In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

Radio 4,1089 episodes

Episodes

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Thomas Hardy's Poetry (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.
16 Oct 2025,50 mins
The Moon (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the origins, science and mythology of the moon.
09 Oct 2025,50 mins
The Waltz (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the waltz on British society and culture.
02 Oct 2025,50 mins
Hannah Arendt (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of Hannah Arendt, political philosopher
25 Sep 2025,48 mins
The Time Machine (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.
18 Sep 2025,52 mins
The Waltz (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the waltz on British society and culture.
11 Sep 2025,52 mins
Sir Thomas Wyatt (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing poet at the heart of Henry VIII's court
11 Sep 2025,57 mins
Julian of Norwich (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval anchoress and her Revelations of Divine Love
04 Sep 2025,50 mins
Pheromones (Archive Episode)
A discussion of the chemicals that animals use in order to affect others of their species.
28 Aug 2025,49 mins
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Archive Episode)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Keynes' influential attack on the Treaty of Versailles
14 Aug 2025,50 mins
Civility: talking with those who disagree with you
On the value of keeping conversations going with opponents, from the Reformation onwards
03 Jul 2025,51 mins
Dragons
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this ubiquitous mythical creature.
26 Jun 2025,46 mins
Barbour's 'Brus'
How the earliest poem in Older Scots framed the legend of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
19 Jun 2025,49 mins
The Evolution of Lungs
From the mechanics of the first breaths on Earth to the reason we hiccup.
12 Jun 2025,48 mins
The Vienna Secession
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the Vienna Secession.
05 Jun 2025,54 mins
Hypnosis
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore hypnosis.
29 May 2025,45 mins
Paul von Hindenburg
How the cult of personality around this German WWI figurehead helped usher in Hitler.
22 May 2025,52 mins
Copyright
The evolution of copyright.
15 May 2025,60 mins
Lise Meitner
The Austrian-Jewish physicist who, in 1938, solved the question of nuclear fission.
08 May 2025,57 mins
The Korean Empire
How Korea embraced modernisation at the end of the 19th Century in a bid for independence.
01 May 2025,47 mins
Molière
The great French playwright and comic actor who flourished at the court of Louis XIV.
24 Apr 2025,51 mins
Typology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss biblical typology.
17 Apr 2025,50 mins
The Battle of Clontarf
Brian Boru's celebrated defeat of Hiberno-Norse forces and allies outside Dublin in 1014.
10 Apr 2025,51 mins
The Gracchi
Why two brothers became linked to the fall of the Roman Republic and rise of the emperors.
03 Apr 2025,49 mins
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Insights into the relationship between the body and the mind, habits, language and thought
27 Mar 2025,59 mins
Thomas Middleton
The prolific and versatile Jacobean playwright tasked with 'improving' some of Shakespeare
20 Mar 2025,56 mins
Cyrus the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great.
13 Mar 2025,50 mins
Pollination
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the interplay between plants and pollinators.
06 Mar 2025,50 mins
Kali
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this Hindu goddess in her many remarkable forms
27 Feb 2025,57 mins
Oliver Goldsmith
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this influential and prolific 18th-century Irish writer.
20 Feb 2025,54 mins