Episodes
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Malaysia’s space agency and the 'guardian angel' of Route 66
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, a historian of spaceflight at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA. We start with the founding of Malaysia's space agency in...
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Mexico’s Day of the Dead parade and the Pope in Peru
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes. We learn about how the James Bond film Spectre inspired Mexico City’s first Day of the Dead parade in 2016. Our guest, Professor Erica Borgstrom, takes us around the world to learn how death is celebrated in different...
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The Siege of Paris and earthquakes in Mexico
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes. We hear a survivor's incredible archive account of living through the Siege of Paris in 1870. Sydney Snell was in her 80s when she recorded her memories with the BBC in 1946. Our guest Professor Beatrice Heuser, from the...
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The Berlin Wall mural and a new kind of zoo
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes. American artist Keith Haring's bold 1986 mural on the Berlin Wall and British naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1950s mission to save species from extinction. We discuss other examples of art which aim to bring peace and unity...
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The chimpanzee who learned American sign language and monkeys in space
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the tests on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Also, the chimpanzee who apparently learned American sign language. Our guest...
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The Falklands War and the assassination of Anwar Sadat
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear from one of the Peruvian pilots who secretly flew fighter jets to help Argentina during the Falklands War in 1982. We discuss with our guest, Iberian and Latin American historian Stella...
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Sulawesi's historic cave art and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr. April Nowell, a paleolithic archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria in Canada. We start by hearing how in 2012, archaeologists on the…
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Manchester's racially inclusive nightclub and the artist who portrayed Nelson Mandela from life
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We dedicate this edition to Manchester, in England. We hear about the man who opened the city's first racially inclusive nightclub in 1962. This programme contains descriptions of racial...
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Norway's teacher resistance and Ireland's deadly nightclub fire
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear how Norwegian teachers resisted peddling Nazi propaganda during the German occupation of the Second World War and our guest, Dr Rachel Pistol, talks us through other examples of resistance...
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The mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry and surviving 9/11
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear how a French curator uncovered lost documents showing that the Nazis researched the Bayeux Tapestry during World War Two. Our guest, Professor Catherine Clarke, takes us through the finer...
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E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and the creator of Star Wars toys
Max Pearson presents a collection of science fiction themed Witness History stories from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Lisa Yaszek, Regents' Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech in the USA. Actor Peter Coyote looks back on the making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, sharing...
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Voting for water and surviving a hurricane
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. We learn why, in 2004, Uruguayans voted to enshrine water as a human right in their constitution - the first country in the world to do so. And environmental historian Ellen Arnold reveals how water has shaped human…
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The battle of Mandalay and the New World screwworm
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Elisabeth Fondren, Associate Professor of Journalism at St John's University in New York, USA. We start by hearing some groundbreaking frontline reporting from the Battle of…
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The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya. We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms. Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the...
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Taiwan's White Terror and the making of City of God
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. This week, we hear about the end of decades-long martial law in Taiwan and discuss its impact on the country's literature with Ti-han Chang, the Deputy Director of Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS University of London.…
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The first Comic Con and making Oasis’ Wonderwall
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a comic book fan and his friends began the very first comic convention in New York in 1964. Our guest is comic book expert Dr Barbara Postema, from the University Groningen in the...
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Solar-powered flight and the Crazy Horse Memorial
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. This week, we hear about the first solar-powered flight around the world, and discuss other moments in the history of solar power with Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, in the UK. Plus, the...
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The Spanish Civil War and the Birkin bag
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. Our guest is historian Professor Sir Paul Preston, who explains how the conflict transformed Spain and paved the way for…
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Buildings of power and the Dada art movement
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mateja Kurir, associate professor at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the editor of the book, On Power in Architecture. We start with Jackie Kennedy's 1962 renovation of...
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The return of Chief Long Wolf and The Statue of Liberty's facelift
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jan English from the American Museum and Gardens in Bath in the UK. We start with the moment the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the US, more than a century…
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The Slip Slop Slap campaign and the Brexit referendum
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. We start with the birth of an Australian campaign to get people to take care in the sun and...
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An uprising in South Africa and an exodus in the Caucasus
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Rachel E. Johnson, Professor of Modern African History at Durham University in the UK. We begin with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, which became a defining...
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Opening the archives: A cellist, a playwright and a king
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. And today, we’re celebrating international archives week, set up to highlight the importance of protecting the world's historical records. Our guest is BBC curator Joe Schultz who talks about…
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The creation of Inspector Montalbano and Australia's first Big Thing
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Giuliana Pieri, an expert in Italian noir from Royal Holloway, University of London. We start with the author Andrea Camilleri on the creation of his fictional detective...
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Mexican history: A love song and a gas explosion
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Michelle Meinhart, a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. We start by hearing about a Mexican song that captivated lovers in World War...
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Belgium’s royal affair and Montenegro gains independence
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. First, the story of the Belgian teenager who exposed a scandal within the country’s Royal Family in 1999. Our guest, Professor Kate Williams takes us through some other royal scandals from...
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The first reality game show and a joik performance on Eurovision
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We start with the launch of Expedition Robinson in Sweden in 1997 and discuss how reality TV began around the world with our guest Misha Kavka, Professor of Cross-Media Culture at the University...
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Sir David Attenborough's first Zoo Quest and a WW2 sabotage mission in Norway
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We start with the broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. To mark his 100th birthday, we go back to the mid 1950s and the television programme that launched his career. Our guest is…
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The world’s first perfume archive and Dutch car-free Sundays in the global oil crisis
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear from a perfumer who in 1990 helped create the world’s first perfume archive in Versailles France. Our guest is Dr William Tullett, a Senior Lecturer in History at the…
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Cleaning up Chernobyl and Canada’s war in the woods
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. On the 40th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, we hear from one man involved in the clean-up operation. Our guest is Jordan Dunbar, presenter of the BBC documentary ‘The Last…
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Winning the Booker Prize and discovering a lost fairytale
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, the moment when Irish writer Roddy Doyle discovered he'd won one of the most prestigious honours in fiction: The Booker Prize. And our guest, Merritt Moseley, emeritus professor of...
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Hitler’s teeth and the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Sahar Saleem, an Egyptian paleoradiologist specialising in using medical imaging technology to study mummies and ancient artefacts. We start with the story a Jewish interpreter who...
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The discovery of the Terra Nova shipwreck and Echo the elephant
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Sarah Ward, a maritime archaeologist from the Australian National University. We start with the discovery of the sunken Terra Nova, Scott of the Antartic's ship. We hear from the...
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A papal visit and German reunification
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Paulina Guzik, International editor with the Catholic wire service, OSV News. We start in 1986 when Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand. Then, we hear about the reunification of...
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The 'Cyprus Emergency’ and India’s nuclear mango deal
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear from a Cypriot lawyer, imprisoned by the British for almost two years during the "Cyprus Emergency” of 1955-1959. Our guest, Professor Rebecca Bryant, explains how this period impacted...
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Movie history: Seven Samurai and Casablanca
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most...
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Sweden and the USA's diplomatic freeze and Elvis in the UK
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a speech by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, in 1972, caused a break down in relations with the USA. Our guest is an expert in the historic relations between Sweden and the US, Dr...
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Blood diamonds and the meeting between Florence Nightingale and Aga Khan III
We begin with the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. It was claimed that he traded in arms and ammunition in return for so-called blood diamonds. Our guest, gemmologist James Evans discusses the creation of synthetic diamonds. Next we head to Syria where a group of young…
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The Shetland Bus and toxic shock syndrome
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Guri Hjeltnes, an author and World War Two historian. We start with Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War Two by hearing about a secret resistance operation...
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Italian history
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi. We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice. Then, we cover Dr...
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Creating Mr Men and the Austrian wine scandal
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service. What does a tickle look like? That was the question eight-year-old Adam Hargreaves asked in 1971. He explains how it led his father Roger Hargreaves, to create the children's...
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Chile’s Penguin Revolution and the 5,000-year-old frozen mummy
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We travel back to Chile in 2006 where more than 600,000 schoolchildren are marching through the streets to protest about their schools. The nationwide demonstrations will become known as the...
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The priest behind a new airport and Agatha Christie
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest Sugandhi Jayaraman, lecturer in air transport management at the University of Westminster, discusses the changes in airports over time. We hear about the Irish priest whose dream of…
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The birth of the modern fitted kitchen and the creation of Cluedo
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is food historian Dr Annie Gray. She discusses the impact of the first modern, fitted kitchen - the Frankfurt Kitchen - on the kitchens of today. It all goes back to 1926 and the...
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The House of the Spirits and Tracey Emin's unmade bed
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This programme contains distressing details. Our guest is Bárbara Fernández Melleda, Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies at the University of Hong Kong. We start with Chilean author...
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The American Freedom Train and the invention of text messaging
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Barbara Keys, a specialist in US history at Durham University. We start with a celebration of the American Freedom Train, as the US prepares to mark 250 years of...
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The history of toys
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We learn about how Play-Doh evolved from a cleaning product to a childhood favourite and the creation of one of the best-selling board games of all time, Catan. Our guest is the editor of Toy…
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Norway’s sushi contribution and Laurel and Hardy’s Christmas
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We learn about how a Norwegian businessman brought salmon sushi to Japan in the 1980s. Our guest is cookbook author Nancy Singleton Hachisu, who tells us more about the history of sushi in Japan...
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Banky's 'Dismaland' and the Paris climate agreement
We start with the street artist Banksy, and his 2015 dystopian 'bemusement park'. Then, we talk to roller coaster enthusiast Megan MacCausland, from the European Coaster Club. Plus, we go back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for…
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Nigerian history
Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, all with a Nigerian theme. We hear two personal stories of the Biafra war, which began in 1967, including the writer Wole Soyinka who was jailed for trying to stop it. Plus, we hear from Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe…
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