Trapped History
by trappedhistory
Trapped History is a history reboot for everyone. It tells the stories of the forgotten – of the hidden heroes ignored by the history we were taught in school. We take our name from something the writer James Baldwin said: “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” We want to break people free from those stories.Whether it is women's history, Black history, military history, cultural history – all of this, hidden or forgotten, is also trapped history. And so we give you a history podcast for the curious, with inspiring tales of unsung heroes, people who broke the mould with their courage and defiance. Co-hosts Oswin and Carla are joined by special guests who help bring those stories to life. People like Mishal Husain, Jeremy Corbyn, Michaela Strachan, Sathnam Sanghera – even Zippo the Clown and Jet from Gladiators! Anyone with a new and different perspective on history. Rebooting history one story at a time.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to t
Episodes
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My Family Owned Slaves
As we close out Season 7, Trapped History takes a long dark walk down one of the most uncomfortable roads in history, going deep into the story of one British family which owned and traded in slaves. We are joined by the journalist and writer Alex Renton who has tried to make sense of his…
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Hall of Fame: The Man Who Designed Bond
After pulling the curtain away from James Bond, writer Mark O'Connell chose Bond's book designer for his Hall of Fame nominee. Richard Chopping was Ian Fleming's choice too, and he created the template for Bond which we are all familiar with from the films, even if we've never read or seen one of...
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The Name's Bond. Queer Bond.
He's the man's man, the lady's man, the pinnacle of heterosexual hyper-masculinity. His name is Bond. But you know what? Maybe James Bond is not as straight as you think. Because the origin story of 007 is a very queer one. From Ian Fleming's gay coterie and literary touchstones through to the...
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Hall of Fame: The Modernist Romantic
For this week's Hall of Fame, the author Joe Dunthorne presents the writer's writer: Heinrich von Kleist. A contemporary of Goethe, Byron and Shelley he was perhaps even more jaded, world-weary and downright depressed than a whole inkwell of Doomed Romantic poets. And that, ironically, is what...
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My Great-Grandfather Made Chemical Weapons for the Nazis
Wouldn't it be nice if the stories we're told were all true, were all heroic and inspiring? But that's not always the case. Because more often than not, family histories – all our family histories – are messy, complicated, disappointing and sometimes even shameful. This season on Trapped History,...
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Hall of Fame: The French Menu Cookbook
On this week's Hall of Fame, prepare to bask in the glorious Provençal sunshine, as you sit under grapevines, drinking Rosé and tucking into the most delicious goat's cheese salad. This is the world of Richard Olney, writer of perhaps the greatest cookbook ever, The French Menu Cookbook. And we…
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How Windrush Made a Nation
Welcome back to Season 7 of Trapped History! And have we got a season for you, full to bursting with stories of unexpected heroes and uncharted histories which will inspire you, make you laugh and make you cry. We’re kicking off with the magnificent broadcaster, journalist and Loose Woman…
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Hall of Fame: The Good War Criminal
Keith Lowe is one of our greatest historians of the Second World War and its aftermath. He joined us to share the story of Ben Ferencz, one of the Nuremberg prosecutors who made it his life's work to fight for peace. Search for Ben Ferencz and the Quest for World Peace: Keith Lowe on the Fear and...
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Hall of Fame: The Martyrs of Matouba
Joris Lechene joined us to understand the life and afterlife of the great John La Rose, one of the leading lights of Black British cultural life from the 1960s to the 1980s. And a few years ago, he was in the news again as London's Black Boy Lane was renamed in his honour. But the fallout was...
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Hall of Fame: The Violinist of Auschwitz
Anne Sebba breathed life into the story of the women of the French Resistance, in the brilliant The Women who Ran the Resistance: Anne Sebba on the Forgotten Heroines. And in this Hall of Fame nomination, she does the same for the women of the death camps. Hilde Grunbaum's life is a truly…
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Hall of Fame: The Barber of the Hindoostane Coffee House
Sathnam Sanghera joined us to find out all about Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to graduate from an Indian university, the first woman anywhere to get a law degree – from Oxford at that – and the first woman to represent the accused in a criminal case in a British-run court. Her story is...
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Hall of Fame: The Master of Memorials
Sculptor Ian Wolter accompanied us on a cold and windy day to the mesmerising Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice. The insights of a practising artist were priceless and so his choice for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is equally insightful. Charles Jagger was a prize-winning young sculptor on…
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Hall of Fame: The First Black Fighter Pilot
The RAF pilot Trevor Edwards joined us to marvel at the life and times of Johnny Smythe. But here, he goes back to the very beginning and nominates Robbie Clarke, the very first Black RAF pilot. Robbie's was a charmed life – a mechanic who would be one of the first Jamaicans to drive a car, he...
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Hall of Fame: The Singer's Singer
Join us as Stephen Bourne unveils his Hall of fame nominee. You may remember, Stephen was our guest on our episode about the forgotten singer who was Adelaide Hall, and he doesn't stray far from the path here! Mabel was born in Burton-upon-Trent, but she made her name in Paris and New York, where...
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Hall of Fame: The Tenacious Traveller
At last, Trapped History's inaugural Hall of Fame nomination is here: Rosemary Brown's nominee from our very first episode. You may remember that Rosemary joined us to find out all about the marvellous Nellie Bly, adventurer, entrepreneur, war reporter and one of the very first investigative...
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The Road to Vinh Linh
Picture a woman of the French Resistance, printing underground papers in her cellar, making bombs at her kitchen table, cycling across her country with codes hidden in her knitting. And then spin the globe 6,000 miles and find yourself in Vietnam. Because this is what Madame Xuan Phuong did. As a...
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Hall of Fame: A Touch of Genius
In today's Hall of Fame, Fiona Keating nominates a queer, Jewish poet and novelist who slipped through the cracks nearly 140 years ago. But late last year, Cambridge University proudly announced that they had acquired the Amy Levy Archive and the hope is that "one of Victorian literature’s most...
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Smoke and Silk
As we head into spring, Trapped History takes a brisk wintery walk through the streets of London’s Docklands to seek out the Limehouse Chinatown of the 1880s. Jack the Ripper is striking fear into the heart of the East End, the Bryant & May matchgirls are on strike and the magnificent Ching Hook…
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Hall of Fame: Beer, Bailiffs and Balls
Here's a great Hall of Fame nominee from Christina Wade – and it's another oldie. In 1275, Gillian Pykard told the sheriff's bailiffs in Exeter precisely what they could do with their rules. She was a brewer and knew what her customers wanted. It's a small story but it's a slice of life which…
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Kiss and Tell
With a name and a story Dickens would have killed for, Peg Plunkett owned Dublin in the 1780s. Surviving a horrific childhood, she escaped to the big city and swiped right and left to her heart’s content until she blew everything up with her incendiary memoirs. Award-winning Filthy Queens author,...
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Hall of Fame: Ireland's Pirate Queen
Sathnam Sanghera blows the doors off the Hall of Fame today alongside his nominee, the Pirate Queen of Ireland, Grainne – or Grace – O'Malley. Born in County Mayo when Henry VIII was on the throne of England, Grainne would command a fleet of ships, raid neighbouring clans, revenge the deaths of…
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It's Complicated: Sathnam Sanghera on India's Controversial Independence Leader
Mahatma Gandhi is a worldwide hero. Nehru led India through turmoil. But who in the West knows of Subhas Chandra Bose? Well, perhaps we should learn more about him because he is the man of the moment in Modi’s 21st century India. Empireland’s Sathnam Sanghera joins us today to try to understand...
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Hall of Fame: Britain's First Black Sports Star
After demolishing and rebuilding Halls of Fame through the ages, our guest Habib Hajallie has chosen his own nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: the great Bill Richmond, an African-American born into slavery who by the early 19th century had become Britain's first Black sports star.…
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Halls of Fame: Art and Celebrity from Ludwig I to Donald Trump
We’re proud of our own Hall of Fame here at Trapped History, but what are they and where did the idea come from? As we celebrate our three-year anniversary, join Oswin, Carla and MK for a very special episode in the company of award-winning British artist Habib Hajallie. His very own artwork, A...
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Pilgrimage: A Christmas Trapped History Special
This holiday season, we've got a meditative and, we hope, nourishing bonus for you – as Michaela Strachan remembers taking part in the BBC series "Pilgrimage". She is also remembering her friends and family and on the hike through the Welsh hills, she was walking hand-in-hand with grief. But the...
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Hall of Fame: Ending Animal Cruelty one Bear at a Time
Michaela Strachan's nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is one of the most selfless people we have heard of – Jill Robinson, who has dedicated her life to saving bears from the cruelty of the bear bile industry in China and across Asia. It is a story rooted in horror but also in love.…
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The Pride of the Peaks: Michaela Strachan on the Woman who Fought for Nature
We have a wonderful season opener for you – as wildlife TV legend Michaela Strachan joins Trapped History to help us tell the tale of the woman who fought for nature. Her name was a bit of a mouthful – Ethel Haythornthwaite – but we know her as the defender of Britain’s National Parks and the…
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Hall of Fame: Throwing Stones, Winning the Vote and Changing Women's History
Join us for Helen Lewis' nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: Constance Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of a Viceroy, sister to an Earl – but one of the bravest suffragettes of them all. In changing women's history, she was imprisoned four times for campaigning for the vote, carved "V" for votes...
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The Genius Myth: Helen Lewis on Why We Fall for the Same Old Shtick Throughout History
We are delighted to be joined today by Helen Lewis, whose new book, The Genius Myth, rips apart the stories we like to tell ourselves about ‘them’ – the heroic geniuses we idolise and adore. This is the ultimate history reboot. And it's one of the reasons we created Trapped History in the first...
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Hall of Fame: The Medieval Sibyl of the Rhine
Jet's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is an oldie – 850 years old, to be precise. A Renaissance Woman centuries before the Renaissance, a medieval queen of music, philosophy, science and medicine, the Mother of Everything: we give you Hildegard von Bingen. Throw in poetry…
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The Body is the Statement: Jet from Gladiators on History's Fitness Queen, Lady Lisa Lyon
There’s a photo – you can google it – which when you see it, you’ll laugh, you’ll double-take, you’ll think ‘whaaaat?’. It’s of a young woman, she’s small, five foot nothing and she’s in a fitness gym. But it’s what she’s carrying that makes you stare. Because balanced on her shoulders is none...
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Hall of Fame: Joshua Levine on History's Fancy Dress SAS
Tune in for a riveting Hall of Fame as Joshua Levine nominates Mick Gurmin, a member of the SAS before the SAS even existed. This is the very apex of forgotten history, hidden history and untold stories. Warned by the debonair master of deception Dudley Clark that "any carelessness or…
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Making History Matter: A Live Debate with Joshua Levine and Oswin
It's time for a history reboot. In this Trapped History Special, Oswin and historian Joshua Levine discuss truth, myth and storytelling in front of an invited audience at an event hosted by Saboteur, a London-based brand agency. In a wide-ranging conversation which covers everything from Trump…
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Hall of Fame: Gwen Strauss on a Resistance Hero and Witness to History
Tune in to hear the historian Gwen Strauss' nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. A hidden history hero of the Resistance, she is someone we have truly never heard of but she is perhaps one of the bravest people we should know about. Please be upstanding for Odette Pilpoul, the Parisian...
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Useless Mouths: Gwen Strauss on Untold Stories of Forbidden Love in the Holocaust
It’s October 1940 and you are walking down a dusty lane when someone slips a scrap of paper into your hand. You hold it tightly in your palm, waiting until you’re round a corner and away from prying eyes. When you manage to find that moment and open the folded paper square, you read: “Milena from...
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Hall of Fame: Sarah-Jane Morris Hails Music's Miss America
Please put your hands together for Sarah-Jane Morris' Hall of Fame nominee, music's hidden hero Mary Margaret O'Hara. So many of our nominees are lost in the mists of history. They are part of our forgotten history, our hidden history. But Mary Margaret O'Hara is very much still with us. She is...
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The Lost Singer-Songwriter: Sarah-Jane Morris on Connie Converse, Music's Hidden Hero
A decade before Dylan, there was Connie Converse – arguably the very first singer-songwriter with inner-city tales of loss and longing. But have you heard of her? Have you heard her music? Connie's story is the epitome of forgotten history, hidden history. But her name deserves to be shouted from...
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Hall of Fame: The Forgotten Hero of Architecture Minnette de Silva
Nihal Arthanayake's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is a great one. The lost, forgotten and overlooked Sri Lankan hidden hero of architecture Minnette de Silva. She was the first Asian woman elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects and a friend of Le Corbusier and...
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The Difficult Conversation: The Real Nihal on Helen Bamber’s Mission to Bear Witness
How do you hear the testimony of someone who has been terrorised and tortured? How do you listen as a perpetrator defends their crimes? How can two peoples who have hated and killed each other throughout history learn to live in peace? These are the questions unsung hero Helen Bamber asked…
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Season 5 Special: It's A Continent x Trapped History on Patrice Lumumba
Our new season kicks off proper next week with an enthralling episode where the broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake helps us tell the story of the woman who listened – the great Helen Bamber. And we’ll be taking you all the way through the summer till it starts getting cold again – introducing you to…
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The Hall of Fame Special: Who Would You Like to Add?
We've spent so long asking our guests who they'd like to see in the Trapped History Hall of Fame, that for our 30th episode we thought we'd do something a bit different. And so Carla, MK and Oswin have each brought along someone they'd like to see honoured in the Hall of Fame. Tune in for a...
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The Animal King: Zippo, Frank Bostock and the Magic of Circus
Roll up, roll up for the Season Four closer — as we take a trip to the circus! At Trapped History, we look at lives and stories which have been forgotten or ignored, and there is one community in Britain which is still shrouded in mystery even in the 21st century: that of the circus people. So…
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Hall of Fame: Seventy-Five Letters
Join Oswin and Carla for this moving Hall of Fame from historian Clare Mulley as she remembers wartime nurses, Dorothy Field and Mollie Evershed. They are the only women among over 22,000 men to be remembered on the Normandy Memorial in Bayeux. It is a story of courage and selflessness. Prepare…
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The Missing Holes: Clare Mulley on the Courage of Agent Zo
She is one of the most important women of the Second World War — a fighter, a secret agent, a government envoy and a commando. But have we heard of her? Can we sing her name? If not, you've come to the right place. Tune in to hear the astounding story of Elżbieta Zawacka, AKA Agent Zo. It's a…
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Hall of Fame: The Meaning of Memory
Tune in to a fascinating Hall of Fame as Professor Chris French nominates Ellizabeth Loftus, a psychologist famed for her work on false, recovered and repressed memory. It's not just Elizabeth's life story here — Chris fills us in on the theory of false memory (remember getting lost in a...
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Dikki Redux: The Woman Behind the Record
We might have heard of Amelia Earhart or even Amy Johnson, but who remembers Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to fly around the world? Well, someone does because on 19th August this year, a blue plaque was unveiled at Cambridge Airport to mark the 75th anniversary of her truly momentous...
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The Amazing Randi: Patron Saint of Sceptics
Welcome back after our mid-season break! And what a return – with (drum roll) the mysteries, magic and mayhem of The Amazing Randi. He had everything a conjuror should have – the baffling genius, the cape, the beard, the mortal enemies – but more than anything, he had a mission: to uncover and...
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Hall of Fame: Mark Twain and the Dishonesty of the American Flag
Every episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Usually, it's someone we've never heard of but really should have. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's someone we think we know all about. In the historian Kim Wagner's nominee, prepare to find out something...
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Making Sense of Murder: Kim Wagner on Massacres from Paris to the Philippines
It's October 1961. The Beatles are in Hamburg, JFK in the White House, Yuri Gagarin has just shot into space. And a state-sponsored killing spree is going down on the streets of a capital city. But this isn't Rio, Washington or Johannesburg. This isn't Moscow or Port-au-Prince or Saigon. This is...
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Untold Lives: The Power Behind the Throne
Join Oswin and Carla as we go back – way back – to a time before podcasts and instagram, before radio and photographs. Join us as we journey back to the 18th century and meet the people who made monarchy work. And they're not the people you might expect to meet. At a time when Britain's kings and...
About this show
Trapped History is a history reboot for everyone. It tells the stories of the forgotten – of the hidden heroes ignored by the history we were taught in school. We take our name from something the writer James Baldwin said: “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” We want to break people free from those stories.Whether it is women's history, Black history, military history, cultural history – all of this, hidden or forgotten, is also trapped history. And so we give you a history podcast for the curious, with inspiring tales of unsung heroes, people who broke the mould with their courage and defiance. Co-hosts Oswin and Carla are joined by special guests who help bring those stories to life. People like Mishal Husain, Jeremy Corbyn, Michaela Strachan, Sathnam Sanghera – even Zippo the Clown and Jet from Gladiators! Anyone with a new and different perspective on history. Rebooting history one story at a time.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to t
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