Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happens when parents from different species have offspring, despite their genetic differences. In some cases, such as the zebra/donkey hybrid in the image above, the offspring are usually infertile but in others the genetic change can lead to new...

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Episode summary: The owner of a Washington D.C. escort agency loses everything after becoming the subject of a federal investigation. Prelude: Kristin M. Davis, the Manhattan Madam, runs for office after spending time in prison. Support the show by becoming a ValuedListener™ at Patreon.com/Swindled....

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Episode summary: Immortality: Pursuing a life beyond the human. Anya Bernstein, Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, talks to Laurie Taylor about the Russian visionaries and utopians who seek to overcome the limitations of our material bodies. Also, Alex Thomas, Lecturer...

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Episode summary: David and Helen talk to Nobel Prize-winning economist (the youngest ever!) Esther Duflo about how to do economics better. From investing in left-behind places to helping people adapt to change, we discuss good and bad economic ideas about some of the biggest challenges we face, and...

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Episode summary: In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tuberculosis. She met a German x-ray technician who called himself ”Count Von Cosel” and who claimed he could save her, using unusual methods...

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Episode summary: A little-known bit of world history about a rag tag group of sailors stranded for years in the Suez Canal at the center of a war. Great Bitter Lake Association

Episode summary: Edward Norton gets into every aspect of filmmaking, even when he comes to the set as an actor. He’s helped rewrite scripts, and sometimes gets intimately involved in editing, as was the case with American History X. That has led to tension with directors, but Norton tells Alec that...

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Episode summary: Dan Saladino uses the story the tomato to examine the impact of the new Brexit on food.

Episode summary: Social worker and economist Edith Abbott and her contribution to crime statistics.

Episode summary: Get the bonus materials for this episode: joyoflanguages.com/eggs-or-grapes Practise your Italian in our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/5.minute.italian Today’s Italian words uovo = egg uova = eggs un uovo = one egg due uova = two eggs L’uva = (the) grapes