Month: December 2016

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Start the Week - Maps, Music and Medieval Manuscripts

Andrew Marr visits the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge to meet the oldest non-archaeological artefact in England, which is the oldest surviving illustrated Latin Gospel in the world - the sixth century Gospel of Saint Augustine.

The Librarian Christopher de Hamel tells the stories of rare and beautiful manuscripts which have crisscrossed Europe for hundreds of years at the whim of power politics, religion and social change, but even now have secrets that are yet to be discovered.

The musician and broadcaster Lucie Skeaping has also turned detective in her study of the Elizabethan jig - a popular and bawdy play set to music - where only fragments of parchment and clues to the tunes remain.

Edward Brooke-Hitching uncovers the myths, lies and blunders which have plagued the cartographers of old, with his book of early maps. Mythical sea monsters, fabled mountain ranges, even phantom islands have all been written into the atlas of the world.

Producer Katy Hickman.

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Serious Inquiries Only - SIO1: Chris Shelton; No Longer Atheistically Speaking

The podcast name change is officially underway!! It's going to take a little while for everything to filter through, but as you should already be noticing, things are different. Joining me for episode 1 of Serious Inquiries Only is multi-time guest and everyone's favorite ex-Scientologist Chris Shelton! Check out his website here.  Chris was recently the target of a Scientology hate-page, which is something of a badge of honor, but is also a very odd thing to go through. We find out just what Chris has been up to in the past year since we last spoke to him which prompted such a response from the church!    
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Opening Arguments - Law’d Awful Movies #1: The Firm

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS GIFT! This is normally for Patrons only, but we wanted to gift our non-patronizing listeners a gift and a sample of what they might be missing over at patreon.com/law!! Behold the majesty of what you are about to receive.  This is, hands down,  the worst legal movie ever made.  From the opening credits to the cheesy ending voice-over, literally everything this movie has to say about the law is completely and utterly wrong. Yes, for our first Patreon movie reward, we suffered through all 2 hours and 34 minutes of The Firm (1993), which chronicles the amazing journey of Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise), an I'm-no-idealist Harvard Law grad who refuses to break some imaginary law he thinks exists regarding attorney-client privilege, but has no problems with extortion, illegal wiretapping, fraud, and kicking a 92-year-old man to death. Come for the crazy legal subplot that can be solved in two seconds!  Stay for the crazy second legal subplot that gets introduced for the first time right after most movies are rolling the credits!  Stay even longer to watch the epic Tom Cruise-Wilford Brimley fight to the death!   Special guest:  Sam from Comedy Shoeshine. --------- Support us on Patreon at:  patreon.com/law Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/ And email us at openarguments@gmail.com  
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CrowdScience - Wave Power

Why can't we use energy from the waves of the sea to create all the electricity that we need? Listener Michael in Kingston, Jamaica wants to know. Living on a Caribbean island means he’s never far from the might of the ocean – so could it power his house?

Presenter Greg Foot heads to one of the world’s leading wave energy test locations, the coast of Cornwall in the UK, to find out. There, he witnesses the challenges of the marine environment, from metre high waves in a giant indoor test tank to being buffeted on a beach where a 25km cable runs beneath his feet to a grid-connected offshore test site. And find out if Greg’s plan to feel the power of the waves first-hand on a research boat works out – in the middle of winter, in the northern hemisphere.

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

Picture: Waves, Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images