As England’s flag fills the streets again, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch ask what the Cross of St George really stands for today — pride, pain, or power. From crusades to colonisation to football fandom, this is the story of how a saint became a symbol that divides.

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Peter and Afua explore the surprising story behind England’s most famous symbol — the flag of St George.

How did a man born in what’s now Turkey, with Palestinian and Greek roots, become the patron saint of England? And what does his red cross really stand for today? From ancient martyrdom and dragon-slaying myths to the Crusades, royal propaganda, and modern debates about identity, this episode traces how St George’s image has been reinvented through history.

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He defied the Church and changed the world.

Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch explore the life and legacy of Martin Luther — the rebel monk who sparked the Reformation, transformed faith, and left a legacy both heroic and deeply troubling.

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Stalin's paranoia and violence knows no bounds - even when it comes to those who might have helped him. But despite being denounced by successors from Kruschev to Gorbachev, today his reputation is strong as more and more Russians consider him a great leader.

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When Hitler breaks their deal and attacks the Soviet Union, Stalin falls apart. How can he rally the struggling Soviet Union to defeat the Nazi war machine? And when the end of the war comes, can he persuade Roosevelt and Churchill to redraw the world map in his favour?

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With the Bolsheviks in power, Stalin becomes Lenin's right hand man. Then at last his canny plotting wins him the top job, and he can unleash his ruthless vision for the Soviet Union. But the cost is untold thousands of human lives...

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A violent childhood in Georgia, then part of the vast Russian Empire, sets young Joseph dreaming of a different world. He becomes a Bolshevik and, hardened further by a sudden tragedy, is ready to seize his chance when the revolution finally comes.

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After his beloved daughter, Anna, is taken by the Gestapo, Freud is finally persuaded to leave Vienna. He arrives in England to a rapturous welcome and starts seeing patients. Tragically though, his illness catches up with him and he dies just before WWII breaks out.

How do we evaluate the legacy of the man who took us inside our own heads? Are his ideas still relevant? Psychoanalysts and Freud experts, Dr Susie Orbach and Professor Brett Kahr, join the discussion.

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Professor Freud is now famous, his ideas part of the zeitgeist – but serious rifts are appearing in his relationship with his friend and protegé, Carl Jung. Plus, the rise of the Nazis is becoming a very real threat to an Austrian-based Jew.

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Freud may have devised a new revolutionary method, ‘psychoanalysis’ but the problem is: almost no one cares, or reads his books. His controversial insistence that sexual issues are the cause of most psychological problems doesn't help. But then, among the his small following, he notices a young Swiss psychologist who is enthralled by his work – Carl Jung.

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The Oedipus complex, Freudian slip, repression, the ego and the id – Sigmund Freud’s ideas have become part of everyday language. He opened up the world’s mind to the idea of the subconscious. He also pioneered the idea that our childhood shapes who we are. But what are the secrets of his own early years? And what started him on the path towards, literally, changing our minds about everything?

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