Episode summary: They’ve seen wars, the bottom of the ocean and even - bizarrely - been part of a boxing match. The story of how the Parthenon Marbles actually ended up in London’s British Museum is a wild tale featuring bribes, court cases and some extremely dodgy deals. There’s been a centuries-lo...

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Episode summary: Netflix has announced that South Korean survival drama Squid Game is its most popular series ever. We scrutinise the statistics behind the claim, and look at the odds of surviving one of the show’s deadly contests.

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Episode summary: The story of two famous friends — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini — and the disagreement that ended their friendship: can we speak to the dead? Read Rose Mackenberg’s essays in Tony Wolf’s book, Houdini’s Girl Detective: The Real-Life Ghost-Busting Adventures of Rose Macken...

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Episode summary: Deen Freelon is one of the foremost scholars on how contemporary protest movements organize on the Internet. This week Deen joins us to talk about his work on the Black Lives Matter movement, how he’s trying to understand mis- and disinformation from both the right and the left, and...

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Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author and philosopher Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999). In her lifetime she was most celebrated for her novels such as The Bell and The Black Prince, but these are now sharing the spotlight with her philosophy. Responding to the horrors of the Second W...

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Episode summary: Co-hosts John Biewen and Amy Westervelt discuss the U.S. Congress’s effort to pass its first major climate bill ever, and Senator Joe Manchin’s move to block a key measure seemingly on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. And an episode of Drilled, Amy Westervelt’s true crime podcast...

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Episode summary: Why it’s crucial to take a long view of history.

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Episode summary: In this special episode of Against the Rules, Michael Lewis and Eric Vetro talk about their recent role reversal. Listeners will remember Eric as Michael’s singing coach in our last season… Now, Michael has been helping Eric launch his own podcast. Against the Rules is proud to intr...

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Episode summary: Margarine is yellow, like butter, but it hasn’t always been. At times and in places, it has been a bland white, or even a dull pink. These strange variations were a byproduct of 150-year war to destroy margarine, and everything that it stands for. During this epic fight for survival...

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Episode summary: A war. A ransom. And a stunning recovery mission. Five elaborately carved panels were buried in a New Zealand swamp to protect it from a war. Then 150 years later, they’re acquired by a British collector before being sold to a Swiss-Bolivian collector in Geneva. And their long journ...

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