Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchSurviving re-education in China’s Cultural Revolution
In 1968, Jingyu Li and her parents were among hundreds of thousands of Chinese people sent to labour camps during Mao Zedong’s so-called cultural rev…
2 years, 3 months ago
Pinyin: The man who helped China to read and write
In 1958, a brand new writing system was introduced in China called Pinyin. It used the Roman alphabet to help simplify Chinese characters into words.…
2 years, 3 months ago
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944.
It w…
2 years, 3 months ago
Winifred Atwell: The honky-tonk star who was Sir Elton John’s hero
Winifred Atwell was a classically-trained pianist from Trinidad who became one of the best-selling artists of the 1950s in the UK.
She played pub tun…
2 years, 3 months ago
Paraguay adopts its second language
In 1992, Guarani was designated an official language in Paraguay’s new constitution, alongside Spanish.
It is the only indigenous language of South Am…
2 years, 3 months ago
Finding the longest set of footprints left by the first vertebrate
In 1992 off the coast of Ireland, a Swiss geology student accidentally discovered the longest set of footprints made by the first four-legged animals…
2 years, 3 months ago
11M: The day Madrid was bombed
A regular morning turned into a day of nightmares for Spanish commuters on 11 March 2004.
In the space of minutes, 10 bombs detonated on trains around…
2 years, 3 months ago
MH370: The plane that vanished
On 8 March 2014, a plane carrying 239 passengers and crew disappeared.
What happened to missing flight MH370 remains one of the world's biggest aviati…
2 years, 3 months ago
Rehabilitating Kony's child soldiers in Uganda
In 2002, a Catholic nun arrived in Gulu, a town in northern Uganda, to help set up a sewing school for locals.
For years, the town had been the targ…
2 years, 3 months ago
The Carnation Revolution in Portugal
25 April is Freedom Day in Portugal. Five decades ago on that date, flowers filled the streets of the capital Lisbon as a dictatorship was overthrown…
2 years, 3 months ago