In Our Time Podcast
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
A world-class seminar, every week.
In Our Time explores the ideas, people and discoveries that have shaped our world, spanning history, philosophy, religion, science, literature, art and culture.
On Thursdays, hear brand-new episodes hosted by Misha Glenny and leading academics. On Mondays, discover Misha's Archive Picks: classic conversations from the In Our Time archive, originally presented by Melvyn Bragg.
Recent episodes have featured topics as wide-ranging as the Roman Arena, Handel's Messiah, John Keats, On Liberty and the Mariana Trench, bringing expert insight to pivotal events, influential thinkers and remarkable discoveries.
Throughout the archive, you can hear discussions on historical figures such as Marie Antoinette, Nefertiti, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein; explore great works of literature such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the poetry of John Donne; uncover the stories behind cultural masterpieces including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel; or journey from Jupiter and the death of stars, to the theories of Plato and Aristotle.
In Our Time celebrates the pursuit of knowledge and the enduring power of ideas.
Episodes to download
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On Liberty
Thu 15 Jan 2026
John Stuart Mill's argument for the limits of power that society has over the individual.
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Welcoming Misha Glenny
Thu 8 Jan 2026
Misha Glenny introduces himself as he prepares for his first episode of In Our Time.
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Melvyn Bragg meets Misha Glenny
Christmas Eve 2025
As Melvyn Bragg hands In Our Time on to Misha Glenny, they discuss its past and future.
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Civility
Thu 3 Jul 2025
On the value of keeping conversations going with opponents, from the Reformation onwards.
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Barbour's 'Brus'
Thu 19 Jun 2025
How the earliest poem in Older Scots framed the legend of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.
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The Evolution of Lungs
Thu 12 Jun 2025
From the mechanics of the first breaths on Earth to the reason we hiccup.
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Paul von Hindenburg
Thu 22 May 2025
How the cult of personality around this German WWI figurehead helped usher in Hitler.
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Lise Meitner
Thu 8 May 2025
The Austrian-Jewish physicist who, in 1938, solved the question of nuclear fission.
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The Korean Empire
Thu 1 May 2025
How Korea embraced modernisation at the end of the 19th Century in a bid for independence.
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Molière
Thu 24 Apr 2025
The great French playwright and comic actor who flourished at the court of Louis XIV.
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The Battle of Clontarf
Thu 10 Apr 2025
Brian Boru's celebrated defeat of Hiberno-Norse forces and allies outside Dublin in 1014.
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The Gracchi
Thu 3 Apr 2025
Why two brothers became linked to the fall of the Roman Republic and rise of the emperors.
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Thu 27 Mar 2025
Insights into the relationship between the body and the mind, habits, language and thought
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Thomas Middleton
Thu 20 Mar 2025
The prolific and versatile Jacobean playwright tasked with 'improving' some of Shakespeare
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Pollination
Thu 6 Mar 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the interplay between plants and pollinators.
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Kali
Thu 27 Feb 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this Hindu goddess in her many remarkable forms
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Oliver Goldsmith
Thu 20 Feb 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss this influential and prolific 18th-century Irish writer.
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Catherine of Aragon
Thu 13 Feb 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman so important that two Tudor royals married her.
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Sir John Soane
Thu 6 Feb 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential English architect John Soane.
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Socrates in Prison
Thu 23 Jan 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the inspiring last days of the great Athenian philosopher.
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The Battle of Valmy
Thu 16 Jan 2025
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the day in 1792 when the French Revolution risked defeat.
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Vase-mania
Boxing Day 2024
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eighteenth century mania for classical vases.

