The Forum

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.(Photo: 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, despite what the polls had predicted. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

The 46-year reign of Süleyman the Magnificent across central Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East was defined by territorial expansion and economic growth, as well as a flowering of art, architecture and culture.The epithet ‘magnificent’ invites us to believe the Ottoman sultan could do no wrong. But he broke with precedent on several occasions and his private life came in for criticism. So how much does he owe his reputation to his advisers?Bridget Kendall is joined by Gábor Ágoston, professor of history at Georgetown University in Washington DC and author of many books on the Ottomans, including The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe; Ebru Turan, assistant professor of History at Fordham University. She’s writing a book entitled Last World Emperor: The Origins of Ottoman-Habsburg Imperial Rivalry in the Apocalyptic Mediterranean, 1516-1527; and Marc David Baer, professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He’s published widely on the Ottoman empire, including The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs, which was published in 2021. Produced by Fiona Clampin for the BBC World Service(Picture: Suleyman the Magnificent. Credit: Hasan Esen/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

William Cobbett was a 19th century English writer, politician and campaigner, at a time when England was on the verge of riots and revolution, and many lived in extreme poverty. Born in 1763, Cobbett started off as a ploughboy, educated himself to run a best-selling newspaper, wrote beautifully accurate descriptions of the countryside which were to form his classic book Rural Rides, and later in life, even became a member of parliament. But it was for his sharp-tongued criticism of the British establishment that William Cobbett became most famous, exposing the corruption and hypocrisy of a system that favoured the rich over the poor, and in 1810, Cobbett was even jailed for his writings for two years, when he condemned the flogging of soldiers who were protesting about their pay. William Cobbett was often greeted by adoring crowds wherever he went, but some of his populist ideas and his dream of a return to an idealised vision of England’s past, also makes him a controversial and divisive figure today. Joining Bridget Kendall is Ruth Livesey, Professor of English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London; Dr Richard Thomas, chairman of the William Cobbett society and co-editor of “The Opinions of William Cobbett” with James Grande and John Stevenson; and Katharine Stearn, the editor of “Cobbett’s New Register” and lecturer on Cobbett for the Workers’ Educational Association. With the participation of Dr Mihika Chatterjee, lecturer in International Development at the University of Bath in the UK. Produced by Anne Khazam for the BBC World Service. (Picture: The General of Patriotism, - or -The Bloomsbury Farmer, Planting Bedfordshire Wheat, James Gillray. Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

They are the bane of every celebrity’s life: that pack of press photographers who stake out the homes, hotels and other haunts of the rich and famous in the hope of bagging a revealing and lucrative image to sell to newspapers and magazines around the world. Known as paparazzi, these photo journalists stop at nothing to catch their prey – climbing trees, hiding in cars and chasing after their quarry on motor scooters at high speed. But where does the term ‘paparazzi’ come from? When did these celebrity snappers first appear? And why were the most famous of them almost all Italian to start with? To seek out the origins of the paparazzi, the Forum takes you back to the glitzy world of film stars in 1950s Rome. Bridget Kendall is joined by Antonella Pelizzari, professor of the history of photography at Hunter College in New York and author of many books on Italian photography; the film critic Shawn Levy whose books include Dolce Vita Confidential about film and photography in 1950s Rome; and cultural historian and photographer Giuliana Minghelli whose books, including Stillness in Motion, look at the interaction between Italian film, photography and the wider arts world. With a contribution from cultural historian Luca Cottini from Villanova University. The readers are Giovanni Noto and David McGuire.Image: English rock 'n' roll star Wee Willie Harris (right) brawls with a persistent photographer on the Via Veneto in Rome in 1962 (Credit: Keystone Features/Getty Images)

The sun might not shape the pattern of our daily lives to the extent it did in the past. But understanding its behaviour is a focus of scientific research to grasp how activity on the surface of the sun - such as geomagnetic storms - can affect life on earth. "Space weather" can take out whole power networks, damage satellites and disrupt communication lines – the technology on which so many people rely. Bridget Kendall and guests examine the sun's impact throughout history, and discuss what we know about its internal structure and magnetic fields.Claire Raftery is a solar physicist and the Head of Education and Outreach at the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado; Philip Judge is a senior scientist at the High Altitude Observatory also in Boulder, Colorado. He’s written many papers on aspects of solar physics, as well as a book entitled The Sun: A Very Short Introduction; and philosopher Emma Carenini is the author of The Sun: Myths, History and Societies which considers how the sun has shaped philosophy and thought.Producer: Fiona Clampin(Photo: Post-Flare Loops Erupt From Suns Surface. Credit: Nasa/Getty Images)

Eunice Newton Foote was the first person to suggest that an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide would lead to a warmer planet, but her discovery was largely ignored and her name disappeared for more than 150 years. She fell into such obscurity that there’s no known picture of her.Bridget Kendall explores the life of this American scientist and inventor and asks why her ground-breaking research, carried out in the 1850s, was overlooked for so long. Discrimination against women, especially in the sciences, was a major reason, but might a transatlantic power struggle and even a case of intellectual theft have played their parts? Eunice was also one of the founding members of the women’s rights movement in the United States – we discuss how she helped launch a campaign that would eventually win women the right to vote.Plus, the story of how her work was recently re-discovered, and the quest to ensure her name gains greater recognition.For more on Eunice and other key figures in the history of climate change visit https://bbc.in/3QXkiruProducer: Simon TulettContributors:John Perlin, a research scholar in the department of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, who is working on what’s thought to be the first biography of Eunice Newton Foote; Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, a recently retired professor of history from the University of Minnesota, USA, and expert on women and gender in the history of science;Roland Jackson, a historian of nineteenth century science, honorary research Fellow in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London, and author of ‘The Ascent of John Tyndall’;Ray Sorenson, retired petroleum geologist, Oklahoma, USA;Judith Wellman, professor emerita at the State University of New York at Oswego, USA. (Picture: Smoke billowing from chimneys at the coal-fired Bełchatów Power Station, Poland, in 2009. Credit: Peter Andrews/Reuters).

The images, sensations and emotions we experience during sleep were once seen as the gateway to the gods and had the power to alter lives and even whole societies. Rajan Datar explores the way dreams, and their interpretation, have shaped beliefs and actions for thousands of years – from their role as a connection to the dead and the spirit world, to their ability to predict the future. We hear how these seemingly involuntary visions inspired key historical figures, changed the course of major events, and were used by many rulers as a propaganda tool. Plus, we discuss what’s really happening in our brains when we have dreams and ask whether 21st-century life is placing them under threat.Contributors: Sidarta Ribeiro, professor of neuroscience and founder of the Brain Institute at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil, and also the author of ‘The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreams’; Scott Noegel, professor of biblical and ancient near eastern languages and literatures at the University of Washington, in the United States; Özgen Felek, lector of Ottoman and modern Turkish in the department of near eastern languages and civilizations at Yale University, in the US.Producer: Simon Tulett(Picture: Dreamlike scene of a woman standing at fork in a stone pathway in a calm lake with clouds reflecting in the water. Credit: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images)

Since his death in 2008, 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 former director of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, Olivier Flaviano, fashion historian Emilie Hammen and one of Saint Laurent’s last assistants, designer Charles Sébline. First broadcast in 2018.(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)

As Brazil celebrates 200 years of independence from Portugal, we look at the 17th-century community of people seeking freedom from slavery in the north-east of the country known as Palmares. It lasted longer and was larger than other settlements of this type and it withstood repeated attempts by European colonialists to destroy it. So how did Palmares keep going for over a century when so many other communities like it in Latin America vanished after a few years? Who were the inhabitants? And what do we really know about them when there is no reliable history of the settlements: almost all the surviving documents are from people intent on destroying Palmares.To help us sift through what we do know about Palmares, Bridget Kendall is joined by archaeologist Professor Pedro Paulo Funari from the University of Campinas in Brazil; Dr. José Lingna Nafafé, Senior Lecturer in Portuguese and Lusophone Studies at Bristol University; and Dr. Maria Fernanda Escallon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon. The reader is Natan Barreto.(Photo: The monument to Zumbi, leader of Palmares, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba/Getty Images)

It is rare in music history that scholars can point to the beginning of a particular style, but bluegrass would appear to be the exception to the rule. Mandolin player Bill Monroe from rural Kentucky had so much clout in the music business that some scholars have suggested that it was he who defined the sound which came to be known as bluegrass. He was certainly protective; Monroe is quoted as saying “the biggest job of bluegrass is to keep out what don’t belong in it.”Played initially in America's rural south, bluegrass was later adopted by the counter-cultural college kid scene in the 1950s and '60s. And today the music is flourishing all over the world in the most unlikely places.Rajan Datar is joined by Dan Boner, director of the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies programme at East Tennessee State University, who demonstrates how bluegrass works; writer and historian Tony Russell, whose publications on music include Rural Rhythm: The Story of Old-Time Country Music in 78 Records; and Dr Lydia Hamessley, professor of music at Hamilton College whose research concentrates on old-time and bluegrass music. She is the author of Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton.Producer: Fiona Clampin(Photo: Lester Flatt (right) and Earl Scruggs (left) perform with The Foggy Mountain Boys at the Grand Ole Opry circa 1960. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)