Podcast Episodes

Heathers: The making of a cult classic

In 1989, a dark teen comedy exploring self-harm and suicide flopped at cinemas.

Heathers would have to wait years before achieving cult status through home video tape releases.

Its stark portrayal of t…

Published on 10 months, 2 weeks ago

The first global case of coral bleaching

In 1998, a mysterious phenomenon turned many of the world’s most colourful coral reefs deathly white.

It was the first recorded global coral bleaching event in history, and ecologists blamed it on ris…

Published on 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Cuban blindness

In the early 1990s, as Cuba faced a devastating economic crisis, leading to severe food shortages and malnutrition, around 50,000 Cubans were inexplicably struck down with sight loss.

One of America's…

Published on 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Oradour massacre

In June 1944, a village in France was destroyed in just one day. German soldiers entered Oradour-sur-Glane and gathered the villagers together. They separated the men from the women and children and…

Published on 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Jacques Derrida: ‘Rock star’ philosopher

In 1966, at Johns Hopkins University in the US, a little-known glamorous French philosopher called Jacques Derrida took to the stage and eviscerated the prevailing philosophy of the day, making him a…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

English TV lessons in China go primetime

In 1981 the first major series of English lessons was broadcast on Chinese television.

President Deng Xiaoping had allowed private enterprise and was pursuing an era of “opening up” to the rest of the…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

1968 New York City teachers' strike

A series of unprecedented teachers’ strikes temporarily shut most of New York’s schools in the late 1960s, provoked by an ongoing dispute over whether parents could have a say in the running of their…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

Lithuania's 'wolf children'

In the aftermath of World War Two, children were left orphaned, or separated from their families.

They were forced to flee East Prussia when the Red Army advanced.

Whilst trying to survive, on their w…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

The Baltic chain protest

On 23 August 1989, approximately two million people joined hands to form a 690-kilometre human chain across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

It was a key moment in the protests in Eastern Europe that be…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

The Milltown Cemetery attack

On 16 March 1988, loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone killed three mourners and injured 60 others attending a funeral for IRA members killed in Gibraltar.

The so-called Gibraltar Three had been shot d…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago