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
Otto von Bismarck: life of the week
Few 19th-century leaders have a CV quite like Otto von Bismarck's. This formidable statesman's cunning, charisma and eye for an opportunity helped him drive the unification of Germany and engineer a s...
19 Touko 202541min
The Einstein murders
In the summer of 1944, as the German forces were retreating in northern Italy, a small group of soldiers made a detour to a remote villa in search of Albert Einstein's cousin. Robert Einstein posed no...
18 Touko 202537min
The Beaker People: everything you wanted to know
Who were the Beaker People? What was their contribution to the building of Stonehenge? And did their arrival in Britain really lead to the obliteration of the indigenous population? Here, in conversat...
17 Touko 202537min
Gods, demons, witches and exorcists: inside an ancient Assyrian library
In the seventh century BC, the ancient Assyrian king Ashurbanipal created a gigantic library in his capital city – one that contained centuries of wisdom. And this vast wealth of ancient knowledge can...
15 Touko 202538min
