Witness History Podcast
History told by the people who were there. For nine minutes every weekday, Witness History takes you back to moments which have shaped our world.
Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.
When you subscribe to Witness History, you’ll be taken inside turning points in world affairs, from West Africa’s fight back against Boko Haram in 2015, to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations.
You’ll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
You’ll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden’s Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles’ George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy’s show to a sudden end.
And if you’re curious about inventions, we’ll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created.
If you’re new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.
Episodes to download
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Captured by Somali pirates
Mon 16 Nov 2020
Captain Colin Darch and his crew were held hostage by pirates for 47 days in 2008
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The 'good enough' mother
Fri 13 Nov 2020
Donald Winnicott helped mothers understand babies through psychoanalysis in the 1940s.
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When Pluto lost its planet status
Thu 12 Nov 2020
An international committee of astronomers agreed Pluto wasn't really a planet in 2006
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Makaton - the signing system that changes lives
Tue 10 Nov 2020
The creation of a communication system for people with learning difficulties in the 1970s
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The Guerrilla Girls
Mon 9 Nov 2020
The women who launched an anonymous poster campaign against sexism and racism in art.
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The church that rose from the rubble
Fri 6 Nov 2020
Reconstructing Dresden's historic baroque church.
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The 1945 Pan-African Congress
Thu 5 Nov 2020
How a meeting in Manchester shaped the post-war struggle against colonialism
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The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Wed 4 Nov 2020
The Israeli PM was shot by an extremist opposed to the peace process on November 4th 1995
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The sex musical that wowed New York and London
Mon 2 Nov 2020
In 1969 a theatrical revue called Oh Calcutta opened. It featured male and female nudity.
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With the president on 9/11
Fri 30 Oct 2020
How former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card broke news of 9/11 to President Bush
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Ronald Reagan and the Moral Majority
Thu 29 Oct 2020
How US religious conservatives organised in the 1970s to get Republicans elected.
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The Watergate scandal
Wed 28 Oct 2020
The investigation that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974.
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Shirley Chisholm - the black woman who tried to be president
Tue 27 Oct 2020
The pioneering politician who launched a run for the US presidency in 1972.
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When JFK won the US presidency
Mon 26 Oct 2020
The US election of 1960 was a close race between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
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Nasa's pioneering black women
Fri 23 Oct 2020
The mathematicians who worked behind the scenes on the American space programme
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The missing victims of apartheid
Thu 22 Oct 2020
How a South African team is searching for those who disappeared during apartheid rule
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The Cutter Incident
Wed 21 Oct 2020
How mistakes with the initial production of polio vaccine made thousands of children ill.
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Joan Littlewood, 'mother of modern British theatre'
Tue 20 Oct 2020
The working class woman who shook up the British theatre establishment
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Why Portugal decriminalised all drugs
Mon 19 Oct 2020
In the grip of a drugs crisis, the country took a radical approach in 2001.
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Saddam Hussein's big movie project
Fri 16 Oct 2020
Behind the scenes at the Iraqi-funded, Clash of Loyalties
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The US Voting Rights Act of 1965
Thu 15 Oct 2020
The landmark legislation was introduced to ensure the rights of African Americans to vote
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The last of the Kazakh herders
Wed 14 Oct 2020
Many of the nomadic herders in Kazakhstan left the USSR and moved to China in the 1920s
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The end of the Lebanese Civil War
Tue 13 Oct 2020
On October 13th 1990 the fifteen year long conflict in Lebanon finally came to an end
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The launch of CNN
Mon 12 Oct 2020
1980 saw the launch of the first TV station dedicated to 24 hour news.
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The Battle of Lewisham
Fri 9 Oct 2020
How anti-racists stopped a far-right march in South London in 1977.
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Desmond's - a sitcom that changed Britain
Thu 8 Oct 2020
The story of our times told by the people who were there.
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Fighting racism on the dancefloor
Wed 7 Oct 2020
New laws were used to stop clubs from banning black and ethnic minority people in 1978
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Britain's first black woman headteacher
Tue 6 Oct 2020
Yvonne Conolly was made head of a London primary school in 1969.
