Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchLunch atop a Skyscraper
In 1932, a photo was taken showing 11 New York ironworkers casually eating their lunch while sitting on a steel beam at the top of a skyscraper. No s…
1 year, 5 months ago
Sweden’s shocking sugar experiment
In the 1940s, some vulnerable Swedish hospital patients were fed large amounts of sugary sweets as part of an experiment to see what it would do to t…
1 year, 5 months ago
Mexico’s soda tax: Confronting soft drink giants
In 2013, Mexico’s government approved a tax on sugary soft drinks. The country has one of the highest rates of fizzy drink consumption in the world. …
1 year, 5 months ago
The founding of the Warsaw Pact
On 14 May 1955, the leader of the Soviet Union and leaders from seven European countries met to sign the Warsaw Pact.
In the years following World Wa…
1 year, 5 months ago
Tesla and Edison: Electricity rivals
By 1915, the two great rivals, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, had brought electricity to the world.
It was reported that they were set to share the …
1 year, 5 months ago
Intervision Song Contest
In 1980, Finnish singer Marion Rung won the Intervision Song Contest.
Born in the 1960s, Intervision was the Eastern Bloc’s answer to Eurovision. It …
1 year, 5 months ago
Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures from the Islamic State group
In May 2015, when the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria was about to fall to jihadist fighters, a group of men risked their lives to load centuries-ol…
1 year, 5 months ago
VE Day celebrations
The end of the Second World War in Europe came on 8 May 1945, after more than five years of conflict.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announc…
1 year, 5 months ago
Sinking of the Lusitania
On 7 May 1915, the British ocean liner, the Lusitania, was sunk by a German submarine off the Irish coast, as it sailed from New York to Liverpool.
Th…
1 year, 5 months ago
The invention of the automatic electric rice cooker
In 1955, entrepreneur and engineer Yoshitada Minami came up with a way to liberate women from two to three hours of housework a day.
When his water-he…
1 year, 5 months ago