Jul 5

Dancing in the Street and Ai Weiwei

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes including the story behind Mick Jagger and David Bowie's duet for Live Aid in 1985 and the Chinese artist who was jailed for his art inspired by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. He speaks to music journalist ... Show More

50m 53s

Jun 28

Robert Kennedy's funeral train and the opening of the Medellin Metro

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service, all related to trains and journeys which have helped to shape our world.Our guest Nicky Gardner, travel writer and co-author of Europe by Rail: the Definitive Guide, discusses t ... Show More

50m 58s

Jun 21

Jaws and the Charleston church shooting

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive language.It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Ou ... Show More

51m 7s

Jun 2022

Egypt's first democratic presidential election

In June 2012, Egypt held its first ever free democratic presidential election. Mohamed Morsi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, emerged victorious. Ben Henderson spoke to Rabab El-Mahdi, Chief Strategist to one of Morsi’s rival candidates. She described what it was like to be ... Show More

10m 14s

Jun 2022

India's surrogacy capital

In 2003 Dr Nayana Patel, who ran her own fertility clinic in the state of Gujarat in India, carried out her first surrogacy procedure. It was a purely altruistic case and involved a surrogate mother and her own daughter. Dr Patel's clinic would go on to become one of the biggest ... Show More

10m 13s

Jun 2022

The killing of Vincent Chin

In June 1982 a young Chinese-American engineer was murdered with a baseball bat by two white men in the US city of Detroit. The lenient sentences the perpetrators received sparked an Asian-American civil rights movement with protests across the US. At the time, America was going ... Show More

12m 25s

Mar 2021

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring

In 2011 Egyptians took to the streets calling for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had been in power for nearly 30 years. Their uprising was part of a wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world aimed at ending autocratic rule. Women were at the forefro ... Show More

10m 50s

Jun 2024

France and the Far Right

Kate Adie introduces stories from France, Israel-Gaza, Bolivia, Uzbekistan and the USA.French voters head to the polls in a snap election that President Macron says will shake people from their 'political fever' - but could also see the far right make further gains. Andrew Hardin ... Show More

29m 15s

Oct 2020

Introducing: The Trial of the Chicago 7

When anti-war demonstrators descended on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, they came to peacefully protest racism, politics and the country’s involvement in Vietnam. But the whole world watched as the police beat and arrested those marching peacefully outside ... Show More

1m 44s

Feb 2021

A Ghanaian nurse's story

Nurses from outside the UK form a vital part of the country's National Health Service. Many come from African countries. Cecilia Anim - who left Ghana for England in 1972 - became the first black woman to be made president of the Royal College of Nursing. In 2017 she was awarded ... Show More

8m 59s

Feb 2024

417. Britain in 1974: State of Emergency (Part 1)

“Who governs Britain?”Britain in the early 1970’s was a state in crisis, and by 1974, things had never seemed bleaker. Held hostage by the Trade Unions, British industry was flailing. England’s sporting record was atrocious, the economy was tanking and the prospect of a miners’ s ... Show More

59m 47s

Egypt's first democratic Presidential el...