List of In Our Time programmes explained

In Our Time is a radio discussion programme exploring a wide variety of historical, scientific, cultural, religious and philosophical topics, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom since 1998 and hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Since 2011, all episodes have been available to download as individual podcasts.^[1]

Programmes

1998–1999

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
15 October 1998	War in the 20th Century
22 October 1998	Politics in the 20th Century
29 October 1998	Science's Revelations
5 November 1998	Science in the 20th century
12 November 1998	The City in the 20th Century
19 November 1998	The Brain and Consciousness
26 November 1998	Work in the 20th Century
3 December 1998	History's relevance in the 20th century
10 December 1998	Cultural rights in the 20th Century
17 December 1998	The American Century
24 December 1998	Neuroscience in the 20th Century
31 December 1998	The British Empire's Legacy
7 January 1999	Feminism
14 January 1999	Genetic Engineering
21 January 1999	Modern Culture
28 January 1999	Ageing
4 February 1999	Psychoanalysis and its Legacy
11 February 1999	Language and the Mind
18 February 1999	Space in Religion and Science
25 February 1999	The Avant Garde's Decline and Fall in the 20th Century
4 March 1999	Shakespeare and Literary Criticism
11 March 1999	History as Science
18 March 1999	Animal Experiments and Rights
25 March 1999	Architecture in the 20th Century
1 April 1999	Good and Evil
8 April 1999	Writing and Political Oppression
15 April 1999	Evolution
22 April 1999	Fundamentalism
29 April 1999	Artificial Intelligence
6 May 1999	Mathematics
13 May 1999	Multiculturalism
20 May 1999	The Universe's Origins
27 May 1999	Memory and Culture
3 June 1999	Just War
10 June 1999	The Monarchy
17 June 1999	The Great Disruption
24 June 1999	Capitalism
1 July 1999	Intelligence
8 July 1999	Africa
15 July 1999	Truth, Lies and fiction
22 July 1999	Pain

1999–2000

From 6 April 2000, with the discussion on "The Natural Order", the programme moved from 30 minutes to a 45-minute format.

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
23 September 1999	Genetic Determinism
30 September 1999	Maths and Storytelling
7 October 1999	Utopia
14 October 1999	The Nation State
21 October 1999	The Individual
28 October 1999	Atrocity in the 20th Century
4 November 1999	Education
11 November 1999	The Novel
18 November 1999	Progress
25 November 1999	Consciousness
2 December 1999	Tragedy
9 December 1999	Childhood
16 December 1999	Medical Ethics
23 December 1999	Prayer
30 December 1999	Time
6 January 2000	Climate change
13 January 2000	Information Technology
20 January 2000	Masculinity in Literature
27 January 2000	Economic Rights
3 February 2000	Republicanism
10 February 2000	Goethe and the Science of the Enlightenment
17 February 2000	Reading
24 February 2000	Grand Unified Theory
2 March 2000	Metamorphosis
9 March 2000	The Age of Doubt
16 March 2000	Lenin
23 March 2000	Materialism and the Consumer
30 March 2000	History and Understanding the Past
6 April 2000	The Natural Order
13 April 2000	New Wars
20 April 2000	Englishness
27 April 2000	Human Origins
4 May 2000	Death
11 May 2000	Shakespeare's Work
18 May 2000	The Wars of the Roses
25 May 2000	Chemical elements
1 June 2000	The American Ideal
8 June 2000	The Renaissance
15 June 2000	Inspiration and Genius
22 June 2000	Biography
29 June 2000	Imagination and Consciousness

2000–2001

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
28 September 2000	London
5 October 2000	Hitler in History
12 October 2000	The Romantics
19 October 2000	Laws of Nature
26 October 2000	The Tudor State
2 November 2000	Evolutionary Psychology
9 November 2000	Psychoanalysis and Literature
16 November 2000	Nihilism
4 January 2001	Gothic
11 January 2001	Mathematics and Platonism
18 January 2001	The Enlightenment in Britain
25 January 2001	Science and Religion
1 February 2001	Imperial Science
8 February 2001	Humanism
15 February 2001	The Restoration
22 February 2001	Quantum Gravity
1 March 2001	Money
15 March 2001	Shakespeare's Life
22 March 2001	Fossils
29 March 2001	The Philosophy of Love
5 April 2001	The Roman Empire's Collapse in the 5th century
12 April 2001	Black Holes
19 April 2001	The Glorious Revolution
26 April 2001	Literary Modernism
3 May 2001	Evil
14 June 2001	The French Revolution's Legacy
21 June 2001	The Sonnet
28 June 2001	Existentialism
5 July 2001	The Earth's Origins
12 July 2001	Dickens
19 July 2001	Byzantium

2001–2002

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
18 October 2001	Democracy
25 October 2001	Napoleon and Wellington
1 November 2001	Confucius
8 November 2001	The British Empire
15 November 2001	Surrealism
22 November 2001	Oceanography
29 November 2001	Third Crusade
6 December 2001	Oscar Wilde
13 December 2001	Genetics
20 December 2001	Rome and European Civilization
27 December 2001	Food
3 January 2002	Sensibility
10 January 2002	Nuclear Physics
17 January 2002	Catharism
24 January 2002	Happiness
31 January 2002	Yeats and Mysticism
7 February 2002	The Universe's Shape
14 February 2002	Anatomy
21 February 2002	The Celts
28 February 2002	Virtue
7 March 2002	Milton
14 March 2002	The Buddha
21 March 2002	Marriage
28 March 2002	The Artist
4 April 2002	Extra Terrestrials
11 April 2002	Bohemia
25 April 2002	Tolstoy
2 May 2002	The Physics of Reality
9 May 2002	The Examined Life
16 May 2002	Chaos Theory
23 May 2002	Drugs
30 May 2002	The Grand Tour
6 June 2002	The Soul
13 June 2002	The American West
20 June 2002	Wagner
27 June 2002	Cultural Imperialism
4 July 2002	Freedom
11 July 2002	Psychoanalysis and democracy
18 July 2002	Heritage

2002–2003

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
17 October 2002	Slavery and Empire
24 October 2002	The Scientist
31 October 2002	Architecture and Power
7 November 2002	Human Nature
14 November 2002	Victorian Realism
21 November 2002	Muslim Spain
28 November 2002	Imagination
5 December 2002	The Enlightenment in Scotland
12 December 2002	Man and Disease
19 December 2002	The Calendar
6 February 2003	The Epic
13 February 2003	Chance and Design
20 February 2003	The Lindisfarne Gospels
27 February 2003	The Aztecs
6 March 2003	Meteorology
13 March 2003	Redemption
20 March 2003	Originality
27 Mar 2003	The Life of Stars
3 April 2003	The Spanish Civil War
17 April 2003	Proust
24 April 2003	Youth
1 May 2003	Roman Britain
8 May 2003	The Jacobite Rebellion
15 May 2003	The Holy Grail
22 May 2003	Blood
29 May 2003	Memory
5 June 2003	The Lunar Society
12 June 2003	The Art of War
19 June 2003	The Aristocracy
26 June 2003	The East India Company
3 July 2003	Vulcanology
10 July 2003	Nature
17 July 2003	The Apocalypse

2003–2004

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
2 October 2003	Maxwell
9 October 2003	Bohemianism
16 October 2003	The Schism
23 October 2003	Infinity
30 October 2003	Robin Hood
6 November 2003	Sensation
13 November 2003	Duty
20 November 2003	Ageing the Earth
27 November 2003	St Bartholomew's Day Massacre
4 December 2003	Wittgenstein
11 December 2003	The Devil
18 December 2003	The Alphabet
26 December 2003	Lamarck and Natural Selection
29 January 2004	Cryptography
5 February 2004	Thermopylae
12 February 2004	The Sublime
19 February 2004	Rutherford
26 February 2004	The Mughal Empire
4 March 2004	Dreams
11 March 2004	The Norse Gods
25 March 2004	Theories of Everything
1 April 2004	China's Warring States period
8 April 2004	The Fall
15 April 2004	The Later Romantics
22 April 2004	Hysteria
29 April 2004	Tea
6 May 2004	Heroism
13 May 2004	Zero
20 May 2004	Toleration
27 May 2004	The Planets
3 June 2004	Babylon
10 June 2004	Empiricism
17 June 2004	Renaissance Magic
24 June 2004	Washington and the American Revolution

2004–2005

In 2005 listeners were invited to vote in a poll for the greatest philosopher in history. The winner was the subject of the final programme before the summer break. The result of the vote was:^[2]

Karl Marx (with 27.9% of the votes)
David Hume (12.7%)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (6.8%)
Friedrich Nietzsche (6.5%)
Plato (5.6%)
Immanuel Kant (5.6%)
Thomas Aquinas (4.8%)
Socrates (4.8%)
Aristotle (4.5%)
Karl Popper (4.2%)

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
2 September 2004	Pi
9 September 2004	The Odyssey
16 September 2004	Agincourt
23 September 2004	The Origins of Life
30 September 2004	Politeness
7 October 2004	Sartre
14 October 2004	The Han Synthesis
21 October 2004	Witchcraft
28 October 2004	Rhetoric
4 November 2004	Electrickery
11 November 2004	Zoroastrianism
18 November 2004	Higgs Boson
25 November 2004	The Venerable Bede
2 December 2004	Jung
9 December 2004	Machiavelli and the Italian City States
16 December 2004	The Second Law of Thermodynamics
23 December 2004	Faust
30 December 2004	The Roman Republic
6 January 2005	Tsar Alexander II's assassination
13 January 2005	The Mind/Body Problem
17 February 2005	The Cambrian Period
24 February 2005	Alchemy
3 March 2005	Stoicism
10 March 2005	Modernist Utopias
17 March 2005	Dark Energy
24 March 2005	Angels
31 March 2005	John Ruskin
7 April 2005	Alfred and the Battle of Edington
14 April 2005	Archaeology and Imperialism
21 April 2005	The Aeneid
28 April 2005	Perception and the Senses
5 May 2005	Abelard and Heloise
19 May 2005	Beauty
26 May 2005	The French Revolution's Reign of Terror
2 June 2005	Renaissance Maths
9 June 2005	The Scriblerus Club
16 June 2005	Paganism in the Renaissance
23 June 2005	The KT Boundary
30 June 2005	Merlin
7 July 2005	Marlowe
14 July 2005	Marx

2005–2006

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
29 September 2005	Magnetism
6 October 2005	The Field of the Cloth of Gold
13 October 2005	Mammals
20 October 2005	Cynicism
27 October 2005	Johnson
3 November 2005	Asteroids
10 November 2005	Greyfriars and Blackfriars
17 November 2005	Pragmatism
24 November 2005	The Graviton
1 December 2005	Hobbes
8 December 2005	Artificial Intelligence
15 December 2005	The Peterloo Massacre
22 December 2005	Heaven
29 December 2005	The Oresteia
5 January 2006	The Oath
12 January 2006	Prime Numbers
19 January 2006	Relativism
26 January 2006	Seventeenth Century Print Culture
2 February 2006	The Abbasid Caliphs
9 February 2006	Chaucer
16 February 2006	Human Evolution
23 February 2006	Catherine the Great
2 March 2006	Friendship
9 March 2006	Negative numbers
16 March 2006	Don Quixote
23 March 2006	The Royal Society
30 March 2006	The Carolingian Renaissance
6 April 2006	Goethe
13 April 2006	The Oxford Movement
20 April 2006	Immunisation
27 April 2006	The Great Exhibition of 1851
4 May 2006	Astronomy and Empire
11 May 2006	Fairies
18 May 2006	Mill
25 May 2006	Mathematics and Music
1 June 2006	The Heart
8 June 2006	Uncle Tom's Cabin
15 June 2006	Carbon
22 June 2006	The Spanish Inquisition
29 June 2006	Galaxies
6 July 2006	Pastoral Literature
13 July 2006	Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre

2006–2007

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
28 September 2006	Humboldt
5 October 2006	Averroes
12 October 2006	The Diet of Worms
19 October 2006	The Needham Question
26 October 2006	The Encyclopédie
2 November 2006	The Poincaré conjecture
9 November 2006	Pope
16 November 2006	The Peasants' Revolt
23 November 2006	Altruism
30 November 2006	The Speed of Light
7 December 2006	Anarchism
14 December 2006	Indian Mathematics
21 December 2006	Hell
28 December 2006	Constantinople Siege and Fall
4 January 2007	Jorge Luis Borges
11 January 2007	Mars
18 January 2007	The Jesuits
25 January 2007	Archimedes
1 February 2007	Genghis Khan
8 February 2007	Popper
15 February 2007	Heart of Darkness
22 February 2007	Wilberforce	This programme was a documentary rather than a discussion. The programme can be streamed rather than downloaded.
1 March 2007	Optics
8 March 2007	Microbiology
15 March 2007	Epistolary Literature
22 March 2007	Bismarck
29 March 2007	Anaesthetics
5 April 2007	St Hilda
12 April 2007	The Opium Wars
19 April 2007	Symmetry
26 April 2007	Greek and Roman Love Poetry
3 May 2007	Spinoza
10 May 2007	Victorian Pessimism
17 May 2007	Gravitational Waves
24 May 2007	The Siege of Orléans
31 May 2007	Ockham's Razor
7 June 2007	Siegfried Sassoon
14 June 2007	Renaissance Astrology
21 June 2007	Common Sense Philosophy
28 June 2007	The Permian-Triassic Boundary
5 July 2007	The Pilgrim Fathers
12 July 2007	Madame Bovary

2007–2008

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
27 September 2007	Socrates
4 October 2007	Antimatter
11 October 2007	The Divine Right of Kings
18 October 2007	The Arabian Nights
25 October 2007	Taste
1 November 2007	Guilt
8 November 2007	Avicenna
15 November 2007	Oxygen
22 November 2007	The Prelude
29 November 2007	The Fibonacci Sequence
6 December 2007	Genetic Mutation
13 December 2007	The Sassanid Empire
20 December 2007	The Four Humours
27 December 2007	The Nicene Creed
3 January 2008	Camus
10 January 2008	The Charge of the Light Brigade
17 January 2008	The Fisher King
24 January 2008	Plate Tectonics
31 January 2008	Rudolph II
7 February 2008	The Social Contract
14 February 2008	The Statue of Liberty
21 February 2008	The Multiverse
28 February 2008	Lear
6 March 2008	Ada Lovelace
13 March 2008	The Greek Myths
20 March 2008	Kierkegaard
27 March 2008	The Dissolution of the Monasteries
3 April 2008	The Laws of Motion
10 April 2008	The Norman Yoke
17 April 2008	Yeats and Irish Politics
24 April 2008	Materialism
1 May 2008	The Enclosures of the 18th Century
8 May 2008	The Brain
15 May 2008	The Library at Nineveh
22 May 2008	The Black Death
29 May 2008	Probability
5 June 2008	Lysenkoism
12 June 2008	The Riddle of the Sands
19 June 2008	The Music of the Spheres
26 June 2008	The Arab Conquests
3 July 2008	The Metaphysical Poets
10 July 2008	Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome

2008–2009

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
25 September 2008	Miracles
2 October 2008	The Translation Movement
9 October 2008	Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
16 October 2008	Vitalism
23 October 2008	Dante's Inferno
30 October 2008	Bolivar
6 November 2008	Aristotle's Politics
13 November 2008	Neuroscience
20 November 2008	The Baroque Movement
27 November 2008	The Great Reform Act
4 December 2008	Heat
11 December 2008	The Fire of London
18 December 2008	The Physics of Time
1 January 2009	The Consolations of Philosophy
5 January 2009	Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
6 January 2009	Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle
7 January 2009	Darwin: On the Origin of Species
8 January 2009	Darwin: Life After Origins
15 January 2009	Thoreau and the American Idyll
22 January 2009	History of History
29 January 2009	Swift's A Modest Proposal
5 February 2009	The Brothers Grimm
12 February 2009	Carthage's Destruction
19 February 2009	The Observatory at Jaipur
26 February 2009	The Waste Land and Modernity
5 March 2009	The Measurement problem in Physics
12 March 2009	The Library of Alexandria
19 March 2009	The Boxer Rebellion
26 March 2009	The School of Athens
2 April 2009	Baconian Science
9 April 2009	Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
16 April 2009	Suffragism
23 April 2009	The Building of St Petersburg
30 April 2009	The Vacuum of Space
7 May 2009	The Magna Carta
14 May 2009	The Siege of Vienna
21 May 2009	The Whale - A History
28 May 2009	St Paul
4 June 2009	The Trial of Charles I
11 June 2009	The Augustan Age
18 June 2009	Elizabethan Revenge
25 June 2009	Sunni and Shia Islam
2 July 2009	Logical Positivism
9 July 2009	Ediacara Biota

2009–2010

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
17 September 2009	St Thomas Aquinas
24 September 2009	Calculus
1 October 2009	Akhenaten
8 October 2009	The Dreyfus Affair
15 October 2009	The Death of Elizabeth I
22 October 2009	The Geological Formation of Britain
29 October 2009	Schopenhauer
5 November 2009	The Siege of Munster
12 November 2009	Radiation
19 November 2009	Sparta
26 November 2009	Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
3 December 2009	The Silk Road
10 December 2009	Pythagoras
24 December 2009	The Samurai
31 December 2009	Mary Wollstonecraft
4 January 2010	The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 1	Documentary format
5 January 2010	The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 2	Documentary format
6 January 2010	The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 3	Documentary format
7 January 2010	The Royal Society and British Science: Episode 4	Documentary format
14 January 2010	The Frankfurt School
21 January 2010	The Glencoe Massacre
28 January 2010	Silas Marner
4 February 2010	Ibn Khaldun
11 February 2010	The Unintended Consequences of Mathematics
18 February 2010	The Indian Mutiny
25 February 2010	Calvinism
4 March 2010	The Infant Brain
11 March 2010	Boudica
18 March 2010	Munch and The Scream
25 March 2010	The City - a history, part 1
1 April 2010	The City - a history, part 2
8 April 2010	William Hazlitt
15 April 2010	The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation
22 April 2010	Roman Satire
29 April 2010	The Great Wall of China
6 May 2010	The Cool Universe
13 May 2010	William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience
20 May 2010	The Cavendish Family in Science
27 May 2010	Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists
3 June 2010	Edmund Burke
10 June 2010	Al-Biruni
17 June 2010	The Neanderthals
24 June 2010	Antarctica
1 July 2010	Athelstan
8 July 2010	Pliny's Natural History

2010–2011

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
23 September 2010	Imaginary numbers
30 September 2010	The Delphic Oracle
7 October 2010	The Spanish Armada
14 October 2010	Sturm und Drang
21 October 2010	Logic
28 October 2010	The Unicorn
4 November 2010	Women and Enlightenment Science
11 November 2010	The Volga Vikings
18 November 2010	Foxe's Book of Martyrs
25 November 2010	History of Metaphor
2 December 2010	Cleopatra
9 December 2010	Thomas Edison
16 December 2010	Daoism
23 December 2010	The Industrial Revolution
30 December 2010	Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
6 January 2011	Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
13 January 2011	Random and Pseudorandom
20 January 2011	The Mexican Revolution
27 January 2011	Aristotle's Poetics
3 February 2011	The Battle of Bannockburn
10 February 2011	The Nervous System
17 February 2011	Maimonides
24 February 2011	The Taiping Rebellion
3 March 2011	The Age of the Universe
10 March 2011	Free Will
17 March 2011	The Medieval University
24 March 2011	The Iron Age
31 March 2011	The Bhagavad Gita
7 April 2011	Octavia Hill
14 April 2011	The Neutrino
21 April 2011	The Pelagian Controversy
28 April 2011	Cogito Ergo Sum
5 May 2011	Islamic Law and its Origins
12 May 2011	The Anatomy of Melancholy
19 May 2011	Custer's Last Stand
26 May 2011	Xenophon
2 June 2011	The Battle of Stamford Bridge
9 June 2011	The Origins of Infectious Disease
16 June 2011	Wyclif and the Lollards
23 June 2011	Malthusianism
30 June 2011	Tennyson's In Memoriam
7 July 2011	The Minoan Civilisation

2011–2012

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
15 September 2011	The Hippocratic Oath
22 September 2011	Shinto
29 September 2011	The Etruscan Civilisation
6 October 2011	David Hume
13 October 2011	The Ming Voyages
20 October 2011	Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People
27 October 2011	The Siege of Tenochtitlan
3 November 2011	The Moon
10 November 2011	The Continental-Analytic Split
17 November 2011	Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy
24 November 2011	Judas Maccabeus
1 December 2011	Christina Rossetti
8 December 2011	Heraclitus
15 December 2011	The Concordat of Worms
22 December 2011	Robinson Crusoe
29 December 2011	Macromolecules
2 January 2012	The Written World: Episode 1	Documentary format
3 January 2012	The Written World: Episode 2	Documentary format
4 January 2012	The Written World: Episode 3	Documentary format
5 January 2012	The Written World: Episode 4	Documentary format
6 January 2012	The Written World: Episode 5	Documentary format
12 January 2012	The Safavid dynasty
19 January 2012	1848: Year of Revolution
26 January 2012	The Scientific method
2 February 2012	The Kama Sutra
9 February 2012	Erasmus
16 February 2012	The An Lushan Rebellion
23 February 2012	Conductors and Semiconductors
1 March 2012	Benjamin Franklin
8 March 2012	Lyrical Ballads
15 March 2012	Vitruvius and De Architectura
22 March 2012	Moses Mendelssohn
29 March 2012	The Measurement of Time
5 April 2012	George Fox and the Quakers
12 April 2012	Early Geology
19 April 2012	Neoplatonism
26 April 2012	The Battle of Bosworth Field
3 May 2012	Voltaire's Candide
10 May 2012	Game Theory
17 May 2012	Clausewitz and On War
24 May 2012	Marco Polo
31 May 2012	The Trojan War
7 June 2012	King Solomon
14 June 2012	James Joyce's Ulysses
21 June 2012	Annie Besant
28 June 2012	Al-Kindi
5 July 2012	Scepticism
12 July 2012	Hadrian's Wall

2012–2013

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
13 September 2012	The Cell
20 September 2012	The Druids
27 September 2012	The Ontological Argument
4 October 2012	Gerald of Wales
11 October 2012	Hannibal
18 October 2012	Caxton and the Printing Press
25 October 2012	Fermat's Last Theorem
1 November 2012	The Anarchy
8 November 2012	The Upanishads
15 November 2012	Simone Weil
22 November 2012	The Borgias
29 November 2012	Crystallography
6 December 2012	Bertrand Russell
13 December 2012	Shahnameh of Ferdowsi
20 December 2012	The South Sea Bubble
27 December 2012	The Cult of Mithras
10 January 2013	Le Morte d'Arthur
17 January 2013	Comets
24 January 2013	Romulus and Remus
31 January 2013	The War of 1812
7 February 2013	Epicureanism
14 February 2013	Ice ages
21 February 2013	Decline and Fall
28 February 2013	Pitt Rivers
7 March 2013	Absolute Zero
14 March 2013	Chekhov
21 March 2013	Alfred Russel Wallace
28 March 2013	Water
4 April 2013	Japan's Sakoku Period
11 April 2013	The Amazons
18 April 2013	The Putney Debates
25 April 2013	Montaigne
2 May 2013	Gnosticism
9 May 2013	Icelandic Sagas
16 May 2013	Cosmic rays
23 May 2013	Lévi-Strauss
30 May 2013	Queen Zenobia
6 June 2013	Relativity
13 June 2013	Prophecy
20 June 2013	The Physiocrats
27 June 2013	Romance of the Three Kingdoms
4 July 2013	The Invention of Radio

2013–2014

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
19 September 2013	Pascal
26 September 2013	The Mamluks
3 October 2013	Exoplanets
10 October 2013	Galen
17 October 2013	The Book of Common Prayer
24 October 2013	The Corn Laws
31 October 2013	The Berlin Conference
7 November 2013	Ordinary language philosophy
14 November 2013	The Tempest
21 November 2013	Pocahontas
28 November 2013	The Microscope
5 December 2013	Hindu Ideas of Creation
12 December 2013	Pliny the Younger
19 December 2013	Complexity
26 December 2013	The Medici
3 January 2014	Plato's Symposium
16 January 2014	The Battle of Tours
23 January 2014	Sources of Early Chinese History
30 January 2014	Catastrophism
6 February 2014	The Phoenicians
13 February 2014	Chivalry
20 February 2014	Social Darwinism
27 February 2014	The Eye
6 March 2014	Spartacus
13 March 2014	The Trinity
20 March 2014	Bishop Berkeley
27 March 2014	Weber's The Protestant Ethic
3 April 2014	States of Matter
10 April 2014	Strabo's Geographica
17 April 2014	The Domesday Book
24 April 2014	Tristram Shandy
1 May 2014	The Tale of Sinuhe
8 May 2014	The Sino-Japanese War
15 May 2014	Photosynthesis
22 May 2014	The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
29 May 2014	The Talmud
5 June 2014	The Bluestockings
12 June 2014	Robert Boyle
19 June 2014	The Philosophy of Solitude
26 June 2014	Hildegard of Bingen
3 July 2014	Mrs Dalloway
10 July 2014	The Sun

2014–2015

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
25 September 2014	e
2 October 2014	Julius Caesar
9 October 2014	The Battle of Talas
16 October 2014	Rudyard Kipling
23 October 2014	The Haitian Revolution
30 October 2014	Nuclear Fusion
6 November 2014	Hatshepsut
13 November 2014	Brunel
20 November 2014	Aesop
27 November 2014	Kafka's The Trial
4 December 2014	Zen
11 December 2014	Behavioural ecology
18 December 2014	Truth
15 January 2015	Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent
22 January 2015	Phenomenology
29 January 2015	Thucydides
5 February 2015	Ashoka the Great
12 February 2015	The Photon
19 February 2015	The Wealth of Nations
26 February 2015	The Eunuch
5 March 2015	Beowulf
12 March 2015	Dark matter
19 March 2015	Al-Ghazali
26 March 2015	The Curies
2 April 2015	The California Gold Rush
9 April 2015	Sappho
16 April 2015	Matteo Ricci and the Ming dynasty
23 April 2015	Fanny Burney
30 April 2015	The Earth's core
7 May 2015	Rabindranath Tagore
14 May 2015	The Lancashire Cotton Famine
21 May 2015	Josephus
28 May 2015	The Science of Glass
4 June 2015	Prester John
11 June 2015	Utilitarianism
18 June 2015	Jane Eyre
25 June 2015	Extremophiles
2 July 2015	Frederick the Great
9 July 2015	Frida Kahlo

2015–2016

From the start of 2016 (Saturn) the podcast version of the programme started to include a few minutes of unbroadcast extra material, which would generally be prompted by the question So, what did we miss?

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
24 September 2015	Perpetual motion
1 October 2015	Alexander the Great
15 October 2015	Holbein at the Tudor Court
22 October 2015	Simone de Beauvoir
29 October 2015	The Empire of Mali
5 November 2015	P v NP
12 November 2015	The Battle of Lepanto
19 November 2015	Emma
29 November 2015	The Salem Witch Trials
3 December 2015	Voyages of James Cook
10 December 2015	Chinese Legalism
17 December 2015	Circadian rhythms
25 December 2015	Michael Faraday
31 December 2015	Tristan and Iseult
14 January 2016	Saturn
21 January 2016	Thomas Paine's Common Sense
28 January 2016	Eleanor of Aquitaine
4 February 2016	Chromatography
11 February 2016	Rumi's Poetry
18 February 2016	Robert Hooke
25 February 2016	Mary Magdalene
3 March 2016	The Dutch East India Company
10 March 2016	The Maya Civilization
17 March 2016	Bedlam
24 March 2016	Aurora Leigh
31 March 2016	Agrippina the Younger
7 April 2016	The Sikh Empire
14 April 2016	The Neutron
21 April 2016	1816, the Year Without a Summer
28 April 2016	Euclid's Elements
5 May 2016	Tess of the d'Urbervilles
12 May 2016	Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'
19 May 2016	The Muses
26 May 2016	The Gettysburg Address
2 June 2016	Margery Kempe and English Mysticism
9 June 2016	Penicillin
16 June 2016	The Bronze Age Collapse
23 June 2016	Songs of Innocence and of Experience
30 June 2016	Sovereignty
7 July 2016	The Invention of Photography

2016–2017

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
22 September 2016	Zeno's paradoxes
29 September 2016	Animal Farm
6 October 2016	Lakshmi
13 October 2016	Plasma
20 October 2016	The 12th Century Renaissance
27 October 2016	John Dalton
3 November 2016	Epic of Gilgamesh
10 November 2016	The Fighting Temeraire
17 November 2016	Justinian's Legal Code
24 November 2016	Baltic Crusades
1 December 2016	Garibaldi and the Risorgimento
8 December 2016	Harriet Martineau
15 December 2016	The Gin Craze
21 December 2016	Four Quartets
29 December 2016	Johannes Kepler
12 January 2017	Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
19 January 2017	Mary, Queen of Scots
26 January 2017	Parasitism
2 February 2017	Hannah Arendt
9 February 2017	John Clare
16 February 2017	Maths in the Early Islamic World
23 February 2017	Seneca the Younger
2 March 2017	The Kuiper belt
9 March 2017	North and South
16 March 2017	The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
23 March 2017	The Battle of Salamis
30 March 2017	Hokusai
6 April 2017	Pauli's exclusion principle
13 April 2017	Rosa Luxemburg
20 April 2017	Roger Bacon
27 April 2017	The Egyptian Book of the Dead
4 May 2017	The Battle of Lincoln 1217
11 May 2017	Emily Dickinson
18 May 2017	Louis Pasteur
25 May 2017	Purgatory
1 June 2017	Enzymes
8 June 2017	Christine de Pizan
15 June 2017	The American Populists
22 June 2017	Eugene Onegin
29 June 2017	Plato's Republic
6 July 2017	Bird migration

2017–2018

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
21 September 2017	Kant's Categorical Imperative
28 September 2017	Wuthering Heights
5 October 2017	Constantine the Great
12 October 2017	Aphra Behn
19 October 2017	The Congress of Vienna
26 October 2017	Feathered dinosaurs
2 November 2017	Picasso's Guernica
9 November 2017	The Picts
16 November 2017	Germaine de Staël
23 November 2017	Thebes
30 November 2017	Carl Friedrich Gauss
7 December 2017	Moby Dick
14 December 2017	Thomas Becket
21 December 2017	Ludwig van Beethoven
28 December 2017	Hamlet
11 January 2018	The Siege of Malta, 1565
18 January 2018	Anna Akhmatova
25 January 2018	Cicero
1 February 2018	Cephalopods
9 February 2018	Frederick Douglass
15 February 2018	Fungi
22 February 2018	Rosalind Franklin
1 March 2018	Sun Tzu and The Art of War
8 March 2018	The Highland Clearances
15 March 2018	Augustine's Confessions
22 March 2018	Tocqueville Democracy in America
5 April 2018	Roman Slavery
11 April 2018	George and Robert Stephenson
18 April 2018	Middlemarch
26 April 2018	The Proton
3 May 2018	The Almoravid Empire
10 May 2018	The Mabinogion
17 May 2018	The Emancipation of the Serfs
25 May 2018	Margaret of Anjou
31 May 2018	Henrik Ibsen
7 June 2018	Persepolis
14 June 2018	Montesquieu
21 June 2018	Echolocation
28 June 2018	The Mexican-American War
5 July 2018	William Morris

2018–2019

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
13 September 2018	The Iliad
20 September 2018	Automata
27 September 2018	Dietrich Bonhoeffer
4 October 2018	Edith Wharton
11 October 2018	Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
18 October 2018	Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
25 October 2018	The Fable of the Bees
1 November 2018	Free Radicals
8 November 2018	Marie Antoinette
15 November 2018	Horace
22 November 2018	Hope
29 November 2018	The Long March
6 December 2018	The Thirty Years War
13 December 2018	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
20 December 2018	The Poor Laws
27 December 2018	Venus
10 January 2019	Papal Infallibility
17 January 2019	Samuel Beckett
24 January 2019	Emmy Noether
31 January 2019	Owain Glyndŵr
7 February 2019	Aristotle's biology
14 February 2019	Judith beheading Holofernes
21 February 2019	Pheromones
28 February 2019	Antarah ibn Shaddad
7 March 2019	William Cecil
14 March 2019	Authenticity
21 March 2019	Gerard Manley Hopkins
28 March 2019	The Danelaw
4 April 2019	The Great Irish Famine
11 April 2019	The Evolution of Teeth
18 April 2019	A Midsummer Night's Dream
25 April 2019	Nero
2 May 2019	The Gordon Riots
9 May 2019	Bergson and Time
16 May 2019	Frankenstein
23 May 2019	Kinetic Theory
30 May 2019	President Ulysses S Grant
6 June 2019	Sir Thomas Browne
13 June 2019	The Inca
20 June 2019	The Mytilenaean Debate
27 June 2019	Doggerland
4 July 2019	Lorca

2019–2020

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
19 September 2019	Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
26 September 2019	The Rapture
3 October 2019	Dorothy Hodgkin
10 October 2019	Rousseau on Education
17 October 2019	The Time Machine
24 October 2019	Robert Burns
31 October 2019	Hybrids
7 November 2019	The Treaty of Limerick
14 November 2019	Crime and Punishment
21 November 2019	Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
28 November 2019	Li Shizhen
5 December 2019	Lawrence of Arabia
12 December 2019	Coffee
19 December 2019	Auden
26 December 2019	Tutankhamun
11 January 2020	Catullus
16 January 2020	The Siege of Paris (1870-71)
23 January 2020	Solar Wind
30 January 2020	Alcuin
6 February 2020	George Sand
13 February 2020	Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
20 February 2020	The Valladolid Debate
27 February 2020	The Evolution of Horses
5 March 2020	Paul Dirac
12 March 2020	The Covenanters

The 2019–2020 series was truncated because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020–2021

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
17 September 2020	Pericles
24 September 2020	Cave Art
1 October 2020	Macbeth
8 October 2020	Deism
15 October 2020	Alan Turing
22 October 2020	Maria Theresa
29 October 2020	Piers Plowman
5 November 2020	Mary Astell
12 November 2020	Albrecht Dürer
26 November 2020	The Zong Massacre
3 December 2020	Fernando Pessoa
10 December 2020	John Wesley and Methodism
17 December 2020	The Cultural Revolution
31 December 2020	Eclipses
14 January 2021	The Great Gatsby
21 January 2021	The Plague of Justinian
28 January 2021	Saint Cuthbert
4 February 2021	Emilie du Châtelet
11 February 2021	The Rosetta Stone
18 February 2021	Medieval Pilgrimage
25 February 2021	Marcus Aurelius
4 March 2021	The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
11 March 2021	The Late Devonian Extinction
18 March 2021	The Bacchae
25 March 2021	David Ricardo
1 April 2021	The Russo-Japanese War
8 April 2021	Pierre-Simon Laplace
15 April 2021	Arianism
22 April 2021	The Franco-American Alliance 1778
29 April 2021	Ovid
6 May 2021	The Second Barons' War
13 May 2021	Longitude
20 May 2021	Journey to the West
27 May 2021	The Interregnum
3 June 2021	Kant's Copernican Revolution
10 June 2021	Booth's Life and Labour Survey
17 June 2021	Edward Gibbon
24 June 2021	Shakespeare's Sonnets

2021–2022

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
16 September 2021	The Evolution of Crocodiles
23 September 2021	Herodotus
30 September 2021	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
7 October 2021	The Manhattan Project
14 October 2021	The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
21 October 2021	Iris Murdoch
28 October 2021	Corals
4 November 2021	The Song of Roland
11 November 2021	William and Caroline Herschel
18 November 2021	The Decadent Movement
25 November 2021	Plato's Gorgias
2 December 2021	The Battle of Trafalgar
9 December 2021	The May Fourth Movement
16 December 2021	A Christmas Carol
23 December 2021	The Hittites
30 December 2021	Fritz Lang
13 January 2022	Thomas Hardy's Poetry
20 January 2022	The Gold Standard
27 January 2022	Colette
3 February 2022	The Temperance Movement
10 February 2022	Walter Benjamin
17 February 2022	Romeo and Juliet
24 February 2022	Peter Kropotkin
3 March 2022	The Arthashastra
10 March 2022	Seismology
17 March 2022	Charisma
24 March 2022	Antigone
31 March 2022	The Sistine Chapel
07 April 2022	Polidori's The Vampyre
14 April 2022	Homo erectus
21 April 2022	Olympe de Gouges
28 April 2022	Early Christian Martyrdom
5 May 2022	The Davidian Revolution
12 May 2022	Tang Era Poetry
19 May 2022	Jan Amos Komenský
26 May 2022	Hegel's Philosophy of History
9 June 2022	The Death of Stars
16 June 2022	Dylan Thomas
23 June 2022	Angkor Wat
30 June 2022	John Bull

2022–2023

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
15 September 2022	Nineteen Eighty-Four
22 September 2022	Plato's Atlantis
29 September 2022	The Electron
6 October 2022	The Knights Templar
13 October 2022	Berthe Morisot
20 October 2022	The Fish-Tetrapod Transition
27 October 2022	Wilfred Owen
3 November 2022	The Morant Bay Rebellion
10 November 2022	Bauhaus
17 November 2022	Demosthenes' Philippics
24 November 2022	The Challenger Expedition 1872-1876
1 December 2022	The Nibelungenlied
8 December 2022	The Irish Rebellion of 1798
15 December 2022	Citizen Kane
22 December 2022	Persuasion
29 December 2022	The Great Stink
12 January 2023	John Donne
19 January 2023	Rawls' Theory of Justice
26 January 2023	Superconductivity
2 February 2023	Tycho Brahe
9 Feb 2023	Chartism
16 Feb 2023	Stevie Smith
23 Feb 2023	Paul Erdős
2 Mar 2023	Megaliths
9 March 2023	The Ramayana
16 March 2023	Mercantilism
23 March 2023	Solon the Lawgiver
30 March 2023	A Room of One's Own
6 April 2023	Cnut
13 April 2023	The Battle of Crécy
20 April 2023	Linnaeus
27 April 2023	Walt Whitman
4 May 2023	The Dead Sea Scrolls
11 May 2023	The Shimabara Rebellion
18 May 2023	Virgil's Georgics
25 May 2023	Louis XIV: The Sun King
01 June 2023	Mitochondria
08 June 2023	Oedipus Rex
15 June 2023	Death in Venice
22 June 2023	Elizabeth Anscombe
29 June 2023	Jupiter

2023–2024

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
14 September 2023	Albert Einstein
21 September 2023	The Seventh Seal(1000th program)
21 September 2023	Melvyn Bragg talks to Mishal Husain
28 September 2023	The Economic Consequences of the Peace
05 October 2023	Plankton
12 October 2023	The Federalist Papers
19 October 2023	Julian of Norwich
26 October 2023	Germinal
02 November 2023	Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
09 November 2023	The Barbary Corsairs
16 November 2023	The Theory of the Leisure Class
23 November 2023	Marguerite de Navarre
30 November 2023	Edgar Allan Poe
07 December 2023	Karl Barth
14 December 2023	Tiberius
21 December 2023	Vincent van Gogh
28 December 2023	Twelfth Night, or What You Will
11 January 2024	Condorcet
18 January 2024	Nefertiti
25 January 2024	Panpsychism
1 February 2024	The Hanseatic League
8 February 2024	Hormones
15 February 2024	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
22 February 2024	The Sack of Rome 1527
29 February 2024	Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
07 March 2024	The Mokrani Revolt
14 March 2024	The Waltz
21 March 2024	Julian the Apostate
28 March 2024	The Kalevala
04 April 2024	Nikola Tesla
11 April 2024	Lysistrata
18 April 2024	Napoleon's Hundred Days
25 April 2024	Bertolt Brecht
02 May 2024	Mercury
09 May 2024	Sir Thomas Wyatt
16 May 2024	Philippa Foot
23 May 2024	Empress Dowager Cixi
30 May 2024	Marsilius of Padua
06 June 2024	The Orkneyinga Saga
13 June 2024	Fielding's Tom Jones
20 June 2024	Karma
27 June 2024	Monet in England
04 July 2024	Bacteriophages

2024–2025

Broadcast date Listen again	Title	Contributors and positions held at time of broadcast
19 September 2024	Benjamin Disraeli
26 September 2024	Wormholes
3 October 2024	The Haymarket Affair
10 October 2024	Robert Graves
17 October 2024	Hayek's The Road to Serfdom
24 October 2024	Little Women
31 October 2024	The Venetian Empire
07 November 2024	George Herbert
14 November 2024	The Antikythera Mechanism
21 November 2024	Italo Calvino
28 November 2024	The Hanoverian Succession
05 December 2024	Nizami Ganjavi
12 December 2024	The Habitability of Planets

External links

Programme archive

Notes and References

News: The complete in Our Time now available as podcasts . . 15 September 2011 . 25 October 2015 . 4 March 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195113/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2011-09-15/the-complete-in-our-time-now-available-as-podcasts . live .
Web site: In Our Time's Greatest Philiosopher Vote. 2023-02-18. BBC Radio 4. 13 February 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210213214608/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher_vote_result.shtml. live.