Podcast Episodes

Purity

From spiritual cleanliness to purity spirals: Matthew Sweet is joined by guests including David Aaronovitch; Catherine Coldstream, author of Cloister…

17 hours ago

Humility

From Spinoza's thinking and the approach of different religions to the Dickens' character Uriah Heep and the "humble brag" - in Radio 4's late night …

4 weeks ago

Oral tradition and oracy

Oracy - the ability to express oneself fluently - has been included in plans to modernise the national curriculum, with a new focus on equipping youn…

1 month ago

Taste

'It's all in the best possible taste'. But what does it mean to have good taste? And does pursuing good taste lead to favouring style over substance?…

1 month, 1 week ago

Women, language & experience

In a special programme looking ahead to International Women’s Day on March 8th, Shahidha Bari looks at how women express themselves in language, argu…

1 month, 2 weeks ago

Authority

Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, s…

1 month, 4 weeks ago

Crime and punishment medieval to modern

How have attitudes to punishment changed over time, and what ideas about the rationale for punishment are circulating today? In Radio 4's roundtable …

2 months ago

Working Class Creativity

From an impoverished neighbourhood in South London, Charlie Chaplin became one of the most significant figures in the development of cinema. More rec…

2 months, 1 week ago

Is Might Right?

'The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must'. So claimed the powerful Athenians, according to the Ancient Greek historian Thucydide…

2 months, 2 weeks ago

Labour, work and productivity

What do we mean when we talk about productivity?

Anne McElvoy and guests discuss labour in the context of both work and motherhood: what the language …

2 months, 3 weeks ago