Witness History Podcast
History told by the people who were there. For nine minutes every weekday, Witness History takes you back to moments which have shaped our world.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron 鈥� Argentina鈥檚 Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous 鈥榯ear down this wall鈥� speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler鈥檚 List; and Jacques Derrida, France鈥檚 鈥榬ock star鈥� philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal ; and the death of one of the world鈥檚 oldest languages.
Episodes to download
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The Falklands War - an Argentine account
Tue 5 Apr 2022
An Argentine conscript remembers his country's doomed military campaign in 1982.
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Escaping a Maoist cult
Fri 1 Apr 2022
Aravindan Balakrishnan ran a cult in London for 30 years; then two of its members fled.
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Selling Van Gogh's Sunflowers
Thu 31 Mar 2022
How one of the Dutch artist's masterpieces was auctioned for a world record in 1987.
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Afghanistan's women's newspaper
Wed 30 Mar 2022
Aina-E-Zan, or Women's Mirror, was launched in 2002 at a time of hope for Afghan women.
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The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin
Mon 28 Mar 2022
A decade ago protestors tried to stop the Russian leader tightening his grip on power
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Soviet holidays in Crimea
Fri 25 Mar 2022
Artek, on the Black Sea coast, was the Soviet Union's most popular children's camp.
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Ukraine's Babi Yar massacre
Thu 24 Mar 2022
The mass killing of Ukrainian Jews by Nazi Germany during World War Two.
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The Budapest Memorandum
Tue 22 Mar 2022
The security "assurances" offered to Ukraine after it gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994
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The Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Mon 21 Mar 2022
In 1986, a reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine causing the worst nuclear accident ever.
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The Shard
Fri 18 Mar 2022
The building of the controversial London skyscraper, designed by Italian Renzo Piano.
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Zaha Hadid's Cincinnati Arts Center
Thu 17 Mar 2022
The ground-breaking building was the first American museum to be designed by a woman
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Teheran's Freedom Tower
Wed 16 Mar 2022
The vast monument built for the Shah, but now a centrepiece for protests in Iran.
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Chandigarh: India's city of the future
Tue 15 Mar 2022
How the modernist architect Le Corbusier designed a city for newly-independent India
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The Frauenkirche - Dresden's symbol of war and reconstruction
Mon 14 Mar 2022
The story of the painstaking project to rebuild Dresden's historic baroque church.
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The Wages for Housework campaign
Fri 11 Mar 2022
How feminists in Italy began an international campaign for payment for housework in 1972.
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Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi
Thu 10 Mar 2022
The Iranian human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003: Dr Shirin Ebadi
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The Australian women who protested against the Vietnam war
Wed 9 Mar 2022
The Fairlea Five were jailed in 1971 for campaigning against military conscription.
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Russia's war in Georgia in 2008
Fri 4 Mar 2022
First-hand accounts of Russia's battle with another former Soviet republic in 2008.
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The takeover of NTV in Russia
Thu 3 Mar 2022
How NTV journalists tried in vain to keep their station out of President Putin's control.
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Boris Yeltsin's surprise resignation
Wed 2 Mar 2022
How the Russian president quit and apologised to the nation in a New Year's Eve address.
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Putin's war in Chechnya
Tue 1 Mar 2022
An eyewitness account of the Russian invasion of the breakaway republic in 1999
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Economic 'shock therapy' in Russia
Mon 28 Feb 2022
Chaos and hardship hit Russia when free-market reforms were introduced overnight in 1992
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The 2014 annexation of Crimea
Fri 25 Feb 2022
A personal account of how Russia took over the Crimean peninsula in 2014
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The death of Trayvon Martin
Thu 24 Feb 2022
The black Florida teenager killed by a Neighbourhood Watch volunteer while buying sweets.
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The Navajo Code Talkers in World War 2
Wed 23 Feb 2022
The Native American soldiers who talked in a secret code, helping the Allies to victory
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Nixon in China
Tue 22 Feb 2022
The historic visit by the American president which normalised US relations with China.
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The first sex worker strike
Mon 21 Feb 2022
When 200 French sex workers took refuge in a church in Lyon, it started a movement.
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The world's first civil union
Fri 18 Feb 2022
In 1989, Denmark became the first country to celebrate same-sex civil unions
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Bollywood's pioneering lesbian drama
Thu 17 Feb 2022
"Fire" was one of the first films in Indian history to depict a lesbian relationship.
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The Berlin Patient
Wed 16 Feb 2022
Timothy Ray Brown was the first person in the world to be cured of HIV/AIDS.
