Podcast Episodes

Reforming the Catholic Church with Vatican II

In January 1959, Pope John XXIII announced a council of all the world's Catholic bishops and cardinals in Rome.

It led to sweeping reforms, including allowing Mass to be said in languages other than …

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

How a Pope is chosen

Following the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005. He was elected after four ballots of the papal conclave.

The late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

The first black music station in Europe

In 1981, Rita Marley’s brother Leroy Anderson aka Lepke launched the Dread Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), Europe’s first dedicated black music station.

Frustrated by the lack of airtime for reggae mu…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

The assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye

In July 1993, Melchior Ndadaye became Burundi’s first democratically elected president.

He was also the first president to come from the country’s Hutu majority.

For decades up to that point, Burundi h…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Columbia space shuttle disaster

The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003.

It had been in use since 1981.

Iain Mackness spoke to Admiral Hal Gehman who was given the job of finding out what …

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Czechoslovakia's 'Velvet Divorce'

30 years ago this month, Czechoslovakia split into the separate states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

It was a rare instance of a state separating without a single life being lost. Thanks to thi…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Palestine Post bombing

Mordechai Chertoff was the foreign editor on the Palestine Post (precursor to the Jerusalem Post) when it was bombed on 1 February 1948.

He tells Lucy Williamson how, despite the attack, the newspape…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Invention of the MP3

Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg from Germany spent more than a decade developing MP3 technology, which was developed to convert audio into digital form.

He had been working on it since 1982.

It compres…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Albert Pierrepoint: Britain's executioner

Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Albert Pierrepoint was responsible for the execution of some of Britain's most notori…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago

Smolensk air disaster

In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing everyone on board.

It was one of the most tragic moments in modern Polish history.

T…

Published on 2 years, 10 months ago