PODCAST

The History Hour

BBC World Service

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

history personal journals

All Episodes

50:58

Robert Kennedy's funeral train and the opening of the...

The History Hour ·

2025/06/28

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service, all related to trains and journeys which have helped to shape our world.Our guest Nicky Gardner, travel writer and co-author of Europe by Rail: the Definitive Guide, discusses the origins of train travel. The first story involved the hijacking of a train in 1950s communist Czechoslovakia which was driven across the border into West Germany.We also hear about Senator Robert Kennedy's funeral train

51:07

Jaws and the Charleston church shooting

The History Hour ·

2025/06/21

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive language.It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Our guest is Jenny He, senior exhibitions curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She tells us about the history of this blockbuster movie. We also hear from Carl Gottlieb, who co-wrote the

50:51

Ronald Reagan and Lonesome George

The History Hour ·

2025/06/14

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dolly Jørgensen, Professor of History at the University of Stavanger in Norway and a specialist in the history of extinction.We start in 2012 with the death of a famous Galapagos tortoise called Lonesome George, who was the last of his species.Then, the incredible tale of how an Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, saved thousands of prisoners of war and Jews in Rome during World

51:23

Discovery of the first exoplanets and the goalie who...

The History Hour ·

2025/06/07

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Dr Jeni Millard, a science presenter, astrophysicist and astronomer. First, how two astronomers announced they had discovered the first two planets outside our solar system.Then, German twins Frederik and Gerrit Braun on building Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, which is now a world-famous destination visited by celebrities like Adele and Sir Rod StewartAnd in 1949, South Africa’s first

51:04

Battle of the Beanfield and the Champions League anthem

The History Hour ·

2025/05/31

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Nivi Manchanda, a reader in international politics at Queen Mary University in London.First, a moment when two cultures clashed in 1985 at Stonehenge.We hear about an English language novel from 1958, called Things Fall Apart.Then, the 1992 creation of the iconic Champions League anthem.Plus, how police raided the popular but controversial file-sharing website The Pirate Bay in

50:58

The history of photography

The History Hour ·

2025/05/24

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. The expert guest is Dr Mirjam Brusius, a research fellow in colonial and global history at the German Historical Institute.First, we hear about Martín Chambi - Peru's pioneering documentary photographer.Then Amaize Ojeikere talks about his father, JD 'Okhai’ Ojeikere, who created an iconic collection revealing the elaborate ways African women styled their hair.Plus, the story of Magnum Photos – the

50:33

Sweden’s Vipeholm experiments and the Intervision...

The History Hour ·

2025/05/17

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Elizabeth Abbott, writer, historian and author of the book, "Sugar: A Bittersweet History".First, we confront the dark history of sugar. We hear how a researcher in the 1990s uncovered the unethical aspects of Sweden’s Vipeholm experiments in the 1940 which led to new recommendations for children to eat sweets just once a week.And, how Mexico, a country which had one of the highest

50:33

Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures and 80 years since VE Day

The History Hour ·

2025/05/10

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Rubina Raja, professor of classical archaeology and art at Aarhus University in Denmark.First, we go back to May 2015, when the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria was about to fall to Jihadist fighters and how of a group of men risked their lives to preserve the world-famous archaeology.Plus, the entrepreneur and engineer Yoshitada Minami and his wife Fumiko Minami who came up with a way

50:51

The Vietnam War and the expansion of the EU

The History Hour ·

2025/05/03

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service about the Vietnam War and the invention of the hugely popular mobile phone game, Snake. Don Anderson, a former BBC TV reporter during the final days of Vietnam, discusses the atmosphere in Saigon as the North Vietnamese forces closed in. We also hear about the network of tunnels in the south of the country which Viet Cong guerrillas built during the fighting. Finally, the former president of the

51:32

Secret D-Day rehearsal and YouTube begins

The History Hour ·

2025/04/26

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is World War Two military historian and archivist Elisabeth Shipton. We start by concentrating on two events from the last year of the Second World War.Exercise Tiger took place in April 1944 in preparation for the D-Day landings of Allied forces in Normandy. But during that rehearsal a German fleet attacked and about 749 US servicemen died. We hear remarkable archive testimony from

51:10

The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and World Book Day

The History Hour ·

2025/04/19

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. It’s 50 years since soldiers of the communist Khmer Rouge party stormed into the capital, Phnom Penh. It was the start of a four year reign of terror which resulted in up to two million people being killed. We hear two stories from people affected by the regime. Our guest is journalist and author, Elizabeth Becker. She is one of the foremost authorities on the history of Cambodia, and one of the

49:47

Bonus: Defeated

The History Hour ·

2025/04/14

8th May 1945 was a day of rejoicing in Britain, the US and many other countries: Germany had surrendered, and World War II was over, at least in Europe.Yet it was not a day of celebration for everyone: for the vanquished Germans, it marked the end of bombings and of Nazi rule. But it was also a time of deprivation and chaos, fear and soul-searching. Millions of ethnic Germans had fled their homes to escape the approaching Red Army. In this documentary, Lore Wolfson Windemuth, whose own father grew

50:57

Nazis and sex strikes

The History Hour ·

2025/04/12

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Katrin Paehler, Professor of modern European history at Illinois State University.First, a journalist describes how he accompanied Hitler through the embers of the Reichstag fire in 1933.Then, the harrowing recollections of a doctor who saved survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.Next, a woman describes how she was caught between her job and her clan during the UN's disastrous

51:27

The wonder woman of the comic world and Namibia's...

The History Hour ·

2025/04/04

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear from the first woman to lead DC Comics - the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Jenette Kahn began turning the company around in the 1970s. Our expert is Dr Mel Gibson, associate professor at Northumbria University. She has carried out extensive research into comics and graphic novels.Next, Minda Dentler, the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the super-endurance Ironman

50:59

The phone call that changed Nigeria and a 'one of a...

The History Hour ·

2025/03/29

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the historic moment in Nigerian politics when Goodluck Jonathan made a phone call to General Buhari marking the peaceful handover of power in 2015.Our expert is historian and creator of the Untold Stories podcast, Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie, who takes us through Nigeria's political history in the leadup to the phone call that changed Nigeria.We find out about Harold Riley who was the only

51:08

The history of space travel

The History Hour ·

2025/03/22

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week we’re looking at the history of space travel, including the 60th anniversary of the first ever space-walk by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Also, the speech that would have been given if the Apollo 11 astronauts didn’t make their way back from the moon; the founding of the European Space Agency and how Brazil came back from tragedy to launch their fist successful rocket. The Sky at

51:24

The Americans with Disabilities Act and the invention...

The History Hour ·

2025/03/15

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We find out about the landmark protest in 1990 when wheelchair users crawled up the steps of the US Capitol Building in Washington DC, campaigning for disability rights.Our expert is Dr Maria Orchard, law lecturer at the University of Leeds, who has carried out research into disability and inclusion.We hear about the 2015 attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunisia's capital, in which 22 tourists were

50:55

The invention of the shopping trolley and the Calais...

The History Hour ·

2025/03/08

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We find out how Sylvan Goldman’s invention of the shopping trolley in 1930s America turned him into a multi-millionaire.Our expert is Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Literature at University College London, who is also the author of two books on the history of shopping.We hear about Toyota’s military pick-up trucks that transformed the 1987 north African conflict between Chad and Libya.The

51:16

Discovering the haemoglobin structure and the Nellie...

The History Hour ·

2025/03/01

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the moment Dr Max Perutz discovered the haemoglobin structure.Our expert is Professor Sir Alan Fersht, who is a chemist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology and knew Dr Perutz personally.We also hear about 22 Inuit children from Greenland's indigenous population who were sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment in 1951.Also, when mixed-raced children

51:13

Death of a language and the world’s longest kiss

The History Hour ·

2025/02/22

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the death of one of the oldest languages in the world, when an 85 year old woman died and took it with her in 2010.Our expert guest is Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur, who is the Head of the Endangered Languages Archive which endeavours to preserve languages that are disappearing at “an alarming rate.”We also hear about the historian who helped bring a former Stasi officer to justice decades

471 results

The History Hour

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Audio Biography

Inception Point Ai