Frdh Podcast With Michael Goldfarb

National History: Germans' constant attempt to answer the question "What is the German Nation?" has been one of the driving forces of history in the last 200 years.

National History: I have never witnessed the birth of a nation, but I have attended the death of one, Yugoslavia.

National History: The story of the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without a "nation-state" of their own.

National History: When does a "tribe" become a "nation"? The case of Ulster's protestants or the Scotch-Irish as they are called in America

National History: Europe - what is "the" nation? What is the "nation-state"?

Cultural History: Buddha, Confucius and the first Greek taught man was responsible for his own fate not the gods. But then something strange happened: their teachings became the basis for religions anyway.

Cultural History: Buddha, Confucius and the first Greek philosophers all lived at precisely the same time. They were the first to say that man, not God or the gods, was the measure of all things. Coincidence? or were their civilizations in contact with each other? In this documentary, originally made for BBC Radio 3, archaeologists, historians and philosophers offer their answers.