The Hittites

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age.

• 52 mins

Fritz Lang

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a giant of cinema in Weimar Germany and Hollywood.

• 55 mins

Thomas Hardy's Poetry

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.

• 50 mins

The Gold Standard

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold

• 49 mins

Colette

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major force in French culture in the 20th century.

• 51 mins

The Temperance Movement

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol.

• 52 mins

Walter Benjamin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential thinkers of the last century.

• 50 mins

Romeo and Juliet

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of young star-crossed love in Verona

• 50 mins

Peter Kropotkin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid

• 51 mins

The Arthashastra

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.

• 56 mins

In Our Time is now first on BBC Sounds

New episodes will now be available first on Sounds for 28 days before other podcast apps.

• 1 min

Seismology

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the study of earthquakes helps reveal Earth's secrets.

• 49 mins

Charisma

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Max Weber's idea of charismatic authority in leadership

• 52 mins

Antigone

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of an autocrat who defies family ties.

• 54 mins

The Sistine Chapel

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome.

• 55 mins

Polidori's The Vampyre

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1819 work that inspired two centuries of vampire tales

• 51 mins

Homo erectus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the two-million-year span of our most adaptable ancestor.

• 51 mins

Olympe de Gouges

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791

• 49 mins

Early Christian Martyrdom

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eusebius of Caesarea and his stories of Christian martyrs.

• 53 mins

The Davidian Revolution

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the lasting impact of David I, King of Scotland c1084-1153

• 50 mins

Tang Era Poetry

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Li Bai and Du Fu from the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry.

• 46 mins

Comenius

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 17th-century Czech educator committed to toleration.

• 56 mins

Hegel's Philosophy of History

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hegel's ideas on the consciousness of freedom.

• 52 mins

The Death of Stars

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the ends of stars can lead to new planets and new life

• 58 mins

Dylan Thomas

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poems, plays and persona of the prominent Welsh writer

• 50 mins

Angkor Wat

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Cambodian temple complex, begun 900 years ago.

• 49 mins

John Bull

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and evolution of the satirical everyman figure

• 53 mins

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's novel on totalitarianism, truth and surveillance.

• 42 mins

Plato's Atlantis

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's story of the great, lost island of Atlantis.

• 54 mins

The Electron

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the atomic particle that's proved a gateway to modernity.

• 49 mins