Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe final days of Sri Lanka's civil war
In May 2009 the Sri Lankan army defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending a brutal 25-year civil war; also, the economists who predicted the 2008 global econ…
6 years, 7 months ago
The war on drugs
US President Richard Nixon's efforts to deal with illegal drugs in 1971, the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam plus the rise of Jack Ma and h…
6 years, 7 months ago
The Malayan Emergency
Battling a communist insurgency in 1950s Malaya, the sinking of the Belgrano during the UK Argentine conflict, plus how Ellen DeGeneres came out to m…
6 years, 8 months ago
The al Yamamah arms deals
The huge but controversial Anglo-Saudi deal, the Sri Lankan journalist who predicted his own murder, plus remembering South Africa's historic electio…
6 years, 8 months ago
The Columbine school shooting
The memories of the brother of one of the victims of the Columbine mass school shooting; plus the story behind 'A Raisin in the Sun' - the first play…
6 years, 8 months ago
The rise of Hindu nationalism
How an Indian religious rally in 1990 sparked the rise of Hindu nationalism, 100 years since the Amritsar Massacre plus the first wing-suit for base …
6 years, 8 months ago
Abolishing the army
After a brief civil war in March-April 1948, the new president of Costa Rica, Jose Figueres, took the audacious step of dissolving the Armed Forces. …
6 years, 9 months ago
Drama in the British parliament
Prime Minister Jim Callaghan's desperate attempts to survive a no-confidence motion in 1979, the record-breaking 20-day balloon flight around the wor…
6 years, 9 months ago
Autism and the MMR vaccine
How a British doctor misled the world by linking the MMR vaccine to autism; the early rise of Hungary’s Viktor Orban also what it was like to contest…
6 years, 9 months ago
China's breakthrough malaria cure
How an ancient Chinese remedy provided a 1970s breakthrough in the fight against malaria; the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War that inspire…
6 years, 9 months ago