Series 5

A look at the latest culture and media through the eyes of creators and audiences.

1. 

   1. Women on Top

   2022-02-25 · 30m

   Mary Beard explores how thousands of years of stories and images stereotyping women have shaped our thinking and what this means for women who are in positions of power today.

2. 

   2. Back to the 90s

   2022-03-04 · 30m

   Whether it’s in fashion and music or on our TV and cinema screens, the 90s are well and truly back. Shahidha Bari takes a look at the reasons why.

3. 

   3. The Art of Crying

   2022-03-11 · 30m

   Mary Beard is joined by actor and screenwriter Emma Thompson to talk tears, dissecting some of Emma’s most famous on-screen weeps and explore the role that crying plays both in art and in real life.

4. 

   4. Can Art Save the Planet?

   2022-03-18 · 30m

   Shahidha Bari teams up with artists, poets, comics and musicians to investigate the role that the arts can play in exploring and processing the threat to our planet from catastrophic climate change.

5. 

   5. Episode 5

   2022-03-25 · 30m

   Mary Beard brings her trademark wit and probing curiosity to an interview with a very special guest - Booker-nominated British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.