In Our Time

BBC
BBC

A world-class seminar, every week. In Our Time explores the ideas, people and discoveries that have shaped our world, spanning history, philosophy, religion, science, literature, art and culture. On Thursdays, hear brand-new episodes hosted by Misha Glenny and leading academics. On Mondays, discover Misha's Archive Picks: classic conversations from the In Our Time archive, originally presented by Melvyn Bragg. Recent episodes have featured topics as wide-ranging as the Roman Arena, Handel's Messiah, John Keats, On Liberty and the Mariana Trench, bringing expert insight to pivotal events, influential thinkers and remarkable discoveries. Throughout the archive, you can hear discussions on historical figures such as Marie Antoinette, Nefertiti, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein; explore great works of literature such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the poetry of John Donne; uncover the stories behind cultural masterpieces including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel; or journey from Jupiter and the death of stars, to the theories of Plato and Aristotle. In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas.

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  1. 3 dic · Acceso anticipado para personas con suscripción

    Jataka Tales : Stories of the Buddha's Many Births

    The Jataka Tales are an ancient collection of stories, narrating the past lives of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. The stories exist in different forms across the Buddhist world. In this edition, Misha Glenny and his guests explore the Pali collection of around 550 Jataka Tales. On the night of his Enlightenment, before he became the Buddha, Siddharta Gautama is believed to have gained the ability to recall each of his past lives. In the Jataka collection, he uses the stories of these past lives to relay his teachings. Each rebirth saw him take a different form, he could be an animal like a monkey or a fish, he could be a Prince or even a God. Jatakas have existed for thousands of years, and they are a cornerstone of Buddhist literature, art and religious teachings. The stories contain a multitude of recurring characters in the community around the Buddha, and their influence exists beyond Buddhism into other cultures around the world. With Naomi Appleton Professor of Buddhist Studies and Indian Religions at the University of Edinburgh Mahinda Deegalle Bye-Fellow at St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge and Alexandra Green, SP Shaw Curator for Southeast Asia at the British Museum. Producer: Sam Peach In Our Time is a BBC Studios Production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world. READING LIST Appleton, Naomi and Shaw, Sarah. The Ten Great Birth Stories of the Buddha: The Mahānipata of the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā, vol. 1 (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2015). Appleton, Naomi , Jataka Stories in Theravada Buddhism: Narrating the Bodhisatta Path, (Routledge. 2010). Cate, Sandra. Making Merit, Making Art: A Thai Temple in Wimbledon (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003). Green, Alexandra. Buddhist visual cultures, rhetoric and narrative in late Burmese wall paintings (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2018). Holt, John C. The Religious World of Kīrti Śrī: Buddhism, Art, and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Horner, I. B. and Jaini, Padmanabh S. Apocryphal Birth-Stories, vol. 1 (London: Pali Text Society, 1985). Jaini, Padmanabh S., ed. Paññāsajātaka, 2 vols. (London: Pali Text Society, 1981-83). Lefferts, Leedom, and Cate, Sandra. “Constructing Multiple Narratives in Theravada Buddhism: The Vessantara Painted Scrolls of Northeast Thailand and Lowland Laos,” in Alexandra Green, ed., Rethinking Visual Narratives from Asia: Intercultural and Comparative Perspectives (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013), 229-43. Leksukhum, Santi. Temples of Gold: Seven Centuries of Thai Buddhist Paintings (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001). Roveda, Vittorio, and Sothon Yem. Buddhist Painting in Cambodia (Bangkok: River Books, 2009). Schober, Juliane, ed. Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997). Shaw, Sarah The Jatakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta (Penguin 2006)

  2. 26 nov · Acceso anticipado para personas con suscripción

    Immune cells

    Every day, billions of specialised cells work to protect your body from harm. From the common cold and infections to cuts and scrapes or cancerous cells, our bodies deal with a range of potential threats and risks as we move through the world. The immune system is a complex and carefully orchestrated network connecting organs, tissues, and billions of specialised cells. Those cells have a variety of different roles as they respond to pathogens or harm, including engulfing microbes, identifying damage, or producing antibodies. Misha Glenny and his guests examine the different types of cells involved in an immune response, how they know what to respond to, and what happens when those cells aren’t working as they should. This In Our Time episode discusses why our immune cells are vital to life – both for us as individuals, and as a species. The discussion explores the interconnected nature of the immune system, and what we know actually affects the way our immune cells function. With Sheena Cruickshank Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester Dan Davis Author and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London And Emily Gwyer Findlay Professor of Inflammation Biology at the University of Southampton Producer: Martha Owen Reading list: Daniel M Davis, ‘Immune Health: A Myth-Busting Guide’ (Vintage, 2026) John Tregoning, ‘Infectious’ (Oneworld, 2021) In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

  3. 19 nov · Acceso anticipado para personas con suscripción

    Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex and war

    The Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar was transgressive and multifaceted – potentially to the point of paradox. As the goddess of love and sex, she was responsible for the fertility of life on earth. As the goddess of war, she was also incredibly bloodthirsty, vengeful, and violent. Known in Sumerian language as Inanna and Ishtar in Akkadian, this goddess was worshipped throughout Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and beyond for over 3500 years. Ishtar's lovers were sometimes said to have met unfortunate ends, and she has dramatic cameos in some of the most famous literature of the period. Misha Glenny and his guests discuss how Ishtar was depicted in ancient texts, and the role of religion in Mesopotamian society. This In Our Time episode looks at why Ishtar’s seemingly contradictory portfolio as a goddess made her so powerful, and so fascinating thousands of years later. The discussion explores Ishtar’s central role in Mesopotamian pantheon, her importance for kings throughout period, and how Ishtar relates to other deities of the ancient world like Aphrodite. With Martin Worthington Leader of the European Research Council Project MesOr at the University of Pisa Christopher Metcalf Professor of Ancient Literature and Religion and Fellow in Classics at Queen’s College, University of Oxford And Selena Wisnom Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East at the University of Leicester Producer: Martha Owen Reading List: Was Dust Their Food and Clay Their Bread? Grave Goods, the Mesopotamian Afterlife, and the Liminal Role of Inana/Ishtar in Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions Volume 7, Issue 1 (Caitlín E. Barrett, 2007) Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Stephanie Dalley, 2008) The Epic of Gilgamesh: A New Translation (Andrew George, 1999) Enheduanna (Sophus Helle, 2023) 'Egyptian Herakles and Syrian Aphrodite?: Phoenician Art and Cultural Exchange in the Ancient Mediterranean', in R. G. Edmonds III, C. López-Ruiz, S. Torallas Tovar, Magic and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world: studies in honor of Christopher A. Faraone (Carolina López-Ruiz, 2023) Three Myths of Kingship in Early Greece and the Ancient Near East: The Servant, the Lover, and the Fool (Christopher Metcalf 2025) Ishtar (Louise Pryke, 2017) The Library of Ancient Wisdom: Mesopotamia and the Making of History (Selena Wisnom, 2025) In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

  4. 12 nov · Acceso anticipado para personas con suscripción

    The Battle of Antietam

    Misha Glenny and guests discuss The Battle of Antietam, the single deadliest day of the American Civil War. The battle took place on 17th September 1862, less than 100 miles from Washington D.C. The conflict had been going on for over a year, and there had been a string of successes by the rebel Confederate Army against Union forces. The Confederates were a group of Southern States that had seceded from the United States of America over their right to continue the institution of slavery. This secession was rejected by US President Abraham Lincoln, who was committed to maintaining the Union. Despite heavy Union casualties, Antietam has been called the ‘crossroads of freedom’ by historians. It played a crucial role in the release of the Emancipation Proclamation against slavery, which was described by Lincoln as ‘the great event of the 19th Century’. With Karen Salt , Professor of   Culture, Place and Communities at Manchester Metropolitan University Susan-Mary Grant, Professor Emerita of American History at Newcastle University Robert Cook, Emeritus Professor of American History at the University of Sussex. Producer: Sam Peach Reading List: Alfred J. Bollet, Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs (Tuscon, Arizona: Galen Press, 2002) David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018) Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2006) Gary W. Gallagher (ed.), The Antietam Campaign (2008) D. Scott Hartwig, I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign (2023) Susan-Mary Grant, The War for a Nation: The American Civil War (2006) Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004) Howard Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations (2010) James M. McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam: The Battle that Changed the Civil War (2003) Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Clara Barton: Professional Angel (1987) Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler, A Field Guide to Antietam (2016) Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (2003) In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

  5. hace 1 día

    Archive: Feathered Dinosaurs

    All dinosaurs were originally thought to be related to lizards - the word 'dinosaur' was created by Richard Owen (1804-1892) from the Greek for 'terrible lizard' - but that now appears to be false. In this archive episode, first released in October 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development of theories about dinosaur feathers, following discoveries of fossils which show evidence of feathers. In the last century, the discoveries of these fossils have established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered, and that some of those dinosaurs survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see around us today. There are still many outstanding areas for study, such as what sorts of feathers they were, where on the body they were found, what their purpose was and which dinosaurs had them. With Mike Benton Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol Steve Brusatte Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh and Maria McNamara Senior Lecturer in Geology at University College, Cork Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

    Archive: Feathered Dinosaurs

  6. hace 5 días

    Megalosaurus

    The first dinosaur to ever be scientifically named, almost 20 years before we even had the word ‘dinosaur’. In 1824, the geologist and priest William Buckland (1784-1856) stood before the Geological Society of London and announced something that would kickstart two centuries of dinosaur science. He’d been studying large, fossilised bones which didn’t resemble those of any living animal - and, as he told his rapt audience at that meeting, he had a new name for this mysterious and unusual creature: Megalosaurus. Misha Glenny and his guests discuss why the 19th century was such profound period of theological and scientific change, and how our understanding of mid Jurassic dinosaurs has changed since. This In Our Time episode examines the story of a dinosaur that led to palaeontology as we know it today. The discussion explores the influential roles of William and Mary Buckland, how we learn about animals from over 160 million years ago, and why you’d never have seen a Megalosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex together. With Emily Rayfield Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol Emma Nicholls Vertebrate Palaeontologist and Collections Manager at Oxford University Museum of Natural History And Steve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh Producer: Martha Owen Reading list: Deborah Cadbury, Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science (Owl Books, 2002) Michael Taylor, Impossible Monsters: How the Discovery of Dinosaurs Changed the World (Bodley Head, 2024) Roger B. J. Benson, ‘A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods’ (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 158, 2010) William Buckland, ‘XXI.—Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield’ (Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2:1, 1824) P. Wilson et al, ‘Utilizing X-ray computed tomography for heritage conservation: The case of Megalosaurus bucklandii’ (2017 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference 12MTC, Torino, 2017) In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

    Megalosaurus

  7. 2 nov

    Archive: Citizen Kane

    Orson Welles was only 25 when his film Citizen Kane was released in 1941. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, films yet made. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Welles' film, in which he plays the lead role of Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper magnate. It was his first acting role. He also directed, produced and co-wrote this story of loneliness at the heart of a megalomaniac. The production was influenced by Welles’ experience in radio and theatre, and expressed the potential of cinema as an artistic medium with its use of deep focus, long takes and other techniques. The plot was partly inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst, who then used the power of his own newspapers to try to suppress the film’s release. It was to take some years before Citizen Kane reached a fuller audience and, from that point, become so celebrated. With: Stella Bruzzi Professor of Film and Dean of Arts and Humanities at University College London Ian Christie Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London John David Rhodes Professor of Film Studies and Visual Culture at the University of Cambridge Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

    Archive: Citizen Kane

  8. 29 oct

    Casablanca

    Recorded at the Crossed Wires Festival in Sheffield, Misha Glenny and guests discuss Casablanca, one of the greatest films from Hollywood’s Golden Era. The film stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and features the unforgettable song As Time Goes By. Casablanca opened in November 1942 when Europe had been at war for three years and the USA for one. It was among Hollywood’s first major films to explain to US audiences why the war was worth fighting, and alongside this became a huge box office hit. It was created by a cast and crew full of emigres and refugees from lands under Nazi control. They produced a movie that has authenticity as well as astonishing emotional power that continues to this day. With Ian Christie Emeritus Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck University of London Pamela Hutchinson Film historian and critic Sheldon Hall Emeritus Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University. Producers: Simon Tillotson & Sam Peach Reading List: Rudy Behlmer, Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986) Thomas Doherty, Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939 (Columbia University Press, 2013) David Gerstner and Janet Staiger (eds.), Authorship and Film (Routledge, 2003), especially 'The Auteur theory: Michael Curtiz and Casablanca' by Peter Wollen Aljean Harmetz, The Making of Casablanca: Bogart, Bergman, and World War II (Hyperion, 2002) Noah Isenberg, We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood`s Most Beloved Movie (Faber & Faber, 2020) Colin McArthur, The Casablanca File (Half Brick Images, 1992) Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (Pantheon Books, 1988) David Thomson, Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio (Yale University Press, 2017) In Our Time is a BBC Studios production A world-class seminar every week. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

    Casablanca
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A world-class seminar, every week. In Our Time explores the ideas, people and discoveries that have shaped our world, spanning history, philosophy, religion, science, literature, art and culture. On Thursdays, hear brand-new episodes hosted by Misha Glenny and leading academics. On Mondays, discover Misha's Archive Picks: classic conversations from the In Our Time archive, originally presented by Melvyn Bragg. Recent episodes have featured topics as wide-ranging as the Roman Arena, Handel's Messiah, John Keats, On Liberty and the Mariana Trench, bringing expert insight to pivotal events, influential thinkers and remarkable discoveries. Throughout the archive, you can hear discussions on historical figures such as Marie Antoinette, Nefertiti, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein; explore great works of literature such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the poetry of John Donne; uncover the stories behind cultural masterpieces including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel; or journey from Jupiter and the death of stars, to the theories of Plato and Aristotle. In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas.

Información

  • Canal
    BBC
  • Creador
    BBC Radio 4
  • Años de actividad
    2005 - 2026
  • Episodios
    1.2 k
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Mostrar sitio web
    In Our Time
  • Proveedor
    BBC Studios Distribution Limited

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