Batteries are everywhere in modern society. They’re in our phones, laptops and cars, or inside the classics - like torches, portable radios, or TV remotes. They’re inside drones probing deep beneath the ocean or providing juice to the Mars rover.

In an electrifying episode of All Consuming, Amit Katwala and Charlotte Williams explore the history of the energy storage devices that changed the world.

We check in with the curator of contemporary Science at the Science Museum, Dr Sophie Wearing, to learn about the unlikely origin of the term “battery” and the early uses of energy storage. We also we get up to speed with Electric Vehicle Batteries with the Faraday Institution’s chief scientist, Sir Peter Bruce. Battery recycler Sam Haig deconstructs lithium-ion battery recycling and, to get the bigger picture, we hear from pumped-storage hydro expert Alex Campbell.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 Show less