The Forum Episodes Available now

Ibn Khaldun: 14th Century sage
The life and work of a pioneering social scientist and historiographer

Cyrano de Bergerac: Big-nosed hero
The swashbuckling poet of a late 19th-century French play and his real-life inspiration

The Scythians: Masters of the steppe
The nomadic warriors who ruled vast swathes of Asia and Europe and who knew how to party

The Russian civil war: How the Soviets rose to power
How the events of the Russian civil war led to Lenin’s communist dictatorship

Fridtjof Nansen: Norway's great explorer
The polar adventures of a remarkable man whose humanitarian work saved thousands of lives

Rudolf Nureyev: Superstar Russian dancer
Exploring the life of a man who pushed the boundaries of ballet.

John Harvey Kellogg: The ‘wellness’ pioneer
How the co-inventor of cornflakes inspired a healthy living revolution

Indigo: the bluest blue
Blue Gold or Devil's Dye? The complex history of the precious blue dye

The Cat: In from the wild
Domesticated cats have been worshipped, vilified and revered throughout history

Manuela Sáenz: South America’s revolutionary heroine
The Ecuadorian woman who fought for South American independence in the 19th Century