主播大秀

The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 1: Cutting and Crisis - Rediscovering the human body

Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist. She cuts up bodies to reveal another world of astonishing detail beneath the skin. In this episode, Alice introduces her time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge, from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age. She begins by asking how we see our bodies and examines one idea that has forever dogged our concept of the body - the soul and the need for it to somehow be meshed into our picture of the body.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for 主播大秀 Radio 4