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What is Braggoscope?
Braggoscope is an unofficial companion site for the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time. Its purpose is not to host the audio itself but to help you decide what to listen to next from a very large back catalogue — the site describes over a thousand episodes, all available to listen to on the BBC.
What you can do there
- Browse episodes by library-style topic through a directory, or by year through an archive view.
- Search descriptively rather than by exact title. The site notes that phrases like "novels by women" or "prehistoric earth" return good results, which suits the show's broad subject range.
- Open an episode page to see related episodes, or tap a guest's name to find other episodes they appeared in; there is also an all-guests view.
- Read the episode reading list where one exists, with links out to Google Books.
Who it suits
It is most useful if you already know you like In Our Time and want to explore its history, philosophy, science and culture episodes thematically rather than scrolling a chronological feed. It is less useful if you want a player, transcripts or a complete catalogue of every BBC programme — the site is explicitly a discovery layer over one show.
A practical next step
If you are new, pick one subject you already know something about and search it, then follow a guest link from a promising episode to see how the show treats adjacent topics. That gives you a quick sense of whether the archive's depth matches your interests before you commit to browsing by year.
The programme has been broadcast since 1998, hosted by Melvyn Bragg until 2025 and by Misha Glenny from 2026. The official home for listening is BBC Radio 4.
How do I find episodes of In Our Time by topic or guest?
Braggoscope is built for exactly this: it is an unofficial companion to the BBC Radio 4 archive, and its main job is helping you decide what to listen to next rather than hosting the audio itself. You browse or search here, then listen on the BBC site.
Finding episodes by topic
Two browsing routes are offered, and they suit different moods:
- Directory — episodes grouped by library topic (the subject classification, e.g. Physics, Political science, History of Europe). Best when you want to sweep a whole field, such as working through ancient history over several weeks.
- Archive — episodes grouped by year. Best when you want to follow the programme's own chronology or pick up something from a period you remember.
There is also a search box, and it rewards description rather than single keywords. The site's own examples — "novels by women", "prehistoric earth" — suggest you can type a phrase or a rough idea and still get sensible results. So if you only half-remember an episode about, say, Portuguese-language novelists, a descriptive search is a better first move than guessing a title.
Finding episodes by guest
From any episode page you can tap on a guest's name to see every other episode in which they have appeared. There is also a full All guests index if you would rather start from the person. This is the strongest use case for a listener who has enjoyed a particular contributor's way of explaining things and wants more of it — an academic you liked on one episode often turns up across several loosely related subjects.
Practical workflow
- Search descriptively or browse the Directory if you have a broad subject in mind.
- Open an episode page and check the reading list, shown when available, with links to Google Books — useful if you want to read around the topic.
- Use the related-episodes links, or tap a guest, to chain into the next listen.
- Head to the BBC to actually play the episode, since Braggoscope points you there rather than streaming it.
Trade-offs to know
The topical classification follows a library scheme, so subjects sometimes sit in places you would not instinctively look — literature by language, for instance, rather than one big "Literature" shelf. If a Directory browse comes up thin, try search instead. And because this is a finding aid rather than an official catalogue, treat it as a discovery layer: the BBC remains the source for availability and playback. For a comparable browse-by-subject experience on another long-running archive, BBC is the obvious place to confirm an episode exists before you go looking for it.
Which In Our Time episodes should I listen to next?
Braggoscope is a discovery layer for the BBC Radio 4 series In Our Time: it doesn't host audio, but it helps you decide what to listen to next from an archive of over a thousand episodes, then sends you to the BBC to actually listen. If you already know you like the programme, the fastest win is to stop scrolling the full list and instead pick a route into it.
Three practical ways to choose
- Browse by library topic if you want a subject area rather than a single episode — useful when you'd rather spend a month on ancient history than one evening on one topic.
- Browse by year if you want to follow the programme's changing interests over time, or you remember roughly when something aired.
- Search descriptively if you have a vague itch rather than a title. The site's own guidance is that phrases like "novels by women" or "prehistoric earth" work well, so describe the thing you're curious about rather than guessing an episode name.
A decision rule that works well
Ask what you want out of the next hour:
| If you want… | Do this |
|---|---|
| A topic you already care about | Search descriptively, then open an episode page |
| Something adjacent to what you liked | From an episode page, follow related episodes or tap a guest |
| A thread to pull on | Use a guest's page to see their other appearances |
| Deeper reading | Check the episode's reading list, where available |
Why the guest and related-episode links matter
These are the feature that turns one episode into a listening path. If a particular contributor made a topic click for you, their page shows where else they appear — often across quite different subjects, which is a good way to find episodes you'd never have searched for. The reading lists, when present, give you a way to go beyond the episode with books rather than more audio.
A concrete scenario
Suppose you enjoyed an episode on the ancient world. Rather than searching "ancient history" and facing a wall of results, open that episode, look at the related episodes and the guests, and pick one that shares a guest or a neighbouring topic. You'll get a much better hit rate than browsing the year list, and you'll cover ground the search box wouldn't have suggested.
One caveat
This is an unofficial guide, and listening happens on the BBC's own site, so treat Braggoscope as the map rather than the destination. If you want the official programme pages and audio, start at BBC Radio 4.
A useful next step: pick one topic you already know something about, search it descriptively, and listen to the top result — then use its related episodes to plan the following two.
How can I search the In Our Time archive for a specific subject?
Search Braggoscope's episode search when you know the topic but not the episode title. The site's own guidance is to be descriptive rather than exact: phrases like "novels by women" or "prehistoric earth" work better than a single keyword, and results come from the full archive of over a thousand episodes.
Three ways in
- Search — best for a subject you can describe in a few words. Start broad, then add a qualifier (period, region, discipline) if the results are too mixed.
- Directory — browse by library topic, such as Physics, Political science, Zoology, Painting or History of Europe. Useful when you want a shelf of related episodes rather than one answer.
- Archive — browse by year. Best if you half-remember when something aired or want to work through the run chronologically.
If you already have one good episode
Open its page and branch out from there. Related episodes are listed, and tapping a guest shows every other episode they appeared in. That guest route is often the fastest way to find a subject from an angle you hadn't thought to type. Where available, the reading list is shown with links to Google Books, so you can follow a topic from listening into reading.
Practical example
Suppose you want something on ancient trade networks. Searching "prehistoric earth" or "Mediterranean trade" will surface more than a single title match; from a promising episode, check the guest list for archaeologists who appear repeatedly, then use the Directory's History of the Ancient World section to see the surrounding episodes. If you'd rather hear the episodes in their original context, the Archive by year gives you that.
For the episodes themselves, listening happens on the BBC's own site; BBC Radio 4 hosts the programme, and Braggoscope is an unofficial guide to choosing what to play next.
What are the most recent episodes of In Our Time?
The most recent episodes listed on Braggoscope are from 2026:
- Particle Accelerators — 24 Sep 2026, filed under Physics
- Thomas More's Utopia — 17 Sep 2026, Political science
- Seashells — 2 Jul 2026, Animals (Zoology)
- Vigée Le Brun — 25 Jun 2026, Painting
- The Delian League — 18 Jun 2026, History of the Ancient World
- Machado de Assis — 11 Jun 2026, Spanish, Portuguese, Galician literatures
- The Evolution of Trees — 4 Jun 2026, Plants
- The Welsh Marches — 28 May 2026, History of Europe
- The Levellers — 21 May 2026, History of Europe
- The Garamantes — 14 May 2026, History of the Ancient World
For a listener deciding what to play next, the spread is the useful part: a science episode on accelerator physics, a political-philosophy classic, natural history, art history, and several ancient and early-modern history programmes. If you want one episode rather than a theme, start with the newest entry and work backwards; if you prefer a subject, use the topic headings above as a filter and jump to the year or subject browse.
Braggoscope is an unofficial guide to the BBC Radio 4 archive rather than a player, so it helps you choose an episode and points you to where it can be heard. The programme itself has run since 1998, hosted by Melvyn Bragg until 2025 and Misha Glenny from 2026, and the archive runs to over a thousand episodes.
A practical route: open an episode page, then follow the related-episode links or tap a guest's name to see their other appearances. The reading list, when available, links to Google Books for follow-up reading. The official programme pages live at BBC Radio 4.
How do I explore In Our Time episodes related to one I just listened to?
Start from the episode page for the one you just heard. Braggoscope is designed around that move: from an episode page, you can jump to related episodes or tap a guest’s name to see everything else they have appeared in. That gives you two different kinds of “related”: thematic neighbours and people who recur across the archive.
Two routes from an episode
- Related episodes — best when you want the same subject area or a nearby topic. This is the closest thing to a “what next” list and is the fastest route if you enjoyed the subject rather than a particular contributor.
- Guest pages — best when you enjoyed how someone explained things. A guest page shows their other episodes, which may span unrelated fields; that is useful if you want their manner rather than the topic.
If you would rather browse than click through
- Directory — browse episodes by library topic. Good when you know the broad field, e.g. you want more ancient history after a Greek politics episode.
- Archive — browse by year. Good for following the programme’s changing interests over time, or for picking a period you remember.
- Search — the site notes you can be fairly descriptive. Phrases such as “novels by women” or “prehistoric earth” are given as examples that return good results.
A practical example
Suppose you just listened to the episode on the Delian League. The episode page is your hub: related episodes might lead you to other ancient-world topics, while tapping a guest could lead you to episodes on entirely different subjects. If neither feels right, go up a level to the Directory and browse the ancient history shelf, or use a descriptive search like “Athenian empire” to widen the net.
Reading lists as a follow-on
Where available, episode pages also show a reading list with links to Google Books. If you want to go deeper than listening, that is the natural next step after the related-episode links.
For the programme itself and full audio, the official home is BBC Radio 4. Braggoscope describes itself as unofficial and focused on discovery, so treat it as a finding aid: use it to decide what to listen to next, then listen on the BBC.
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