Month: February 2018

On today’s Gist, we get metaphysical. The White House is always in chaos. But can chaos be a permanent condition?

Maria Konnikova returns to play our favorite game and answer the question: Does an athletic uniform’s color affect the athlete’s performance? Konnikova writes for the New Yorker is the author of The Confidence Game.  

In the Spiel, why Norway is a Winter Olympics marvel.

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What would the perfect city look like?

Today more people live in cities than ever before and that shapes the way we think, says sociologist Richard Sennett. He lays out a vision for a city of the future based not on ancient Greece but on new 'open' streets.

Structural engineer Roma Agrawal charts the growth of cities from simple mud huts to the modern metropolis. She tells Amol Rajan about the engineering magic that holds towering city skylines in place, and recalls the eccentric engineers whose visions called our cities into being.

The Chinese built a city for the dead more than two thousand years ago and now its relics are on display again. Historian Edward Burman describes how the Terracotta Army found in a necropolis shows a ruler planning for life after death.

David Farr depicts the siege and destruction of Troy, the great city of the ancient world, in his vast new BBC One drama. He explains how the Trojans coped under ten long years of siege.

Producer: Hannah Sander.