Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe 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 sh…
2 years, 5 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 …
2 years, 5 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 visi…
2 years, 5 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…
2 years, 5 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 …
2 years, 5 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…
2 years, 5 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 reac…
2 years, 5 months ago
The year of the vuvuzela
The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup.
It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying inst…
2 years, 5 months ago
Kenya: Nairobi shopping mall attack
In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
They took hundreds of people h…
2 years, 5 months ago
The first person inside the 'Gates of Hell'
In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert.
He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater.
The cr…
2 years, 5 months ago