The Forum Podcast
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.
Episodes to download
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The woman whose cells changed medical history
Thu 12 Nov 2020
The story of Henrietta Lacks who unwittingly left behind an extraordinary medical legacy
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Comenius, a pioneer of lifelong learning
Thu 5 Nov 2020
The life and work of the father of modern education
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Dido of Carthage: A love story gone wrong
Thu 29 Oct 2020
What makes the legend of Dido so appealing to the arts and beyond?
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Paul Robeson: Singer, actor and civil rights activist
Thu 22 Oct 2020
Exploring the life of a man who campaigned for disenfranchised people around the world
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Writer Jorge Luis Borges: Mixing the magical with the mundane
Thu 8 Oct 2020
Teasing and thought provoking: the works of the Argentinian master of pithy stories
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Elizabeth Fry: 'The angel of prisons'
Thu 1 Oct 2020
How a nineteenth century Quaker philanthropist shook up the prison system
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The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
Thu 24 Sep 2020
Investigating how a thriving African American community was razed to the ground
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Who were the Huguenots?
Thu 10 Sep 2020
The myths and mysteries surrounding French protestant refugees
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Smallpox: The defeat of the speckled monster
Thu 3 Sep 2020
Exploring the 200 year campaign to wipe out a killer disease
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Lal Ded, mystical Kashmiri poet
Thu 27 Aug 2020
A free-spirited woman whose pithy words challenged social norms
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Ray Bradbury, a master of science fiction
Thu 13 Aug 2020
Celebrating the author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
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The Fall of the Roman Empire
Thu 6 Aug 2020
Why did the once mighty Rome crumble and fall to invaders in 476AD?
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Tolstoy: War and Peace
Thu 23 Jul 2020
An epic sweep of war and love and family life set in 19th century Russia
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Chaucer, father of English poetry
Thu 16 Jul 2020
The man who in the 14th Century made English a language fit for literature
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Valkyries: Fierce women of war
Thu 2 Jul 2020
Choosing dead heroes from the battlefield, to fight with Odin in the apocalyptic Ragnarok
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Silk routes: 2000 years of trading
Thu 25 Jun 2020
Luxuries and everyday goods that travelled West and East
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Bertha von Suttner: A champion of peace
Thu 18 Jun 2020
The writer who became the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize
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Babylon, city of wonders
Thu 4 Jun 2020
From The Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens to why there are 60 minutes in an hour
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Aesop and the Fables
Thu 28 May 2020
A black slave wrote 700 animal tales in Ancient Greece. Why are they still best sellers?
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The California Gold Rush
Thu 14 May 2020
Who made a fortune and who was crushed in the rush for gold in California in 1849?
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Hazel Scott: Jazz star and barrier breaker
Thu 7 May 2020
An exceptionally talented musician who always stood her ground
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The 1918 Spanish Flu: The mother of all pandemics
Thu 30 Apr 2020
The last global pandemic and what it can tell us about tackling Covid-19 .
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Gerard Mercator: The man who revolutionised mapmaking
Thu 23 Apr 2020
The mapmaker who defined the modern world
What鈥檚 your favourite movie theatre?
We鈥檇 love to know what a particular cinema building means for you and why.
