Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Shakespeare’s most popular works, written c1595 in the last years of Elizabeth I. It is a comedy of love and desire and their many complications as well as their simplicity, and a reflection on society’s expectations and limits. It is also a qu...

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Episode summary: Are the UK’s looming European elections making a mockery of democracy, or is this how democracy is meant to work? Would cancelling them at the last minute make the situation worse? We talk about trust in politics, the threat to the two main parties, and the knock-on effects for the...

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Episode summary: I decided to start this podcast with my own story: as an overweight man, I explain how my shape and my diets often cause me to question my identity. This episode has been produced by me, Jonathan Zenti, and Story editor is Cathy Fitzgerald. I’ve also composed all the original music,...

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Episode summary: The Olympic Games and the football World Cup, two of the biggest events in the world which are each hosted every four years, are big business. And it costs a lot of money to host them, and a lot of the money comes from public funds. In this week’s edition of More or Less, we’ll be f...

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Episode summary: It’s likely that Trump will invoke executive privilege during the numerous investigations and inquiries into his actions. Presidents have insisted they need to keep secrets to do their job effectively since Washington, but the term “executive privilege” is relatively recent and it h...

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Episode summary: Detecting the social – how the changing nature of crime stories illuminates shifts in society. Also, homicide confessions on social media. What does it mean when killers confess online? Laurie Taylor is joined by Mary Evans, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the LSE and Elizabeth Y...

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Episode summary: What happens when one people’s traditional food is also an international controlled substance? Turkish architect and food researcher Aylin Öney Tan goes on a deep dive into the history of opium poppy cultivation for food in Anatolia and the subsequent decades of international politi...

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Episode summary: The band Perta has landed a glossy magazine profile and is represented by star-making talent agents WME. They’ve got big labels knocking at the door, attracted by a stunningly talented frontman and a funky, catchy, original sound. But that doesn’t mean they can necessarily quit thei...

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Episode summary: We talk to Paul Mason about his new book Clear Bright Future - a radical defence of the human being in the age of digital transformation and a call to political action. The book covers a lot of ground and so do we: Trump and Nietzsche, machine learning and network effects, climate c...

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Episode summary: Everyone hates grammar and ethics cops. Until they need one.