Hatshepsut: life of the week
Hatshepsut is one of ancient Egypt’s most extraordinary figures: a pharaoh who deftly asserted her right to the throne, reigned over an era of prosperity, and commissioned some of the most iconic monu...
6 Jan 42min
Tragedy and triumph: a 500-year history of Mexico
The chaos of the Spanish conquest, the humiliation of military defeat to the United States, the disruption of the revolution… Mexican history is often viewed through the lens of trauma and violence. Y...
5 Jan 34min
Jane Austen’s final chapter – and lasting legacy
What does Austen’s later writing tell us about her changing ideas? And what factors contributed to her death? In this fourth and final episode of our series chronicling the novelist’s life and work, D...
4 Jan 33min
Prophetesses & she-preachers of the 17th century
A prophetess who warned Oliver Cromwell against killing the king. A Yorkshire maidservant who gained an audience with the Ottoman Sultan. The religious tumult of the 17th century gave ordinary women o...
2 Jan 34min
New Year's Eve, newts and Nessie: a history of British folklore
Why should you be careful about who's first through your door on New Year's Day? What led people to believe that newts and earwigs were responsible for their ailments? And why do sticks play such a ke...
31 Dec 202541min
Augustus: life of the week
‘Evil genius’ is a phrase that could have been invented to describe Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Augustus butchered his way to power in the chaos that followed Julius Caesar's assassination, a...
30 Dec 202544min
Inside the Viking battle of the genders
What do we know for certain about Old Norse ideas about masculinity and femininity, and can Viking Age mythology provide any answers? In conversation with James Osborne, Dr Jackson Crawford discusses ...
29 Dec 202539min
A house of one’s own: Jane Austen’s ‘golden years’
It was at Chawton House, a cottage in rural Hampshire, that Jane Austen experienced one of the most fruitful episodes of her writing career. In this third instalment of our four-part series charting t...
28 Dec 202533min
