Assorted Podcasts

Struck by Lightning: Oliver Sacks and the Musical Brain
A doctor, making a call in a phone box in New York, was hit by a lightning bolt through the receiver. It reprogrammed his brain, making him obsessed by Chopin and learning to play the piano. It helped ruin his marriage but gave him brand new talents. How could this happen?

The story of the Palestinians in Lebanon

Atul Gawande

The Oil and Glory
Steven LeVine, journalist and author

The Bottom Billion


If Trees Could Speak

The Kennedy Brothers

Science curriculum in British schools

'Rats with wings': a history of the urban pigeon

Could a computer have a mind? Is our mind a sort of computer?

The Jesus Tomb
Would the discovery of Jesus' family tomb change Christianity? Simcha Jacobovici thinks he's found the burial cave of Jesus, but why have archaeologists kept silent about what they've known for decades?

Mormonism's Lost Tribes
The Book of Mormon spells out the origins of Mormonism, based on the belief that the Lost Tribes of Israel sailed to the American continent and became identified by European explorers as the American Indians. Using the latest DNA findings Simon Southerton questions this belief.

Spiritual Classics: Kahlil Gibran and M.Scott Peck
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Martin Luther King Jr's Strength to Love, M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Travelled and Waiting for God by Simone Weil.

Spiritual Classics: Hasidic Tales
The founder of Hasidism, the popular Jewish movement which began in the 18th century, was an itinerant story teller. The Ba'al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name) used mystical tales to convey the 'soul' of Judaism, emphasising the love of God.

The Zen Priests of Nothingness