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
-
![]()
Georgia O'Keeffe
Fri 27 May 2022
One of the world's most famous woman artists remembered by her assistant
-
![]()
The World Festival of Black Arts
Thu 26 May 2022
A landmark event for African artists was held in newly-independent Senegal in 1966
-
![]()
The museum of banned Russian art
Wed 25 May 2022
How Igor Savitsky saved thousands of works from Stalin's censors, and started a museum
-
![]()
The last days of Frida Kahlo
Tue 24 May 2022
The great Mexican artist remembered by a friend who lived with her at the end of her life
-
![]()
Meeting Picasso
Mon 23 May 2022
A British art historian on becoming a friend of the great Spanish artist in the 1950s
-
![]()
Chasing the Marcos millions
Fri 20 May 2022
The lawyer who's spent decades tracking the fortune of the former Philippines president
-
![]()
Shanghai at War
Thu 19 May 2022
A first-hand account of living through the Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 40s
-
![]()
The first McDonald's in Moscow
Wed 18 May 2022
The American fast-food chain was a huge hit when it opened in the Soviet Union in 1990
-
![]()
The murder of Kelso Cochrane
Tue 17 May 2022
How a street killing in 1950s London led to Britain's first race relations inquiry
-
![]()
People Power in the Philippines
Mon 16 May 2022
In 1986, four days of huge public protests brought down President Ferdinand Marcos
-
![]()
The war in Transnistria
Fri 13 May 2022
The bloody conflict between Moldova and Russian-back separatists in the early 1990s
-
![]()
Eyjafjallaj枚kull: The volcano that stopped Europe
Wed 11 May 2022
How the eruption of a little-known Icelandic volcano grounded flights in Europe in 2010
-
![]()
China opens up to capitalism
Tue 10 May 2022
How China's Communist rulers established the country's Special Economic Zones in May 1980
-
![]()
Soviet nuclear missile alert
Mon 9 May 2022
The Soviet colonel who realised that a warning of a US nuclear attack was a false alarm.
-
![]()
Fighting for Uyghur rights in China
Fri 6 May 2022
A first-hand account of taking on the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s
-
![]()
The chemistry of cannabis
Thu 5 May 2022
How an Israeli scientist discovered the crucial compounds in the widely-used drug
-
![]()
-
![]()
Surviving the Falkands War
Tue 3 May 2022
British soldier Simon Weston was severely burned in an Argentine attack in 1982.
-
![]()
The sinking of the Belgrano
Mon 2 May 2022
An Argentine survivor remembers being torpedoed by the British during the Falklands War.
-
![]()
Algeria's rebel footballers
Fri 29 Apr 2022
Algerian players secretly left their French clubs to form their own national team in 1958
-
![]()
The Algerians who fought for France
Thu 28 Apr 2022
The bitter experiences of the fighters who opposed their own country's independence.
-
![]()
Algeria: The Massacre in Paris
Wed 27 Apr 2022
How French police turned on Algerian demonstrators in Paris in 1961, killing dozens.
-
![]()
The War in Algeria: A French soldier's experience
Tue 26 Apr 2022
A first-hand account of the brutal French tactics against Algerian independence fighters
-
![]()
Algeria鈥檚 Milk Bar Bomber
Mon 25 Apr 2022
Zohra Drif targeted an ice-cream parlour in Algiers during the war of independence
-
![]()
The battle for Kinder Scout
Fri 22 Apr 2022
How workers in Manchester fought for the right to walk in the nearby countryside.
-
![]()
Iranian revolution: The Kurdish uprising
Thu 21 Apr 2022
A boy caught up in the forgotten battle for Kurdish autonomy in Iran in 1979
-
![]()
Britain's Soviet spy scandal
Wed 20 Apr 2022
In 1971 during the Cold War, the UK expelled 90 Soviet diplomats suspected of spying.
-
![]()
Women's rights in Basra
Tue 19 Apr 2022
How women in the southern Iraqi city were persecuted for "anti-Islamic" behaviour
-
![]()
Erasmus: Europe's student exchange scheme
Mon 18 Apr 2022
The programme that's let millions of EU students live and study in other countries.
-
![]()
