Outside/In: War of the Worlds

People used to say "believe your eyes." But these days that's not so easy to do. What we scroll through every day blurs the line between entertainment and fact. And nowhere is that phenomenon more evident than in reality television. Today on the show, we tackle the genre that tak ...  Show more

Jack Johnson was the first world Black heavyweight champion, but winning the title was only part of the battle. Every time Johnson stepped into a boxing ring, he struck a blow to white supremacy. In this week’s episode, the story of Jack Johnson and the legacy of Black athletes p ...  Show more

Sometimes a shallow explanation, the kind you read in newspapers and hear on television, is enough. “The home team was beaten at the buzzer” is probably all you need to know. Sometimes, however, it’s not. The intermittent conflict between the Shias and Sunnis in Iraq (and elsewhe ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests Amira Bennison, Robert Gleave and Hugh Kennedy discuss the split between the Sunni and the Shia. This schism came to dominate early Islam, and yet it did not spring at first from a deep theological disagreement, but rather from a dispute about who should s ...  Show more

This episode traces the early developments of Shi’ism. In it we discuss the original schism of authority, how the Shiatul Ali form and the compromise that is reached by the community. We talk about how the divisions between the different tribes reflect the alignments of Pre-Islam ...  Show more

This episode covers the schism betweeen Sunnism and Shi’ism, detailing how historical circumstances and experiences are overlaid with theological significance. Focusing on the experience of the Muslim community during the early fitnas we discuss how political movements about legi ...  Show more