Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why the potato crop failures in the 1840s had such a catastrophic impact in Ireland. It is estimated that one million people died from disease or starvation after the blight and another two million left the country within the decade. There had been fa...

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Episode summary: Mansa Musa, the 14th century Mali king, has nothing on Jeff Bezos - read one recent news report. Musa set off on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in the 1300s and it’s said he left with a caravan of 60,000 people. Among them were soldiers, entertainers, merchants and slaves. A train of...

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Episode summary: We’ll be taking calls from listeners about all of your tech questions big and small, two times this week! Wednesday, March 20th from 4-6 Thursday, March 21st from 12-2Call us at (862) 205-3275!

Episode summary: America’s most famous healthcare expert was actually born in Canada! The Vox reporter and all-around policy guru explains how, in a country with entrenched interests similar to ours, progressives managed to win coverage for every Canadian. Plus she gives her take on the remarkable u...

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Episode summary: A multi-level marketing company becomes a global success despite accusations of dangerous products and exploitation. Prelude: The peaks and valleys of Glenn W. Turner’s pyramid schemes.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode summary: The story of how a song from a classic 80’s movie became an inspirational anthem for a 21st Century generation. Carly Simon’s ‘Let the River Run’ was originally conceived as the title track for the 1988 movie ‘Working Girl. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song....

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Episode summary: We catch up with Gary Gerstle in the US to assess where the Trump presidency stands after the Mueller report appeared to give him a pass. Are there more revelations to come once the full report is available? Can Trump take advantage of his good fortune? And who in the crowded Democr...

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Episode summary: The music was written by Charlie Chaplin in 1935 for the film ‘Modern Times’, but the lyrics were only added thirty years later. Chris Philips tells the story of how his grandfather was inspired to write the words when he left his father at boarding school; Gemma Lowery talks about...

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Episode summary: Ah, Paris. Unmistakeable, beautiful Paris. Paris: a place so unique – so authentic, so essentially itself – that it is truly irreplaceable. The eighth and final instalment in our Sound of the Cities mini-series – a sonic exploration of our urban environments and their cultural sound...

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Episode summary: Most people are in bed at night and then get up during the day. But journalist Katie Nelson felt the need to sleep all the time.