The Forum

It takes twelve honey bees their entire lifetimes to make one spoonful of honey. From sweetening and preserving food, to treating wounds and sore throats, this sweet, viscous substance has played an important role in nearly every society around the world. In the ancient world, it held religious significance while in the 21st century, scientists are researching how honey could combat lethal diseases and finding ways to identify so-called fake honey.Joining Rajan Datar to discuss the history of honey are Dr Lucy Long - author of Honey: A Global History and director of the nonprofit Center for Food and Culture in Ohio, USA; Sarah Wyndham-Lewis - writer, Honey Sommelier and co-founder of Bermondsey Street Bees in London, UK; and the Australian microbiologist Dr Shona Blair from Imperial College London who has conducted detailed research into the antimicrobial activity and wound healing properties of honey.Photo: A Yemeni beekeeper checks a honeycomb from a beehive at his apiary in the country's northern Hajjah province in 2019. Credit: ESSA AHMED / AFP

The name Highlife is thought to have been coined in the early 20th Century when people on the streets outside clubs reserved for the Gold Coast elite observed the elegant clothes and dancing of the customers inside. Dance band Highlife is just one element of the music which has soaked up all manner of cultural traffic that has marked this part of West Africa. Military bands, gospel, calypso, folk music, ragtime, jazz, reggae, hip hop have all left their imprint on Highlife in a dizzying back-and-forth between Africa and the New World. When the Gold Coast became the independent state of Ghana in 1957, the music became associated with the search for a national identity. Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, made Highlife the national dance music, a move that was copied by other emerging nations of West Africa. But from its heyday in the 1960s and '70s, Highlife fell on hard times when a military regime came to power and imposed a curfew. Many musicians left the country to pursue their careers elsewhere. But Highlife proved once more that it could take on new influences, even in exile, and today it is the backdrop to the popular Highlife genre.With the help of musical examples, Rajan Datar and guests will explore how Highlife works, and discuss how it has grown from its origins in the towns of the Gold Coast to become a commercial success the world over. Joining Rajan will be guitarist and singer Kari Bannerman, percussionist Oheneba Kofi Adu, producer of the long-running American radio show Afropop Worldwide, Banning Eyre, and Dr Nana Amoah-Ramey, author of Female Highlife Performers in Ghana: Expression, Resistance and Advocacy.(Phoito: Osibisa performing live in The Front Room of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London)

At its height, Yiddish, the language of the European Jews, was spoken by more than ten million people, from Russia in the east to the Netherlands in the West. But by the mid -20th century, these numbers were severely depleted following the Holocaust, and then the creation of the modern-day state of Israel where the speaking of Yiddish was discouraged. So what does the future hold for this endangered culture with its great tradition of writers and thinkers? Joining Rajan Datar are Aaron Lansky, the director of the Yiddish book centre in the US, who helped save more than a million Yiddish books from destruction; the Jewish-Russian composer and singer Polina Skovoroda Shepherd who writes new songs that still remain within the Yiddish tradition, and Dr Lily Kahn from the Hebrew and Jewish studies department at University College, London, who’s also the author of “Colloquial Yiddish”. Image: A portrait of the Russian-Yiddish performer Polina Skovoroda Shepherd. Photo "All Snow" by Adela Nurullina.

The practice of having your food prepared by strangers in a public place goes back millennia but what makes a restaurant different from the many other dining options is that you can choose from a list of dishes, you can eat at a time of your rather than the cook’s choosing and are usually served by a professional waiter in pleasant surroundings. There were fully-fledged restaurants in 12th-century China catering to a wide range of tastes and budgets. Six centuries later, the first European restaurants in Paris advertised themselves as places that offered good health, rather than just good food. The fashion for French-style dining quickly spread to other countries but it took over a century for the waiters, waitresses and kitchen staff – the very people who are crucial to the success of any restaurant - to be given half-decent working conditions and a modicum of recognition. Bridget Kendall discusses the development of the restaurant with historians Rebecca L. Spang, Patricia Van den Eeckhout, Luke Barr, Nawal Nasrallah and Christian de Pee.Photo: A waiter with a serving platter and dome. Credit: RTimages/Getty Images

A First Lady who broke the mould: Eleanor Roosevelt was not just a hostess at her husband’s side, but a spokeswoman for the disadvantaged, a journalist, and an early civil rights campaigner, who placed herself at the heart of American politics, acting as a prominent adviser and representative for her husband, Franklin Roosevelt, the longest-serving president of the United States. But she was also in office in ‘no ordinary time’ as she put it – a period which encompassed the challenges of the Great Depression and World War Two. So who was Eleanor Roosevelt? What shaped her? How transformative was she? And how should we assess her legacy?Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss how Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the office of First Lady are Blanche Wiesen Cook, Professor of History at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and author of a seminal three-volume biography of Eleanor Roosevelt; Maurine Beasley, former Professor of Journalism History at the University of Maryland; and Amy Bloom, Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University and author of White Houses, a novel which explores a secret love affair in the Roosevelt White House.Produced by Jo Impey for BBC World Service(Photo: Eleanor Roosevelt Credit: BBC)

There were many sides to Ibn Khaldun - a top scholar, a scheming political mastermind, a peripatetic political guru to many a dynasty in North Africa, an inventor of a social science or two. He also spent a month talking to one of the world’s most dangerous conquerors and was imprisoned several times. At a time when the Black Death was raging through the area he suffered terrible personal tragedies. One of his books, the Muqaddimah, is now regarded as a classic text. And how many historians from the Middle Ages have come up with theories that are invoked by modern-day economists and American presidents? Rajan Datar follows Ibn Khaldun's life and work with the help of historians Syed Farid Alatas, Josephine van den Bent and Robert Irwin.(Image: Drawing of Ibn Khaldun on a 10 Dinar Tunisian banknote. Credit Georgios Art/Getty Images)

Although the name conjures up the image of a swashbuckling poet with an enormous nose, little is known about the life of the maverick 17th-century writer and philosopher Cyrano de Bergerac. Born four centuries ago, he left behind a play, love letters and a handful of strange travelogues that imagine a journey to the moon.The sketchy details of his past were a blank canvas for the late 19th-century French playwright Edmond Rostand, who mythologised aspects of Cyrano’s life for his own ends. Immortalising Cyrano on stage, Rostand created a character whose heroism and generosity have resonated with audiences since the play’s premiere in 1897. Cyrano believes himself to be ugly and ridiculous on account of his large nose, and fears that in spite of his talent for romantic poetry he will never be able to win the heart of the woman he loves. Enter the good-looking but inarticulate Christian de Neuvillette, and together they devise the perfect hero whose identity is only revealed at the end of the play.Bridget Kendall explores the intersection between the real Cyrano and his fictional counterpart with Dr Clémence Caritté, who’s written extensively on Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac; Professor Isabelle Moreau from the University of Lyon, co-editor of Seventeenth Century Fiction: Text and Transmission; and Professor John Rodden who lectures in European history at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.(Main Image: Cyrano de Bergerac by the Comédie-Française, featuring Michel Vuillermoz as Cyrano, Paris, May, 2006. Photo credit: Raphael Gaillarde / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

They were the ancient horse lords of the Eurasian steppe, nomadic warriors whose influence extended over thousands of kilometres from Mongolia to the Ukraine. The spectacular gold jewellery and mummified remains preserved in their ancient burial mounds, some the size of a football pitch, tell us they loved colour and precious metal. But what else do we know about the enigmatic Scythians? They left us no written records so we have to rely on testimonies of their neighbours and new archaeological and genetic techniques. One thing seems sure, they knew how to party. Not only do Greek sources repeatedly mention ‘drunken Scythians’ but archaeological evidence confirms feast remnants with hundreds of wine amphorae and ‘purification tents’ filled with hemp smoke.Bridget Kendall is joined by leading experts on the Scythians: Professor Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Dr Margarita Gleba from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Sir Barry Cunliffe emeritus professor from Oxford University.(Photo: A traditional animal-like piece of ornament on display at an exhibition of the treasures of the ancient Scythian burial mounds in the Siberian Valley of the Kings, held at the Tuva Republic National Museum in Kyzyl (Credit: Artyom Geodakyan/TASS/Getty Images)

The Russian Civil war was a struggle for power at every level – from the villages to the imperial centre, with more than 11 foreign powers involved as well as nationalists, from Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states, fighting for independence. This conflict, which took place a hundred years ago, between a small group of revolutionaries known as the Bolsheviks and their enemies was one of the most brutal and tragic periods in Russian history, but it was also to shape the new Soviet state that was founded in 1922, and still characterises Russia today. But why did events of the Russian Civil war end up crushing hopes for democracy after the idealism of the October revolution? And how did a small extremist group like the Bolsheviks manage to take control, despite resistance - not just from the upper and middle classes- but also from peasants and workers? Joining Bridget Kendall to explore these themes further is Laura Engelstein, Professor Emerita of Russian history and author of “Russia in Flames”; Steve Smith, Professor of History at Oxford University who wrote “Russia in Revolution”, and Dr Katya Rogatchevskaia, lead curator of the Russian and East European collections at the British Library in London. Image: Cossack Throws General Wrangel in the Black Sea (Poster). Private Collection. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Mention famous polar explorers to most people and they will probably come up with the names Scott and Amundsen. But really there should be another name before these, Fridtjof Nansen, a man who can be viewed as a true pioneer of intrepid, indeed death-defying expeditions to the freezing, bleak extremities of the world. He ventured closer than anyone else before him towards the North Pole but this Norwegian national hero was so much more than a character from a boys-own adventure annual. He was a scientist, an early oceanographer, a top class skier, a bestselling author, a diplomat, a humanitarian who spearheaded the repatriation of nearly half a million starving First World War prisoners, a tireless fundraiser for famine relief, the man who gave thousands of stateless people passports and a Nobel Peace prize winner. Rajan Datar recounts Nansen's remarkable life with the help of historians Robert Marc Friedman and Carl Emil Vogt, writer Marit Fosse and polar explorer Paul Rose.Picture: Explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen. Credit: The Print Collector/Getty Images

From the moment the seven-year-old Rudolf Nureyev saw a ballet on stage in his local theatre, he lived and breathed dance. That overwhelming desire to be on stage carried him throughout his life – from his student days in Leningrad to his defection to the West in a blaze of publicity, from theatres around the world to his final curtain in 1992 when his gaunt body was ravaged by Aids. He made good on his promise: “the main thing is dancing, and before it withers away from my body, I will keep dancing till the last moment, the last drop.”In a career spanning more than three decades, he brought new audiences to ballet, and gave new meaning to the role of male dancers. He was a pin-up, a performer whose stage presence and artistry was so mesmerising that those who saw him perform in the 1960s have never forgotten the experience. His leaps defied gravity; he gave the impression of floating through the air. But his demands for perfection could make him a difficult person to be with. His temper was as legendary as his dancing. Bridget Kendall explores how Nureyev’s commitment to transcend his childhood in grinding poverty made him one of the world’s most celebrated dancers, with writer Julie Kavanagh, author of Rudolf Nureyev: The Life; writer and translator, Irina Klyagin, who looks after Harvard University’s extensive theatre collection and specialises in Russian ballet; and Thierry Fouquet, vice chair of the board of trustees of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation who worked with Nureyev during his time at the Paris opera, the home of France’s leading ballet company.(Photo: Rudolf Nureyev In 'Aureole'. Credit: Linda Vartoogian/Getty Images)

John Harvey Kellogg is best known, along with his brother, for changing the way the world ate breakfast. But cornflakes were actually a by-product of Dr Kellogg’s lifelong mission to improve the dietary health of patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium, a once world-famous medical centre and spa in the US state of Michigan that he ran from 1876 to 1943. Here Kellogg preached the art of ‘biologic living’: a healthy vegetable-based diet, avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine and meat, and getting plenty of exercise and fresh air. This was a revolutionary way of living at the time in the US, and Kellogg’s work influenced many of our current ideas about food and its relationship to bodily health, and the concept of ‘wellness’.Rajan Datar discusses John Harvey Kellogg’s life story with Howard Markel, Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan; Laura J. Miller, Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University in Massachusetts; and Brian C Wilson, Professor of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University.Image: John Harvey Kellogg Credit: Library of Congress/Getty Images

Indigo: not only one of the seven colours of the rainbow and the dye that makes your jeans look like they do but and a highly valued pigment which is naturally found in some plants and whose use can be traced back at least six thousand years to Peru. Such was the desirability of indigo that along with sugar, cotton, coffee and tobacco it became a major driver for globalised trade and the horrors of slavery. In India it was the source of so much exploitation that a lawyer called Gandhi rose to fame standing up for indigo farmers. Rajan Datar explores the rich history of the dye with Jenny Balfour-Paul, an Honorary Research Fellow at Exeter University and author of Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans; Lucille Junkere, an artist and textile researcher with a particular interest in the history of indigo in Nigeria and the Caribbean; and Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at University College London who delights his students with all kinds of colourful experiments with indigo.Photo: Detail of adire indigo cloth from Nigeria. Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Domesticated cats are thought to have started living alongside humans more than 9000 years ago. Unlike dogs, it's believed cats domesticated themselves, entering the homes of early arable farmers in the Fertile Crescent to control the rodent population. Since then, they've been worshipped, vilified and revered by various societies around the world. Today, they are one of the world's most popular pets, living on every continent except Antarctica and a favourite on the internet, and yet, they will never have that image of loyalty that is associated with dogs.Rajan Datar welcomes three experts in science, culture and archaeology to discuss the history of the domesticated cat: Katharine Rogers - a Professor Emerita of English Literature from City University of New York and author of numerous books including 'Cat' and 'The Cat and the Human Imagination'; Eva-Maria Geigl - an Evolutionary geneticist at the French National Research Institute CNRS; and John Bradshaw - an anthrozoologist from Bristol University, UK, and author of the book 'Cat Sense'.Photo: Copy of wall painting from private tomb 52 of Nakht, Thebes (I, 1, 99-102) cat eating fish, 20th century Credit: Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Manuela Sáenz was an Ecuadorian revolutionary who for many years was most famous for her role as the lover of Simón Bolívar - the Venezuelan military leader who secured independence from Spain for a number of countries in South America between 1819-1830. Sáenz left her British husband for Bolívar, or 'The Liberator' as he was known, and famously saved the leader from an assassination attempt, earning her the name 'Libertadora'. But Sáenz was a political force in her own right, receiving various honours for her work for the revolutionary cause. She continued her involvement in politics right to the end of her life while exiled in Peru, acting as a spy and creating a network of informants.As many countries in what used to be known as 'Gran Colombia' celebrate 200 years of independence from Spain, Bridget Kendall speaks to three experts about Manuela Sáenz's key role in the independence struggle: Pamela Murray, professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and author of the biography For Glory and Bolívar: The Remarkable Life of Manuela Sáenz; Matthew Brown, professor in Latin American history at the University of Bristol, UK; and Marcela Echeverri, associate professor at Yale University's Department of History in the United States.(Photo: Portrait of Manuela Sáenz in 1825 by Pedro Durante. Credit: Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú)

The invention of the electric telegraph in the mid-19th century brought about a revolution in human communication that some argue rivals the printing press and the internet. Suddenly the ‘tyranny of distance’ could be overcome – messages that once might have taken days or even weeks to arrive could be sent almost instantly using Morse code signals. Soon wires reached across continents and under oceans, connecting the world as never before, and radically changing areas such as commerce, diplomacy, journalism and warfare forever.Bridget Kendall discusses the telegraph’s extraordinary impact with Roland Wenzlhuemer, Professor of Modern History at the University of Munich; Bruce J Hunt, Professor of History at the University of Texas; and Gillian Cookson, Historian of Engineering and Research Fellow at the University of Leeds.Photo: Old-fashioned telegraph pole in Rhineland, Germany Credit: bibi57/GettyImages

Made from the simple juice of the poppy, opium is arguably the oldest and most widely used drug in the world. Since prehistoric times it has been used to relieve physical pain and quieten troubled minds. It has enabled medical breakthroughs, and inspired some of the greatest Romantic poets and composers. But opium, and its later derivatives morphine and heroin, has also brought addiction and untold misery and death, destroyed families, and corrupted entire countries. Its trade has provoked wars, and is still making global headlines today, from its production in Afghanistan to the opioid crisis in the United States.Bridget Kendall explores opium’s long and complex history with Doris Buddenberg, former head of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, and curator of a recent exhibition on opium; Zhou Xun, Reader of Modern History at the University of Essex; and Mike Jay, author and cultural historian, whose books on the history of drug use include ‘High Society’.Image: Opium poppy flower Credit: yamatao/Getty Images

‘There is no sun without shadows, and it is essential to know the night,’ the words of Albert Camus, a writer whose exploration of the absurd nature of the human condition made him a literary and intellectual icon. Camus was born in Algeria but is celebrated in France as one of its great twentieth-century novelists and philosophers. His first publishing success, The Stranger, focused on the absurdity of existence but in his later works, including The Plague and The Rebel, he developed his thoughts on the human instinct to revolt. But who was Albert Camus? How far were his ideas shaped by his Algerian upbringing and by the turbulent political times he lived through in the 1940s and '50s? Bridget Kendall explores these questions with three Camus experts: Nabil Boudraa, Algerian professor of French and Francophone Studies at Oregon State University, Eve Morisi, professor of French at Oxford University and Samantha Novello, research fellow in Political Philosophy at Verona University.(Photo: Albert Camus Credit: Kurt Hutton/Getty Images)

Fernando Pessoa is Portugal’s national poet and a giant of 20th Century literature but he’s also a writer who multiplied himself, who wrote under dozens of alter egos, ranging from an engineer trained in Glasgow in Scotland, to a hunchback who is helplessly lovesick, to a doctor and Latin scholar who’s a fervent Royalist. His masterpiece The Book of Disquiet, considered to be one of the defining works of modernist literature, is equally fragmented - written on scraps of paper and consisting of hundreds of virtually unordered manuscripts. So what makes Fernando Pessoa such a great writer and so relevant today? Joining Rajan Datar to discuss Fernando Pessoa and his many selves are his translator and biographer Richard Zenith, and the literary scholars and Pessoa experts Dr Mariana Gray de Castro and professor Bernard McGuirk.(Photo: Statue of Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa outside Café Brasilera, Lisbon, Portugal. Credit: Anne Khazam/BBC)

Albert Einstein’s inability to get a job on graduating has given hope to generations of students. Knowing what we know now about the genius scientist, it’s hard to avoid smiling on reading his father’s pleas to physics professors to give his son an academic post.Perhaps it was just as well that these attempts failed, as the job Einstein eventually secured gave him the opportunity to daydream. Assessing new inventions at the Swiss capital’s patent office, Einstein allowed his imagination to run riot, creating ‘thought experiments’ that questioned centuries of knowledge about time, space and motion. In 1905 he published a series of papers that scientists today still use as a reference point. While Einstein himself didn’t foresee the technological application of his work, his research has since been used as the basis of modern inventions such as the atomic bomb, lasers, solar panels and GPS. Neither did he realise immediately the potential of his theories to help us understand the beginning of the universe.Rajan Datar explores the complexity of Einstein’s theories as well as what made him tick, with expert guests Janna Levin, professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College, Columbia University, USA; science historian Jimena Canales, author of The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson and the Debate that changed our understanding of Time; and Matthew Stanley, professor of the history of science at New York University whose book Einstein’s War: How Relativity Conquered Nationalism and Shook the World was published in 2019.(Image: Portrait of German-born physicist Albert Einstein on his 75th birthday. Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

Fans of Hollywood cinema may recognise the name Imhotep from the original The Mummy film from 1932, and its various remakes. In the movie, Imhotep (played by Boris Karloff) is an Ancient Egyptian high priest who was mummified alive because he had attempted to resurrect his forbidden lover. Fast forward several thousand years, and an archaeologist brings the mummy back to life, with dangerous consequences.The real Imhotep was a far cry from this Hollywood invention. A high priest yes, but also possibly the architect of the first monumental building fashioned entirely of stone, the Step Pyramid which dates from around 2,600 BC. Imhotep was also an adviser to one of the most important pharaohs, King Djoser, as text on a statue base found at the Step Pyramid confirms. Later generations revered Imhotep as a sage and a scribe, one of the highest honours a person could be paid in Ancient Egypt. He eventually became linked with the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, and then worshipped as a saint. Bridget Kendall journeys through the centuries to understand all the different titles that have attached themselves to this legendary figure, with experts Dr David P Silverman, curator in charge of the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum and Professor of Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania, USA; Dr Salima Ikram, Distinguished Professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, Egypt, and Dr Aidan Dodson, Honorary Professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol in the UK.(Image: Step pyramid of King Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt Credit: Print Collector/Contributor/Getty Images)

"In the future everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes” is probably the best known quote attributed to Andy Warhol. Warhol was an American artist who became a superstar in the visual art movement known as Pop Art. He crossed the boundaries between art and celebrity becoming famous for what we now call branding, but the private Warhol was a deeply religious man and to his close relatives was known simply as ‘Uncle Andy’. In a world where some of what he predicted has come true, we look back at the life and work of this iconic figure.With Bridget Kendall to explore Andy Warhol are Eric Shiner the former Director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh USA and New York Director of London’s White Cube, Professor Jean Wainwright the British art historian and curator and a leading expert on Warhol and Andy Warhol’s nephew, the artist and illustrator James Warhola.(Photo: Andy Warhol. Credit: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images)

“I didn’t like my life, so I created my life,” the French fashion designer, Coco Chanel declared. And what a life it was: from her humble beginnings in an orphanage, Chanel blazed a trail as a fiercely independent woman, rising to become the toast of French high society. She mixed with the artists who defined modernism in the 1920s and ‘30s, and created a fashion empire which today is a multi-billion dollar business that still dominates the luxury clothes and accessories market.The suit, the little black dress and the handbag are just some of the items Chanel shaped in a career which covered much of the 20th century. Luxurious and elegant, but also practical, her designs gave women freedom to move and pursue the kinds of activities which were now opening up as society’s barriers were being broken down.But the woman herself was a web of contradictions. While she contributed to the emancipation of rich women, she limited her workers’ rights. And controversially, she was involved with a Nazi officer in occupied France during World War II. She even tried to capitalise on Nazi laws to seize back her hugely profitable perfume business, having previously sold the majority shares to a Jewish family.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the complex life of Coco Chanel are dress historian Amy de la Haye, author of Chanel: Couture and Industry and professor at the London College of Fashion; fashion historian Emilie Hammen from the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris; and Madelief Hohé, curator of the fashion and costume department at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and the author of Femmes Fatales: Strong Women in Fashion.Image: Coco Chanel Credit: Roger Viollet/Getty Images

The vision of the future evoked in George Orwell’s last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was so terrifying to its first readers that some claimed to be unable to sleep at night. When the book was adapted by the BBC for the new medium of television after Orwell’s death, millions became aware of the novel’s concepts and language which have since seeped into Western popular culture. Big Brother, Room 101, the thought police, doublethink: few novels of the 20th century have had such a lasting impact.Over the seventy years since its publication, world events have brought Orwell’s vision into focus at various points. The Cold War, the collapse of Communism, the rise of surveillance, and the inauguration of President Trump are among those moments in history which have made readers return to the novel time and again.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the origins of Orwell’s novel and its ongoing relevance are Professor John Rodden, author of George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy; journalist and writer Dorian Lynskey whose biography of Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Ministry of Truth, was published in 2019; and editor of the George Orwell Society Journal Masha Karp, writer of the forthcoming George Orwell and Russia (Bloomsbury Academic).Photo: A man holding a German translation of George Orwell's 1984. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)

For over two and a half thousand years the Ancient Greek Spartans have been known for their military might, discipline and self-sacrifice. Recent popular culture has portrayed them as the ultimate fearless warriors, especially ‘the 300’ Spartans who fought to the death at Thermopylae. But where does this image come from, and what do we really know about Spartan society and the peculiar utopia it tried to create? The city-state of Sparta has been admired for its stability, frugality, and the unusual social and sexual freedom of its women. But Sparta was also famous for its brutality towards its huge slave population, its authoritarian rule, and its policy of racial purity and eugenics that would eventually prove its undoing.Bridget Kendall talks to Christy Constantakopoulou, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London; Paul Rahe, Professor of History at Hillsdale College in the US; and Angie Hobbs, Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.Photo: Statue of King Leonidas in Sparta, Greece (TPopova/Getty Images)

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek opened up a whole new world to us; he was the first to observe bacteria and other microscopic lifeforms which could not be seen by the naked eye. He is now regarded as the father of microbiology and yet he had neither scientific training nor university education, and spent his life first as a linen merchant and then a civil servant in a small Dutch city. To understand quite how game-changing Leeuwenhoek’s discoveries were, you have to imagine a world where just about everyone on the planet could only see things that were within the range of unaided human eyesight. Magnifying glasses were the preserve of a privileged few, and other optical instruments, such as simple telescopes and microscopes, were rarer still. So it’s little wonder that Leeuwenhoek was met with disbelief when he claimed that he had seen bustling, vibrant lifeforms in what for everyone was just a drop of clear, pure water.To find out how this extraordinarily curious Dutchman arrived at his discoveries, Rajan Datar is joined by Elisabeth Entjes who is one of the editors of Leeuwenhoek’s Collected Letters, Tiemen Cocquyt who as curator at the Boerhaave Museum of the history of science in Leiden has a special interest in Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes, and by biochemist and writer Nick Lane who is professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London.(Photo: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's microscope. Credit: Rijksmuseum Boerhaave)

A man wakes up in the body of a verminous insect – this is the plot of one of the most celebrated short stories of all time – Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella The Metamorphosis. Dealing with the isolation and absurdity of modern existence, it has fascinated readers all over the world in its openness to varying interpretations, and the way it questions the very norms of society as well as literary form.Joining Rajan Datar to explore this most enigmatic work is Dr Carolin Duttlinger, the author of four books on Kafka and co-director of the Oxford Kafka research centre, Professor Alice Staskova, native of Kafka’s home city of Prague and specialist on Kafka and music, Dr Peter Zusi from the department of Czech Literature at University College London, and with the contribution of the Nigerian novelist Adrian Igoni Barrett who wrote his own take on The Metamorphosis – about a black man in Lagos who wakes up white.(Photo: Kafka's The Metamorphosis choreographed and directed by Arthur Pita at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, UK. Credit: Robbie Jack/Corbis/Getty Images)

The story of Hugh Masekela’s life is intertwined with the history of South Africa itself. Born into a relatively privileged family in a mining town east of Johannesburg, Masekela was aware from an early age of the separatist and exploitative legacy of colonialism. As he grew up and discovered his love of music, it soon became clear to him that fulfilling his ambitions as a black musician would have to be done far away from the brutal apartheid government which had come to power in 1948. In his adopted home in the United States, Masekela enjoyed a string of hit records and mixed with the great and the good of the jazz world. By now exiled from South Africa, he used his profile and his music to protest against repression and inequality, and wrote one of the defining songs of the campaign to free Nelson Mandela from prison.In his musical ventures he brought musicians together from across the African continent, in a spirit of Pan-Africanism which was so important to him. When he eventually returned to South Africa after thirty years away, he continued to rally for causes close to his heart. Joining Bridget Kendall is jazz historian Dr Lindelwa Dalamba from Wits University in Johannesburg; jazz critic Gwen Ansell and author of Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa; and the late musician’s nephew and former road manager, Mabusha Masekela.Photo: Hugh Masekela (BBC/Danielle Peck)

In this 200th year since his death, we look at the life and work of James Watt, the Scottish innovator whose ground-breaking ideas helped power the Industrial Revolution and lay the basis for much of the mechanised world we take for granted now. He wasn't the inventor of the first steam engine - that had existed before his time - but his improved steam engine was vastly more efficient than earlier versions. As a result, industrial production rates soared and workplaces were transformed by new machines: changes that were to revolutionise society as well as industry. So who was James Watt? What inspired him and who helped him? Bridget Kendall talks to historians Dr. Malcolm Dick, Director of the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham, and Professor Larry Stewart from the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who specialises in early modern science. She is also joined by curators Val Boa from The McLean Museum in Greenock, Scotland that houses an important James Watt collection, and Ben Russell, Curator of Mechanical Engineering at the Science Museum in London where he looks after a number of Watt-related objects, including his legendary attic workshop.Steam escaping from a pressure gauge. (mevans/Getty Images)

The Bhagavad Gita didn't start life as an exclusively religious text but over the two thousand years since it was composed the verses have taken on many different layers of meaning. For millions of Hindus today, the Gita has a similar scriptural status to the Quran for Muslims or the Bible for Christians. In the 20th century, others have seen the Gita as a guide to management strategy, a tool for self-help and even a call to arms for Indian independence in the face of British colonial rule.The story begins on a battlefield with the warrior Prince Arjuna suffering a breakdown. As warring families line up on opposing sides, Arjuna appeals to his charioteer Krishna for help in overcoming this existential crisis. In the 700 verses which follow, Krishna presents his friend with three options: the paths of action, knowledge and devotion.Joining Bridget is Professor Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad from the University of Lancaster in the UK, Professor Angelika Malinar from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and from the US Professor Richard Davis, the author of The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography.Image: Indian art depicting the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

King Cnut the Great started life as a young Viking warrior, but quickly became one of the most successful kings in Anglo-Saxon history, reigning over a huge empire covering England, Denmark and Norway in the early 11th Century. For some, he was the perfect Christian king; for others, he was a ruthless warlord. Today in popular culture his name is associated with the tale of King Cnut and the waves - the legend of an arrogant king who believed he could stop the tide.Joining Bridget Kendall to disentangle the facts from legends about King Cnut are Else Roesdahl, professor emerita of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Århus, Denmark; Eleanor Parker, lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford University, UK; and historian Timothy Bolton, author of the biography Cnut the Great.(Image: An illustration where Cnut criticises his courtiers for believing that he could command the tide of the river. Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)

The months between May and August 1919 were a crucial time for Afghanistan: it was the period of the Third Anglo-Afghan War followed by the declaration of Afghan independence from Britain. So how was modern Afghan national identity forged? Who were the leaders responsible? Why, in the 19th century, had the country become financially and politically dependent on Britain? And what, a century on, is the legacy Afghanistan's independence struggle?These are some of the issues that Bridget Kendall discusses with historians of Afghanistan, professors Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, Sana Haroon and Benjamin Hopkins. Photo: People hold Afghan flags as they celebrate Afghan Independence Day (Sayed Khodaberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Rasputin’s story is a familiar one – an illiterate Siberian peasant who managed to secure the confidence of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, while indulging his legendary sexual appetite and love of hard drinking. Rasputin was so revered by his acolytes that they would collect his fingernail clippings, as if they were some kind of holy relic. When his extraordinary life was brought to an equally extraordinary end when he refused to die – murdered eventually in cold blood by a group of aristocrats – it unleashed the Russian revolution, and changed the geopolitical landscape in ways that still resonate today.That’s one version of events that’s held sway for more than one hundred years. And yet so much of the Rasputin legend has been pieced together by those looking to discredit him. Is it possible to peel away the layers of myth-making and get to the heart of who Rasputin really was and what he stood for?Joining Bridget Kendall on a truth-seeking mission is Russian imperial historian Helen Rappaport, author of The Race to Save the Romanovs; Russian literary translator and executive editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, Boris Dralyuk; and historian Douglas Smith, author of the 2016 biography Rasputin: Faith, Power and the Twilight of the Romanovs.Photo: Grigori Rasputin. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

For as long as humans have gazed up at the moon it has been an object of fascination. From the Aztecs to the Romans to the Romantics, the moon has inspired everything from artistic outpourings to religious devotion. So how has our understanding of our nearest cosmic companion changed over the millennia? And, 50 years on from the Apollo 11 Moon landing, how has our relationship with the moon been changed by our lunar explorations?Rajan Datar talks to Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University in the UK; Anthony Aveni, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, Anthropology, and Native American Studies at Colgate University in the US; and Alexandra Loske, a German art historian and co-author of Moon: Art, Science, Culture.Photo: A couple have dinner on a hill as the Supermoon is seen in Turkey's Kayseri, 2019. (Sercan Kucuksahin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Pearls are the most chameleon-like of jewels: they can sell for millions or for just a few dollars, they have been used to symbolize both chastity and debauchery, they have been conspicuously worn by men and women. The production methods of both cultured and natural pearls have been fraught with controversy and their position as fashion and status symbols has waxed and waned over the centuries. Bridget Kendall discovers the social history of pearls with jewellery historian Beatriz Chadour-Sampson and Pittsburgh University professor Molly Warsh. Plus jewellery writer Victoria Finlay puts to the test one of the more colourful claims about what is in essence an iridescent blob of nacre: that if you drop a pearl in a glass of vinegar it will quickly dissolve.(Photo: Pearls in a shell. Credit: Greg Vaughn/VW Pics/UIG/Getty Images)

Rajan Datar and guests explore the life and legacy of the American thinker Henry David Thoreau and his famous work 'Walden', which describes the young writer's experiment in living simply at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, for two years, two months and two days in the 1840s. A landmark text in American literature, ‘Walden’ has been enjoyed by generations for its insights into work and leisure, nature, solitude, society, the good life and more. Rajan and guests discuss this book and another of Thoreau’s famous works – the essay known as ‘Civil Disobedience’, read by some of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They also reflect on the legacy of Thoreau’s work around the world today, in an age in which his themes – from protesting injustice to living the simple life – continue to resonate with readers. With expert guests Laura Dassow Walls, Kristen Case, John Kaag and Yoshiaki Furui. Produced by Alice Bloch.Photo: Henry David Thoreau (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

In its 200-year lifetime the Portuguese song known as fado has been intertwined with the country's politics. At first it was an expression of the woes of Lisbon's underclass, which perhaps explains its predominantly melancholy character. In the early 20th century when a military coup brought the fascist regime of António Salazar to power, fado was accused of being degenerate music and government officials censored its lyrics. However, as the dictatorship's grip on the country tightened over a 50-year period, fado flourished, and the regime saw its potential as a tourism marketing tool. When democracy was restored in the 1970s, fado began a decline because of its perceived links to the former far-right regime. As those associations have faded with time, fado is now enjoying a renaissance. The music's found favour with a new generation of singers who are taking this nostalgic, yearning song to a global audience.Rajan Datar investigates the ups and downs of fado, its history, legends and mystique, with guests historian Rui Vieira Nery, ethnomusicologist Lila Ellen Gray and editor-in-chief of Songlines magazine, Simon Broughton.Photo: Portuguese singer Amalia Rodrigues on stage in 1987 (Jacques Demarthon/Getty Images)

The 17th Century Queen Njinga was among the most successful of Africa's rulers in resisting European colonialism: she defied no fewer than 13 different Portuguese governors of modern-day Angola and ruled the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba for over three decades. She was no ordinary person, the warrior Queen. She was a fearless fighter, a military strategist, often ruthless, a shrewd diplomat and an inspirational leader in a period of huge turmoil, shifting alliances and conflict. Her name still resonates throughout the region and she stands as a symbol of the continent's fight against oppression. Rajan Datar is joined by professor Linda Heywood, author of the first comprehensive biography of Njinga in English, professor Roquinaldo Ferreira whose many publications include studies of the frequent social and cultural exchanges between Brazil and central Africa; and one of the leading experts on west African economic history Dr Toby Green.(Photo: Statue of Queen Njinga in Luanda, Angola. Sculptor: Rui de Matos. Credit: mtcurado/Getty Images)

Leonardo da Vinci is best known for his paintings - creating masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. But through his notes and drawings we know him also to have been a sculptor, mathematician, botanist, palaeontologist, anatomist, architect and engineer, recording insights and inventions that were astonishingly ahead of their time. So what do his observations and experiments tell us about his unique understanding of the visible world around him? To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death Bridget Kendall talks to Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University in the UK; Carmen C. Bambach, a curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in the US; and Prof Marina Wallace, a curator and art historian.Photo: Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), Self-portrait, Red Chalk Drawing (Christophel Fine Art/Getty Images)

It’s been called the 'gymnasium of the mind', both mental exercise and a way to build self-esteem. Born some 1,500 years ago, the game of chess was one of the world’s first strategy board games, though little is still known about its origins. Was it first conceived to teach Indian army generals? Or devised to turn a tyrannical King into a virtuous ruler? Or was it a meditative diversion for Japanese monks? It’s easy to forget that the modern game of chess is only 500 years old – and that other ancient forms of Chess, like Xiangqi in China and Shogi in Japan, are much older, still evolving and still played today. Joining Bridget Kendall to explore the history of chess, are the chess historians Jean-Louis Cazaux and Rick Knowlton, the novelist Andrei Kurkov who’s followed the dramas of Russian chess through the ages, and the Grandmaster Jovanka Houska who’ll be challenging Bridget to a game of chess in the studio.Photo: Rick Knowlton's sculpted reproductions of the first confirmed chessmen ever discovered. The original pieces were found in Afrasiab, the ancient city of Samarkand (in present-day Uzbekistan) in 1977. They are dated at approximately AD 700. (Rick Knowlton)

It is an all-time adventure classic, a novel by Jules Verne that started life in serialized form 150 years ago and has gripped readers ever since, making it one of the most translated works in publishing history (and yes, the original French title says 'seas' in plural). It also made a household name out of its main character, Captain Nemo, the troubled and enigmatic commander who transports us through underwater wonders - including the lost world of Atlantis - in Nautilus, a submarine that itself is a technological marvel. So popular is the story, stars as famous as James Mason, Omar Sharif and Michael Caine have featured in movie versions. But there are dark undercurrents in the novel, themes of anger and revenge, as well as a number of enigmatic passages. To explore the long-lasting appeal of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, Rajan Datar is joined by Marie-Helene Huet, professor of French at Princeton University and MIT; French writer and translator Laurence Sudret, general secretary of the Société Jules Verne; Swiss-born author and engineer Jean-Michel Margot who had amassed one of the world's foremost collections of Verne materials; and Terry Harpold, Professor of English, Film and Media Studies at the University of Florida who specializes in science fiction.Photo: Submarine in the style of Captain Nemo's 'Nautilus'. (inhauscreative/Getty Images)

The story of how an average-sized artillery officer from a small Mediterranean island came to dominate revolutionary France and become the international celebrity of his age is an extraordinary one. Born on Corsica in 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte appeared to avoid engaging with the military career for which he was destined. And yet within a decade, his ambition, ego and enormous talent for self-promotion propelled him to the rank of general and eventually the highest office in France.At the beginning of the 19th century Napoleon’s rise appeared unstoppable. He was declared First Consul for life, then crowned himself Emperor of the French. He brought a period of much-needed stability to France and codified laws and systems which exist to this day. When his wife Joséphine was unable to give him a child, he divorced her and cemented an alliance with Austria’s imperial family. At its height, the Napoleonic empire stretched across most of Western Europe and numbered 40 million people. But his continuing thirst for power also sowed the seeds of his downfall.Bridget Kendall delves into the life and legacy of one of history’s most divisive figures. With guests Rafe Blaufarb, Professor of History at Florida State University in the US; Kate Astbury, Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick, UK and the co-curator of www.100days.eu ; and Professor Annie Jourdan from the University of Amsterdam, Holland.Photo: Jacques-Louis David painting 'The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries', 1812 (VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

The trade in spices goes back to ancient times: from the Frankincense trails that originated in the Dhofar Highlands in present day Yemen to the Queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem with camels laden with spices. For centuries, spices have captured our imagination far more than any other commodities, and spice traders, from the Arab merchants to the European trading companies of the Age of Discovery, capitalised on the mystique of these luxurious aromatics to create a value chain that led to vast fortunes being made and Empires established. And this worldwide craze for spices played a great part in the rise of globalised trade and the birth of the Stock exchange and the capitalist system.Joining Rajan Datar to discuss the Spice Trade is Professor Gary Paul Nabhan whose ancestors were Arab spice merchants and who’s the author of "Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey", Dr Chris Nierstrasz, Lecturer in Global History at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and specialist on the United Dutch East India Company, and the TV Chef and Indian cookery writer Anjum Anand.

Tove Jansson was a Finnish-Swedish author and illustrator best known for her children's books about the Moomins. These white, hippo-like characters live in the imaginary world of Moominvalley where they subtly challenge social norms and utter philosophical statements such as "I knew nothing, but I believed a lot." While the Moomins brought Jansson worldwide fame in the 20th century, she was also a painter, an accomplished novelist and a political cartoonist who took risks poking fun at Hitler. Her work often mirrored her private life in which she defied stereotypes of the time by working and earning money for her family, travelling alone, and having relationships with both men and women.Joining Rajan Datar to discuss the life and works of Tove Jansson are her niece, Sophia Jansson; Boel Westin - a professor of children's literature from Stockholm University and the author of the authorised biography of Tove's life called Life, Art, Words; and British children's author Philip Ardagh, author of The World of Moominvalley. Plus Mayumi Tomihara - an expert on Tove Jansson from Tokyo's Sacred Heart University who has translated many of Tove's adult novels into Japanese.First broadcast on the BBC World Service in March 2019.Photo: Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson in a self-portrait with her Moomin characters (© Moomin Characters™)

Millions of us around the world have undergone an anaesthetic, putting our trust in specialists who keep us alive while surgeons carry out complex operations. Huge advances have been made in this field in the last 150 years, thanks to the work of pioneering doctors, dentists and scientists who often risked their own lives to advance the possibilities of surgery and make anaesthetics safe. And yet in this twilight world of artificial sleep, there are many things experts still don’t understand about what is really happening in the brain and how our consciousness is affected. And what of the reports of patients waking during surgery? How credible are these stories and what can they tell us about memory, consciousness and human experience?Photo: A patient going under general anaesthesia. (BSIP/UIG via Getty Images)

Today, the Istanbul-born Armenian financier Calouste Gulbenkian is mostly remembered as a great art collector and philanthropist; at his death in 1955 he was thought of as the world's richest man. But perhaps more than any of the above, he may have been the world's most tenacious negotiator: how else would he have held on - for decades - to the main source of his fabulous wealth, his minority share in major oil companies, despite their concerted effort to push him out? In the 150th year of Gulbenkian's birth, Rajan Datar follows Calouste's life and deal-making with his great grandson Martin Essayan; historian Dr. Jonathan Conlin, author of a new biography of Gulbenkian; and Professor of Business History Joost Jonker.Photo: Calouste Gulbenkian (credit: Arquivos Gulbenkian)

The story of Robinson Crusoe and his many years of survival alone on a deserted island has enchanted the English-speaking world for centuries. Many people first come across the story as a children’s book or a film portrayal, celebrating Crusoe’s buccaneering adventures and his heroic efforts to tame his wild environment, create shelter and food supplies, and eventually befriend the indigenous man he calls Friday. But closer reading of Daniel Defoe’s original novel, written 300 years ago this spring, reveals a more complex tale of sin and redemption, debating fundamental questions about man’s place in the world against a backdrop of colonial expansion, transatlantic commerce and the slave trade.Bridget Kendall talks to the Defoe scholar Professor Andreas Mueller from the University of Northern Colorado in the USA; Olivette Otele, Professor of History at Bath Spa University in the UK; and Karen O’Brien, Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford in the UK.Photo: Engraving of Robinson Crusoe by Wal Paquet. (Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lu Xun has been often been called the father of modern Chinese literature. His short stories about the misery and cruelty of ordinary life in China have been interpreted both as revolutionary political statements inspired by the May Fourth Movement of 1919 which wanted to sweep-away outdated social mores, and as a brilliant new take on ancient Chinese literary traditions. Some of his works, both fiction and non-fiction, have been required reading for Chinese schoolchildren since the communists took charge of education in the country. But - like his life - Lu Xun's work doesn't easily fit under any simple banner and reflects the turbulent, confusing and contradictory history of China in the first three decades of the 20th century.Quentin Cooper talks to Professor Eileen Cheng, the author of acclaimed new translations of Lu Xun into English, Ohio State University Professor Kirk Denton, one of today's leading Lu Xun scholars, Professor Hu Ying from University of California who studies the culture of early 20th century China, and writer Yiyun Li. The reader is Paul Courtenay Hyu.Photo:The Chinese writer Lu Xun around 1910 (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

The Talking Drum is one of the most sacred instruments of West Africa. Shaped like an hourglass, the drum has a unique melodic sound which means it can imitate the tones of language and in this way speak words. Along with its spiritual power and healing properties, the talking drum is also a source of history, poetry and proverbs.Bridget Kendall traces the story of the talking drum to the present day with Mohamed Gueye from Senegal, who descends from a hereditary drummer family, Richard Olatunde Baker who specialises in the talking drum of the Yoruba of Nigeria, the Ivorian-French poet and novelist Veronique Tadjo who focuses on the influence of the talking drum on African literature and the Senegalese-French social anthropologist Dr Hélène Neveu Kringelbach. Photo: (from left to right) Veronique Tadjo, Mohamed Gueye, presenter Bridget Kendall, Richard Olatunde Baker and Hélène Neveu Kringelbach in The Forum studio.

The North Pole lies at the very top of our world. Covered in a thick layer of sea ice, this uninhabitable frozen point in the Arctic Sea has fascinated us for centuries as both a physical location on a map and as a far away place in our imagination. Warmer than the South Pole, the northernmost point of the Earth’s axis sits outside of any time zone in a place where the sun rises and sets just once a year. Today, it has come to symbolise a warming planet but remains linked to exploration and mythology.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the North Pole are the explorer, author and former climate scientist Felicity Aston MBE; Klaus Dodds, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of the forthcoming book The Arctic: What Everyone Needs to Know; and Michael Bravo, Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, Head of Circumpolar History and Public Policy Research at the Scott Polar Research Institute and author of a new book called North Pole.Photo: Robert Peary's North Pole Expedition. (Getty Images)