A History of Ideas

Last Edited: 07-Sep-2019 A Global British Comedy Collaborative document. Edited by John Lucas
Broadcast source is BBC Radio Four unless otherwise indicated. Recording quality is considered good unless otherwise indicated.
Date Title Cast Parameters
10-Nov-2014 to
28-Nov-2014

















12-Jan-2015 to
30-Jan-2015
















30-Mar-2015 to
17-Apr-2015

















20-Jul-2015 to
07-Aug-2015
  1. What Does It Mean to Be Free?
  2. Positive and Negative Freedom
  3. Individual Freedom and the State
  4. Religious Freedom
  5. Free Will and the Brain
  6. Why Are Things Beautiful?
  7. the Philosophy of Good Taste
  8. the Mathematics of Beauty
  9. Beauty and Evolution
  10. Beauty and Morality
  11. How Can I Tell Right from Wrong?
  12. Moral Character
  13. Morality and the Brain
  14. Morality and the Law
  15. the Value of Conscience
  16. How Did Everything Begin?
  17. Creation Myths
  18. the Big Bang
  19. Thomas Aquinas
  20. William Whiston's Comet Theory
  21. What Makes Us Human?
  22. Humans, Apes and Carl Linnaeus
  23. Seneca and Facing Death
  24. Noam Chomsky and Human Language
  25. Wittgenstein and Blade Runner
  26. How Has Technology Changed Us?
  27. Has technology rewired our brains?
  28. Francis Bacon
  29. Medical technology
  30. tools and human evolution
  31. How Do I Live a Good Life?
  32. Aristotle and Flourishing
  33. Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic
  34. the Buddha's Four Noble Truths
  35. Ayn Rand and Selfishness
  36. What Is Justice?
  37. Deterrence
  38. the Veil of Ignorance
  39. Thomas Hobbes and Civil Disobedience
  40. Habeas Corpus
  41. What Does It Mean to Be Me
  42. John Locke and Personal Identity
  43. Sartre and the Individual
  44. Jung and the Mind
  45. Descartes and Consciousness
  46. How Should We Live Together?
  47. Toleration
  48. the Free Market
  49. Plato's Philosopher Kings
  50. Ancestor Worship
  51. What Is Love?
  52. Aristophanes in Plato
  53. Altruism
  54. Freud
  55. the Love of Children
  56. How Can I Know Anything at All?
  57. Eyewitness Testimony
  58. Falsification
  59. Reality and Perception
  60. Wittgenstein
 1-5: Melvyn Bragg, Angie Hobbs, Harry
Potter, Giles Fraser, Paul Broks




6-10: Melvyn Bragg, Vicky Neale, Simon
Schaffer, Barry Smith, Angie Hobbs




11-15: Melvyn Bragg, Angie Hobbs, Harry
Potter, Giles Fraser, Paul Broks





16-20: Melvyn Bragg, Carole Mundell, Justin
Champion, Giles Fraser, Jessica Frazier




21-25: Melvyn Bragg, Barry Smith, Catherine
Edwards, Simon Schaffer, Giles Fraser




26-30: Melvyn Bragg, Matt Pope, Gabriel
Weston, Tom Chatfield, Justin Champion





31-35: Melvyn Bragg, Justin Champion, Paul
Broks, Naomi Appleton, Jules Evans



36-40: Melvyn Bragg, Harry Potter, David
Wilson, Angie Hobbs, Alice Taylor





41:45: Melvyn Bragg, Barry Smith, Paul Broks,
A L Kennedy, Jules Evans




46-50: Melvyn Bragg, Kate Barker, Justin
Champion, Timothy Secret, Angie Hobbs





51-55: Melvyn Bragg, Giles Fraser, Lisa
Appignanesi, Edith Hall, Mark Vernon




56-60: Melvyn Bragg, Tara Shears, Harry
Potter, Clare Carlisle Paul Broks

produced by Jolyon Jenkins, Melvin Rickarby,
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