Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how members of the same species send each other invisible chemical signals to influence the way they behave. Pheromones are used by species across the animal kingdom in a variety of ways, such as laying trails to be followed, to raise the alarm, to scatter from predators, to signal dominance and to enhance attractiveness and, in honey bees, even direct development into queen or worker. The image above is of male and female ladybirds that have clustered together in response to pheromones. With Tristram Wyatt Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford Jane Hurst William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool and Francis Ratnieks Professor of Apiculture and Head of the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex Producer: Simon Tillotson

Episode summary: On the 80th Anniversary of the night 20,000 Americans attended a Nazi Rally in the heart of Manhattan, the Memory Palace is teaming up with Radio Diaries. We’ll hear their new story about that rally after we listen back to a Memory Palace episode that took place on that same evening, in which some Nazis get punched. Learn more about this evening at www.radiodiaries.org. For info on the original Memory Palace episode, head here.

Episode summary: Snobbery is defined as the behaviour or attitude of people who think they are better than others. Laurie Taylor explores the social history, meaning and changing nature of this sense of superiority. He talks to David Morgan, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, Bev Skeggs, Professor of Sociology at the LSE and Florence Sutcliffe Braithwaite, Lecturer in 20th Century History at University College, London. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Episode summary: In the 1950s, Los Angeles was an up-and-coming city but wasn’t quite there yet. City leaders were looking for a way to boost Los Angeles’s profile as a world class city and also give Angelenos something to rally behind. They believed that what L.A. really needed was a baseball team. They picked Chavez Ravine, near downtown LA, as the perfect home for a perfect new stadium, but the land had been home to a vibrant community of Mexican and Mexican American families for decades. Beneath the Ballpark

Episode summary: Russia has glittering towers and a jet-set elite, but grinding rural poverty. It has one of the world’s great literary traditions, but throws dissenters in jail for a blog post. Who is Vladimir Putin, the man who created this new world power through force of will? New York Times’ correspondent Steven Lee Myers unravels some of this question for Alec. His book is The New Tsar. Myers talks to Alec about Putin’s early years, the Putin-Trump connection and how being the New York Times’ Beijing correspondent is different from — and similar to — being Moscow correspondent.

Episode summary: How Robert Bork won the fight over the very meaning of competition in America, and paved the way for some of the biggest companies we’ve ever seen.

Episode summary: Josie Long presents short documentaries about people or places who become known for a single thing. From the contested title of Britain’s most haunted village to a tender reflection on an actor defined by their most famous role. Most Haunted Produced by Ross Sutherland Babi Featuring Rosalind Jana The Bystander Featuring William Genovese Produced by Andrea Rangecroft Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Episode summary: Tim Harford talks to Matt Parker on how simple maths mistakes can cause big problems.

Episode summary: A young politician ruins a promising career with numerous financial and sexual scandals. Prelude: The unsolved murder of Tamara Greene.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode summary: A quick episode in your ear and out your brain with 3 things I want you to know - two are related to how I’d love to be able to help you and one is how you can join me on a journey to try something new.