Podcast Episodes

GLP-1: A breakthrough for diabetes and obesity

In the 1980s, scientists made a discovery that would eventually lead to the development of drugs now used worldwide to treat diabetes and to help peo…

4 months, 2 weeks ago

The UK’s first black-owned music studio

Sonny Roberts, a Jamaican carpenter, arrived in Britain in the 1950s. It was a time of racial disharmony, including the Notting Hill riots and the mu…

4 months, 2 weeks ago

Wangari Maathai: The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

In 2004, the Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Move…

4 months, 2 weeks ago

The British oil tanker sunk in Indonesia

In 1958, the British oil tanker, SS San Flaviano, was sunk in the harbour of Balikpapan, Indonesia, while a rebellion was underway against President …

4 months, 2 weeks ago

My aunt created The Moomins

The first Moomins story about a family of nature-loving white round trolls was published in 1945 during World War Two. The Moomins and the Great Floo…

4 months, 2 weeks ago

Helen Fielding: The creator of Bridget Jones

In 1995, a single 30-something woman with big knickers and blue soup first appeared in a weekly column, published by British newspaper The Independen…

4 months, 3 weeks ago

The trial of Soviet writers Daniel and Sinyavsky

In 1965, two writers were accused of publishing anti-Soviet material abroad.

The arrest of Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky was seen as symbolic of th…

4 months, 3 weeks ago

Jorge Luis Borges: 'Father' of Latin American fiction

In 1961, the Argentine poet and short story writer Jorge Luis Borges won the Formentor Prize for literature.

Borges’ stories were characterised by min…

4 months, 3 weeks ago

Wallander and the rise of Nordic Noir

Published in 1991, Faceless Killers was the first of Henning Mankell’s crime novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander. The series changed the…

4 months, 3 weeks ago

How BRICS got its name

In 2001, a few months after 9/11, economist Jim O’Neill was working at Goldman Sachs when he wrote a report about which countries might become big pl…

4 months, 3 weeks ago