Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchWW1's eastern front: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1936
How did the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand lead events in Europe to spiral out of control so rapidly? Why was Germany and Austria-Hungary's bloody clash with the Russian empire during the First W…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Eric 'Winkle' Brown: Britain's most extraordinary pilot
Episode 1935
It would be fair to say that Second World War pilot Eric 'Winkle' Brown led an extraordinary life. He narrowly escaped death when his ship was torpedoed, smashed the world record for flying the most …
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Tiger Tamer | 5. crazy about wheelbarrows
Episode 1934
The great wheelbarrow craze of 1886-7 was a short-lived media sensation, witnessing a flood of people charging from Scotland to London with barrows. One man had kicked off this bizarre trend – Bob Ca…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Episode 1933
In the modern world we have a relatively narrow idea of who Jesus was, but things were quite different in the early years of Christianity. Many alternative versions of his life and personality prolif…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Mary Wollstonecraft: life of the week
Episode 1932
Mary Wollstonecraft was a firebrand thinker of the Enlightenment – proposing radical ideas about the fundamental rights of women. And her life was just as groundbreaking as her work, from having a fr…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
An obscenity trial that shocked Victorian Britain
Episode 1931
In 1877, Annie Besant took the stand. She was on trial for selling an "obscene publication" – a pamphlet designed to educate the masses on birth control. Author Michael Meyer tells Ellie Cawthorne ab…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
The Capetians: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1930
How did the Capetian dynasty hold on to the French throne for such a long time during the Middle Ages? How did deep-seated religious beliefs shape their rule? And what was the ‘Capetian miracle’? Spe…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Lothar II vs Theutberga: a marriage scandal that shook the ninth century
Episode 1929
King Henry VIII famously ran into a world of problems trying to get out of his numerous marriages. And interestingly, we can find a similar story of royal marital strife all the way back in the ninth…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Tiger Tamer | 4. celebrity pedestrian
Episode 1928
Tickling tigers one day, and cracking jokes to expectant crowds the next, Bob Carlisle was a circus showman, agent, clown and big cat tamer. In the third episode of our new series on this larger-than…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
A political earthquake: Britain's first Labour government
Episode 1927
In January 1924 Ramsay MacDonald, the son of a farm labourer, strode into 10 Downing Street as prime minister - and changed the nation's political landscape for good. David Torrance tells Spencer Miz…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago