Podcast Episodes

Protectors of the Amazon

In 2003, an oil company entered the indigenous Sarayaku community’s territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon in search of oil.

Neither the government nor the firm had consulted the community beforehand.

The…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

The Amoco Cadiz oil spill

In 1978, the Amoco Cadiz tanker ran aground off the coast of France.

The supertanker split, releasing more than 220,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

It was the largest oil spill caused by a tanke…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

Nigeria strikes oil

In 1956 commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the Nigerian village Oloibiri.

It marked the start of a huge oil industry for Nigeria but came at a cost for villages in the Niger Delta.

Chief S…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

The oilfield that changed Kazakhstan

In the wake of the USSR breaking up, Kazakhstan was wrestling with the challenges of independence; hyperinflation, the economy collapsing and food shortages.

But three-and-a-half kilometres undergroun…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

The oil crisis of 1973

In October 1973, Arab nations protested the American support of Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria by slashing oil production, causing prices to sky rocket.

Dr Fadhil Chalabi was deputy secreta…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

The first cat cafe

The world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998.

It started with just five street cats.

For the first few months they hardly had any visitors. Then a film crew made a TV programme about t…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

The Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy

On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.

It was one of the worst migrant shipwrecks on the Me…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

Kassandra: The peacekeeping telenovela in Bosnia

In the early 1990s, the soap opera or telenovela craze was sweeping the world. One of the most popular was Kassandra made in Venezuela, about a girl switched at birth and raised in a travelling circu…

Published on 2 years, 2 months ago

Concorde's first flight

On 26 September 1973, Concorde, the supersonic passenger aircraft, made her first non-stop flight across the Atlantic.

The droopy-nosed plane took to the skies for the first time four years earlier. …

Published on 2 years, 3 months ago

Vietnam War: Stopping nuclear disaster

In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the United States gove…

Published on 2 years, 3 months ago