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New research on how society works
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
A rich selection of documentaries aimed at relentlessly curious minds, introduced by Rhianna Dhillon.
Download the best satirical comedy from Radio 4, every Friday. Features The News Quiz, The Now Show and Dead Ringers.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Brighten your week with the latest BBC Radio 4 comedy, introduced by Darren Harriott.
Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.
David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts and insiders present in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.
Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics.
Fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Short documentaries and adventures in sound presented by Josie Long.
Series exploring the place and nature of faith in today's world
Award-winning current affairs documentary series investigating major issues at home and abroad
Insight, wit and analysis as BBC correspondents, journalists and writers take a closer look at the stories behind the headlines. Presented by Kate Adie and Pascale Harter.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future.
Scientific principles, theory, and the role of key figures in the advancement of science.
Reflections from a faith perspective on issues and people in the news.
Every Friday we bring you a new drama from BBC Radio 4 or Radio 3. Exercise your imagination with some of the best writers and actors on radio. Storytelling at its very best.
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
Intelligent and challenging quiz games on BBC Radio 4. Featuring Round Britain Quiz, Counterpoint and Brain of Britain with Quiz Masters including Paul Gambaccini.
Clare Balding joins notable and interesting people for a walk through the countryside
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world
A panel of horticultural experts answer gardening questions from a live audience. Recorded in a different location each week
Investigating every aspect of the food we eat
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
Series that demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice.
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and major breaking news from a global perspective
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
An insight into the character of an influential figure making news headlines
Series of thought-provoking talks in which the speakers air their thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect culture and society
Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.
A frank look behind the scenes with broadcasters Jane Garvey and Fi Glover as guests from Radio, TV and podcasting share stories they probably shouldn’t. Released every Friday.
Discussion of religious movements and the theories and individuals behind them.
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Series focusing on foreign affairs issues
Presenters recommend their favourite podcasts and speak to the people who make them.
Insight, analysis and expert debate as key policy makers are challenged on the latest news stories. From BBC Radio 4's Today programme
Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits that might change the way we think about food, cooking and eating. An expert panel answers audience questions.
This podcast features Open Book and A Good Read. Open Book talks to authors about their work. In A Good Read Harriett Gilbert discusses favourite books.
Nick Robinson talks about what’s really going on in British politics.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists' eyes. With Brian Cox and Robin Ince.
Led by James Naughtie, a group of readers talk to acclaimed authors about their best-known novels
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Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
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The News Quiz - Friday 16th October 2020
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A satirical review of the week's news with Andy Zaltzman. This week Andy is joined by an international panel of comedians including regular guest Andrew Maxwell alongside Anuvab Pal from India, Olga Koch from Russia and Alice Fraser from Australia. The panel tackle the global response to COVID-19, the (no) chance of a deal between Britain and the E…
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4
Covid-19 damages the lungs, leaving people struggling to get enough oxygen into their body. In the early stages of the pandemic many patients needed a lot of support in intensive care - including artificial ventilation. But there are other ways of boosting oxygen levels in the body - which are being studied in the Recovery-RS trial. Professor Gavin…
For decades there was a boom in tax avoidance where people were paid using loans – and lowered their tax bills in the process. The boom went bust when the government clamped down, leaving some users with vast tax bills. Many of those people now owe life-changing amounts to HMRC yet campaigners say there has been insufficient action against the comp…
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Front Row
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Aké Festival special: Tayari Jones, Derek Owusu, Victor Ehikhamenor, Sara-Jayne Makwala King
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A collaboration with the Aké Festival: leading black writers and artists discuss Black Lives Matter and related issues of this year in connection to their work. With Tayari Jones, Derek Owusu, Victor Ehikhamenor and Sara-Jayne Makwala King. The Aké Festival is the world's largest literary festival of black voices on black issues. Usually held in La…
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Six O'Clock News
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Tier 3 coronavirus rules to be imposed on Greater Manchester 20/10/2020
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Greater Manchester will move to England's highest tier of coronavirus restrictions from FridayBy BBC Radio 4
Toni Morrison's Beloved and Elizabeth Strout's Olive Again are the books on the tableBy BBC Radio 4
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Woman's Hour
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Singing Nuns, the US elections and women, the politicisation of Mumsnet? and what makes a good jobshare?
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Jane Garvey talks to Sisters Leo & Aelread from The Poor Clares of Arundel who've just released an album of traditional plainchant with added beats. What can we learn from them about living life in these times? It's a couple of weeks now til the Presidential elections in the States and to discuss what it will mean for women we talk to Melissa Milew…
20 OCT 20By BBC Radio 4
Many businesses across Wales are preparing to close for over a fortnight as the Welsh government tries to slow the spread of coronavirus. We look at whether the financial support available for firms is enough to keep them going (Image: Welsh Covid rules apply sign, Libanus, Wales. Credit: Reuters)By BBC Radio 4
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Farming Today
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20/10/20 - WTO trade rules, feathers for insulation, migrating wild birds and record breaking sheepdogs
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Farmers are concerned a future trade deal with the USA would allow food produced to lower environmental and animal welfare standards into the UK, which would out compete British produce. Some think the World Trade Organisation wouldn’t allow the UK to prevent food coming in from the USA for example, based solely on how it was produced. But Anna Hil…
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Seriously…
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A Natural History of Ghosts: Ancient Ghosts
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'When was the first time a human felt haunted?'Kirsty Logan travels back to the world’s earliest civilisations to uncover where tales of ghosts first emerged.From the earliest evidence of belief in an afterlife, seen in decorated bones in early grave sites, to Ancient Egyptian letters to the dead, and predatory Chindi unleashed to wreak deadly veng…
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The World Tonight
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Short sharp lockdown in Wales from Friday
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In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4
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Analysis
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The Rise and Fall of the Bond Market Traders
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In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher famously said that 'You can’t buck the markets' and Governments back then feared that, if they borrowed too much, they'd pay a terrible price in the markets in terms of higher borrowing costs. But now governments around the world are borrowing record amounts but paying record-low rates. In this programme Philip Cogga…
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Front Row
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Nicole Kidman, Professional magicians and COVID, Birmingham Royal Ballet
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Nicole Kidman talks about starring in new thriller The Undoing. A therapist's life unravels after she learns that her husband might be responsible for a horrific murder. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create a…
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Six O'Clock News
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19/10/2020 Wales set for short, sharp lockdown, No agreement on Manchester Covid talks, Russian Hackers target Olympics
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Wales set for short, sharp lockdown, No agreement on Manchester Covid talks, Russian Hackers target OlympicsBy BBC Radio 4
If there’s one thing that makes the world go ‘round, it’s trust - trust in institutions, trust in science, trust in the economy, trust in each other. Trust is what protects our vulnerability; it’s behind the unspoken social contracts that keep us safe. Without trust, we’re done.And since the beginning of our love-hate relationship with the Web, we’…
19 OCT 20By BBC Radio 4
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Woman's Hour
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Victoria Wood, Frozen eggs, How to raise a kind child
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Victoria Wood, the Lancashire born comedian, writer, actor, stand up and singer found fame with shows such as Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Wood & Walters and Dinner Ladies. She died in 2016 having never written her own story. With access to letters, and interviews with friends and family Jasper Rees has written ‘Let’s Do it’ – The Authorized Biogr…
China's economic recovery is accelerating, while other major economies still struggle. We ask why?(Image: a container ship is seen at Mawan Smart Port at Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone in Shenzhen. Credit: Reuters)By BBC Radio 4
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Farming Today
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19/10/20 Agricultural by-products, rural broadband, vegetable genebank
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This week on Farming Today we want to explore how the UK is making use of by-products from agriculture, things that some might see as waste but others can make use of. So we’ll talk slurry, chicken manure, feathers and straw.The regulator Ofcom is investigating BT’s delivery of broadband in hard to reach rural areas. Ofcom appointed BT to deliver t…
Travel through the bad gateway in this modern ghost story as writer and performer Tom Neenan discovers what horrors lurk in our apps and gadgets. In this episode – hang on, let me just put you on hold... Modern technology is terrifying. The average smartphone carries out 3.36 billion instructions per second. The average person can only carry out on…
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Six O'Clock News
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18/10/2020 Manchester Covid figures row
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Manchester's mayor says the spread of the coronavirus there is being exaggerated by Number Ten, as the region continues resist tighter restrictions.By BBC Radio 4
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Books and Authors
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Armando Iannucci and John Mullan on Dickens; John Lanchester; new Black British writing
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Armando Iannucci and John Mullan on Dickens; John Lanchester; new Black British writingBy BBC Radio 4
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The Food Programme
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Faith, Fasts and Feasts: The role of food in Jewish celebration
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This year’s autumn run of Jewish holy days has been like no other; but even with coronavirus-related restrictions in place, food and community has remained at the heart of celebrations for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Leyla Kazim hears from a socially distanced Sukkot meal in North London, follows a festival food diary from a family in Man…
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Desert Island Discs
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Professor Averil Mansfield, retired surgeon
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Averil Mansfield is a retired vascular surgeon and was the first female Professor of Surgery in the UK when she was appointed in 1993.She was born in 1937 in Blackpool, where her father worked as a welder on the attractions at the Pleasure Beach. She was an only child and an avid reader when young. After perusing a library book on early advances in…
The former bricklayer steering Liverpool through the latest coronavirus lockdown. Liverpool was the first region to face the toughest restrictions as the second wave of the pandemic takes hold. The man in charge of dealing with this new crisis is the first mayor of the city region, Steve Rotheram. Becky Milligan charts his rise, from a 16-year-old …
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More or Less: Behind the Stats
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Auction Theory - Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson
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Paul Milgrom and his former tutor Robert Wilson worked together for years developing ways to run complicated auctions for large resources. This month the two Stanford University professors were awarded the Nobel memorial prize in economics for their work. The auction formats they designed facilitated the sale of goods and services that are difficul…
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Six O'Clock News
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17/10/2020 Teacher killed in Paris suburb had received threats in the days before his murder
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France's anti-terrorism prosecutor says the teacher who was killed in a street in a Paris suburb in a suspected Islamist attack had received threats in the days beforehand.By BBC Radio 4
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Woman's Hour
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Weekend Woman's Hour - Carla Bruni, Working from Home, HIV and Bame women
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We have music from the former supermodel Carla Bruni who tells us about her new album.We hear from the Conservative MP Laura Trott who is trying to get a law passed to stop under 18s accessing filler treatments and other cosmetic procedures. We also hear from Ashton Collins from the organisation Save Face who have had reports of injuries caused by …
17 OCT 20By BBC Radio 4
Money Box has learnt that thousands of people with the right to work in the UK have not been able to access a National Insurance number. Without one they may not be able to work, open a high street bank account or claim benefits.The Bank of England has written to lenders to find out whether they are ready for a zero or even a negative Bank Rate. Ho…
Journalists in Africa like to play a game where they take language often used in Western reports on African stories ("armed militias", "strongmen", "rigged elections") and apply it to the US. This has become more tempting, and yielding more ironies, recently. There is a further similarity in South Africa: could ex-president Jacob Zuma be a "proto-T…
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Professor Barry Smith, Rachel McCormack, Tim Hayward and Anna Jones join the virtual kitchen table to answer questions sent in by the audience via email and social media.This week, the panellists share roast potato recipes, discuss their disgust at certain eating noises and, together with the virtual audien…
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Farming Today
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17/10/20 - Farming Today This Week: The impact of COVID on rural communities and the Agriculture Bill
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This week the Agriculture Bill was back in the House of Commons. Top of the political agenda was a proposed amendment from the Lords that would block imports of food produced to lower standards than UK farmers have to follow. The NFU has been campaigning hard on this, but in the end only 14 Tory MPs rebelled and the amendment was thrown out. The Go…
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The World Tonight
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Manchester Tier 3 dispute: PM “ready to intervene”
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In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspectiveBy BBC Radio 4
"Big as it looks, it is nothing but gas and more gas, imposing its will on the sky by sheer bluster."On a night walk through Manhattan, Adam Gopnik reflects on the appearance of Jupiter high in the sky... and muses on the significance of this gassy planet today. Producer: Adele ArmstrongBy BBC Radio 4
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Front Row
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Roddy Doyle, Gairloch Museum, Kronos Quartet, Dr Blood's Old Travelling Show
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Roddy Doyle talks about his latest novel, Love. In the course of one summer’s evening in Dublin, two old drinking buddies revisit the pubs and the love affairs of their youth, and talk openly about their marriages and other relationships, downing several pints of stout along the way.Gairloch Museum in the Highlands of Scotland is one of the winners…
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Woman's Hour
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Dolly Alderton; Rape convictions - Katie's story; How to work from home
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Dolly Alderton joins Jane to talk about her first novel Ghosts. Her protagonist Nina Dean is dealing with a lot. She’s trying to make it as a food writer and finally has a flat of her own. Her dad is slipping away from her into dementia and her Mum is set on re-inventing herself. Friends are changing and disappearing into coupledom and parenting so…
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Six O'Clock News
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16/10/2020 Prepare for no-deal Brexit, says PM
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The Prime Minister has said the UK should get ready for a no-deal Brexit, unless Brussels radically changes course.By BBC Radio 4
Kathy Clugston chairs this week's gardening show. Christine Walkden, Matthew Wilson and Pippa Greenwood join her to answer the questions.This week the team are joined once more by a live virtual audience. The team discuss how they remember what they have planted and where, suggest the best salad leaves to grow outdoors over winter, and try to rescu…
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Fortunately... with Fi and Jane
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162. The Bellows of Friendship with Steph McGovern
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Presenter Steph McGovern chats to Fi and Jane on this week's Fortunately podcast. The host of Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4 and former BBC Business reporter joins us fresh from the TV studio. Steph chats to Garvey and Glover about inspiring trips to factory floor, famously languid colleagues and one very memorable interview with a certain owner…
REVOLUTION: Are all radical upheavals in the social, economic and political order destined to fail? Laurie Taylor talks to Daniel Chirot, Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Washington, about his study into why so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times have ended in bloody tragedies. Does radica…
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Drama of the Week
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Fault Lines: Sex - Episode 1, Winter Jasmine
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Fault Lines: SexWinter Jasmine by Kathrine SmithInspired by Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels, this second season of dramas explores contemporary Britain through the lens of sex. With failing health, Constance is losing heart. Her carer Misha plots to lift her spirits by revamping her garden but the arrival of Kim has unexpected consequences for them b…
16 OCT 20By BBC Radio 4
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Best of Today
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Friday's business with Katie Prescott
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Many more hospitality businesses in England will be affected by the restrictions coming into force from midnight tonight. How are they coping?(Image: people wearing face masks walk pass empty tables outside bars and restaurants in Covent Garden, in central London. Credit: Press Association)By BBC Radio 4
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Farming Today
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Fishing and trade, mental health in agriculture, wine harvest
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Fishing is again proving a major and problematic issue in the Brussels Brexit talks this week. It's difficult to see how the UK’s insistence on annual negotiations on access to its waters can fit with the EU’s insistence on maintaining the existing access European fleets have to British waters. We’ve been looking at how rural communities have chang…
Mia Brake and her archaeometrist father Adam move to Milbury, a village framed by an ancient stone circle.But all is not right in Milbury. The stones emit a strange power. The villagers are eerily happy, greeting each other with the unnerving phrase "Happy Day!" And at the village school the other children can solve incredibly complex mathematical …
Writer, naturalist and fisherman Chris Yates has been wanting to return to a secret lake in Wiltshire he last visited 20 years ago. In summer 2020, he spends a day there in search of an ancient carp which, he says, is "the size of a small submarine".While carp fishing may offer the occasional moment of intense excitement, it’s a pursuit that largel…
