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In this episode, poets Khadijah Ibrahiim and Karen McCarthy Woolf, discuss the state of poetry in the UK; highlighting key themes preoccupying poets today and how poetry is changing. We also hear the shortlist for The Forward Prizes for Poetry 2023 awards, including a new category: Best Single Poem – Performed.

In this episode, our special guest Damian Bradfield, author of Algorithmic Reality, explores the state of the internet, the addictive effects of social media, invasion of privacy, data misuse, and the current use of your data to power AI – and how we can take back control.

In this episode, delve into the Golden Age of Islam in a captivating conversation with Dr Shamim Miah, author of Ibn Khaldun: Education, History and Society, and Saeed Khan.

In this episode, we hear from Ben Aaronovitch and Jonathan Stroud – two stellar names in the world of British Fantasy. Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series has become a runaway success, and Stroud is author of the acclaimed Lockwood and Co series.

In this episode, our panel discuss how society has changed and ask whether our obsession with individualism has eroded community values. Has life in the 21st century become all about the cult of the individual?

In this episode, Mark Jones, author of 1923: The Forgotten Crisis in the Year of Hitler’s Coup, explores how and why Hitler and the Nazis were able to come to power, and how they remained in power for so long.

In this episode, we delve into a new category of thought called ‘Alt-Wallah’ within the Islamicate, based around a supposed crisis of masculinity, the Alt Right, and Muslim men.

In this episode, hear from Rachel Louise Snyder as she tells her own story, which is as dramatic as many of those she has covered during her career as an award-winning journalist.

In this episode, our panel of experts explore China’s increasing involvement in brokering deals in the Middle East, Russia and China’s shared and separate agendas, and the potential for a new global power structure.

In this episode, we are joined by Leyla Jagiella, cultural anthropologist, scholar of religion and author of Among the Eunuchs. From an early age, she knew she would be defined by being Muslim and being trans. Struggling to negotiate these identities in her conservative hometown, she travelled to India and Pakistan, where her life was changed by her time among third-gender communities.