The Scottish Enlightenment: everything you wanted to know
In everything from the social sciences and technology to art and architecture, 18th-century Scotland saw a flowering of ideas and innovation. But what made the Enlightenment in Scotland different to t...
31 Touko 202537min
Deadly skies: the WW2 mission to fly over the Himalayas
During the Second World War, a promise by President Roosevelt to provide supplies to nationalist China led to the creation of an ill-fated air supply route from India, across a perilous stretch of the...
29 Touko 202545min
Royal sisters: the tragic lives of Queen Victoria's granddaughters
Victoria, Ella, Irene and Alix of Hesse were four young European princesses and granddaughters of Queen Victoria, whose marriages would change the face of early 20th-century Europe. Speaking to Elinor...
27 Touko 202536min
Calamity Jane: life of the week
Calamity Jane roars into the popular imagination atop the Deadwood Stage with a 'whip-crack-away' and her pistol ready-loaded. A bold and resourceful frontierswoman, Calamity held her own among the me...
26 Touko 202544min
Spiritual showmen: the 1920s occult
Tahra Bey became a celebrity with his apparent ability to control his pulse, stab himself without pain and even bury himself alive. Dr Dahesh, meanwhile, was a spiritualist who sparked an entire relig...
25 Touko 202534min
Cheese history: everything you wanted to know
Nothing beats a well-loaded cheeseboard. But while so many of us enjoy a stinky stilton and ripe brie, or chuck a reliable old cheddar into our basket at the supermarket each week, what do we actually...
24 Touko 202538min
Taking sides: how the Civil War turned friends into enemies
As 17th-century Britain edged ever closer to civil war, two friends, Bulstrode Whitelock and Ned Hyde, found their relationship under increasing strain. Minoo Dinshaw tells Ellie Cawthorne about how t...
22 Touko 202529min
Were Roman women done dirty by modern translations?
The stories of ancient Rome are littered with despicable women, and those of the Julio-Claudian dynasty are especially infamous. But where do these stories come from? And why have they endured for cen...
20 Touko 202535min
