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.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
Episodes to download
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The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope
Thu 19 Mar 2020
How NASA put an orbiting observatory into space in 1990.
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Red Hollywood
Wed 18 Mar 2020
Former actress Marsha Hunt remembers the anti-Communist witch-hunt of the late 1940s.
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The fight to make sexual harassment a crime
Tue 17 Mar 2020
The story of a landmark ruling for women's rights in the United States.
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The 'I Love You' computer virus
Mon 16 Mar 2020
How a virus created by a Filipino college dropout sparked global panic in May 2000
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Marburg virus
Fri 13 Mar 2020
A deadly new disease infected laboratory workers in a small town in West Germany in 1967.
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The polio vaccine
Wed 11 Mar 2020
Scientists in the US led by Dr Jonas Salk develop an effective vaccine against polio
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The Ebola virus
Tue 10 Mar 2020
The first documented outbreak of the deadly disease occurred in the 1970s in Zaire
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The 'Spanish' flu
Mon 9 Mar 2020
In 1918 an extremely deadly form of influenza killed millions around the world
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The Major and the VW Beetle
Fri 6 Mar 2020
How a British army officer saved Hitler's Volkswagen Beetle at the end of World War Two
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Battling Soviet psychiatric punishment
Thu 5 Mar 2020
One man's stand against the psychiatric abuse of political dissidents in the Soviet Union
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Strikers in saris
Wed 4 Mar 2020
How South Asian women workers won the support of the British trade unionist movement
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The petrol that was poisoning children
Tue 3 Mar 2020
The EU finally banned lead in petrol in 2000 - decades after the US, Canada and Japan.
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Womenomics in Japan
Mon 2 Mar 2020
Japan faces a demographic time-bomb. Could the answer be Womenomics?
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Freeing American prisoners from Iran
Fri 28 Feb 2020
The diplomacy behind the release of three US citizens who unknowingly hiked into Iran.
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The last smallpox outbreak
Thu 27 Feb 2020
Thousands of people died in the world's last major smallpox epidemic in India in 1974.
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The rebel nuns who left their convent behind
Wed 26 Feb 2020
A group of Californian nuns left their convent and set up their own community in 1970
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The first mobile phone call
Tue 25 Feb 2020
The American inventor who made the first mobile phone and the first mobile phone call
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An Antarctic mystery
Mon 24 Feb 2020
Human remains were found on a remote island in Antarctica in 1985 but whose were they?
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Saddam Hussein's 'Supergun'
Thu 20 Feb 2020
Building the largest gun in the world for Saddam Hussein's Iraq
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Fighting oil pollution with art in Nigeria
Wed 19 Feb 2020
"Battle Bus" was a sculpture in memory of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa
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How meditation changes your brain
Tue 18 Feb 2020
In 2002, a landmark study on Buddhist monks showed that meditation can alter the brain.
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The Pale Blue Dot
Mon 17 Feb 2020
How the Voyager space probe captured a famous image of Earth as it left the Solar System.
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The Rules: A dating handbook
Fri 14 Feb 2020
The best-selling dating handbook was published on Valentine's Day 1995
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The best-seller Fear of Flying
Thu 13 Feb 2020
Erica Jong's best-selling book about sex, creativity and love, published in 1973
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Diary of life in a favela
Wed 12 Feb 2020
A shocking account of the realities of the slums of São Paulo
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The man who first published Harry Potter
Tue 11 Feb 2020
The man who spotted the potential of the boy wizard books in 1996
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The release of Nelson Mandela
Fri 7 Feb 2020
The day that South Africa's anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was freed
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The Native American casino boom in the US
Thu 6 Feb 2020
How a small Californian tribe won the right for Indian communities to host gambling.