Misha Glenny and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
Radio 4,·1102 episodes
How trees first arose from small plants and changed the world, and why new trees emerge.
04 Jun 2026,·54 mins
How the Norman invasion of Britain created semi-independent warlord territories in Wales.
28 May 2026,·51 mins
The political movement during the English Civil War committed to a new idea of equality.
21 May 2026,·55 mins
The ancient civilisation which thrived in the Sahara Desert over 2,000 years ago.
14 May 2026,·42 mins
One of the great writers on Central Europe after WW1 and author of Radetzky March.
07 May 2026,·42 mins
The origins and lasting influences of the study of communication in animals and machines.
30 Apr 2026,·52 mins
How slavery's abolition led to Indian workers being recruited to work in British colonies.
23 Apr 2026,·42 mins
The graphic artist's amazing paradoxical world, and the interplay between maths and art.
16 Apr 2026,·55 mins
The origin and development of Handel's great sacred oratorio, premiered in Dublin in 1742.
09 Apr 2026,·54 mins
How a war that began in Cuba saw the US acquire the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico.
02 Apr 2026,·55 mins
The role of silicon from chips to glass to the balance of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere
26 Mar 2026,·52 mins
How, in 1916 in Zurich, artists responded to the absurdity of war by creating absurd art.
19 Mar 2026,·50 mins
How a discovery in the 1970s changed the theory of the origin of complex life on earth.
12 Mar 2026,·53 mins
How one woman helped her son survive the Wars of the Roses to become the first Tudor king.
05 Mar 2026,·54 mins
The impact of the spread of animals, crops and diseases between continents after 1492.
26 Feb 2026,·52 mins
How one of the great Romantic poets produced so much in his brilliant but short life.
19 Feb 2026,·48 mins
The impact of the wide-ranging laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylon from 4,000 years ago.
12 Feb 2026,·49 mins
Shakespeare's powerful exploration of power and succession with Hotspur, Hal and Falstaff.
05 Feb 2026,·51 mins
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the origins and harsh realities of the gladiator life.
29 Jan 2026,·50 mins
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exploration of the world's deepest ocean trench.
22 Jan 2026,·58 mins
John Stuart Mill's argument for the limits of power that society has over the individual.
15 Jan 2026,·49 mins
Misha Glenny introduces himself as he prepares for his first episode of In Our Time.
08 Jan 2026,·6 mins
As Melvyn Bragg hands In Our Time on to Misha Glenny, they discuss its past and future.
24 Dec 2025,·16 mins
On the value of keeping conversations going with opponents, from the Reformation onwards.
03 Jul 2025,·51 mins
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this ubiquitous mythical creature.
26 Jun 2025,·46 mins
How the earliest poem in Older Scots framed the legend of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
19 Jun 2025,·49 mins
From the mechanics of the first breaths on Earth to the reason we hiccup.
12 Jun 2025,·48 mins
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the Vienna Secession.
05 Jun 2025,·54 mins
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore hypnosis.
29 May 2025,·45 mins
How the cult of personality around this German WWI figurehead helped usher in Hitler.
22 May 2025,·52 mins
