x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

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 the

history documentary

All Episodes

64:54

My father was Cold War Stasi spy Werner Stiller (134)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/08/07

Werner Stiller’s spectacular defection to the West in 1979 inflicted one of the Cold War’s most serious blows to the Stasi. At the time he was working as a case officer for the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, the Stasi’s foreign intelligence division, where he was in charge of scientific espionage in the West. We speak with Stiller’s son Andy, who although he was 11 months old at the time of his father’s defection met his father in later life. Also included is Scott Calonico, who is producing

en

73:12

Retracing the Iron Curtain: A 3,000-Mile Journey...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/07/31

Tim Phillips travelled the route of the former Iron Curtain from deep inside the arctic circle to the meeting point in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. On his journey, he explored both the surviving traces of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. The people he meets bear vivid witness to a time of change. There are some who now look on the Cold War with nostalgia and affection, but many more who still despise it unable to forgive the hard and sometimes lost decades that their families, friends, and

en

73:13

Cold War Czechoslovak hockey star defects to Canada...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/07/24

Vashi Nedomanský is the son of Czechoslovak former legendary ice hockey forward Václav Nedomanský aka “Big Ned” who is best known as the first ice hockey player to defect to North America to play. We hear a dramatic true story that combines sports, politics, espionage, corruption, and life-changing events that played out on a global stage. Among the stories we hear are the vivid descriptions of the 1969 Ice Hockey World Championships where the Czechoslovak National Team faced the Soviet national

en

71:32

Robert - The anti Cold War activist (131)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/07/17

Robert Perschmann describes himself as an anti-Cold War activist. His political views started to form while serving in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War period where he saw first hand the toll on the US military and the racism prevalent in the American South. An interview with a Soviet journalist which was broadcast on PBS radio (the US equivalent of the BBC) was the catalyst for an almost one-man campaign to reduce tensions between the two superpowers. At this point, Robert was working as a

en

85:29

Susan - An American teaching English in East Germany...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/07/11

Susan Morrison is Professor of English at Texas State University. In the late 1980’s she taught in Rostock in the former GDR and then lived in West Berlin but frequently crossed back into the East to teach and meet friends. In this episode we talk to her about her experiences and her impression of the two Germanys in 1989. During her time in Rostock, Susan got in trouble with the authorities over bulletin board known as ‘The Wall’; the way she was censured by senior academics in the GDR sheds a

en

60:53

The KGB tried to recruit me (129)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/07/03

Hans de Vreij is a Dutch journalist who has worked in Berlin , Brussels, Geneva and Prague. Whilst working at the United Nations in Geneva Hans was the subject of attempted recruitment by the KGB to develop an ‘agent of influence’ to disseminate Soviet points of view. In addition, they analysed the ‘targeted journalist’ in terms of possible blackmail: ‘kompromat‘ (compromising material). This especially held true for journalists who later might find themselves in an important position, such as press

en

47:03

Experiencing the Cold War via virtual reality (128)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/06/26

How can we go beyond the films, books, and photos to learn more about the Cold War? Films are certainly evocative and certainly inform but how can we go beyond that and immerse ourselves to see what it felt like to be there. The two technologies of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality may allow us to do this. Robin Hardenberg is a Berlin-based filmmaker who has developed ’The Berlin Wall App’ which uses Augmented Reality to bring the drama of the division of Berlin to those who are able to walk

en

71:55

Cold War US Army Intelligence Analyst (127)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/06/19

Bill was a US Army Intelligence Analyst. In 1986 he was assigned to Order of Battle Branch, Soviet Section where for three years he studied the Warsaw Pact armies working closely with the US Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) in Berlin which led to a transfer there in November 1989 Stationed in Potsdam he became an Order of Battle Analyst and participated in a handful of collection tours with the USMLM as the “back seater”. He tells of the little know history of USMLM during this period and the

en

47:08

Reporting the 1989 Romanian Revolution (126)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/06/12

We talk again to Mark Brayne who worked as a Reuters & BBC journalist during the Cold War. This time we are in Romania in December 1989 where riots, street violence and murder in several cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu to flee the capital city on 22 December with his wife. We hear the challenges of being a journalist in what was effectively a war zone without the risk assessments and protective gear of the present day. If you are enjoying the

en

58:44

A British Journalist under Stasi Surveillance (125)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/06/05

We talk to Mark Brayne again in a wide ranging chat about his career as a Reuters & BBC journalist including details of his Stasi file, his time in the Soviet Union, Hungary & Poland as well as the perils of editing analogue tape in a non-digital age. Among his interviewees we talk about the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa as well the ordinary people of the Warsaw Pact countries. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your

en

44:42

Cold War Britain & The Bomb (124)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/05/29

In Britain and the Bomb Bill Nuttall considers Britain's national journey from Empire to Europe and the transition of British nuclear weapons from the Royal Air Force to the Royal Navy. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow. It costs money and time to produce this podcast so I’m asking listeners to contribute $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts

en

64:05

A UK Journalist in the Soviet Union & GDR (123)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/05/22

Mark Brayne studied in Moscow 71-72, travelling the country with fellow UK students and spending silly amounts of time in the bathhouses with salted fish and very poor quality beer. He returned in 1974-75 as Reuters trainee journalist where he became very close to Andrei Sakharov, the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and Soviet-era dissident. East Berlin was his first solo posting for Reuters, where he and his wife Jutta both sang in the East Berlin Cathedral choir for four years, including two as

en

50:43

A 23 year old Cold War nuclear missile commander (122)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/05/15

Scott was a Pershing 2 nuclear missile Fire Control Officer which meant he was responsible for the launch of the missile. Aged 23 he was made platoon commander and responsible for 3 of these deadly weapons. The Pershing II was a mobile, intermediate-range ballistic missile deployed by the U.S. Army at American bases in West Germany beginning in 1983. It was aimed at targets in the western Soviet Union. Each Pershing II carried a single, variable-yield thermonuclear warhead with an explosive force

en

51:51

The Last Days of Cold War East Germany (121)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/05/08

Michael Paterson first visited East Germany just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and provides a vivid account of its subsequent decline and fall during the move to reunification with West Germany. Michael is a military historian, author, researcher and illustrator. He began his career with the military magazine 'Battlefields Review' as a writer and illustrator, before working in the printed books department at the Imperial War Museum, London. Michael has lectured frequently on military history and

en

78:10

Special Forces Berlin - Clandestine Cold War...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/05/01

James Stejskal served for 23 years with US Special Forces, including two tours in Berlin. Special Forces Berlin was a small detachment of 100 highly trained soldiers who, should hostilities break out, were to wreak havoc behind Warsaw Pact lines. The US government only acknowledged its existence in 2014 and John has written an incredible story of how these unsung heroes would have fought and died on what was effectively a one way mission. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written

en

75:59

Alan - Working in the GDR and the Soviet Union (119)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/04/24

Alan Baker worked and studied in the GDR and the USSR from the 1970s through to the end of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the Russian Federation as we know it today. In Moscow, Alan had the opportunity to live and study in the well-known Moscow State University as well as the opportunity to attend the 54th anniversary of the Russian Revolution Parade in 1971 in Moscow. In addition, Alan was awarded a Peace Scholarship to study in Leipzig at the Karl-Marx-Universität and worked for the Novosti

en

60:25

Cold War Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/04/17

Richard Hornik was the Warsaw Bureau Chief for Time Magazine from 1981-1983. He carried out numerous interviews with Solidarity Free Trade Union leader Lech Wałęsa including his last interview before martial law was declared in December 1981. He shares the stories of 1980s Poland as well as the interviews he carried out with the Solidarity leadership and the leaders of Communist Poland. If you are enjoying the show please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By

en

69:04

The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan, and Thatcher,...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/04/10

The Cold War got colder in the early 1980s and the relationship between the two military superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, each of whom had the capacity to annihilate the other, was tense. By the end of the decade, East-West relations had been utterly transformed, with most of the dividing lines -including the division of Europe- removed. We are here with Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy, and an International Honorary

en

70:59

Boarding Soviet Ships with the Cold War Danish Navy...

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/04/03

Lieutenant Commander Jørgen Brandsborg joined the Danish Navy in the 1980s. He met the Soviets up close and personal while serving in the North Atlantic where the Danish Navy acted as a coast guard when on patrol around the Faroe Islands, which meant boarding Soviet vessels for inspection. He also tells of Danish Navy training, Denmark’s position within NATO, as well as their defence plans, should the Cold War have turned hot. If you’re new here, you’ve come the right place to listen to first hand

en

44:25

Taking A Holiday in Cold War Albania (115)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY... ·

2020/03/28

In early 1989 attention being paid to Albania in England by the English media because the England football team had recently travelled to Tirana for a World Cup qualifying game. Looking for somewhere unusual to holiday Mike Innes went on 10 day tour to Albania. Arriving by air he travelled by coach, staying in the hotels which catered to foreigners and favoured party members. If you are enjoying the podcast please leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling

en

454 results

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 - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai