Pod Academy

A guide through the Syria conflict with one of Britain's most experienced foreign correspondents

The vOICe technology is a computer programme that helps blind people see with sound. The software scans and converts visual information from a camera into a coded soundscape, which can be interpreted as a sort of ‘synthetic vision’ – effectively allowing the user to see with their ears!

Musician, DJ and radio producer, Chris Berrow, discusses live music and what the word "live" actually means.

Shakespeare in the Arab world, from a production off the coast of Yemen within Shakespeare's lifetime to an early Egyptian Hamlet that is a musical with a happy ending.

Dr. Hilary Rose considers the promise of interdisciplinarity, and explains her concerns about what she thinks might be the dulling of criticality through such endeavours.

We don't have earlids, like we have eyelids - so we have to hear sounds whether we like it or not. World famous sound recordist, Chris Watson, seen in the picture recording ants, talks to Ed Prosser about the noise pollution that bombards us day and night.

Think tourism is just for out-of-towners? Think again. Alex Bingham takes a stroll and encounters some of London’s walking guides. She finds out about University of Westminster's guiding course and a lot more about London.

"A human body is no different from the chicken that you buy. It needs refrigerating. You keep it cold, it doesn't go off." Forensic pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton takes us for a tour of the morgue.

As the gap between rich and poor widens, we look at the corrosive effects of poverty and how positioning it as a human rights issue might strengthen campaigns for greater equality.

Hollywood screenwriter, Howard A Rodman, talks about how to write a compelling film scene, and says that a formulaic approach to screenwriting has lead to movies that are all the same.

Public services should help people create good health, respecting and drawing on the assets in their communities - passions,perseverance, skills, family, friends - rather than treat them as a bundle of deficits that need remedial treatment.

"Lots of people just passively accept the religious identity they’re born with." Alom Shaha, author of the Young Atheist's Handbook, describes how he came to give up Islam. This is the first podcast in our new series on religion and non belief in contemporary society in partnership with New Humanist magazine.

" I was walking down the central corridor of Liverpool’s Alder Hey children’s hospital when I became aware of the sound of birdsong". Can birdsong help children get well?

We love those stunning images of the dark side of the Moon or colourful nebulae or rotating galaxies. But more and more astronomers are turning off their telescopes and opening their ears to the sounds of space.

George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier is still a shocking book to read. By revisiting the road to Wigan, this podcast explores to what extent things have changed since Orwell's time.

The remarkable life of A.L Lloyd: folk collector, writer, activist, broadcaster and an influential figure in the British folk revival

Adam Smith takes a tour of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Europe's leading genetics institute, home to the team that made the largest single contribution to the sequencing of the human genome.

Irish feminist filmmaker Pat Murphy talks about the people, ideas, events and contexts that have influenced her work, including Brecht, the Troubles and the long shadow of James Joyce.

Sujatha Fernandes discusses the power of hip hop in political movements around the world.

Egyptian writer, Nawal el Saadawi, took an active part in the Tahrir Square. "I have been dreaming since I was a child that there would be a revolution in Egypt, but also worldwide, that would cause the whole world to change. So when the Tahrir Square revolution came, I found myself there, as if I was living my dream."