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PODCAST

Cold War Conversations Podcast

Experience the Cold War like never before with Cold War Conversations — an award-winning podcast recommended by The New York Times. Each week, host Ian Sanders brings you raw, firsthand accounts from the people who lived through one of history’s most tense and transformative eras — soldiers, spies, civilians, and more. These aren’t stories from textbooks. They’re unfiltered voices from the frontlines of history — emotional, gripping, and deeply human. This is Cold War history, told from

history documentary

All Episodes

61:41

How a Soviet conscript became a NATO General (206)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/10/29

In 1985, an eighteen-year-old named Riho Terras arrived at the Soviet armed forces’ large conscript assessment facility in Tallinn obeying his conscription orders. Little did he know that 26 years later he would be a NATO General. Riho shares his experiences in the Soviet Navy with us in some detail. We hear about his service on the Soviet frigate Zadornyy including trips to the Mediterranean and Cuba as well as monitoring NATO warships. Riho also shares his experiences of Estonian independence and

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59:55

Terrorism in the Cold War (205)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/10/22

I talk with the writers and editors of Terrorism in the Cold War a new two volume book that uses a wide range of case studies including Polish Military Intelligence and Its Secret Relationship with the Abu Nidal Organization and Gladio – Myth and Reality: The Origins and Function of Stay Behind in the Case of Post-war Austria. The book sheds new light on the relations between state and terrorist actors, allowing for a fresh and much more insightful assessment of the contacts, dealings, agreements

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63:43

Emanuela - a Cold War Romanian Childhood (204)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/10/15

Emanuela Grama was born in the mid-1970s’ in a small provincial town in Eastern Romania. She provides us with a great insight into life in the Romanian provinces during the 1980s. Emanuela lived in a small two-bedroom flat and tells of her parents working in a factory while her grandparents looked after her. Her father listened secretly to Radio Free Europe and collected stamps so he could legitimately write to people in the West. Her parents told her not to talk at school about what was said at

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60:01

Pete - a BRIXMIS driver behind enemy lines in East...

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/10/08

Pete Curran served with BRIXMIS, the British Military Liaison Mission in East Germany. Their operation was established by a post-WWII Allied occupation forces' agreement, where British, US and French missions had relative freedom to travel and collect intelligence throughout East Germany from 1947 until 1990. Pete’s story starts with details of his vetting interview, driver training, and his first tour in East Germany. We also hear of the intelligence scoops he was involved in and some of his close

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61:59

MKUltra - the CIA’s mind control project & the...

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/10/01

Frank Olson was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and employee of the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories. In 1953 at a meeting in rural Maryland, he was covertly dosed with LSD by his boss Sidney Gottlieb, who was the head of the CIA's MKUltra mind control program. Nine days later, Olson plunged to his death from the window of the Hotel Statler. The U.S. government first described his death as a suicide, and then as misadventure, while others allege

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58:01

Flying into nuclear mushroom clouds (201)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/24

Squadron Leader John Robinson AFC (ret’d) was an RAF pilot who was tasked to fly into the mushroom clouds of nuclear bomb tests to capture samples at Operation Buffalo at Maralinga in 1956, and Operation Grapple, at Christmas Island in 1957. He tells of his recruitment into RAF, initial training and his cloud sampling missions as well his experiences of watching the tests from as little as five miles away. It is reckoned that over 22,000 British servicemen participated in the British and American

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58:16

Life in the underground Soviet music scene Part 3 (200)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/17

We hear of Joanna's heartbreak when her visa is refused, preventing her from marrying Yuri. However, using an ingenious method she manages an emotional reunion and eventual marriage as the Soviet Union begins to dissolve. Details of the book giveaway are here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode200/ Part one is here and part 2 here Joanna’s book, Red Wave written with her singer/songwriter daughter, Madison, includes Stingray’s extensive collection of photographs, artworks, and interviews

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58:31

Life in the underground Soviet music scene Part 2 (199)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/14

Joanna is questioned by the KGB and the FBI, falls in love with Yuri and starts to smuggle the bands' music out of the Soviet Union to produce the album. Details of the book giveaway are here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode199/ Part one is here and part 3 here Joanna’s book, Red Wave written with her singer/songwriter daughter, Madison, includes Stingray’s extensive collection of photographs, artworks, and interviews with the musicians. Buy the book and support the podcast here UK

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51:46

Life in the underground Soviet music scene Part 1 (198)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/10

Joanna Stingray was only 23 years old when she first set foot in the USSR and started meeting now-legendary musicians and artists of the Soviet underground. By 1985, she was writing and recording with them, and smuggling their music to the West in order to produce the groundbreaking album Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the USSR. This is her testimony of youthful fortitude and rebellion, her love story, and proof of the power of music and youth culture over stagnancy and oppression. Details of

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52:44

Popular Cold War culture of the 1980s (197)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/07

Over the past, nearly two decades, the Stuck in the 80s podcast has emerged as the go-to for all aspects of 1980s nostalgia from a North American point of view. And, much like Cold War Conversations, Stuck in the 80s is an award-winning podcast. Recognizing that decade’s popular culture was heavily influenced by the Cold War, co-host Peter Ryan organized a discussion with its curators, Steve Spears and Brad Williams. Key topics that are covered include some of the most important songs, films,

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71:45

Soviet and U.S. Military Liaison Missions & US...

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/09/03

I speak with Aden Magee who operated as the commander of a highly specialized Counterintelligence (CI) unit in West Germany during the last decade of the Cold War. We talk about his book The Cold War Wilderness of Mirrors - Counterintelligence and the U.S. and Soviet Military Liaison Missions 1947–1990. This is a rare book that details some never-before documented accounts of the Soviet Military Liaison Mission (SMLM) in West Germany and the U.S. Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) in East Germany and

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55:32

Ron - a veteran of the Korean War & the Malayan...

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/08/27

Ron Knight served in the Royal Marines on HMS Belfast during the Korean War of 1950-53. He was a gunner and describes the shore bombardments and how his gun was used in anti-aircraft defence. We also hear Ron describe life aboard the Belfast during this period Ron also served with the Royal Marine Commando during the Malayan Emergency which was a guerrilla war fought in the Federation of Malaya between Communist pro-independence fighters against the armed forces of the British Empire and

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77:41

The Gouzenko Affair - the start of the Cold War (194)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/08/20

Igor Gouzenko exposed Soviet intelligence's efforts to steal nuclear secrets as well as the technique of planting sleeper agents. The "Gouzenko Affair" is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War, with historian Jack Granatstein stating it was "the beginning of the Cold War for public opinion" and journalist Robert Fulford writing he was "absolutely certain the Cold War began in Ottawa". I talk with Andrew Kavchak the author of Remembering Gouzenko: The Struggle to Honour a Cold War Hero

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88:46

Flying the F-111 nuclear bomber (193)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/08/13

Rick Shreve was a USAF F111 pilot based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK. We hear about his early USAF career as a fighter pilot, then we move onto his transfer to the F111 and how he was trained to carry out nuclear as well as conventional missions against the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. He describes his low-level training missions to attack targets in the Soviet Union and East Germany and recalls a near-fatal incident amongst the Scottish lochs. Rick was also part of one of the crews that flew on

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56:42

The forgotten cosmonaut (192)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/08/10

This week it's the 60th anniversary of the flight of Gherman Titov on Vostok 2. The forgotten 2nd cosmonaut overshadowed by the exploits of his friend Yuri Gagarin. Titov’s 25.3 hours and 17 orbits flight was much more ambitious than Gagarin’s and more dangerous. It was also a very political flight, intending to distract the world from the building of the Berlin Wall a number of days later. However, there’s more to Titov than his flight, he was different character to most of the Soviet cosmonauts

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54:29

A workers view of Poland from Łódź in 1986 (191)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/08/06

Evan McGilvray has written a number of books on Poland as well as biographies. He is well versed in Poland and Polish society and away from the usual locations of Krakow and Warsaw. Evan first visited Poland in 1986, 5 years after the declaration of martial law which triggered the suppression of the free trade union Solidarity in December 1981. He visited some friends he had made via correspondence, who lived in the city of Łódź. He provides us with a great insight away from the intelligentsia as

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68:08

Unforgotten in the Gulf of Tonkin (190)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/07/30

On November 18, 1965, U.S. Navy pilot Willie Sharp ejected from his F-8 fighter after being hit while positioned over a target in North Vietnam. With a cloud layer beneath him, he did not know if he was over land-where he would most certainly be captured or killed by the North Vietnamese or over the Gulf of Tonkin. As he ejected, both navy and air force aircraft were already heading toward him to help. Thanks to Dennis DeFreitas and his Youtube video of Willie’s shootdown available here

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59:25

Philippe - A French soldier in Cold War Berlin (189)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/07/23

The French Forces in Berlin were the units of the French Armed Forces stationed from 1945 until the end of the Cold War-era in West Berlin according to the agreements of the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference. The troops were the French counterparts to the United States' Berlin Brigade and the United Kingdom's Berlin Infantry Brigade in the city. Philippe was stationed in Berlin from 1972 to 1973 with the French army for his military service. He did not volunteer and was not too happy at

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63:27

A Czechoslovak family's escape to Austria (188)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/07/16

We continue Drea Hahn’s story with her family’s escape to Austria and the realities of being a refugee. In 1986, under the pretext of a “ski trip” to Yugoslavia Drea’s family escaped to Austria. We hear about the sadness of being unable to tell anyone they were leaving and how her relatives were summoned to the police station to be detained for questioning. They didn’t communicate with anyone at “home” until 1989 or 1990 because it was too dangerous. Once, in Austria, there was no certainty that

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53:33

Drea - A Cold War Czechoslovak childhood (187)

Cold War Conversations Podcast ·

2021/07/09

Drea Hahn was born in Czechoslovakia in 1980 in Teplice. Her mother was a secretary and her father was an engineer but refused to join the communist party and this was a source of tension in Drea’s family. She was partly raised by her grandparents and her grandmother shared stories about growing up in “the Protectorate”, the name given to the area of Czechoslovakia occupied by the Germans in World War 2. Drea tells of a typical Czech childhood – her school friends, fond memories of school trips,

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446 results

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