Knights, dragons and beasts: the strange worl...

He sailed to Antarctica with Captain Cook, rubbed shoulders with Benjamin Franklin and helped found a revolutionary republic. It’s little wonder, then, that Andrea Wulf describes George Forster – the 18th-century traveller, botanist and champion of human rights – as “one of the m ...  Show more

We might picture Charlotte Brontë's life as an isolated one, separated from much of the world and its fashions as she whiled away the hours in her father's Haworth parsonage. But the truth, as Eleanor Houghton tells Lauren Good, is very different. By exploring the clothes Charlot ...  Show more

How would a medieval woman achieve a Brazilian bikini line? Why can’t you trust a nun in the night time? And what were women doing at Medieval universities? 

Kate is joined for the THIRD time by Eleanor Janega to talk about how women were expected to be in the m ...

Aethelfled, a warrior queen who crushed the Vikings, Jadwiga, the first Queen Regent of Poland and Hildegard of Bingen, an 11th-century polymath abbess who became a 20th-century feminist icon and saint. Art and cultural historian Dr Janina Ramirez joins Dan on today's episode ...

Embark on a thrilling adventure with our young listeners as we delve into the captivating world of medieval Europe. Discover the journey of a knight's life – from their rigorous training to the code of chivalry they upheld. Learn about the armor that clanked as they rode into bat ...  Show more

Were the Middle Ages funny? Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley begin their series in quest of the medieval sense of humour with Chaucer’s 'Miller’s Tale', a story that is surely still (almost) as funny as when it was written six hundred years ago. But who is the real butt of the ...  Show more