Podcast Episodes

The Balcombe Street IRA siege

In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small f…

3 months ago

How Lagos Fashion Week began

In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map.

Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of desig…

3 months, 1 week ago

Wole Soyinka: Imprisoned during Nigeria’s Biafra war

In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from t…

3 months, 1 week ago

Escaping Nigeria's Biafra war

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million peo…

3 months, 1 week ago

Building the New Afrika Shrine in Nigeria

It's 25 years since the opening of the New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria.

A hub for Afrobeat music and culture, it's ded…

3 months, 1 week ago

West Africa fights back against Boko Haram

In 2015, West African countries fought against the jihadist militant group Boko Haram which controlled large areas of northeastern Nigeria.

The group…

3 months, 1 week ago

Ravi and George

Following the Beatles' final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar. Flee…

3 months, 1 week ago

India goes to the UN

In 1946, an Indian woman made history by leading her country’s first delegation to the United Nations.

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit described it as a moment …

3 months, 1 week ago

The Howard Hughes literary hoax

In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard …

3 months, 2 weeks ago

Colombia's Salt Cathedral

In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia.

The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars in th…

3 months, 2 weeks ago