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BBC Radio 4 Podcasts

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Topical comedy from the sharpest satirical minds in the business. Listen first on BBC Sounds, every Friday. Is the news driving you up the wall? You’re not alone. Let the comedians take the strain and work out what’s been funny this week. Features BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, Dead Ringers, The Naked Week and Too Long; Didn’t Read. Listen on BBC Sounds, seven days earlier than anywhere else, and subscribe to make sure that you don’t miss an episode.
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Uncanny

BBC Radio 4

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From ghostly phantoms to UFOs, Danny Robins investigates real-life stories of paranormal encounters. So, are you Team Believer or Team Sceptic? Written and presented by Danny Robins Editor and Sound Designer: Charlie Brandon-King Music: Evelyn Sykes Theme Music by Lanterns on the Lake Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
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Armando Iannucci hosts the programme that gives you a cast-iron guarantee to be laser-focused on decoding the baffling world of political language. Each week he'll be joined by a guest to crack open the political phrasebook and attempt to demystify the doublespeak. Why does everything now have to be 'turbo-charged'? What's the difference between a 'pledge' and a 'mission'? Why has my local MP been 'weaponised' and should I be worried? You'll be treated to a crash course in the dark arts of p ...
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Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future
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Arts & Ideas

BBC Radio 4

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Leading thinkers discuss the ideas shaping our lives – looking back at the news and making links between past and present. Broadcast as Free Thinking, Fridays at 9pm on BBC Radio 4. Presented by Matthew Sweet, Shahidha Bari and Anne McElvoy.
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Intrigue

BBC Radio 4

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Ben Lewis unravels the tangled story of a Christian billionaire family, stolen relics, fake treasures and the scholar turned sleuth who exposed the scandal of biblical proportions. Intrigue: 'Jaw-dropping', 'gripping', 'bingeable,' 'thrilling' - dramatic true stories and investigations that reveal how the world really works.
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When Antony Easton's enigmatic father passes away, he begins sorting through a suitcase filled with cryptic family clues. Neatly stacked German money, a family tree stretching back generations, and books filled with sprawling notes. He also finds his father's birth certificate, but bearing a different name. Confronting his dad's double identity, Antony begins a ten-year quest to uncover the truth. Piece-by-piece he comes to understand his family's dark history. Large numbers of his relatives ...
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Take Four Books

BBC Radio 4

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Presenter James Crawford looks at an author's latest work and delves further into their creative process by learning about the three other texts that have shaped their writing.
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Screenshot

BBC Radio 4

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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.
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Shadow World

BBC Radio 4

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In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC's Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK's publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what. Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
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Americast

BBC News

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Americast is the authoritative US news and politics podcast from the BBC. Each week we provide audiences with the best analysis from across the BBC, with on-the-ground observations and big picture insights about the stories which are defining America right now. The podcast is hosted by trusted BBC journalists including the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, BBC Radio 4 presenter, Justin Webb, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, and BBC North Americ ...
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The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. In each episode of You’re Dead to Me from BBC Radio 4, Greg Jenner is joined by a comedian and an expert historian to learn and laugh about the past. History isn’t just about dates and textbooks – it’s about extraordinary characters, amazing stories, and some very questionable fashion choices. How long did it take to build an Egyptian pyramid? What does the Bayeux Tapestry reveal about medieval life? Why did it take nearly half a millennium fo ...
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AntiSocial

BBC Radio 4

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Peace talks for the culture wars. In an era of polarisation, propaganda and pile-ons, AntiSocial offers an alternative: understanding, facts, and respect. Each week, Adam Fleming takes on a topic that's generating conflict on social media, blogs, talk shows and phone-ins and helps you work out what the arguments are really about.
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This week we provide recourse for a randy royal, organise an on-air riot and, for Halloween, get confused over which witch is which. From host Andrew Hunter Murray and The Skewer's Jon Holmes, Radio 4’s newest Friday night comedy The Naked Week returns with a blend of the silly and serious. From satirical stunts to studio set pieces via guest corre…
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Whether you’re stuck in traffic, waiting at the airport whilst delay after delay is announced or just really missing someone far away, a lot of us have probably wished we could teleport. But is this superpower the stuff of science fiction? Or could it, one day, become a reality? Listener Faith wants to know whether Star Trek’s Transporter could eve…
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How did Bruce become The Boss, and what did it cost him to get there? Laura Barton explores the extraordinary life story of Bruce Springsteen, taking a front-row seat at five important gigs to reveal the life behind the legend. In our final chapter, we trace Bruce’s journey to his latest tour - The Land of Hope and Dreams - where he speaks out on s…
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We hear warnings that unless we see some serious rain, England will be in drought next year. The Environment Agency says there will be widespread impacts on farming as well as nature and describes the current situation as 'precarious'. COP 30, the annual world meeting on tackling climate change is underway in Brazil. This one is notable perhaps for…
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Mars, 2048. The first settlers, a mix of international workers and the super-rich. And the first unexplained death. When a body turns up in the corridor between a scrappy warehouse and a half-built luxury hotel, no-nonsense Harbourmaster Rita Siddiqui finds herself in charge. With Earth temporarily out of contact and no official law enforcement on …
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Written by Hannah Khalil In 2040, a Middle Eastern nation is struggling to survive rising temperatures and rolling power cuts. Architect Noura Halim has devoted her life to designing a new kind of city, one that could protect people from the worsening climate and keep her country alive. But as construction begins, the project drains the nation’s fr…
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Greg Jenner is joined in 19th-century France by historian Professor Olivette Otele and comedian Celya AB to learn about acclaimed novelist Alexandre Dumas. Alexandre was born to an innkeeper’s daughter and a legendary Black general who fought for Napoleon. After his father’s death the family grew up in rural poverty, but after a visit to Paris as a…
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This week the UK government set out its vision for a world where the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but exceptional circumstances. Animal experiments in the UK peaked at 4.14 million in 2015 driven mainly by a big increase at the time in genetic modification experiments. By 2020, the number had fallen sharply to 2.88 million as alte…
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Tom and guests review The Hunger Games... now a stage play at a brand new theatre in London's Canary Wharf.The new film Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring, tells the story of the psychiatrist who was recruited to analyse Hitler's second-in-command at the 1946 war crimes trial.The new BBC TV series Wild Cherry, about a scandal in a …
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It's been revealed that a day before Sara Sharif was murdered by her father and stepmother, council workers tried to check on her, but went to the wrong address. Also: A second BBC programme is accused of splicing together two sections of Donald Trump's speech on the day of the Capitol Hill riots. And a bird flu outbreak may have killed tens of tho…
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The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been widely trailing this month’s budget and the difficult decisions she’ll have to make in just under two weeks time. This is being taken as code for tax rises and a possible break in Labour’s manifesto pledge with a rise in income tax. She’s said one of the key reasons for this is that the government's official …
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Jennifer Lawrence's breakthrough role in the 2010 drama Winter’s Bone secured her first Academy Award nomination when she was just 20, and she won the Best Actress category two years later for Silver Linings Playbook. Since then, she has become one of the most prolific, critically acclaimed and highest paid actors in Hollywood as the star of The Hu…
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This week, Armando is joined again by comedian Ria Lina, and Sky New's new breakfast host, Sophy Ridge. In the week with 2 big resignations at the BBC, news journalism and accuracy are under the spotlight. We discuss the pressures on live broadcasting, editing, and deciding what stories make it to air. When is something worthy of coverage? These de…
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A report by the House of Commons’ Welsh Affairs Committee is calling for the Government's inheritance tax on farmers to be halted, because it says the tax will have a detrimental impact on Welsh farming, which is intrinsic to the Welsh economy. How about turning fungi roots into building materials? It may sound a bit strange but its already happeni…
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Anonymous briefings that Keir Starmer would fight a leadership challenge have fuelled speculation about discontent with the prime minister among the parliamentary party. We hear that Labour MPs are increasingly openly contemptuous of the PM in their briefings to journalists. Also on the programme: the Democrats release emails suggesting Donald Trum…
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In a Fox News interview released on Tuesday, Donald Trump says he has an ‘obligation’ to sue the BBC for the way it edited a section of a speech he made on January 6th 2021 - the day of the US Capitol riots - as part of a Panorama documentary. The Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah said “the BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement”. The B…
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Actor Fiona Shaw discusses her latest film Park Avenue, director Gaby Dellal's 'tense and witty drama about mother-daughter relationships set in New York. Filmmaker Lynne Ramsay talks to us about her new film Die My Love, a portrait of postpartum psychosis starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. 50 years on from the band's first gig, music…
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Democrats in the US have released emails which, they say, raise new questions about Donald Trump's relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Also: The health secretary, Wes Streeting, denies he's plotting to challenge the Prime Minister. And a replica woolly mammoth skeleton in the National Museum of Cardiff has been named Tom B…
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Eight weeks after taking up her post as DEFRA Secretary of State, Emma Reynolds has faced her first barrage of questions from the cross-party group of MPs at the EFRA select committee. Over two hours the MPs quizzed her about farming profitability, environmental payments, fishing policy, water pollution, border controls and illegal meat. One of the…
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The government wants more young people to be offered "gold standard apprenticeships". The plan was unveiled at the Labour party conference as the Prime Minister ditched the ambition for half of young people to go to university. So we're looking at the financial side of apprenticeships, from how much they pay to what they can mean for a family's fin…
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A London NHS trust has been fined more than £500,000 and a ward manager convicted of health and safety offences over the death of 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo in Goodmayes Hospital. We ask whether the NHS could be doing more to stop preventable deaths in care. Also on the programme: Amid reports of a post-Budget coup against Sir Keir Starmer, Numbe…
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Do Vermeer's paintings contain hidden religious symbolism? Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon argues that the enigmatic painter's membership of a radical Christian group has been long overlooked. Writer John Updike became a sensation when is candid and controversial novel Rabbit, Run was published in 1960. Now his posthumously published letters shin…
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Second stop of the new series is Wrexham in North Wales. Wrexham has gone from industrial workhorse to global celebrity, thanks to two Hollywood actors who bought the local football club. It’s a place where five of the Seven Wonders of Wales are apparently within walking distance of a Screwfix, where children learn “risk management” on playgrounds …
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The Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has revealed that 91 prisoners have been released by mistake over the last seven months. Also: Epping Council loses a High Court case to block The Bell Hotel from housing asylum seekers. And another name change for Andrew as Mountbatten-Windsor belatedly gets a hyphen.…
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It is now compulsory for schools across the UK to teach children about mental health and wellbeing. Whilst it might seem like classes for everyone on these topics might be helpful, a new study has found that in some cases, they may actually be worsening mental health problems. How could this be? Claudia Hammond is joined by Dr Lucy Foulkes to discu…
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There are problems and tasks so hard and complicated that it would take today’s most powerful supercomputers millions of years to crack them. But in the next decade, we may well have quantum computers which could solve such problems in seconds. Professor Sir Peter Knight is a British pioneer in the realms of quantum optics and quantum information s…
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1977. Terry and his friend Toby are serving at a United States Air Force base in Missouri. One weekend Toby suggests they go camping just across the Arkansas border, at Devil's Den State Park. What happens that night will change Terry and Toby’s lives forever. Danny Robins attempts to make sense of a bizarre encounter and a secret that stayed burie…
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An all party parliamentary group of MPs is launching what it calls a 'new action plan for fishing.' The group believes that the industry is being challenged by a series of problems including a declining workforce, restrictions at sea because of environmental protection and avoiding windfarms. The former fisheries minister and Cambridge MP Daniel Ze…
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An ambitious plan to digitalize the courts was meant to remove the need for hundreds of thousands of paper documents. But File on 4 Investigates has discovered an IT system, introduced as part of a £1bn project, has been plagued with technical faults - causing crucial information to go missing, be overwritten, or appear lost. The government body th…
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For hundreds of years women were treated as somehow incomplete, or dangerous, if they didn’t have a (male) partner. It used to be illegal for women to live alone in some parts of the UK and, until much more recently, single women weren’t allowed mortgages. And then there’s the cat lady stereotype. Amanda Vickery, professor of history at Queen Mary …
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The real-life Revenant who survived a savage bear mauling and crawled hundreds of miles across the American plains to confront the scoundrels who abandoned him. In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge. Immortalised by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2015 blockbuster …
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US President Donald Trump has threatened the BBC with a $1bn lawsuit over edits the Panorama programme made to a speech he gave before the January 6 Capitol riots. We assess the significance of the lawsuit and the resignations of the Director General and the CEO of BBC News. Also on the programme: why Democrats aren’t happy about a deal aimed at en…
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Samira Ahmed presents live from Old Billingsgate in London, where the announcement of the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize is taking place. The novels on the shortlist: Flesh by David Szalay, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, and …
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President Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion over how the editing of his speech in a Panorama documentary, calling it "false and defamatory". The BBC chair Samir Shah has apologised for an "error of judgement" over the edit, and said the BBC was considering how to respond to Trump. Matt Chorley, Justin, Anthony and Marianna d…
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The six authors shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize discuss their novels ahead of tonight's ceremony, which is broadcast live on Radio 4 at 9.30pm in a special extra edition of Front Row. Andrew Miller on The Land in WinterKiran Desai on The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyDavid Szalay on FleshKatie Kitamura on AuditionSusan Choi on FlashlightBen…
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The chairman of the BBC, Samir Shah, has apologised for what he called an "error of judgement" over the way a speech by President Trump on the day of the US Capitol attack in 2021 was edited for an episode of Panorama. Also: The Chancellor Rachel Reeves again refuses to rule out tax rises in the budget later this month, but hints at changes to the …
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FUNDAMENTALLY by Nussaibah Younis, chosen by Julia ShawYOUR LIFE IS MANUFACTURED by Tim Minshall, chosen by Hayaatun SillemROSARITA by Anita Desai, chosen by Harriett Gilbert Criminal psychologist Julia Shaw joins engineer Hayaatun Sillem to discuss favourite books with Harriett Gilbert. Julia's choice, Fundamentally, is a bold debut novel by Nussa…
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Threats to the natural world are the focus of today’s conversation. Adam Rutherford talks to wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght, novelist Juhea Kim and criminal psychologist Julia Shaw. Jonathan Slaght discusses Tigers Between Empires, his account of the international effort to save the Siberian tiger from extinction in the wake of the Cold War. Ju…
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Mars, 2048. The first settlers, a mix of international workers and the super-rich. And the first unexplained death. When a body turns up in the corridor between a scrappy warehouse and a half-built luxury hotel, no-nonsense Harbourmaster Rita Siddiqui finds herself in charge. With Earth temporarily out of contact and no official law enforcement on …
  continue reading
 
Many farming families are uncertain about their future in the industry, but are we on the cusp of major change with consequences for the fabric of the countryside? Professor Matt Lobley, from Exeter University, has researched the dynamics and economics of family farms for many years and he tells us that this moment feels 'different', citing the pha…
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Fascinating, surprising and eye-opening stories from the past, brought to life. This week: 10th to 16th November 11th November 1918 - A republic was declared in Poland14th November 1680 - Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet16th November 1979 - Anthony Blunt is revealed as the 'fourth man' in the Cambridge spy ring Presented by Viji Alles and …
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Scott Bennett: Blood Sugar Baby tells the amazing true story of Scott and Jemma Bennett’s infant daughter Olivia and her battle with a rare genetic condition, how she was nearly fatally misdiagnosed and how Scott challenged the hospital to improve their care - by taking his dad’s advice to “Put a tie on”. First-time parents Scott and Jemma are take…
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The BBC's director general, Tim Davie and the CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness have resigned, after a leaked memo raised concerns about bias at the broadcaster. Also: King Charles leads Remembrance Sunday commemorations in London. UK military personnel and equipment are being sent to Belgium after suspected Russian drone incursions and Super Typhoon…
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Award-winning author Katherine Rundell discusses The Poisoned King, the second instalment in her acclaimed children’s fantasy series, Impossible Creatures. In this latest adventure, protagonist Christopher journeys back to the magical archipelago - a realm where dragons, unicorns, griffons, mermaids, and much more, all roam free. But this time, he’…
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