The Lindisfarne Gospels and new discoveries

An archaeologist, a historian and a poet join Shahidha Bari as the gospels return North.

• 44 mins

Immortality

Matthew Sweet and guests explore ideas about never ending life in literature film and myth

• 44 mins

Cuba, cold war and RAF Fylingdales

Novelist Ian McEwan and researchers into early warning system archives join Anne McElvoy

• 44 mins

The Normans

Rana Mitter and guests look at Norman history, misconceptions and echoes heard today.

• 44 mins

The Black Country, past and present

Matthew Sweet and guests record with an audience at the Contains Strong Language Festival.

• 44 mins

Ibsen

New interpretations of the Norwegian dramatist's plays by Lucinda Coxon and Steve Waters.

• 44 mins

Claude McKay and the Harlem Renaissance

Authors Nadifa Mohamed, Johny Pitts and Pearl Cleage join Shahidha Bari.

• 44 mins

John Cowper Powys

John Gray, Margaret Drabble, Iain Sinclair and Kevan Manwaring discuss Powys's writing.

• 44 mins

My Neighbour Totoro

Japanese ideas about childhood innocence and the influence of a 1988 Studio Ghibli film.

• 44 mins

Female power and influence past and present

Anne McElvoy talks to novelist Kamila Shamsie and playwright Rona Munro.

• 44 mins

How We Read

Matthew Sweet explores our surprisingly complex and mysterious relationship with text.

• 44 mins

Miles Davis and On The Corner

Matthew Sweet and guests explore Davis's genre-stretching album, released on 11 Oct 1972.

• 44 mins

The Frieze/Radio 3 Museum Directors Debate 2022

Anne McElvoy is joined by the directors of three institutions from around the world.

• 44 mins

Romanticism revisited

Coleridge, Fuseli and Emily Brontë under the spotlight as new films and exhibitions open.

• 44 mins

British Academy Book Prize 2022

Rana Mitter meets six authors shortlisted for the prize for Global Cultural Understanding.

• 44 mins

Going Underground

Shahidha Bari and guests explore life and leisure underground.

• 44 mins

Oliver Postgate

Matthew Sweet with Daniel Postgate, Sandra Kerr, Neil Brand and Samira Ahmed.

• 44 mins

Dead languages

John Gallagher says hello in Oscan, the language of ancient Pompeii

• 44 mins

Orhan Pamuk and the Ottoman Empire

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk joins academics Michael Talbot and Keya Anjaria.

• 44 mins

Ghostwatch

An examination of the reality–horror/pseudo-documentary TV broadcast from 1992.

• 44 mins

Alexander the Great

Military leader, city founder, underwater explorer?! Rana Mitter on images of Alexander.

• 44 mins

Goethe, Schiller and the first Romantics

Andrea Wulf, author of a new group biography set in 1790s Jena, joins Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

John Knox

A life of great drama and religious controversy explored by Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

The Imperial War Museum Remembrance Discussion 2022

Video game designers, a former soldier, and curator of War Games at IWM join Anne McElvoy.

• 44 mins

Plastic and Clay

Lisa Mullen and guests compare the extraordinary uses of two contrasting materials.

• 44 mins

Breakthroughs at Being Human 2022

New research on Benjamin Franklin in Cumbria, the Kenwood, lightbulbs and ganzflicker.

• 44 mins

Experimentation in the arts

Shahidha Bari talks to the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize, awarded for creative daring.

• 44 mins

George Bernard Shaw

Anne McElvoy and guests look at the arguments explored in the plays of Shaw (1856-1950).

• 44 mins

St Teresa/Vivekananda/Nietzsche

Rana Mitter discusses three major philosophers of religion and self-development

• 44 mins

Arabian queens, Bangladeshi mothers and women's tales

From the Arabian nights to refugee stories - female voices fictional and real.

• 44 mins

Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment

Stephen Frears, Matthew Reisz, Lucy Bolton and Matthew Sweet look at this 1966 film.

• 44 mins

Soil, Chickens and City Farms

Ahead of world soil day, Anne McElvoy looks at changes to both rural and urban farming.

• 44 mins

How do we look at art?

Turner Prize shortlist, the vogue for surround-sound projections, and shows about sight.

• 44 mins

Star Trek

Matthew Sweet with George Takei, Naomi Alderman, Una McCormack and José-Antonio Orosco.

• 44 mins

Language, the Victorians, and Us

From Lancashire dialect protest poetry to Hardy's Dorset vowels. John Gallagher hosts.

• 44 mins

Trapeze acts and circus celebrities

Shahidha Bari hears about aerialists Lillian Leitzel and Pablo Fanque.

• 44 mins

Depicting AIDS in Drama

Russell T Davies, Jill Nalder, Sabina Dosani and Matthew Sweet, recorded with an audience.

• 44 mins

Lists

Are lists a good way of organising chaos? Lisa Mullen and guests discuss

• 44 mins

Beasts and animals

Shahidha Bari investigates the human invention of animals.

• 44 mins

Landladies

Historical accounts and fictional depictions of the women who ran boarding houses.

• 44 mins

Katherine Mansfield and Mavis Gallant

Claire Harman, Kirsty Gunn, Laurence Scott and Shahidha Bari discuss short story writing.

• 44 mins

Amílcar Cabral

Rana Mitter and guests discuss the pan-Africanist poet and anti-colonial leader.

• 44 mins

Wilkie Collins and disability

How the Victorian author’s own pain and drug dependency fed into his sensational novels.

• 44 mins

Phillis Wheatley

Christienna Fryar explores the life and writing of the enslaved American poet (1753-1784).

• 44 mins

Anna Kavan

Matthew Sweet looks at the writer of a dystopian psychodrama, Ice, who died in 1968.

• 44 mins

Language Loss and Revival

John Gallagher is joined by Gwenno, who writes and sings in Cornish, and others.

• 44 mins

The Wife of Bath

Shahidha Bari is joined by Professor Marion Turner, poet Patience Agbabi and Hetta Howes.

• 44 mins

Higher education for women and working-class students

Anne McElvoy hosts a conversation about higher education and the history of its expansion.

• 44 mins

Audrey Hepburn

Matthew Sweet marks the 30th anniversary of the death of this icon of film and fashion.

• 44 mins

Aztecs and Otherness

Caroline Dodds Pennock discusses how Aztecs, Inuit, Mayans and others discovered Europe.

• 43 mins

William Stukeley

The English antiquarian (1687-1765) who may be the father of modern archaeology.

• 44 mins

Holocaust Memorial Day 2023

Matthew Sweet looks at the experiences of Portuguese Jewish and Roma communities.

• 44 mins

The English Civil War

The resonances of C17 history now, discussed by Jonathan Healey, Anna Keay, Clare Jackson.

• 44 mins

Crossroads and TV soaps

Russell T Davies and Paula Milne on the power of soap operas.

• 44 mins

Gwendolyn Brooks

Shahidha Bari looks at the writing of a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet (1917-2000).

• 44 mins

Lady Macbeth

From Kurosawa and Shostakovich to Zinnie Harris. New takes on the Scottish play.

• 44 mins

Donkeys

From Aesop and the bible to the film EO which looks at a donkey born in a Polish circus.

• 44 mins

Stories of Love

Romeo and Juliet reworked, Proust and Rita Mae Brown's coming-of-age tale Rubyfruit Jungle

• 44 mins

People's History

The people's history of banners, a dress diary, Sheffield sculptures and a new musical.

• 44 mins

Idrissa Ouédraogo

Matthew Sweet and guests explore the work of Burkinabé film-maker Idrissa Ouédraogo.

• 44 mins

Phaedra, Cretan palaces and the minotaur

Knossos, birthplace of myths and tragedies, is explored by Rana Mitter and Natalie Haynes.

• 44 mins

Ghosts of Caribbean history

New writing by Colin Grant and Kevin Jared Hosein; art by Michael Elliott and Mary Evans.

• 44 mins

Climate change and empire building

The long history of climate change and empire: historians Nandini Das and Peter Frankopan

• 44 mins

Tin cans, cutlery and sewing

New research into the history of stainless steel cutlery, tinned food and sewing machines.

• 44 mins

Sesame Street and Soviet culture

Anne McElvoy on Russian punk protest and a version of US TV's Big Bird, Bert and Ernie.

• 1 min

Concrete poetry

Matthew Sweet and guests on the career of poet and monk Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924-92).

• 44 mins

Anarchism and David Graeber

Matthew Sweet and guests look at the ideas of the American anthropologist (1961-2020)

• 44 mins

Making your voice heard

Dina Nayeri, Kirsty Sedgman, Michelle Assay and Alberta Whittle join Shahidha Bari.

• 44 mins

Emigration

Laurence Scott finds out about 'Bad Bridgets', bush-ranger history and 'Home Children'.

• 44 mins

Debt

As Budget day approaches, Anne McElvoy looks at debt from the South Sea Bubble to Sunak.

• 44 mins

Decadent Art

New research into ideas about decadence and connections with France, England and Iran.

• 44 mins

The wicked? stepmother

Ahead of Mother's Day Matthew Sweet and guests discuss new ways of looking at stepmothers.

• 1 min

Busking and Billy Waters

The early 19th century street performer Billy Waters, Streetwise Opera and street ballads.

• 44 mins

Wild Isles and nature writing

Writers Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Horatio Clare and Jacob Polley.

• 44 mins

The culture of Albania

Matthew Sweet is joined by Lea Ypi, Adela Demetja, Ani Kokobobo and Aurel Qirjo.

• 44 mins

East Germany

Katja Hoyer on East Germany, behind the Berlin Wall and the Cold War caricature.

• 44 mins

Translating cultures

Composer Alex Ho, novelist Xiaolu Guo, curator George Young and director Anthony Lau.

• 44 mins

Introducing New Generation Thinkers 2023

Christopher Harding finds out about the research done by ten academics chosen this year.

• 44 mins

The Rossettis and Walter Pater

Matthew Sweet and guests visit a Tate Britain show and look at Pater's Renaissance ideas.

• 44 mins

Religion and Science

Is the idea that religion and science are at odds a myth?

• 44 mins

Pirates

From Treasure Island to Kynance Cove, Anne Bonney to Captain Pugwash. Anne McElvoy hosts.

• 44 mins

Ginger Rogers

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss Ginger Rogers's dancing, comic timing and 'sass'.

• 44 mins

Caruso, Elsie Houston, Peter Brathwaite

Exploring the flow of cultural influences in both directions across the Atlantic.

• 44 mins

Galatea and Shakespeare

Trans narratives in pre-Shakespearian drama, plus Twelfth Night and the First Folio.

• 44 mins

Tartan, Kidnapped and Highland writing

Tartan at V&A Dundee, RL Stevenson's Kidnapped on stage, and the Highland Book Prize 2022.

• 44 mins

Hilma af Klint

The spiritual paintings of the Swedish artist are discussed by Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

Queen Charlotte, fashion and music

Shahidha Bari and guests on a Royal Collection exhibition and the new Bridgerton spin-off.

• 44 mins

Ireland's Hidden Histories and Secret Stories

With poet Majella Kelly, historian Jackie Uí Chionna and memoirist Carmel McMahon.

• 44 mins

Lady Antonia Fraser

Rana Mitter talks to Antonia Fraser about the art of writing historical biography.

• 44 mins

Sound, conflict and central heating

Matthew Sweet finds out how extreme temperatures changed Erland Cooper's music

• 44 mins

Kingship and ceremony

Anne McElvoy looks at royalty, pomp and glory in opera, ancient Persia and Tudor England.

• 44 mins

Sidney Poitier

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss the career of Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier.

• 44 mins

Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe

Historian Hetta Howes, novelists Claire Gilbert and Victoria MacKenzie join Shahidha Bari.

• 44 mins

Mountaineering, Lizzie Le Blond, Sport and science

Rachel Hewitt has been researching pioneering Irish climber Mrs Aubrey Le Blond.

• 44 mins

Agoraphobia

Writer Graham Caveney joins Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

Zimbabwean writing

NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names on stage plus 'enfant terrible' Dambudzo Marechera.

• 44 mins

Rocky Horror and camp

Shahidha Bari is joined by Louise Creechan, Joan Passey and Paul Baker.

• 44 mins

Essex

Looking beyond the stereotypes of the county that's often described as 'much maligned'.

• 44 mins

Martin Amis talking with Philip Dodd in 2014

Martin Amis (1949-2023) talks to Philip Dodd about Jewish history and ideas about evil.

• 38 mins