The Time Machine (Archive Episode)

The Time Machine (Archive Episode)

Author: BBC October 16, 2025 Duration: 54:45
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas explored in HG Wells' novella, published in 1895, in which the Time Traveller moves forward to 802,701 AD. There he finds humanity has evolved into the Eloi and Morlocks, where the Eloi are small but leisured fruitarians and the Morlocks live below ground, carry out the work and have a different diet. Escaping the Morlocks, he travels millions of years into the future, where the environment no longer supports humanity. With Simon Schaffer Professor of History of Science at Cambridge University Amanda Rees Historian of science at the University of York And Simon James Professor in the Department of English Studies at Durham University We are also remembering Simon James who passed away this summer and who, we are told, really enjoyed this recording. Producer: Simon Tillotson

For decades, Melvyn Bragg has convened some of the world's sharpest minds around a single, unassuming table, and the resulting conversations form the heart of In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg. This BBC podcast is less a formal lecture and more an eavesdropped dialogue, where complex ideas from religion, philosophy, science, and history are unpacked with genuine curiosity and clarity. Each episode focuses on a single concept, event, or figure-from the intricacies of Islamic philosophy to the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, from the rise of the novel to the fall of ancient empires. Listeners are brought directly into a thoughtful, often lively discussion where experts debate, clarify, and connect the dots, guided by Bragg's probing yet generous questioning. You'll hear the context and contradictions behind the ideas that have shaped our spiritual and intellectual landscape, presented not as dry facts but as living, debated history. The enduring appeal of this podcast lies in its depth and accessibility, transforming daunting subjects into compelling narratives. It’s a weekly invitation to step back from the noise and spend forty-five minutes engaged in the kind of substantive, ad-free conversation that reminds us of the profound connections between all fields of human thought.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg
Podcast Episodes
Margery Kempe and English Mysticism (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:13
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Author and columnist Caitlin Moran has picked the episode on the English medieval m…
Eclipses (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:50
To celebrate Melvyn Bragg’s 27 years presenting In Our Time, five well-known fans of the programme have chosen their favourite episodes. Guy Garvey, lyricist and lead singer of the band Elbow, has selected the episode on…
Feathered Dinosaurs (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:12
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
Pauli's Exclusion Principle (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:09
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
Zeno's Paradoxes (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:00
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
Thomas Hardy's Poetry (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:31
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
The Moon (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:30
After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and depth of the subjects h…
The Waltz (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:55
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dance which, from when it reached Britain in the early nineteenth century, revolutionised the relationship between music, literature and people here for the next hundred years. While i…
Hannah Arendt (Archive Episode) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:04
In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed…