Witness History - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Witness History — History
Witness History

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.

Copyright: © (C) BBC 2024

Latest Episodes:

Awaji Kannon: One of the world's tallest statues Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

In 1982, a Japanese businessman unveiled one of the tallest statues in the world called the World Peace Giant Kannon in Awaji Island, Japan.

At 100 metres tall, the statue was visible from all across the island.

Despite healthy visitor numbers when it first opened, the statue fell into disrepair and locals believed it was haunted.

Emily Finch speaks to local resident Yusuke Natsukawa about the impact of the statue on the island, and Goro Otsubo who visited the statue in 2002.

A Whistledown production for the BBC World Service.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by 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 football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Picture: Awaji Kannon. Credit: Shutterstock)

Pan-European picnic Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

In 1989, a picnic was held on the border between Austria and Hungary, as a demonstration for peace and European integration.

It prefigured the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union and finished with hundreds of East Germans escaping to the West through the Iron Curtain.

In 2011, Rob Walker spoke to one of the organisers, Walburga Habsburg Douglas.

(Picture: A leaflet from the Pan European picnic. Credit: Getty Images)

Escaping national service in Eritrea Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

In 2002, the Eritrean government extended its programme of compulsory national service to make it open-ended.

Instead of serving 18 months as the government had originally decreed, most students finishing secondary school would be conscripted and forced to remain in government service indefinitely - either serving in the army or in civilian jobs.

The Eritrean government said conscription was necessary because the recently ended war with neighbouring Ethiopia could break out again.

But the prospect of working for the state for an indefinite period, without a proper salary, prompted many young Eritreans to begin trying to escape to neighbouring countries and to Europe.

Over the past 20 years hundreds of thousands have left. It’s an exodus that continues to this day.

Rob Walker speaks to Semhar Ghebreslassie who began her national service working as a teacher in 2008.

This programme contains descriptions of sexual violence.

(Picture: Eritrean migrants. Credit: Getty Images)

A Brief History of Time Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

A Brief History of Time, the best-selling book written by the renowned theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking, was published in March 1988.

In this programme first broadcast in 2018, Louise Hidalgo talks about physics, existence and the universe that made the book so popular.

The editor who published it, Peter Guzzardi, is her guest.

(Picture: Prof Stephen Hawking. Credit: Getty Images)

The first photo sent from a phone Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

On 11 June 1997, French software engineer Philippe Kahn shared the first ever photo from a mobile phone.

It was of his newborn daughter, Sophie.

He created a prototype of a camera phone by connecting his digital camera to his flip phone and his laptop.

He speaks to Rachel Naylor.

(Photo: Baby Sophie. Credit: Philippe Kahn)

Godfather of manicures Mar 29, 2023

Show notes

In November 1975, Vietnamese Navy commander Minh Nguyen, left behind his macho military life and retrained as a manicurist. He migrated from Vietnam to the United States during the fall of Saigon.

He went on to open a beauty school in Little Saigon, California and encouraged thousands of Vietnamese refugees to become nail technicians. Today, more than 40,000 students have graduated from Minh’s beauty schools and they have helped establish Vietnamese-Americans as the mainstay of the nail salon industry.

Minh’s wife Kien talks to Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty.

(Photo: Minh Nguyen. Credit: Minh Nguyen)

How Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

The city of Bengaluru in southern India, previously called Bangalore, is renowned for its huge technology companies and buzzy start-up culture.

But, 50 years ago it was a technological backwater.

Entrepreneurs like Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, which is one of India’s biggest tech companies, were right at the heart of the city’s remarkable transformation into India’s Silicon Valley. He tells his story to Ben Henderson.

(Photo: Narayana Murthy and Infosys colleagues in 2004. Credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images)

The windmill that revolutionised wind power Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

In 1978, with energy prices rocketing due to the oil crisis, a group of volunteers in Denmark took matters into their own hands and built a wind turbine to power the town's school.

They called it Tvindkraft and its design revolutionised the wind industry.

Rachel Naylor speaks to Britta Jensen, a teacher from the school, who worked on the turbine.

(Photo: Tvindkraft. Credit: Tvindkraft)

Keiko: Freeing 'Free Willy' Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

In 1998, Keiko became the first ever killer whale to be released back into the wild after a life of captivity.

Keiko shot to fame as the star of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster, Free Willy.

A multimillion dollar campaign to free Keiko began following the success of the movie and he was flown back to his native country, Iceland.

Dave Phillips was in charge of making it all happen. He has been sharing his memories with Matt Pintus.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by 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 football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Keiko in Iceland. Credit: Getty Images)

The man who lived in an airport Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

In 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, from Iran, flew into Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris intending to transfer onto a flight to London.

But he wasn’t allowed to board, as he didn’t have a passport.

Caught in diplomatic limbo, he ended up staying at the airport for 18 years.

Rachel Naylor speaks to his biographer, Andrew Donkin, who spent nearly three weeks with him at his ‘home’, in the departures lounge of Terminal 1.

(Photo: Mehran Karimi Nasseri on his red bench at the airport in 2004. Credit: Eric Fougere via Getty Images)

Related Podcasts