The Meaning of Ritual

The Reinvention of Ritual

Madeleine Bunting asks whether it’s time to value ritual afresh.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Hilma af Klint’s The Ten Largest

Jennifer Higgie traces the impact of the spirit world on modernist art.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition V

The roles of spiritualism and women artists at the beginning of western abstraction.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Estella Canziani's The Piper of Dreams

Fairy fever and art’s response to World War I.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Ithell Colquhoun’s Scylla

Celebrating the artist who championed automatism, feminism and the value of other realms.

• 14 mins

Artists and the Spirit World

Donna Huddleston’s Witch Dance

How alternative ways of understanding the world are inspiring contemporary artists.

• 14 mins

Herb

Marijuana Made Me

Writer Colin Grant's personal take on the cultural history of cannabis.

• 14 mins

Herb

Burkina Faso's Incorruptible People and the Drum

Colin Grant examines the relationship between cannabis and the global poor.

• 14 mins

Herb

Leaf of Life

Colin Grant looks at the rise of medical marijuana.

• 14 mins

Herb

The Fall of the House of Crosskill

Colin Grant wonders to what extent cannabis can be deemed a 'gateway drug'.

• 14 mins

Herb

The Binoculars of Jah

Colin Grant ponders the relationship between musical creativity and cannabis.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Anne Enright on Telemachus

Anne Enright gives us a close reading of the opening pages of James Joyce's Ulysses.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

John Patrick McHugh on Calypso

Short story writer John Patrick McHugh chooses the fourth episode of Ulysses: Calypso.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Colm Tóibín on Sirens

Colm Tóibín explains singing in Ulysses, exploring a passage from the Sirens episode.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Mary Costello on Ithaca

Mary Costello chooses a passage from an episode towards the end of Ulysses: Ithaca.

• 14 mins

Reading Ulysses

Nuala O'Connor on Penelope

Nuala O'Connor explores a passage from the novel's final episode, Molly Bloom's soliloquy.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Cantiaci

Archaeologist David Miles tells the story of the Cantiaci of Kent.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Cornwall

Caradoc Peters reveals a formative period of Cornwall's past that still resonates today.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Parisi

Melanie Giles describes the chariot burials that distinguish the Parisi of East Yorkshire.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Queen Cartimandua and the Brigantes

Historian Nicki Howarth-Pollard pieces together Queen Cartimandua's reign and fate.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Demetae

Poet Menna Elfyn senses the enduring presence of the Demetae in Carmarthen.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Boudicca - Warrior Queen

The Essay unearths the peoples of Iron Age Britain. Writer Ilka Tampke dreams of Boudicca.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Maeatae

Playwright David Greig encounters the marsh-dwelling Maeatae in Scotland's Ochil Hills.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

In Search of the Druids

Take a woad trip across Iron Age Britain. Ron Hutton demystifies the story of the Druids.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Pytheas and the Iron Sea

The peoples and myths of Iron Age Britain. Mandy Haggith on the voyages of Pytheas.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Arthur Begins

The Essay explores the peoples and myths of Iron Age Albion. Miles Russell reveals Arthur.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

Lindow Man

Novelist Sarah Moss considers the enduring impact of an early encounter with Lindow Man.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Roman Orbit

Guy de la Bédoyère explores the integration of tribal Britain into the Roman world.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Atrebates

Archaeologist David Miles unravels the complex story of the Atrebates.

• 14 mins

Unearthing Britannia's Tribes

The Durotriges

Archaeologist Miles Russell unearths the truth about the Durtoriges of Dorset.

• 14 mins