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 – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ 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’s oldest languages.
Episodes to download
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The famine in North Korea
Wed 7 Jul 2021
After the fall of the Soviet Union communist North Korea suffered a famine in the 1990s
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Britain's wartime gold
Tue 6 Jul 2021
When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939 it had to find somewhere to keep its wealth
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Cuba's blindness epidemic
Mon 5 Jul 2021
Up to 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss in the early 1990s
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China's trailblazing foreign students
Fri 2 Jul 2021
We hear from one of the first students to study overseas after the Cultural Revolution
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The Chinese Communist Party
Thu 1 Jul 2021
A small group of revolutionaries founded the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921
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The Syrian playwright who challenged the regime
Tue 29 Jun 2021
A play staged in Damascus undermined official propaganda after the 1967 Six Day War
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Zimbabwe's mass UFO sightings
Mon 28 Jun 2021
Around 60 children said they saw 'aliens' near their school playground in September 1994
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The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'
Fri 25 Jun 2021
For decades LGBT people in the US military had to keep their sexuality secret
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China's LGBT 'cooperative marriages'
Thu 24 Jun 2021
Thousands of gay men and lesbians in China hold fake marriages to avoid family pressure
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The secret diaries of 'Gentleman Jack'
Wed 23 Jun 2021
How the sexually explicit journals of a 19th-century English lesbian came to light
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Woubis, yossis and travestis: LGBT activism in Côte d’Ivoire
Tue 22 Jun 2021
In 1992, a group of LGBT Ivoirians stormed the office of a national newspaper
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The Stonewall Inn
Mon 21 Jun 2021
How a protest outside New York's Stonewall Inn inspired the modern gay rights movement.
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China's 'Economic Miracle'
Fri 18 Jun 2021
Massive economic growth has been possible because of migrant labour, but at what cost?
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The Trabant
Thu 17 Jun 2021
The iconic East German car that dominated the roads of communist Central Europe
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The police rape interview that shocked Britain
Wed 16 Jun 2021
The documentary that changed the way British police treated women reporting rape.
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Mindfulness for the masses
Tue 15 Jun 2021
Scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered a meditative approach to treat pain and depression.
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The Confederate flag and America’s battle over race
Mon 14 Jun 2021
Why an activist removed the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state house grounds
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The Fall of Madrid
Fri 11 Jun 2021
How the Spanish capital fell to General Franco's forces in 1939, ending a civil war
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The elections that Hamas won
Thu 10 Jun 2021
Palestinians voted to elect a new government in 2006. The outcome surprised everyone.
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Benjamin Britten's War Requiem
Wed 9 Jun 2021
The emotional first performance at the newly-built Coventry Cathedral in 1962
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When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor
Mon 7 Jun 2021
Israeli warplanes launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981
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How Switzerland defeated its heroin epidemic
Fri 4 Jun 2021
In the 1990s, the Swiss tried radical new policy ideas, including heroin on prescription
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Afghanistan's poppy problem
Thu 3 Jun 2021
Laila Haidari set up Kabul's first independent drug rehab centre in 2010
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When Peru mistook missionaries for drug traffickers
Wed 2 Jun 2021
The Peruvian Air Force shot down a light plane carrying American missionaries in 2001
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The killing of Pablo Escobar
Tue 1 Jun 2021
The Colombian drug lord was shot dead by police in December 1993
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The war on drugs
Mon 31 May 2021
President Richard Nixon was the first US President to try to wipe out illegal drug use
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The Tulsa Race Massacre
Fri 28 May 2021
In 1921, a white mob destroyed an affluent African-American neighbourhood.
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Rock concert for Chernobyl
Thu 27 May 2021
The first charity rock concert ever held in the USSR raised money for Chernobyl survivors
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Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend
Wed 26 May 2021
Amilcar Cabral led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in West Africa