The Forum

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

World Service,763 episodes

Episodes

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Machu Picchu: Secrets of a forgotten city
The enigma of the Inca mountain retreat
03 Feb 2022,39 mins
Pleasure and pain: The philosophy of Jeremy Bentham
The radical ideas of the 18th-century legal reformer Jeremy Bentham
27 Jan 2022,39 mins
Copper: From mining to microprocessors
The shiny red metal our lives depend on that has powered human development
20 Jan 2022,39 mins
Writer Agatha Christie: Murder and mystery
How the queen of crime achieved her extraordinary success
13 Jan 2022,39 mins
Boudica, warrior queen
The Iron Age English warrior queen who led a rebellion against the Romans
06 Jan 2022,39 mins
Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman
Pulling back the curtain on the master of illusion
30 Dec 2021,39 mins
Antarctic Treaty: Protecting the icy continent
Safeguarding peace and wilderness with the Antarctic Treaty
23 Dec 2021,38 mins
Don Quixote: Spanish masterpiece
The multi-layered masterpiece by Miguel de Cervantes
16 Dec 2021,39 mins
Algae: Slime life
The evolution of life’s original alchemists
09 Dec 2021,39 mins
The original Goths
How did a Germanic tribe come to inspire an architectural style and a global subculture?
02 Dec 2021,39 mins
Laskarina Bouboulina, the mother of modern Greece
An intrepid sea captain who commanded daring naval attacks with her own fleet of ships
25 Nov 2021,39 mins
Mary Somerville: The queen of 19th-Century science
The 19th-Century polymath who popularised science for generations of readers
18 Nov 2021,39 mins
The Malayan Emergency
One of the earliest Cold War conflicts in Asia
11 Nov 2021,39 mins
The Devils: Dostoevsky’s novel of political evil
Dostoevsky’s study of terrorism and poisoned ideals in pre-revolutionary Russia
04 Nov 2021,40 mins
A focus on spectacles
Looking at the history of an invention many of us take for granted
28 Oct 2021,39 mins
Sarah Bernhardt: Queen of stage and screen
The 19th Century French actress who defined modern celebrity
21 Oct 2021,39 mins
A dirty history of diamonds
The complex and sometimes shocking story of the diamond industry throughout history
14 Oct 2021,39 mins
The story of Evita
The life, work and remarkable afterlife of Eva Peron
07 Oct 2021,39 mins
Sushi: The Japanese dish with an ancient tradition
Sushi originally started in East Asia as a means of preserving fish
30 Sep 2021,39 mins
Toni Morrison: The legacy of a literary legend
How her influence as a writer extends across the globe
23 Sep 2021,39 mins
Algorithms: From the ancients to the internet
The 4,000-year history of the mathematical operations that now govern our daily lives.
16 Sep 2021,39 mins
Louder! How the electric guitar conquered popular music
The origins and early years of making the guitar electric
09 Sep 2021,39 mins
Luigi Pirandello: Italian dramatist who brought chaos to the stage
The radical, convention-breaking plays of an architect of modern 20th century theatre
02 Sep 2021,39 mins
Mars: A history of the Red Planet
When might we send humans to one of our closest neighbours in our solar system?
26 Aug 2021,39 mins
A radiant light: The Indonesian poet Amir Hamzah
The romantic works and tragic life of a noble writer from Sumatra
19 Aug 2021,39 mins
Sailing by the stars: The pioneering voyages of David Lewis
One man's intrepid quest to revive ancient navigation
12 Aug 2021,39 mins
Inside the mind of crime writer Patricia Highsmith
A 20th century master of the psychological thriller
05 Aug 2021,42 mins
Ibn Sina: The Persian polymath
Best known for his Canon of Medicine, Avicenna helped shape modern science
02 Aug 2021,26 mins
The Panama Canal: The real story behind the engineering triumph
The Canal that joined up the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but how did it impact Panama?
29 Jul 2021,39 mins
Ida Pfeiffer: 19th Century globetrotter
The eccentric traveller and collector who circumnavigated the globe twice
22 Jul 2021,39 mins