For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature, mathematics and mythology blazed a trail across the world, along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific. Listen as Anita and William d ... Show More
Aug 9
385. Saint Patrick: Slave, Rebel, & Ireland’s Patron Saint (Ep 3)
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated all over the world every year by the Irish diaspora, but what is the real history behind the patron saint of Ireland? How is the traditional story of his life almost entirely incorrect? And why were Irish people in Rome considered to be the most ... Show More
55m 12s
Sep 2024
Ancient India and China: from golden to silk roads
The best-selling historian William Dalrymple presents India as the great superpower of ancient times in The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. He argues that for more than a millennium India art, religions, technology, astronomy, music and mathematics spread fa ... Show More
42m 10s
Jan 2024
The Silk Road: everything you wanted to know
The Silk Road is one of the most famous trade routes in history, a vast interconnected network along which not only goods but ideas, knowledge and culture flowed. Sam Willis joins Rebecca Franks to discuss its remarkable history and answer listener questions on the subject, spotl ... Show More
32m 14s
Oct 2024
The Silk Road: Where Cultures Collided
<p>At the edge of the Gobi Desert, Dunhuang was once a bustling oasis on the famous Silk Road connecting China and the Mediterranean. For more than 1000 years, Dunhuang was an important pilgrimage site and a cultural melting pot where ideas, technologies and art flowed freel ... Show More
33m 10s