The Forum

Rarely has one foodstuff had such global influence as Sugar – on our trade and economy, movement of people around the world, and health and treatment of fellow humans. Once a costly luxury called “white gold”, it was pivotal in one of mankind’s most shameful chapters – slavery. Joining Rajan Datar to find out more about Sugar and its connection with power is the Canadian historian Dr Elizabeth Abbott, the writer Marina Budhos whose Indian background inspired her research, and the Columbian political scientist Dr Eduardo Gomez, author of ‘Geopolitics in Health’.Photo: A sugar bowl (Getty Images)

It is a religion that has lasted three millennia, claims to be the world's first monotheistic creed and to have influenced major faiths such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, inspired artists from Voltaire to Freddie Mercury but Zoroastrianism may be heading for extinction: in some communities only children of male Zoroastrians are admitted to the faith and there are probably fewer than 200 thousand left now. Rajan Datar talks about the history of Zoroastrianism with Dr. Sarah Stewart, Shapoorji Pallonji Lecturer in Zoroastrianism at SOAS, University of London, Malcolm Deboo, President of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, the oldest Zoroastrian organisation on the continent, and Yuhan Vevaina, professor of Sasanian Studies at Oxford University.Photo: Faravahar - relief of winged sun symbol of Zoroastrianism in Persepolis city, Iran. (Getty Images)

It was exactly a hundred years ago that women in the UK won the right to vote: though at first it was only for property owning women over thirty. But Britain wasn’t the trail blazer. Seven countries were ahead of it including two of its colonies. So what were the deciding factors? Was it the changing circumstances created by wars and the collapse of Empires? Or was it the suffragettes’ sometimes violent tactics? And why did Switzerland take as long as 1971 to enfranchise women? Joining Bridget Kendall to look at the global story of how women got the vote is the Indian social scientist Nikita Sud, Jad Adams the author of “Women and the Vote”, and Lindie Naughton the biographer of the first woman elected to the British parliament Constance Markievicz.Photo: Women voting (Reuters)

Today, we can’t imagine an election without an opinion poll gauging public opinion on who’s leading, who’s won a debate or who’s more popular with a specific group of voters. Even our favourite chocolate bars and footballers are subject to a poll. But how did straw polls evolve into the scientific number crunching we know now? What is their purpose and impact? How differently are they used around the world? And just how reliable are they?Bridget Kendall is joined by economist and chairman of Gallup Pakistan Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani; Scott Keeter, senior survey advisor for the Pew Research Center in Washington; and Sir John Curtice from the University of Strathclyde.Picture: American President Harry S Truman smiles and waves to the excited Kansas City crowd after hearing the news that he had won the United States elections in 1948 and retained the Presidency, despite of what many polls had predicted, Credit: Keystone, Getty Images.

T.E Lawrence was a British scholar and adventurer whose involvement with the Arab Revolt during the World War One inspired one of the most celebrated films in cinema history. So how did a man who was offered a knighthood and became an international celebrity end his days in near obscurity? Bridget Kendall is joined by historians James Barr and Juliette Desplat, and writer Scott Anderson to discuss his life and legacy.Photo: T. E. Lawrence. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images.

In the ten years since his death, the impact of designer Yves Saint Laurent on women’s fashion remains undimmed. The pea coat, the trench, the trouser suit – many of his designs are now staples of the modern Western woman’s wardrobe. So how did this famously shy and retiring man achieve global success? And did his fashion innovations for women shape social change in the 1960s, or were they a response to his times? Bridget Kendall looks back at Saint Laurent’s life and legacy with director of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, Olivier Flaviano, fashion historian Emilie Hammen and one of Saint Laurent’s last assistants, designer Charles Sébline.Photo: Yves Saint Laurent, French designer, with two fashion models, Betty Catroux (left) and Loulou de la Falaise, outside his 'Rive Gauche' shop. Credit: John Minihan, Getty Images.

Moby Dick is the story of a crazed and vengeful sailor, Captain Ahab, hunting a giant whale that bit off his leg. It's a large and challenging book and its author, Herman Melville died without knowing how influential or revered it would become. Although it failed to impress when it first came out in 1851, it’s now hailed as a ‘great American novel’, one of the towering achievements of American literature. With Bridget Kendall to explore the book and its author, Professor Jamie Jones from the University of Illinois, Emily Ogden from the University of Virginia and poet and academic from Lancaster University in the UK, Paul Farley. Photo: Sperm Whale (Martin Camms/Getty Images)

The Goths were a Germanic tribe infamous for their brief sack of Rome in 410 AD, but their cultural and political influence was felt throughout Europe for centuries. They re-shaped the Balkans, preserved the Roman way of life in Italy, and presided over a cultural flourishing in Spain. But how, many centuries after their demise, did they come to give their name to an important architectural style in medieval Europe and, in the 20th century, to a subculture popular all over the world?Bridget Kendall talks all things Gothic with David Gwynn, historian at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of Goths, the Lost Civilisation. Also on the panel are Janina Ramirez, a cultural historian, broadcaster and author who focuses on the Middle Ages, based at the University of Oxford, and Mischa Meier, professor of ancient history at the University of Tubingen in Germany.(Photo credits: Goth girl - BBC, Gothic King Theodoric coin - Mark Cartwright)

Inferno is the 14th century epic that tells the story of Dante Alighieri’s imaginary journey through the underworld. It is the first part of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest poems. “Abandon all hope you who enter here” is the famous phrase inscribed on the gates of Dante’s Inferno, and Hell is divided into nine circles, with cruel and unusual punishments afflicting the sinners, who range from the lustful and cowardly in the upper circles to the malicious at the bottom of Hell. Joining Rajan Datar to explore Dante’s Inferno is Dr Vittorio Montemaggi, author of Reading Dante’s Commedia as Theology; Claire Honess, Professor of Italian studies at the University of Leeds, and Sangjin Park, Professor of Italian at Busan University of Foreign studies in South Korea, who will be speaking about the role Inferno played in shaping Korea’s national identity.Photo: A visual interpretation of red hell-fire (Getty Images)

Portuguese sailor and explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find a route to the riches of the spice islands, north east of present day Indonesia. Through a series of adventures and tragedies, Magellan’s voyage discovered the Straits of Magellan joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through Southern America and was the first expedition to completely circumnavigate the World. But Magellan died on the way and the remaining crew were in fact first round the globe. To explore an achievement that changed the World and still influences us today, Bridget Kendall is joined by Dr Rodrigo Cacho, Dr Alison Sandman and Dr Rachel Winchcombe.Photo: An illustration of Ferdinand Magellan (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)