Science: A Peculiar History

James IV's language deprivation experiment supposedly had the result that the children in question spoke Hebrew. In an effort to explain why someone at the time might have found this plausible, this episode looks at several colourful Renaissance figures who studied the Hebrew language, and their ideas, some more sensible than others. 

The Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great's conquests led to him ruling most of the Indian Subcontinent - and he became obsessed with learning everything he could about the various religions practiced in his Empire. But amid his religious enquiry, he's said to have conducted another, more sinister investigation, into the mechanisms of language acquisition.

Where did Akbar the Great get the idea for the experiment from? Given that he didn't have access to Herodotus, this episode looks at precedents in Ancient Indian and Medieval Islamic thought, before moving on to how questions of language acquisition and the origin of language developed since Akbar's time, bringing in a 'Wild Boy' from the South of France, several people claiming to have had languages revealed to them by God, and something called the 'Yo-He-Ho Theory'.CW: This episode includes descriptions of real instances of severe child abuse

In the summer 1925, the run-down Appalachian town of Dayton, Tennessee, played host to one of the most famous trials in history, pitting the former Secretary of State and 3-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan against the notorious criminal defence lawyer Clarence Darrow over the question of whether a local schoolteacher would have to pay a fine. But how did they get to this point? This episode focuses on the rise of anti-evolution sentiment in the Early-20th-Century USA, that led to the passage of the Butler Act in Tennessee, banning public schools from teaching that humans evolved from apes.

With the ACLU planning to challenge the Butler Act in court, the Dayton businessman George Rappleyea sees an opportunity to put his town in the spotlight. 

John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher from Dayton, Tennessee, goes on trial, accused of illegally teaching his students the Theory of Evolution. With the eyes of the nation and even the world turned to Dayton, Tennessee, notorious defence attorney Clarence Darrow interrogates an expert witness on the question of the taxonomic classification of whales.

The Monkey Trial continues - featuring dramatic speeches from Bryan and Malone, a less dramatic speech from William Jennings Bryan Jr., and a poetry competition in a London newspaper.

Going into Day 7 of the Scopes Trial, the defence's expert witnesses have not been allowed to testify, leaving them with no evidence whatsoever. But Clarence Darrow has a plan to call a surprise witness - a "Bible Expert".

With the trial over, William Jennings Bryan takes his undelivered courtroom speech on a tour of Tennessee, Scopes weighs up his career options and incinerates unopened fan-mail, and the lawyers attempt to resolve their personal differences in time for the appeal.

Fundamentalists attempt to capitalise on the momentum from the Scopes Trial to pass "monkey laws" in more states. But as the 20th Century goes on, new legal precedents force them to develop new strategies in response.