Episode summary: Meat is once again a central topic in nutrition, sustainability, health and capitalism. Points pro and con fly back and forth with no resolution in sight, not surprising given the doctrinaire nature of the discussion. I know where I personally stand, but I also want to try and understand why it is that people feel so much more strongly about meat than about any other element of the diet. That’s why I was very glad to meet Francesco Buscemi last year, and to persuade him to talk to me about his research on the many meanings of meat. Some chicken … Francesco’s aside about Winston Churchill was sufficiently intriguing to send me searching. What Churchill wrote was We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium. The quotation is apparently well-loved by anti-meat campaigners, but was unknown to me. It appears in an essay called Fifty years hence that was published first in Maclean’s magazine in November 1931…

Episode summary: The FBI turns to a career con artist to assist with an undercover sting operation that ensnares multiple members of the United States Congress. Prelude: Mel Weinberg’s lifetime of scams finally catches up with him.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode summary: The first two-way satellite links between the US and USSR are strange, disorganized, and sometimes a little magical. Battling language and technological barriers, Soviet and American musicians, computing pioneers, scientists, and even kids find a way to stage a series of exchanges across the skies — at first awkward, but growing more meaningful as Cold War paranoia ratchets ever higher. Spacebridge is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Our Russian content partner is the history site Arzamas.Academy. Find out more and listen to the previous series, The Stoop, Ways of Hearing, The Polybius Conspiracy, Secrets, Errthang, and The Great God of Depression at radiotopia.fm/showcase.

Episode summary: Insects live all around us and if a recent scientific review is anything to go by, then they are on the path to extinction. The analysis found that more than 40 percent of insect species are decreasing and that a decline rate of 2.5 percent a year suggests they could disappear in one hundred years. And as some headlines in February warned of the catastrophic collapse of nature, some More or Less listeners questioned the findings. Is insect life really in trouble? Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producer: Darin Graham (Image: Hairy hawker dragonfly. Credit: Science Photo Library)

Episode summary: The story of the day the Federal Reserve got its independence and the fight—an actual physical fight—to keep it.

Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, works, context and legacy of Antarah (525-608AD), the great poet and warrior. According to legend, he was born a slave; his mother was an Ethiopian slave, his father an elite Arab cavalryman. Antarah won his freedom in battle and loved a woman called Abla who refused him, and they were later celebrated in the saga of Antar and Abla. One of Antarah’s poems was so esteemed in pre-Islamic Arabia that it is believed it was hung up on the wall of the Kaaba in Mecca. With James Montgomery Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge Marlé Hammond Senior Lecturer in Arabic Popular Literature and Culture at SOAS, University of London And Harry Munt Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York Producer: Simon Tillotson

Episode summary: Skateboarding and parkour: Laurie Taylor explores lifestyle sports in the hyper regulated city. Iain Borden, Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture at UCL, considers the origins, history and thrill of skateboarding. They’re joined by Thomas Raymen, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Plymouth, who followed a group of Newcastle free running enthusiasts, from wall to rooftop, and probed the contradictions between transgression and conformity to the values of consumer capitalism. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Episode summary: Josie Long presents fragmentary short documentaries about lost memories. Searching for a half-remembered past, shape-shifting, elusive personal histories, forgetting yourself and a story of societal forgetting. Mother of Memory Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen Seven Magic Mountains Featuring Laura Barton The Trace of A Cloud In A Chest (extract) You can listen to the feature in full here: https://soundcloud.com/charles-parker-prize/the-trace-of-a-cloud-in-a-chest-by-weidong-lin-silver-2015 Produced by Weidong Lin The Forgotten Produced by Karla Marie Sweet Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Episode summary: Yes Yes No returns and Alex Blumberg takes us on a journey from secret celebrity love letters to the biggest, strangest rock band you’ve never heard of. Also, basketball.See the tweet here.

Episode summary: It’s one thing to get into an argument with a stranger on Facebook. It’s another thing to try to ruin that stranger’s life. Special thanks to Kashmir Hill, at Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/when-a-stranger-decides-to-destroy-your-life-1827546385 Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. If you haven’t already, please review us on iTunes! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for The Accomplice. If you’d like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to listen guide based on frequently asked questions. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Sponsors: Care/of For 50% off your first month of personalized Care/of vitamins, go to TakeCareOf.com and enter CRIMINAL50. Casper Go to casper.com/criminal and enter promo code CRIMINAL for $50 toward select mattresses. Robinhood Robinhood is giving listeners a FREE stock to help build your portfolio! Sign up at criminal.robinhood.com…