While the name of Pauline Viardot may be unfamiliar to many, in her lifetime she was one of the most celebrated performers in Europe. Her interpretation of Orpheus in a revival of Gluck’s opera made the writer Charles Dickens weep, and the novelist George Sand said that whenever she heard Pauline Viardot sing, nothing else mattered. In addition to her vocal talents, Pauline Viardot dazzled in high society. She knew almost everybody who came to define 19th Century European culture, thanks to the regular salon she held with her husband in their Parisian townhouse. Acclaimed poets, musicians, composers, artists and even royalty would come to take tea, listen to music, network, perform and share ideas.Alas there are no recordings of her magnificent voice, even though her later years coincided with the beginning of the recording industry. But today Pauline Viardot’s legacy is being rediscovered as a composer, with works that were performed at her salons reaching new audiences.Bridget Kendall is joined by Hilary Poriss, associate professor of music history at Northeastern University in Boston who is writing a monograph on Pauline Viardot to be published by the University of Chicago Press; Patrick Barbier, emeritus professor at the West Catholic University in Angers, and author of a biography of Pauline Viardot and her sister; and Richard Langham Smith, who has published widely on 19th and early 20th Century French music and is currently research professor at the Royal College of Music in London. Producer: Fiona Clampin

The One Thousand and One Nights are a collection of fantastical stories of flying carpets, magic and genies whose ancient origins go back to the 7th century or earlier. The tales are told by Scheherazade who uses the power of storytelling night after night to stop her Sultan husband from beheading her. These highly influential stories were brought to the West in the 18th century, when more tales like Aladdin and Ali Baba were said to have been added by the French translator, and it has continued to evolve over the centuries. Rajan Datar and guests explore why these stories became so popular around the world and what they mean to us today.Joining Rajan is Wen Chin Ouyang, Professor of Arabic at SOAS in London; Dr Sandra Naddaff, senior lecturer in Comparative Literature at Harvard University; and the Iranian TV producer Shabnam Rezaei.[Photo: Sand Sculpture depicting 1001 Nights of Sheherazade. Credit: Getty Images]

Until the eighteenth century there were no professional dentists. The only way to deal with a serious case of toothache was to call on the services of blacksmiths, travelling showmen or so-called barber-surgeons, all of whom had a sideline in tooth extraction. But in 1728, French physician Pierre Fauchard published the first complete scientific description of dentistry and he is credited as being “the father of modern dentistry”. His book, Le Chirurgien Dentiste or The Surgeon Dentist, was translated into several languages.Joining Rajan Datar to discuss the painful and sometimes gruesome history of humans and their teeth are Dr. Scott Swank of the National Museum of Dentistry in Baltimore, US; Rachel Bairsto, Head of Museum Services at the British Dental Association and Professor Dominik Gross of RWTH Aachen University in Germany.[Image: Detail from Tearer of Teeth or The Tooth Puller by David Ryjckaert III (1612-1661). Credit: David Dyjckaert III / Buyenlarge / Getty Images]

Educate, Agitate, Organise. This was the motto of the Indian scholar BR Ambedkar who led an extraordinary life of activism and achievement. It put him in conflict with many other political forces in his native country, such as the Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi. In India itself, Ambedkar's legacy is widely respected but in other countries he is not so well known. And yet, Ambedkar was not only a leading intellectual of his day, brilliant orator, lawyer, successful politician and an unmatched champion of those suffering the harshest discrimination: he was also someone who rose from a Dalit background to being put in charge of writing the first constitution of independent India. The Dalits are the lowest of the low in the Indian social hierarchy, often considered as being below the lowest caste.To tell Ambedkar's story Rajan Datar is joined by three distinguished Ambedkar scholars: Sunil Khilnani, professor of politics and history at Ashoka University and author of Incarnations: India in Fifty Lives; Valerian Rodrigues, emeritus professor of political studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University and first Ambedkar chair at Ambedkar University, both in New Delhi, and author of The Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar; and Ananya Vajpeyi, associate professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi and author of Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India.[Photo: A statue of BR Ambedkar at Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida, India. Credit: Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images]

Common to many cultures across the world, swimming appears on the surface to be a benign leisure activity. But in fact it has much to tell us about such things as the development of societies, our bodies and minds, and our relationship to our ancestors and the natural world.For the Ancient Greeks and Romans, swimming was essential for instilling discipline, as a necessary skill for warriors, and to promote wellbeing. In West Africa where water had spiritual significance, communities there placed great importance on learning to swim from an early age. Their aquatic skills surprised the early colonialists, who then targeted divers to help them plunder shipwrecks when they were trafficked to the New World. Today however African American children are almost six times more likely to drown than their white counterparts as a consequence of historic racial segregation, according to research by the US Centers for Disease Control.Rajan Datar is joined Professor Kevin Dawson from the University of California Merced, author of Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Cultures in the African Diaspora; Mikael Rosén, swimmer, coach and author of Open Water: The History and Technique of Swimming; journalist Howard Means, author of Splash!: Ten Thousand Years of Swimming and writer Bonnie Tsui whose book Why we Swim was published in 2020.Produced by Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service.[Photo: Young boys swim together at an inter-racial camp circa 1948 in New York, New York. Credit: Irving Haberman/IH Images/Getty Images]

Many students of psychology, business, nursing and other disciplines are taught about "Maslow's pyramid of human needs", a diagram that shows a progression from our basic needs, such as food and shelter, to higher, social needs and, eventually, to striving for often intangible life goals and fulfilment. The pyramid is an iconic image, yet Abraham Maslow, a leading humanistic psychologist of the 20th century, didn't actually create it. Moreover, his writings are much more sophisticated and perceptive than the diagram suggests. So where did this confusion come from and why didn't Maslow disown the pyramid? How should we understand Maslow's hierarchy of human needs? Why has it proved so useful in so many different disciplines? And in what way is it relevant to how we live today?These are some of the questions that Bridget Kendall explores with Jessica Grogan from University of Texas at Austin, author of Encountering America, a history of humanistic psychology; David Baker, emeritus professor of psychology and former director of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron; and Scott Barry Kaufman, former director of the Imagination Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Transcend which updates Maslow for the 21st century.[Photo: Abraham Maslow, undated photograph. Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images]

When the Kalevala was published in 1835, Finland had a distinct cultural and linguistic identity but it had always been part of either the Swedish or the Russian empire. Neither did Finland have much of a literary tradition, but as the 19th-century progressed the Kalevala took on a symbolic role as the representation of a Finnish identity that fed into the movement for Finnish independence. Rooted in the folk culture of the Karelia region, a travelling doctor shaped the song texts into a story in a way which is still being debated today.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss how the Kalevala underscored the search for Finnish national identity are Dr Niina Hämäläinen, executive director of the Kalevala Society in Helsinki; Professor Tom DuBois from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the author of Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala; and the award-winning British musician, playwright and storyteller, Nick Hennessey. Produced by Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service.[Image: The Defense of the Sampo, 1896. Artist: Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images]

Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz is celebrated today as one of the finest poets in the history of Mexico. She was not just a creative and intellectual force but also a campaigner for women’s education and someone not afraid to challenge male hypocrisy. The colonial 17th-century society in which she lived was very patriarchal so, not surprisingly, her views brought her into conflict with the men in power. Rajan Datar looks at key episodes in Sister Juana’s life and examines the passion and ingenuity in her poetry and plays with the help of Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Professor at University of California Los Angeles and a writer whose novels include Sor Juana’s Second Dream; Dr. Amy Fuller, Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, specialist in early modern Spain and Mexico and author of Between Two Worlds, a monograph on Sister Juana's plays; and Rosa Perelmuter, Professor of Romance Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The reader is Pepa Duarte.[Image: A painting of Sister Juana by the Mexican artist Miguel Cabrera (1695-1768). Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images]

We delve into the watery depths of sea creature folklore, with a round-the-world tour of different variations on the concept of mermaids – from the Sirens of Greek mythology to the Selkies or Seal Folk of Scottish legend, and water spirits known as Mami Water, which are venerated in parts of Africa and the Americas. Not forgetting the famous fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, which has captivated the imagination ever since its publication in 1837 and was popularised by Disney in the 1980s.Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss what these ancient stories can tell us are Cristina Bacchilega of the University of Hawaii, co-editor of The Penguin Book of Mermaids; British writer, Marcelle Mateki Akita, who has written a book for children called Fatama and Mami Wata's Secret; and Lynn Barbour, founder and Arts Director of the Orkney Folklore and Storytelling Centre in the Orkney Islands in Scotland.Produced by Jo Impey for the BBC World Service.[Image: Detail from Fisherman and Mermaids in the Blue Grotto on Capri by Hermann Corrodi (1844-1905). Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images]

In ancient Greece, thousands of people flocked each year to join the religious rites known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. Based on the cult of the goddess of fertility Demeter and her daughter Persephone, the Mysteries were for many a profoundly moving and life-changing experience. People from all over the Greek world and beyond travelled to Eleusis for at least 800 years and the ceremonies remained a highlight of the Athenian calendar throughout that time. But what really went on in the great hall of the sanctuary at Eleusis? Why did the organisers deem it necessary to issue a strict injunction against divulging what actually took place - and what happened to some of those who broke that rule? These are some of the questions Bridget Kendall discusses with Christy Constantakopoulou, professor in ancient history and classics at Birkbeck College, London; Esther Eidinow, professor of ancient history at Bristol University; Dr. Philippe Michel Matthey who lectures about ancient religions at Geneva University; and Dr. Julietta Steinhauer, a lecturer in Hellenistic history at University College, London.[Image: Detail from a vessel showing a scene of the Eleusis cult with Triptolemus in a winged chariot and Demeter, c.460 BC. Credit DeAgostini/Getty Images]