Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
In 1982, audiences around the world fell in love with a gentle alien stranded on Earth and the young boy determined to help him get home. Steven Spie…
4 weeks ago
‘Genius’ sci-fi writer Octavia E Butler
In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing.
From a young age she dreamed of w…
4 weeks, 1 day ago
Making Turkish Star Wars
When the set fell apart for an ambitious cinematic space opera that was produced on a characteristically small Turkish budget, nationally famed direc…
1 month ago
'I created the Star Wars toys'
In 1976, American toy designer Jim Swearingen was working at Kenner, a mid-sized company in the American Midwest.
When a script for a new film called …
1 month ago
The hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73
On the 5 September 1986, hijackers took over a Pan-American Airways flight during a stop-over at Karachi Airport in Pakistan.
The armed Palestinian …
1 month ago
Hurricane Luis hits Antigua
On 4 September 1995, Hurricane Luis hit the Caribbean island of Antigua.
Two people were killed and three-quarters of homes were destroyed.
Authorities…
1 month ago
Peace People: The Northern Ireland campaign group born from tragedy
It is 50 years since a peace movement began in Northern Ireland spawned by the killing of three children. There had been seven years of sectarian vio…
1 month ago
Auschwitz: An SS officer’s photo album
In 2007, an abandoned photo album revealed the chilling normality of life at the Nazis’ most notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz.
The 116 black-an…
1 month ago
Uruguay's water referendum
On 31st October 2004, Uruguayans voted to enshrine water as a human right in their constitution, the first country in the world to do so.
The so-call…
1 month, 1 week ago
Defeating the screwworm
In the 1950s, scientist Edward Knipling began what would become one of the most successful eradication campaigns in history: the fight against the Ne…
1 month, 1 week ago