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Questions

Questions answered on In Our Time

72 questions from 9 episodes of In Our Time, each answered in our own words from our transcript of the episode.

▸Megalosaurus

2026-11-05 · 8 questions

Q1Who really came up with the name Megalosaurus, according to Emma Nicholls on In Our Time?Q2What did Emily Rayfield say William Buckland got right and wrong about Megalosaurus?Q3How does Steve Brusatte describe William Buckland's eccentric habits?Q4How did William Buckland reconcile Megalosaurus with the Bible, according to Steve Brusatte?Q5How fast could Megalosaurus move, according to Emily Rayfield's reading of the Oxfordshire trackways?Q6What did Emma Nicholls find at the Dewars Farm dinosaur trackway site?Q7Why is Megalosaurus less famous than T. rex, according to Emma Nicholls?Q8What is Scrotum humanum and why didn't it replace the name Megalosaurus, per Emily Rayfield?

▸Archive: Citizen Kane

2026-11-02 · 8 questions

Q1What did Ian Christie say about William Randolph Hearst as the model for Citizen Kane?Q2How did Ian Christie explain RKO's gamble and the $686,000 budget of Citizen Kane?Q3What does J.D. Rhodes say Rosebud really means in Citizen Kane?Q4What does Stella Bruzzi think drives Charles Foster Kane?Q5How did Orson Welles's radio career shape Citizen Kane, according to Ian Christie?Q6Why did Citizen Kane only become famous after the war, according to J.D. Rhodes and Ian Christie?Q7How did Citizen Kane help Noël Coward and David Lean make In Which We Serve?Q8Who really designed the sets of Citizen Kane, according to Ian Christie?

▸Casablanca

2026-10-29 · 8 questions

Q1Was Ronald Reagan ever meant to star in Casablanca, according to Sheldon Hall?Q2Who wrote Casablanca's screenplay, according to Pamela Hutchinson on In Our Time?Q3How did the censors change Casablanca's love scene, according to Sheldon Hall?Q4What does Pamela Hutchinson say As Time Goes By means in Casablanca?Q5How does Casablanca argue against isolationism, according to Pamela Hutchinson and Ian Christie?Q6Why was Casablanca kept from North African audiences, according to the In Our Time panel?Q7Why were Casablanca's makers later targeted by HUAC, according to the In Our Time panel?Q8Why did Casablanca become one of the world's favourite films, according to In Our Time?

▸Archive: Dark Matter, the mysterious substance in space

2026-10-26 · 8 questions

Q1How do astronomers know dark matter exists if it gives off no light, according to In Our Time?Q2What did Anne Green say about gravitational lensing as evidence for dark matter?Q3Why do Carolyn Crawford and Carlos Frenk say dark matter cannot be ordinary matter?Q4What are WIMPs and why does Anne Green call them the best dark matter candidate?Q5Why were neutrinos ruled out as dark matter, according to Carolyn Crawford and Carlos Frenk?Q6How does Carlos Frenk simulate the whole universe on a computer?Q7How are scientists trying to detect dark matter particles directly, according to In Our Time?Q8When does Carlos Frenk predict dark matter will be discovered, and do the other panelists agree?

▸Particle Accelerators

2026-10-22 · 8 questions

Q1How does Victoria Martin explain the way a particle accelerator works on In Our Time?Q2How did Cockcroft and Walton split the atom in 1932, according to Harry Cliff?Q3How was the Higgs boson actually detected at the Large Hadron Collider, according to Victoria Martin?Q4What did Peter Higgs say when the Higgs boson was confirmed, as Victoria Martin recalls?Q5Why does Harry Cliff think physics needs the Future Circular Collider after the LHC?Q6What does Harry Cliff say antimatter is, and why didn't it wipe out matter after the Big Bang?Q7Why does historian Joseph Martin say America's Superconducting Super Collider failed?Q8What are particle accelerators used for outside physics, according to In Our Time's panel?

▸Archive: Erasmus

2026-10-19 · 8 questions

Q1Why did Erasmus call himself Erasmus of Rotterdam, according to Diarmaid MacCulloch on In Our Time?Q2What did Eamon Duffy say about the manuscripts behind Erasmus's 1516 Greek New Testament?Q3How did Erasmus's translation of metanoete undermine the sacrament of penance?Q4What did Jill Kraye say Erasmus thought about pagan philosophers like Socrates?Q5Why did Erasmus first support Martin Luther and then break with him, according to Eamon Duffy?Q6How did Jill Kraye explain the free will debate between Erasmus and Luther on In Our Time?Q7What are Erasmus's Praise of Folly and Adages about, according to Jill Kraye?Q8How was Erasmus regarded by the Catholic Church after his death, according to Diarmaid MacCulloch?

▸Thomas More's Utopia

2026-10-15 · 8 questions

Q1What does the word Utopia mean, according to Laura Ashe on In Our Time?Q2Why do the Utopians in Thomas More's Utopia make chamber pots out of gold?Q3Did Thomas More really want to abolish private property, according to Joanne Paul?Q4Is Thomas More's Utopia really a surveillance state, as Laura Ashe suggests?Q5What does Book One of Utopia say about hanging thieves and sheep eating men?Q6How was Thomas More's Utopia first translated and received, according to Cathy Shrank?Q7Was Thomas More's Utopia a response to Machiavelli's The Prince, per In Our Time?Q8How did Thomas More's Utopia shape dystopian fiction and social science, per Laura Ashe?

▸Archive: The Measurement of Time

2026-10-12 · 8 questions

Q1Why are there 60 minutes in an hour, according to In Our Time's measurement of time episode?Q2What does Jonathan Betts say about the first mechanical clocks in medieval monasteries?Q3Why does Jonathan Betts say clocks run clockwise?Q4Did Galileo or Huygens invent the pendulum clock, according to In Our Time?Q5How does Kristen Lippincott explain the equation of time?Q6How did railways force Britain onto one national time, according to Kristen Lippincott?Q7Why was Greenwich chosen as the prime meridian in 1884, according to Jonathan Betts?Q8How do quartz and atomic clocks work, as Jim Bennett and Jonathan Betts explain them?

▸Archive: Trinity

2026-10-08 · 8 questions

Q1Where did the idea of the Trinity come from, according to Janet Soskice on In Our Time?Q2What was the Council of Nicaea in 325 trying to settle, according to Martin Palmer?Q3Why does the filioque clause divide the Orthodox and Western churches, per Martin Palmer?Q4What does Andrei Rublev's Trinity icon mean, according to Martin Palmer on In Our Time?Q5How did Julian of Norwich describe the Trinity, according to Janet Soskice?Q6Why do Judaism and Islam reject the Trinity, according to Martin Palmer?Q7Why did Isaac Newton and other Unitarians reject the Trinity, per Janet Soskice?Q8Why did the Trinity matter to 20th-century theologians, according to Graham Ward?

Questions from every show →

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