Monday 14 January 2013: The Age of Reason - Professor Mildred Dresselhaus

Professor Mildred Dresselhaus is a physicist and world expert on graphite. Her nickname is the Queen of Carbon. Her work has led the way for developments in nanotechnology, the science of tiny things, that could revolutionise our lives. Now aged 82 she is still based at the prestigious MIT University in Massachusetts, USA. In conversation with Jenni Murray she discusses her career in a male dominated field and how she was inspired by one of the few women to win a Nobel Prize.

See the BBC website for this programme

Tuesday 15 January 2013 6:06pm: Mrs Parker

In the winter of 1954 two schoolgirls—Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme—murdered Pauline’s mother on a remote walking track in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Nearly sixty years later the case still fascinates many. There’s a seemingly never ending supply of articles, films and books all speculating on the motives and relationship between the two murderers. Were they 'girls gone mad', or 'girls gone bad?'

Documentary-maker Ruth Beran travelled back to the crime scene with author Peter Graham, to discover what echoes of this case remain in the buildings, landscape, and people of Christchurch; and what this might reveal about current societal attitudes towards women, lesbianism, crime and punishment.

Tuesday 15 January 2013 6:33pm Ethiopia

Andrea Wenzel takes us to U-Street, a neighbourhood in the American Capital that for much  of the 20th Century, was a vibrant intellectual, artistic and commercial hub for African Americans known as ‘Black Broadway’.

But the neighbourhood has since seen changes with gentrification --and immigration. In more recent years, Ethiopian immigrants have been chasing the American dream alongside their African American neighbours.

See the WAMU American University website for this documentary.

Wednesday 16 January 2013: Anthropogenesis - The Emergence of Humankind

The final lecture from Sir Lloyd Geering in this series in looks at anthropogenesis and the emergence of humankind.

Thursday 17 January 2013: Grit, Luck and Money

More people are going to college in America than ever before, but a lot of them aren't finishing. Low-income students, in particular, struggle to get to graduation. Only 9 percent complete a bachelor's degree by age 24. Why are so many students quitting, and what leads a few to beat the odds and make it through? In this documentary, American RadioWorks correspondent Emily Hanford introduces us to young people trying to break into the middle class, teachers trying to increase their chances and researchers investigating the nature of persistence.

See the American RadioWorks website for this programme

Friday 18 January 2013: The Age of Reason - Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi is a leading Egyptian feminist, physician and writer. She qualified as a doctor in the 1950s and has spent much of her life drawing attention to the oppression of women. Her work has been banned and she has been imprisoned for her beliefs. Now aged 81 she continues to campaign. She’s in conversation with Lyse Doucet about her life and work in the sixth and final in the BBC series The Age of Reason.