonne Elsworth
Poynting Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham

Louise Harra
Professor of Solar Physics at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Mrs Dalloway

3 juli 2014 · 46 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. First published in 1925, it charts a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a prosperous member of London society, as she prepares to throw a party. Writing in her diary during the writing of the book, Woolf explained what she had set out to do: 'I want to give life and death, sanity and insanity. I want to criticize the social system, and to show it at work at its most intense.' Celebrated for its innovative narrative technique and distillation of many of the preoccupations of 1920s Britain, Mrs Dalloway is now seen as a landmark of twentieth-century fiction, and one of the finest products of literary modernism. Lees meer

With:

Professor Dame Hermione Lee
President of Wolfson College, Oxford

Jane Goldman
Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow

Kathryn Simpson
Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Hildegard of Bingen

26 juni 2014 · 45 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages, Hildegard of Bingen. The abbess of a Benedictine convent, Hildegard experienced a series of mystical visions which she documented in her writings. She was an influential person in the religious world and much of her extensive correspondence with popes, monarchs and other important figures survives. Hildegard was also celebrated for her wide-ranging scholarship, which as well as theology covered the natural world, science and medicine. Officially recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2012, Hildegard is also one of the earliest known composers. Since their rediscovery in recent decades her compositions have been widely recorded and performed. Lees meer

With:

Miri Rubin
Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History and Head of the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

William Flynn
Lecturer in Medieval Latin at the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds

Almut Suerbaum
Professor of Medieval German and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Philosophy of Solitude

19 juni 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophy of solitude. The state of being alone can arise for many different reasons: imprisonment, exile or personal choice. It can be prompted by religious belief, personal necessity or a philosophical need for solitary contemplation. Many thinkers have dealt with the subject, from Plato and Aristotle to Hannah Arendt. It's a philosophical tradition that takes in medieval religious mystics, the work of Montaigne and Adam Smith, and the great American poets of solitude Thoreau and Emerson. Lees meer

With:

Melissa Lane
Professor of Politics at Princeton University

Simon Blackburn
Professor of Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

John Haldane
Professor of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Robert Boyle

12 juni 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Robert Boyle, a pioneering scientist and a founder member of the Royal Society. Born in Ireland in 1627, Boyle was one of the first natural philosophers to conduct rigorous experiments, laid the foundations of modern chemistry and derived Boyle's Law, describing the physical properties of gases. In addition to his experimental work he left a substantial body of writings about philosophy and religion; his piety was one of the most important factors in his intellectual activities, prompting a celebrated dispute with his contemporary Thomas Hobbes. Lees meer

With:

Simon Schaffer
Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge

Michael Hunter
Emeritus Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London

Anna Marie Roos
Senior Lecturer in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Lincoln

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Bluestockings

5 juni 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bluestockings. Around the middle of the eighteenth century a small group of intellectual women began to meet regularly to discuss literature and other matters, inviting some of the leading thinkers of the day to take part in informal salons. In an age when women were not expected to be highly educated, the Bluestockings were sometimes regarded with suspicion or even hostility. But prominent members such as Elizabeth Montagu - known as 'the Queen of the Bluestockings', and author of an influential essay about Shakespeare - and the classicist Elizabeth Carter were highly regarded for their scholarship. Their accomplishments led to far greater acceptance of women as the intellectual equal of men, and furthered the cause of female education. Lees meer

With:

Karen O'Brien
Vice-Principal and Professor of English at King's College London

Elizabeth Eger
Reader in English Literature at King's College London

Nicole Pohl
Reader in English Literature at Oxford Brookes University

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Talmud

29 mei 2014 · 48 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and contents of the Talmud, one of the most important texts of Judaism. The Talmud was probably written down over a period of several hundred years, beginning in the 2nd century. It contains the authoritative text of the traditional Jewish oral law, and also an account of early Rabbinic discussion of, and commentary on, these laws. In later centuries scholars wrote important commentaries on these texts, which remain central to most strands of modern Judaism. Lees meer

With:

Philip Alexander
Emeritus Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester

Rabbi Norman Solomon
Former Lecturer at the Oxford Centre for Jewish and Hebrew Studies

Laliv Clenman
Lecturer in Rabbinic Literature at Leo Baeck College and a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

22 mei 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In 1859 the poet Edward FitzGerald published a long poem based on the verses of the 11th-century Persian scholar Omar Khayyam. Not a single copy was sold in the first few months after the work's publication, but after it came to the notice of members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood it became enormously influential. Although only loosely based on the original, the Rubaiyat made Khayyam the best-known Eastern poet in the English-speaking world. FitzGerald's version is itself one of the most admired works of Victorian literature, praised and imitated by many later writers. Lees meer

With:

Charles Melville
Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge

Daniel Karlin
Winterstoke Professor of English Literature at the University of Bristol

Kirstie Blair
Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Photosynthesis

15 mei 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss photosynthesis, the process by which green plants and many other organisms use sunlight to synthesise organic molecules. Photosynthesis arose very early in evolutionary history and has been a crucial driver of life on Earth. In addition to providing most of the food consumed by organisms on the planet, it is also responsible for maintaining atmospheric oxygen levels, and is thus almost certainly the most important chemical process ever discovered. Lees meer

With:

Nick Lane
Reader in Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London

Sandra Knapp
Botanist at the Natural History Museum

John Allen
Professor of Biochemistry at Queen Mary, University of London.

Producer: Thomas Morris

The Sino-Japanese War

8 mei 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45. After several years of rising tension, and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in the summer of 1937. The Japanese captured many major Chinese ports and cities, but met with fierce resistance, despite internal political divisions on the Chinese side. When the Americans entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese found themselves fighting on several fronts simultaneously, and finally capitulated in August 1945. This notoriously brutal conflict left millions dead and had far-reaching consequences for international relations in Asia. Lees meer

With:

Rana Mitter
Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford

Barak Kushner
Senior Lecturer in Japanese History at the University of Cambridge

Tehyun Ma
Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Exeter

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Tale of Sinuhe

1 mei 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss The Tale of Sinuhe, one of the most celebrated works of ancient Egyptian literature. Written around four thousand years ago, the poem narrates the story of an Egyptian official who is exiled to Syria before returning to his homeland some years later. The number of versions of the poem, which is known from several surviving papyri and inscriptions, suggests that it was seen as an important literary work; although the story is set against a backdrop of real historical events, most scholars believe that the poem is a work of fiction. Lees meer

With:

Richard Parkinson
Professor of Egyptology and Fellow of Queen's College at the University of Oxford

Roland Enmarch
Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.

Aidan Dodson
Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Tristram Shandy

24 april 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy. Sterne's comic masterpiece is an extravagantly inventive work which was hugely popular when first published in 1759. Its often bawdy humour, and numerous digressions, are combined with bold literary experiment, such as a page printed entirely black to mark the death of one of the novel's characters. Dr Johnson wrote that "Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last" - but two hundred and fifty years after the book's publication, Tristram Shandy remains one of the most influential and widely admired books of the eighteenth century. Lees meer

With:

Judith Hawley
Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

John Mullan
Professor of English at University College London

Mary Newbould
Bowman Supervisor in English at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Domesday Book

17 april 2014 · 48 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Domesday Book, a vast survey of the land and property of much of England and Wales completed in 1086. Twenty years after the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror sent officials to most of his new territories to compile a list of land holdings and to gather information about settlements, the people who lived there and even their farm animals. Almost without parallel in European history, the resulting document was of immense importance for many centuries, and remains a central source for medieval historians. Lees meer

With:

Stephen Baxter
Reader in Medieval History at Kings College London

Elisabeth van Houts
Honorary Professor of Medieval European History at the University of Cambridge

David Bates
Professorial Fellow in Medieval History at the University of East Anglia

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Strabo's Geographica

10 april 2014 · 48 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica. Written almost exactly two thousand years ago by a Greek scholar living in Rome, the Geographica is an ambitious attempt to describe the entire world known to the Romans and Greeks at that time. Strabo seems to have based his book on accounts of distant lands given to him by contemporary travellers and imperial administrators, and on earlier works of scholarship by other Greek writers. One of the earliest systematic works of geography, Strabo's book offers a revealing insight into the state of ancient scholarship, and remained influential for many centuries after the author's death. Lees meer

With:

Paul Cartledge
AG Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge

Maria Pretzler
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Swansea University

Benet Salway
Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at UCL

Producer: Thomas Morris.

States of Matter

3 april 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the science of matter and the states in which it can exist. Most people are familiar with the idea that a substance like water can exist in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. But as much as 99% of the matter in the universe is now believed to exist in a fourth state, plasma. Today scientists recognise a number of other exotic states or phases, such as glasses, gels and liquid crystals - many of them with useful properties that can be exploited. Lees meer

With:

Andrea Sella
Professor of Chemistry at University College London

Athene Donald
Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge

Justin Wark
Professor of Physics and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Weber's The Protestant Ethic

27 maart 2014 · 51 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Max Weber's book the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Published in 1905, Weber's essay proposed that Protestantism had been a significant factor in the emergence of capitalism, making an explicit connection between religious ideas and economic systems. Weber suggested that Calvinism, with its emphasis on personal asceticism and the merits of hard work, had created an ethic which had enabled the success of capitalism in Protestant countries. Weber's essay has come in for some criticism since he published the work, but is still seen as one of the seminal texts of twentieth-century sociology. Lees meer

With:

Peter Ghosh
Fellow in History at St Anne's College, Oxford

Sam Whimster
Honorary Professor in Sociology at the University of New South Wales

Linda Woodhead
Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Bishop Berkeley

20 maart 2014 · 47 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop who was one of the most important philosophers of the eighteenth century. Bishop Berkeley believed that objects only truly exist in the mind of somebody who perceives them - an idea he called immaterialism. His interests and writing ranged widely, from the science of optics to religion and the medicinal benefits of tar water. His work on the nature of perception was a spur to many later thinkers, including David Hume and Immanuel Kant. The clarity of Berkeley's writing, and his ability to pose a profound problem in an easily understood form, has made him one of the most admired early modern thinkers. Lees meer

With:

Peter Millican
Gilbert Ryle Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford

Tom Stoneham
Professor of Philosophy at the University of York

Michela Massimi
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Trinity

13 maart 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Trinity. The idea that God is a single entity, but one known in three distinct forms - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - has been a central belief for most Christians since the earliest years of the religion. The doctrine was often controversial in the early years of the Church, until clarified by the Council of Nicaea in the late 4th century. Later thinkers including St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas recognised that this religious mystery posed profound theological questions, such as whether the three persons of the Trinity always acted together, and whether they were of equal status. The Trinity's influence on Christian thought and practice is considerable, although it is interpreted in different ways by different Christian traditions. Lees meer

With:

Janet Soskice
Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College

Martin Palmer
Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture

The Reverend Graham Ward
Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and a Canon of Christ Church.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Spartacus

6 maart 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Spartacus, the gladiator who led a major slave rebellion against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. He was an accomplished military leader, and the campaign he led contributed significantly to the instability of the Roman state in this period. Spartacus was celebrated by some ancient historians and reviled by others, and became a hero to revolutionaries in 19th-century Europe. Modern perceptions of his character have been influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film - but ancient sources give a rather more complex picture of Spartacus and the aims of his rebellion. Lees meer

With:

Mary Beard
Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge

Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College, London

Theresa Urbainczyk
Associate Professor of Classics at University College, Dublin.

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

The Eye

27 februari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the eye. Humans have been attempting to understand the workings and significance of the organ for at least 2500 years. Some ancient philosophers believed that the eye enabled creatures to see by emitting its own light. The function and structures of the eye became an area of particular interest to doctors in the Islamic Golden Age. In Renaissance Europe the work of thinkers including Kepler and Descartes revolutionised thinking about how the organ worked, but it took several hundred years for the eye to be thoroughly understood. Eyes have long attracted more than purely scientific interest, known even today as the 'windows on the soul'. Lees meer

With:

Patricia Fara
Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge

William Ayliffe
Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College

Robert Iliffe
Professor of Intellectual History and History of Science at the University of Sussex

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Social Darwinism

20 februari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Social Darwinism. After the publication of Charles Darwin's masterpiece On the Origin of Species in 1859, some thinkers argued that Darwin's ideas about evolution could also be applied to human society. One thinker particularly associated with this movement was Darwin's near-contemporary Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest'. He argued that competition among humans was beneficial, because it ensured that only the healthiest and most intelligent individuals would succeed. Social Darwinism remained influential for several generations, although its association with eugenics and later adoption as an ideological position by Fascist regimes ensured its eventual downfall from intellectual respectability. Lees meer

With:

Adam Kuper
Centennial Professor of Anthropology at the LSE, University of London

Gregory Radick
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds

Charlotte Sleigh
Reader in the History of Science at the University of Kent.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Chivalry

13 februari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss chivalry, the moral code observed by knights of the Middle Ages. Chivalry originated in the military practices of aristocratic French and German soldiers, but developed into an elaborate system governing many different aspects of knightly behaviour. It influenced the conduct of medieval military campaigns and also had important religious and literary dimensions. It gave rise to the phenomenon of courtly love, the subject of much romance literature, as well as to the practice of heraldry. The remnants of the chivalric tradition linger in European culture even today. Lees meer

Miri Rubin
Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History and Head of the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

Matthew Strickland
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow

Laura Ashe
Associate Professor in English at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Worcester College

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Phoenicians

6 februari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Phoenicians. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a people from the Levant who were accomplished sailors and traders, and who taught the Greeks their alphabet. He called them the Phoenicians, the Greek word for purple, although it is not known what they called themselves. By about 700 BC they were trading all over the Mediterranean, taking Egyptian and Syrian goods as far as Spain and North Africa. Although they were hugely influential in the ancient world, they left few records of their own; some contemporary scholars believe that the Phoenicians were never a unified civilisation but a loose association of neighbouring city-states. Lees meer

With:

Mark Woolmer
Assistant Principal at Collingwood College, Durham University

Josephine Quinn
Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford

Cyprian Broodbank
Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at University College London

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Catastrophism

30 januari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Catastrophism, the idea that natural disasters have had a significant influence in moulding the Earth's geological features. In 1822 William Buckland, the first reader of Geology at the University of Oxford, published his famous Reliquae Diluvianae, in which he ascribed most of the fossil record to the effects of Noah's flood. Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology challenged these writings, arguing that geological change was slow and gradual, and that the processes responsible could still be seen at work today - a school of thought known as Uniformitarianism. But in the 1970s the idea that natural catastrophes were a major factor in the Earth's geology was revived and given new respectability by the discovery of evidence of a gigantic asteroid impact 65 million years ago, believed by many to have resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. Lees meer

With:

Andrew Scott
Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London

Jan Zalasiewicz
Senior Lecturer in Geology at the University of Leicester

Leucha Veneer
Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Sources of Early Chinese History

23 januari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the sources for early Chinese history. The first attempts to make a record of historical events in China date from the Shang dynasty of the second millennium BC. The earliest surviving records were inscribed on bones or tortoise shells; in later centuries, chroniclers left detailed accounts on paper or silk. In the last hundred years, archaeologists have discovered a wealth of new materials, including a cache of previously unknown texts which were found in a sealed cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Such sources are are shedding new light on Chinese history, although interpreting ancient sources from the period before the invention of printing presents a number of challenges. Lees meer

With:

Roel Sterckx
Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge

Tim Barrett
Professor of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London

Hilde de Weerdt
Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University

Producer: Thomas Morris.

The Battle of Tours

16 januari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours. In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty. The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian. Lees meer

With:

Hugh Kennedy
Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London

Rosamond McKitterick
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge

Matthew Innes
Vice-Master and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Plato's Symposium

2 januari 2014 · 42 min

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Plato's Symposium, one of the Greek philosopher's most celebrated works. Written in the 4th century BC, it is a dialogue set at a dinner party attended by a number of prominent ancient Athenians, including the philosopher Socrates and the playwright Aristophanes. Each of the guests speaks of Eros, or erotic love. This fictional discussion of the nature of love, how and why it arises and what it means to be in love, has had a significant influence on later thinkers, and is the origin of the modern notion of Platonic love. Lees meer

With:

Angie Hobbs
Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield

Richard Hunter
Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge

Frisbee Sheffield
Director of Studies in Philosophy at Christ's College, University of Cambridge.

Producer: Thomas Morris.