Podcast Episodes

Japanese death row guard

Yoshikuni Noguchi spent time as a guard in one of the prisons in Japan that would carry out the death penalty, and witnessed the hanging of a condemned prisoner in 1971, before going on to become a l…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

When Britain tried to censor the Troubles in Northern Ireland

Frontman of punk-rock band The Undertones, Paul McLoone, recalls the “weird, slightly funny, slightly sad, slightly surreal” time he was the voice of IRA commander-turned-politician, Martin McGuinnes…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Swine flu vaccine and narcolepsy

In 2009, hundreds of teenagers’ lives were changed forever, when a vaccine designed to protect them against swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder.

It affected people in various countries inc…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

France's nuclear tests in Algeria

Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara.

High levels of radioactivity, and a failure to safely dispose of nuclear waste, have left a dangerous legacy.

Dan Ha…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Kosovo’s house schools

In 1990s Kosovo, a generation of Albanians received their education crammed into thousands of private homes.

When Slobodan Milosevic’s Serb nationalist regime forcibly evicted them from schools and u…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Europe's horse meat scandal

In 2013, horse meat was discovered in Irish beef burgers. The scandal snowballed and within six weeks horse meat was found in beef products in more than a dozen European countries.

The story revealed…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Miracle on the Hudson

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York, after geese struck both its engines shortly after take off.

All 155 people on board survived.

Rachel Naylor speaks to …

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

World’s first tidal power station

The world’s first tidal power station is on the estuary of the River Rance in France.

It was opened in 1966 by President Charles de Gaulle and has been capturing the natural power of the oceans’ tide…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Galápagos Islands’ sea cucumber dispute

A boom in demand for sea cucumbers in Asia in the 1990s set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists in the waters off the Galápagos Islands, where the protein-rich ocean creature w…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago

Paul Robeson and the transatlantic phone line

In September 1956, a telephone cable called TAT-1 was laid under the Atlantic Ocean, making high-quality transatlantic phone calls possible for the first time.

Eight months later in May 1957, 1,000 pe…

Published on 2 years, 11 months ago