In Our Time: Classics podcasts

Latest update: 3 April 2024

I thought I would make a list of Radio 4 In Our Time podcasts which are relevant to Classics, as a handy shortcut. Here it is. Much recommended – real experts and real discussions. Particularly good as an introduction for school students or others looking for a taste of Classics! Please let me know if I have missed any out, or if any of the links don’t work. [edit] I have also added some further BBC programmes where they are available on each topic, including the *brilliant* Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics.

Greek Literature

• The Trojan War – with Edith Hall, Ellen Adams and Susan Sherratt (31 May 2012)
  • • Also: Heritage – Troy (BBC World Service programme)
    • Also: Woman’s Hour – Helen of Troy (35:22 – end) with Bettany Hughes and Edith Hall
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Helen of Troy (2020)
• The Iliad – with Edith Hall, Barbara Graziosi and Paul Cartledge )13 September 2018)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – The Iliad (2020)
• The Odyssey – with Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin (9 September 2004)
  • • Also: The Road Home – Remaking Homer’s Odyssey (with Tom Holland)
    • Also: Borders, An Odyssey – three episodes exploring the Odyssey and its themes, with Edith Hall, Helen Sharman and others
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Penelope (2020)
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Odyssey (2022)
• The Epic – with John Carey, Karen Edwards and Oliver Taplin (6 February 2003)
  • • Also: Start the Week – Kate Tempest: Everyday Epic
• The Greek Myths – with Nick Lowe, Richard Buxton and Mary Beard (13 March 2008)
  • • Also: Greek Myths in Scots – Scottish Schools 2nd Level
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics – Medusa, Pandora, Jocasta (2020)
• The Muses – with Paul Cartledge, Angie Hobbs and Penelope Murray (19 May 2016)
• Sappho – with Edith Hall, Margaret Reynolds and Dirk Obbink (9 April 2015)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Series 3: Sappho
    • Also: Great Lives – Series 22: Sappho (Bettany Hughes)
• Aesop – with Pavlos Avlamis, Simon Goldhill and Lucy Grig (20 November 2014)
  • • Also: Aesop’s Fables – a collection for School Radio read by Richard Briers, Jane Horrocks et al
• Greek and Roman Love Poetry – with Nick Lowe, Edith Hall and Maria Wyke (26 April 2007)
• Aristotle’s Poetics – with Angie Hobbs, Nick Lowe and Stephen Halliwell (27 January 2011)
• Tragedy – with George Steiner and Catherine Belsey (2 December 1999)
  • • Also: Start the Week – Simon Armitage on Greek Tragedy
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Sophocles (2014)
• The Oresteia – with Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill and Tom Healy (29 December 2005)
  • • Also: Free Thinking – Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Edith Hall on the Orestaia
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Clytemnestra (2020)
• Antigone – with Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin, and Lyndsay Coo (24 March 2022)
• Oedipus Rex – with Nick Lowe, Fiona Macintosh, and Edith Hall (8 June 2023)
• The Bacchae – with Edith Hall, Emily Wilson and Rosie Wyles (18 March 2021)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Euripides (2019)

Thebes – with Edith Hall, Samuel Gartland and Paul Cartledge (23 November 2017)

• Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre – with Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Nick Lowe (13 July 2006)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Aristophanes (2016)

Greek Philosophy

• Pythagoras – with Serafina Cuomo, John O’Connor and Ian Stewart (10 December 2009)
• Heraclitus – with Angie Hobbs, Peter Adamson and James Warren (8 December 2011)
• Zeno’s Paradoxes – with Marcus du Sautoy, Barbara Sattler and James Warren (22 September 2016)
• Socrates – with Angie Hobbs, David Sedley and Paul Millett (27 September 2007)
  • • Also: Four Thought – Jules Evans on Socrates and Psychotherapy
• Plato’s Republic – with Angie Hobbs, MM McCabe and James Warren (29 June 2017)
  • • Also: The Cave – Plato’s Cave, a philosophical reflection with Alan Read
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Plato (2016)
• Plato’s Symposium – with Angie Hobbs, Richard Hunter and Frisbee Sheffield (3 January 2014)
  • • Also: A History of Ideas – Edith Hall on Aristophanes in Plato
    • Also: Free Thinking – Plato’s Symposium: Part of Gay Britannia
• Plato’s Gorgias – with Angie Hobbs, Frisbee Sheffield, and Fiona Leigh (25 November 2021)
• Plato’s Atlantis – with Edith Hall, Christopher Gill, and Angie Hobbs (22 September 2022)
• Mathematics and Platonism – with Ian Stewart, Margaret Wertheim and John D. Barrow (11 January 2001)
• Neoplatonism – with Angie Hobbs, Peter Adamson and Anne Sheppard (19 April 2012)
• Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics – with Angie Hobbs, Roger Crisp, and Sophia Connell (2 November 2023)
• The Examined Life – with A. C. Grayling, Janet Radcliffe Richards and Julian Baggini (9 May 2002)
• The School of Athens – with Angie Hobbs, Valery Rees and Jill Kraye (26 March 2009)
  • • Also: Words of Faith – Raphael’s School of Athens
• Cynicism – with Angie Hobbs, Miriam Griffin and John Moles (20 October 2005)
  • • Also: Night Waves – including a debate about cynicism (31:42 – end)
• Epicureanism – with Angie Hobbs, David Sedley and James Warren (7 February 2013)
• Archimedes – with Jackie Stedall, Serafina Cuomo and George Phillips (25 January 2007)
  • • Also: Ancient Water – the Roman Aqueduct and Archimedes’ Screw
    • Also: Experiments that Changed the World – Archimedes’ Bathtub
    • Also: Laws of Nature – Archimedes’ Principle
• The Consolations of Philosophy – with AC Grayling, Melissa Lane and Roger Scruton (1 January 2009)

Greek History

• The Minoan Civilisation – with John Bennet, Ellen Adams and Yannis Hamilakis (7 July 2011)
  • • Also: A History of the World in 100 Objects – Minoan Bull Leaper
• The Bronze Age Collapse – with John Bennet, Linda Hulin and Simon Stoddart (16 June 2016)
• The Hittites – with Claudia Glatz, Ilgi Gercek, and Christoph Bachhuber (23 December 2021)
• Herodotus – with Paul Cartledge, Esther Eidinow, and Tom Harrison (23 September 2021)
• History of History – with Paul Cartledge, John Burrow and Miri Rubin (22 January 2009)
  • • Also: Night Waves – Herodotus, with Tom Holland (14:21 – 22:55)
• Democracy – with Melissa Lane, David Wootton and Tim Winter (18 October 2001)
  • • Also: Democracy on Trial, with Michael Portillo
    • Also: What is Democracy? – History of Democracy, from BBC World Service
• The Delphic Oracle – with Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Nick Lowe (30 September 2010)
• Solon the Lawgiver – with Melissa Lane, Hans van Wees, and William Allan (23 March 2023)
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• Thermopylae – with Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall and Tom Holland (5 February 2004)
• The Battle of Salamis – with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Lindsay Allen and Paul Cartledge (23 March 2017)
  • • Also: You’re Dead to Me – The Battle of Salamis (full version) (Radio Edit) (31 July 2020)
• Persepolis – with Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Lindsay Allen (7 June 2018)
  • • Also: Masterpiece – Persepolis Regained, from BBC World Service
• Pericles – with Edith Hall, Peter Cartledge and Peter Liddel (17 September 2020)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Aspasia (2014)
• The Mytilenaean Debate – with Angie Hobbs, Lisa Irene Hau and Paul Cartledge (20 June 2019)
• Thucydides – with Paul Cartledge, Katherine Harloe and Neville Morley (29 January 2015)
• Sparta – with Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Angie Hobbs (19 November 2009)
  • • Also: You’re Dead To Me – The Spartans (13 September 2019)
    • Also: The Forum – The Spartans: Ancient Greece’s fighting machine (25 July 2019)
• Thebes – with Edith Hall, Samuel Gartland and Paul Cartledge (23 November 2017)
• Xenophon – with Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Simon Goldhill (26 May 2011)
• Aristotle’s Politics – with Angie Hobbs, Paul Cartledge and Annabel Brett (6 November 2008)
  • • Also: A History of Ideas – Jules Evans on Aristotle and Flourishing
• Demosthenes’ Philippics – with Paul Cartledge, Kathryn Tempest, and Jon Hesk (17 November 2022)
• Alexander the Great – with Paul Cartledge, Diana Spencer and Rachel Mairs (1 October 2015)
  • • Also: Heroes or Villains – Alexander the Great – with Michael Wood and Hugh Bowden
    • Also: Great Lives – Alexander the Great, with Frederic Raphael
• Strabo’s Geographica – with Paul Cartledge, Maria Pretzler and Benet Salway (10 April 2014)

Roman Literature

• Catullus – with Gail Trimble, Simon Smith and Maria Wyke (11 January 2020)
• Roman Satire – with Mary Beard, Denis Feeney and Duncan Kennedy (22 April 2010)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Juvenal (2018)
• Greek and Roman Love Poetry – with Nick Lowe, Edith Hall and Maria Wyke (26 April 2007)
• Horace – with Emily Gowers, William Fitzgerald and Ellen O’Gorman (15 November 2018)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Horace (6 August 2018)
• The Aeneid – with Edith Hall, Philip Hardie and Catharine Edwards (21 April 2005)
  • • Also: Front Row – Seamus Heaney’s The Aeneid (0:45 – 9:52)
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Virgil (2014)
• Ovid – with Maria Wyke, Gail Trimble and Dunstan Lowe (29 April 2021)
  • • Also: Archive on 4 – Ovid in Changing Times, with Tom Holland
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Ovid (2016)
• Metamorphosis – with A S Byatt and Catherine Bates (2 March 2000)

Roman Philosophy

• Stoicism – with Angie Hobbs, Jonathan Rée and David Sedley (3 March 2005)
  • Also: Night Waves – Stoicism Week, with Jules Evans, Edith Hall and Mark Vernon (25:43 – 41:17)
• Humanism – with Tony Davies, Lisa Jardine and Simon Goldhill (8 February 2001)
• Cicero – with Melissa Lane, Catherine Steel and Valentina Arena (25 January 2018)
  • • Also: A History of Political Thought – Cicero and Augustine
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Cicero (2018)
• Seneca the Younger – with Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards and Alessandro Schiesaro (23 February 2017)
  • • Also: A History of Ideas – Catharine Edwards on Seneca and Facing Death
• Marcus Aurelius – with Catharine Edwards, Simon Goldhill and Angie Hobbs (25 February 2021)

Roman History

• Romulus and Remus – with Mary Beard, Peter Wiseman and Tim Cornell (24 January 2013)
• Carthage’s Destruction – with Mary Beard, Jo Quinn and Ellen O’Gorman (12 February 2009)
  • • Also: The Forum – Dido of Carthage: A love story gone wrong (29 October 2020)
• Hannibal – with Ellen O’Gorman, Mark Woolmer and Louis Rawlings (11 October 2012)
• The Roman Republic – with Greg Woolf, Catherine Steel and Tom Holland (30 December 2004)
• Spartacus – with Mary Beard, Maria Wyke and Theresa Urbainczyk (6 March 2014)
• Roman Slavery – with Neville Morley, Ulrike Roth and Myles Lavan (5 April 2018)
• Julius Caesar – with Christopher Pelling, Catherine Steel and Maria Wyke (2 October 2014)
  • • Also: The Forum – The rise and fall of Julius Caesar (23 September 2017)
• The Druids – with Barry Cunliffe, Miranda Aldhouse-Green and Justin Champion (20 September 2012)
• The Etruscan Civilisation – with Phil Perkins, David Ridgway and Corinna Riva (29 September 2011)
• Vitruvius and De Architectura – with Serafina Cuomo, Robert Tavernor and Alice Koenig (15 March 2012)
• The Augustan Age – with Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards and Duncan Kennedy (11 June 2009)
• Cleopatra – with Catharine Edwards, Maria Wyke and Susan Walker (2 December 2010)
  • • Also: The Forum – Who was the real Cleopatra? (20 October 2018)
• Battle of the Teutoburg Forest – with Peter Heather, Ellen O’Gorman and Matthew Nicholls (13 February 2020)
• Tiberius – with Matthew Nicholls, Shushma Malik, and Catherine Steel (14 December 2023)
• Boudica – with Juliette Wood, Richard Hingley and Miranda Aldhouse-Green (11 March 2010)
  • • Also: You’re Dead to Me – Boudica (13 September 2019)
• Agrippina the Younger – with Catharine Edwards, Alice König and Matthew Nicholls (31 March 2016)
  • • Also: You’re Dead to Me – Agrippina the Younger (15 January 2021)
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Agrippina (2 May 2016)
• Nero – with Maria Wyke, Matthew Nicholls and Shushma Malik (25 April 2019)
  • • Also: Great Lives – Nero, with Christopher Biggins
• Pliny’s Natural History – with Serafina Cuomo, Aude Doody and Liba Taub (8 July 2010)
• Pliny the Younger – with Catharine Edwards, Roy Gibson and Alice Koenig (12 December 2013)
  • • Also: How to Survive the Roman Empire, by Pliny and Me (20 January 2018)
• Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome – with Catharine Edwards, Ellen O’Gorman and Maria Wyke (10 July 2008)
• Rome and European Civilisation – with Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards and Greg Woolf (20 December 2001)
• Roman Britain – with Greg Woolf, Mary Beard and Catharine Edwards (1 May 2003)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Roman British women: Claudia Severa (2020)
• Hadrian’s Wall – with Greg Woolf, David Breeze and Lindsay Allason-Jones (12 July 2012)
  • • Also: Making History – Hadrian’s Wall, with Tom Holland (18 July 2017)
• The Picts – with Katherine Forsyth, Alex Woolf and Gordon Noble (9 November 2017)
• The Celts – with Barry Cunliffe, Alistair Moffat and Miranda Aldhouse Green (21 February 2002)
• Cultural Imperialism – with Linda Colley, Phillip Dodd and Mary Beard (27 June 2002)
• Queen Zenobia – with Edith Hall, Kate Cooper and Richard Stoneman (30 May 2013)
• Constantine the Great – with Christopher Kelly, Lucy Grig and Greg Woolf (5 October 2017)
  • • Also: The Calendar – Constantine (28 November 1999)
• Julian the Apostate – with James Corke-Webster, Lea Niccolai, and Shaun Tougher (21 March 2024)
• The Roman Empire’s Collapse in the 5th century – with Charlotte Roueché, David Womersley and Richard Alston (5 April 2001)

General Classical Interest

• Byzantium – with Charlotte Roueché, John Julius Norwich and Liz James (19 July 2001)
• The Alphabet – with Eleanor Robinson, Alan Millard and Rosalind Thomas (18 December 2003)
• Heroism – with Angie Hobbs, Paul Cartledge and Anthony Grayling (6 May 2004)
  • • Also: The War That Changed the World – How World War One Killed the Ancient Idea of Heroism
    • Also: Free Thinking – Heroism v Failure
• Babylon – with Eleanor Robson, Irving Finkel and Andrew George (3 June 2004)
• Rhetoric – with Angie Hobbs, Thomas Healy and Ceri Sullivan (28 October 2004)
• Archaeology and Imperialism – with Tim Champion, Richard Parkinson and Eleanor Robinson (14 April 2005)
• The Oath – with Alan Sommerstein, Paul Cartledge and Mary Beard (5 January 2006)
• The Four Humours – with David Wootton, Vivian Nutton and Noga Arikha (20 December 2007)
• The Library at Nineveh – with Eleanor Robson, Karen Radner and Andrew R. George (15 May 2008)
  • • Also: Museum of Lost Objects – Winged Bull of Nineveh (29 February 2016)
• The Library of Alexandria – with Simon Goldhill, Matthew Nicholls and Serafina Cuomo (12 March 2009)
  • • Also: Heritage – Alexandria
    • Also: Arts in Action – Alexandria’s New Library, 2,000 years on
    • Also: Meridian – Memory Palace of Alexandra
    • Also: Meridian – Alexandria, the city as Literary Muse
• St Paul – with Helen Bond, John Haldane and John Barclay (28 May 2009)
  • • Also: Something to Think About – the life of St Paul
    • Also: Words of Faith – Letter from St Paul to the People of Ephesus
• Akhenaten – with Richard Parkinson, Elizabeth Frood and Kate Spence (1 October 2009)
• The Silk Road – with Frances Wood, Tim Barrett and Naomi Standen (3 December 2009)
• The City – a History, part 1 – with Peter Hall, Julia Merritt and Greg Woolf (25 March 2010)
• The City – a History, part 2 – with Peter Hall, Tristram Hunt and Ricky Burdett (1 April 2010)
• The History of Metaphor – with Steven Connor, Tom Healy and Julie Sanders (25 November 2010)
• The Hippocratic Oath – with Vivian Nutton, Helen King and Peter Porrman (15 September 2011)
  • • Also: The Oath – should scientists sign up to an ethical code of behaviour?
• Ptolemy and Ancient Astronomy – with Liba Taub, Jim Bennett and Charles Burnett (17 November 2011)
• The Cult of Mithras – with Greg Woolf, Almut Hintze and John North (27 December 2012)
• The Amazons – with Paul Cartledge, Chiara Franceschini and Caroline Vout (11 April 2013)
  • • Also: Start the Week – The Amazons, with Adrienne Mayor
    • Also: Everywoman – The Real Amazons
    • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Penthesilea, Amazon Warrior Queen (2020)
• Galen – with Vivian Nutton, Helen King and Caroline Petit (10 October 2013)
• The Phoenicians – with Mark Woolmer, Josephine Quinn and Cyprian Broodbank (6 February 2014)
• The Eunuch – with Karen Radner, Shaun Tougher and Michael Hoeckelmann (26 February 2015)
• Josephus – with Tessa Rajak, Philip Alexander and Martin Goodman (21 May 2015)
• Euclid’s Elements – with Marcus du Sautoy, Serafina Cuomo and June Barrow-Green (28 April 2016)
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – with Andrew George, Frances Reynolds and Martin Worthington (3 November 2016)
• Justinian’s Legal Code – with Caroline Humfress, Simon Corcoran and Paul du Plessis (17 November 2016)
• The Egyptian Book of the Dead – with John Taylor, Kate Spence and Richard Parkinson (27 April 2017)
• Is Shakespeare History? The Romans – with Jonathan Bate, Catherine Steel and Patrick Gray (18 October 2018)
• Aristotle’s Biology – with Armand Leroi, Myrto Hatzimichali and Sophia Connell (7 February 2019)
  • • Also: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics – Aristotle (2020)
• The Rosetta Stone – with Penelope Wilson, Campbell Price and Richard Bruce Parkinson (11 February 2021)
• The Plague of Justinian – with John Haldon, Rebecca Fleming and Greg Woolf (21 January 2021)
• Edward Gibbon – with David Womersley, Charlotte Roberts and Karen O’Brien (17 June 2021)
• Nefertiti – with Aidan Dodson, Joyce Tyldesley, and Kate Spence (18 January 2024)