Exploring different aspects of history, science, philosophy and the arts.
Radio 3,·113 episodes
Paul McCartney, Jean-Michel Jarre and Lee Renaldo on their debt to classical music.
13 Jul 2025,·42 mins
How friendship with Philip Guston and Mark Rothko took American music in new directions
07 Feb 2024,·43 mins
A portrait of pioneering Canadian composer and soundscape maestro R Murray Schafer.
12 Jun 2023,·43 mins
Aidan Tulloch reimagines the journey an item goes on in the age of the 24/7 supply chain.
04 Jun 2023,·28 mins
Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri searches for different perspectives on the idea of balance.
15 May 2023,·13 mins
New arts feature exploring the brief but brilliant career of writer Denton Welch.
07 May 2023,·44 mins
The story of a Black tenor who sang Jewish music in America in the early 20th century
23 Apr 2023,·43 mins
Islam Issa celebrates Birmingham's unique public ownership of Shakespeare's first Folio.
26 Mar 2023,·13 mins
Lindsay Johns makes the case for writer Rudolph Fisher's portraits of Black American life
19 Mar 2023,·43 mins
Michael Goldfarb tells the story of playwright, poet and essayist Heinrich Heine.
13 Mar 2023,·43 mins
Rhiannon Giddens investigates the folk song collector Sidney Robertson Cowell.
05 Mar 2023,·43 mins
Chibundu Onuzo tells the fascinating story of ‘Africa’s Mona Lisa’ and artist Ben Enwonwu.
12 Feb 2023,·43 mins
On the streets of Naples, Joanna Robertson celebrates the city's unique musical tradition
09 Feb 2023,·43 mins
How has metalworking affected the culture of Birmingham over hundreds of years?
05 Feb 2023,·43 mins
Peter Brathwaite discovers the music of his black enslaved & white slave-owning ancestors
29 Jan 2023,·44 mins,·
Musician Alice Zawadzki explores long-lost Yiddish songs from World War II
27 Jan 2023,·44 mins
Phil Hebblethwaite traces the complex life of an early music maverick.
15 Jan 2023,·43 mins
Poet Clare Pollard introduced us to forgotten female sonneteer, Anne Lock.
01 Jan 2023,·43 mins
Charles Dickens’ life was shaped by an extraordinary house. Docudrama with Alex Jennings.
25 Dec 2022,·43 mins
The story of Shostakovich's Symphony No 13 and the trailblazing poem which inspired it
13 Dec 2022,·44 mins
Rory Stewart in search of Basil Bunting’s neglected masterpiece about love, loss and time
28 Nov 2022,·43 mins
The remarkable female musicians and activists who helped Florence Price's music to thrive
06 Mar 2022,·43 mins
How a trip to a remote island monastery inspired Pyotr Tchaikovsky's First Symphony
02 Jan 2022,·46 mins
How famous German avant-garde composer Stockhausen wrote an opera for each day of the week
12 Jul 2021,·43 mins
Andy Kershaw introduces his own cassette recordings of music from his travels.
09 May 2021,·43 mins
04 May 2021,·43 mins
Archaeologist Seren Griffiths tells the multiple stories of a Sandstone ridge in Cheshire
14 Mar 2021,·13 mins
Dr Islam Issa celebrates the importance of Balconies, from Cairo to the Capulet's garden.
28 Feb 2021,·13 mins
Carlo Gébler, son of Edna O’Brien, asks why the children of writers often become writers
17 Jan 2021,·43 mins
An exploration of Beethoven’s music through the body that gave him so much trouble.
15 Dec 2020,·43 mins
