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PODCAST

Witness History

BBC World Service

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

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

10:35

Irawati Karve: India’s groundbreaking anthropologist

Witness History ·

2025/07/21

Irawati Karve became India’s first female anthropologist - studying tribes that nobody had investigated, and taking her children on expeditions deep in the rainforest. In 1927, she dared to defy the racist theory of Eugen Fischer, a famous German professor during her PhD in Berlin. Irawati scientifically rejected human differences to justify discrimination, and was the first to do so.Her granddaughter, Urmilla Deshpande, speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about her life and career. Eye-witness accounts

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10:43

Italo disco

Witness History ·

2025/07/18

In the late 1970s, disco died in America and a new wave of Italian producers took advantage of the advances in electronic instruments to craft their own dancefloor fillers.The result was Italo disco – a genre of music recognisable for its synthesiser beats, heavily accented English lyrics and catchy melodies.One of the biggest hits was Dolce Vita.Singer Ryan Paris – real name Fabio Roscioli – tells Vicky Farncombe how it felt to be part of that moment.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive

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10:38

The 'Turbot War'

Witness History ·

2025/07/17

In 1995, an international row broke out between Canada and Spain over fishing quotas. It started with gunfire and ended with a deal.The dispute began after Canada set up restrictions to protect fish stocks, including the turbot. A 320km (200 mile) controlled zone was placed around the country’s north Atlantic coast. Fishermen also had to stick to quotas. But, according to Canada, some boats from the European Union were catching far more turbot than had been agreed. As a warning, the coastguard

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9:35

Greece’s debt crisis

Witness History ·

2025/07/16

It was a week that brought the future of Greece and the Eurozone to the brink. Ten years ago, on 6 July the Greek people voted against the terms of a financial bailout which included raising taxes and slashing welfare spending. Greece owed €323bn to various countries and banks within Europe. Its banks were closed. A quarter of the population and half of Greece’s young people were unemployed.The morning after the vote, Euclid Tsakalotos was brought in to replace Yanis Varoufakis as finance minister

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10:23

The Iran nuclear deal

Witness History ·

2025/07/15

On 14 July 2015, Iran agreed to temporarily limit its nuclear programme. The deal was signed in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it was agreed between Iran and a group of world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany, together with the EU. The accord came after years of tension over Iran’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran insisted that its nuclear programme was entirely peaceful, but

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10:41

The start of Voice of America

Witness History ·

2025/07/14

In March 2025, radio frequencies worldwide stopped carrying Voice of America broadcasts for the first time in 83 years. President Donald Trump’s administration had imposed funding cuts on the US Agency for Global Media with the White House accusing the broadcaster of being "anti-Trump", "radical" and "leftist”. While the cuts are being disputed in courts, Josephine McDermott traces the beginnings of the overseas broadcaster which was designed to counter Nazi propaganda. In the first Voice of America

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9:55

The man who said ‘no’ to Disney

Witness History ·

2025/07/11

In 1941, Walt Disney made a tempting offer to a fellow pioneer of the animation industry, Quirino Cristiani - the author of the first animated feature film.Cristiani was an Italian immigrant raised in Argentina who built a career creating animated political satires in the early days of cinema. He authored full-length movies that he drew entirely on his own, sketching and cutting thousands of figures that he tied with thread to facilitate motion. Quirino’s technique was rudimentary, but impressive

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9:31

Ni Una Menos women’s movement in Argentina

Witness History ·

2025/07/10

On 3 June 2015, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in dozens of cities and towns demanding an end to violence against women. There were demonstrations in Chile and Uruguay in solidarity too. Argentina was reporting a female murder rate of one every 31 hours. The killing of a 14-year-old pregnant girl by her boyfriend was seen as a tipping point. Something had to be done. A collective of female journalists and writers campaigned under the banner ‘Ni Una Menos’ (not

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10:41

Argentina’s national genetics bank created to...

Witness History ·

2025/07/09

In 1982, Argentine geneticist Victor Penchaszadeh was living in exile in New York when he received a call that would change the course of his career. Two founding members of the campaign group, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, were asking for his help to find their kidnapped grandchildren. Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina was under military rule. During this period, thousands of mainly young, left-wing people were forcibly disappeared - taken to clandestine detention centres, where many were

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10:34

The mystery of Evita’s corpse

Witness History ·

2025/07/08

When Eva Peron, Argentina's most famous First Lady, died in 1952, her body was embalmed. Three years later, her widower, Juan Peron, was deposed in a coup. But military officers feared her corpse would become a rallying point of protest against the new government. So they stole it. Over the next few decades, Evita’s body was stored in several different places in several different countries, inspiring wild stories about its supernatural powers. In 2013, Linda Pressly spoke to Domingo Tellechea, the

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10:40

Argentina’s 'trial of the juntas'

Witness History ·

2025/07/07

In 1985, Argentina’s former military leaders were put on trial accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering thousands of their own people. The ‘trial of the juntas’ was the first major prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg trials following World War Two. Between 1976 and 1983, around 30 thousand people disappeared or were murdered in Argentina during the so-called Dirty War. Military leaders claimed the victims were left wing guerrillas plotting terrorist attacks against their

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10:09

Dancing in the Street: David Bowie and Mick Jagger

Witness History ·

2025/07/04

In July 1985, music legends Mick Jagger and David Bowie were asked to perform a duet with a twist at Live Aid, the biggest concert in pop history. Utilising the latest satellite technology, Mick would perform on the US stage in Philadelphia, while David would perform on the UK stage at Wembley Stadium. As the technical issues were being discussed, it soon became obvious that a half-second delay in the link between cities would prevent the live performance from happening, so a recording was planned

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10:31

Back to the Future

Witness History ·

2025/07/03

On 3 July 1985 Back to the Future was released. The film tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, played by Michael J Fox, who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-travelling DeLorean car invented by his friend, Doc Brown. The screenplay for the genre-bending story was rejected 40 times, but it became a Hollywood blockbuster, dominating contemporary culture and bringing its leading actor worldwide fame. The film’s co-writer and producer, Bob Gale takes

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10:03

Drill, baby, drill!

Witness History ·

2025/07/02

Judging by how often US President Donald Trump has repeated the slogan “Drill, baby, drill”, you might think he coined it. But the phrase actually dates back to 2008. It was at the Republican National Convention that former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele first used it, arguing the United States needed to become energy independent. The slogan, the result of what Michael describes as a late-night epiphany, quickly entered the mainstream of American politics - adopted by a range of

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10:46

Cecil the Lion

Witness History ·

2025/07/01

On 1 July 2015, a much-loved lion was killed in Zimbabwe by an American trophy hunter.Black-maned Cecil was one of the star attractions at Hwange National Park. He was baited outside the park and shot with a bow.American dentist Walter Palmer, who reportedly paid a local guide $50,000 to shoot Cecil, was widely condemned. He said he didn’t know Cecil was a known local favourite and had relied on the expertise of a local professional guide to carry out a legal hunt.He was cleared of any wrongdoing

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10:18

Ai Weiwei: Imprisoned for art

Witness History ·

2025/06/30

In 2008, an earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed almost 90,000 people. Many were crushed when school buildings collapsed, exposing their poor construction quality. To counter perceived government suppression of information, the artist Ai Weiwei made an artwork from 90 tonnes of steel bars salvaged from the schools' wreckage. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was detained in harsh conditions for 81 days and banned from leaving China. While his official charge was tax evasion, his detention was widely

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10:46

Italian happiness trains

Witness History ·

2025/06/27

Between 1945 and 1952, ‘happiness trains’ transported 70,000 children from southern to northern Italy to live with wealthier families.It was a scheme organised by the Union of Italian Women and the Italian Communist Party in an attempt to make the lives of southern Italian children better.Ten-year-old Bianca D’Aniello was one of the passengers to travel from Salerno in the south to Mestre in the north where she was looked after by a family with more resources.Bianca’s life in Mestre was miserable

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9:14

The opening of the Medellin Metro

Witness History ·

2025/06/26

When the Medellin Metro opened in 1995, the Colombian city had recently been called the “murder capital of the world” due to the high homicide rate caused by Pablo Escobar’s drug wars. The network has grown to include a large cable car network which stretches to the neighbourhoods built into the sides of mountains that surround Medellin. It has helped transform the city into a tourist hot-spot – something unimaginable 30 years ago. Tim O’Callaghan has been speaking to Tomas Andreas Elejalde, who

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10:25

The funeral train for Robert Kennedy

Witness History ·

2025/06/25

In June 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was killed during his campaign for the American presidency.There was nationwide mourning with huge crowds lining the tracks for his funeral train, as it travelled from New York to Washington DC. In 2012, Simon Watts spoke to Kennedy's former press secretary Frank Mankiewicz and to his former bodyguard Rosey Grier. 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

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10:37

The Czech Freedom Train

Witness History ·

2025/06/24

On 11 September 1951, the 9.55am train from Prague to Aš, in Communist Czechoslovakia was hijacked and driven to freedom in West Germany. One hundred and eleven people were on board and 34 of them never returned, starting new lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.The remaining 77 returned to Czechoslovakia to face state security, the Státní bezpečnost, and many were jailed.Rachel Naylor uses an archive interview with Karel Ruml, one of the hijackers, who went on to move to the United

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