Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of our ancestors, Homo erectus, who thrived on Earth for around two million years whereas we, Homo sapiens, emerged only in the last three hundred thousand years. Homo erectus, or Upright Man, spread from Africa to Asia and it was on the Island of...

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Episode summary: Does art have anything to offer us in these trying times? Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in Venice, the world’s most important art fair and the first since the global pandemic. Plus Digital Ukranians, Sound Art, and NFTs.

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Episode summary: Some of the most ambitious, fascinating, and downright crazy trains that the world has ever seen.

Episode summary: In our world of globalised food, there are few things that have remained true local specialities, and the Staffordshire oatcake is one of them. This oatmeal, yeasted pancake is an institution in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding area, but still hardly anyone beyond the Midlands seems t...

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Episode summary: Although the climate-changing effects of Carbon Dioxide emissions are well known, they are changing our oceans too, making them more acidic. But how much? Tim Harford explores the statistical quirks of ocean acidification, from pH to the mysteries of logarithmic scales. With Dr Hele...

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Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential novella of John Polidori (1795-1821) published in 1819 and attributed first to Lord Byron (1788-1824) who had started a version of it in 1816 at the Villa Diodati in the Year Without A Summer. There Byron, his personal physician Polido...

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Episode summary: The underrated threats that lurk in institutions, rather than psychology.

Episode summary: In this episode, Rosemary and David are joined by Daniel Jalkut, the man in the red sweater behind FastScripts, MarsEdit, and the Core Intuition podcast. Together they ponder the future of AppleScript, and just how fast is a script anyway?

Episode summary: The leaked draft majority opinion that threatens to strike down the constitutional right to abortion and potentially many other rights

Episode summary: Data is the lifeblood of public health, and has been since the beginning of the field. We take a look at data gathering in regards to public health from the 1600s to today and how it might change in the future.