Podcast Episodes

Conflicted Loyalties: Minority voices in wartime Britain and America

What did Irish Americans make of Roosevelt's wartime pact with Churchill? What did Polish Americans make of his alliance with Stalin? In this podcast we explore the many complex, conflicted and often…

Published on 6 months, 1 week ago

The political right and 'anti wokeness'

Wokeness and anti wokeness are inventions of the political right on both sides of the Atlantic. They are confected ideas that are pushed by elite think tank, media and political groups and have been …

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago

From F. Scott Fitzgerald to pulp detective novels - 1925 America's greatest literary year

A century ago, America was the literary and intellectual powerhouse of the world. Black writers defined the black experience in the Harlem Renaissance, F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the glamour and hy…

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago

Britain, France and the creation of Iraq 1919-21

When the mandate system was created at the Paris Peace Conference, it became a powerful tool for the British and French to carve up the Middle East and Africa following the defeat and collapse of the…

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago

The plot against Harold Wilson - 1967

In the late 1960s the British secret state, bankers, right wing newspaper and TV proprietors and other elite figures sought to remove Prime Minister Harold Wilson from power. They were indifferent to…

Published on 6 months, 2 weeks ago

Carter, Reagan, Bush and China

From the late 1970s onwards China and the USSR were on two very different historical paths and three US presidents, Carter, Reagan and Bush sought to harness the potential of the world's most populou…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Maoism and Anti Imperialism

Mao's ideas presented a clear challenge to western imperialism throughout the 20th Century and became a rallying cry to national liberation movements and anti imperialist groups wiithin western count…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Britain's Broken Media

In the past two decades successive scandals have revealed that Britain has some of the worst media institutions in the developed world. The ability of ordinary people to interpret the news, use accur…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

Gaza Update

Britain, France, Canada and other western governments have today issued a statement decrying the blockade of Gaza after nearly two years of offering unconditional support to Israel.This follows weeks…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago

China after Deng (Part One)

Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are often overlooked but pivotal figures in recent Chinese history whose role in steering China through its extraordinary economic transformation in the 1990s and 2000s is o…

Published on 6 months, 3 weeks ago