In the fall of 2016, an army of over 100,000 Iraqi soldiers and militiamen mobilize to liberate Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, from the clutches of the Islamic State. Ali Mula, an Iraqi journalist, joins this army of uneasy allies--including Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds--to find out if they can put aside their sectarian differences and finally free their country from the scourge of ISIS.
Along the way to Mosul, Ali encounters an unforgettable group of characters including a Sunni tribal leader who calls himself 'the Crocodile', a female militia leader avenging the death of her husband, a canny, Iranian-backed militia leader, a lawyer-turned-warrior, an elite band of ISIS killers, and refugees who survived the brutality of ISIS occupation. As he nears the end of his journey, Ali meets face-to-face with a die-hard ISIS prisoner who reveals the truth behind his nefarious organization.

Dr. Hannah Fry takes us on a whistle-stop tour around the mathematics of success, to help us understand how to get more of what we want in our own lives. From the best way to bag a budget dinner or keep the kids quiet, to averting nuclear Armageddon and negotiating global climate change agreements.

Memory is the glue that binds our mental lives. Without it, we’d be prisoners of the present, unable to use the lessons of the past to change our future. From our first kiss to where we put our keys, memory represents who we are and how we learn and navigate the world. But how does it work? Neuroscientists using cutting-edge techniques are exploring the precise molecular mechanisms of memory". By studying a range of individuals ranging —from an 11-year-old whiz-kid who remembers every detail of his life to a woman who had memories implanted— scientists have uncovered a provocative idea. For much of human history, memory has been seen as a tape recorder that faithfully registers information and replays intact. But now, researchers are discovering that memory is far more malleable, always being written and rewritten, not just by us but by others. We are discovering the precise mechanisms that can explain and even control our memories. The question is— are we ready?

Professor Mary Beard looks beyond the stories of emperors, armies, guts and gore to meet the everyday people at the heart of Ancient Rome's vast empire. In this programme, Mary asks not what the Romans did for us, but what the empire did for Rome. She rides the Via Appia, climbs up to the top seats of the Colosseum, takes a boat to Rome's port Ostia and takes us into the bowels of Monte Testaccio. She also meets some extraordinary Romans: Eurysaces, an eccentric baker, who made a fortune out of the grain trade and built his tomb in the shape of a giant bread oven; Baricha, Zabda and Achiba, three prisoners of war who became Roman citizens; and Pupius Amicus, the purple dye seller making imperial dye from shellfish imported from Tunisia. This is Rome from the bottom up.

Soldiers and officers continually came into conflict with their consciences. How much freedom did individuals have? Were they executing Hitler's criminal plans, or was it the Wehrmacht's war? There were crimes against humanity, against civilians, prisoners of war, and there was the Holocaust itself. The Trent Park records discovered and analysed by historian Sönke Neitzel, author of Tapping Hitler's Generals, show that the 84 German generals who were interned at Trent Park were aware of the severity of the war crimes they had been involved in and that some discussed them almost compulsively. They included the Commissar Order, to kill any Soviet commissar, and Rathenau's order to kill the Jews, including children.

Originally a Prisoner of War camp for Soviet soldiers, SS Commander Rudolf Hoss oversaw the transition of Auschwitz from a political camp to a place to murder thousands of people. In the Autumn of 1941,the Nazis were about to embark on the most crucial few months in the planning of what they called 'The Final Solution' - the extermination of the Jews.