The Opium Wars: everything you wanted to know
Why did Britain go to war with China in the 19th century to protect the interests of drug dealers? Speaking with Elinor Evans, Stephen R Platt discusses the web of economics, addiction, and imperial a...
16 Feb 20251h 1min
Rome's most scandalous emperors
How cruel was Caligula? How depraved was Tiberius? And how monstrous was Nero? The dark reputations of these emperors owe a great deal to the Roman writer Suetonius, whose 121 AD work Lives of the Cae...
14 Feb 202529min
The royal threesome that rocked Anglo-Saxon England
In the year 955, Eadwig became king of England – and, according to 10th-century sources, he celebrated in quite a salacious fashion. These stories claim that at his coronation feast, Eadwig left the h...
12 Feb 202534min
Are we celebrating the wrong Magna Carta?
The history books tell us that Magna Carta was sealed on 15 June 1215. But, according to Professor David Carpenter, that's not actually the date we should commemorate. He explains to David Musgrove wh...
11 Feb 202539min
The forgotten JFK assassination plot
In December 1960, as president-elect John F Kennedy made his way to church in Florida, a would-be assassin waited nearby, preparing to detonate a bomb that would end the Democrat's presidency before i...
10 Feb 202540min
The Indian Rebellion of 1857: everything you wanted to know
What ignited resentment at British rule in India into outright violence? How brutal was British troops' suppression of the uprising? And how did the events of 1857 poison relations between the British...
9 Feb 202543min
From dinosaurs to Godzilla: a 15,000-year history of monsters
What makes a monster, and why do they fascinate us? Dr Natalie Lawrence unravels 15,000 years of human storytelling through the tales of creatures like dragons, Medusa, and even Godzilla. Speaking to ...
7 Feb 202537min
How monasteries powered medieval Europe
Monasteries and convents were a common sight throughout medieval Europe and beyond. But who were they for? What did they do? And how did religious life there change over the centuries? Speaking to Emi...
5 Feb 202540min
