April 10, 1971. A team of ping pong players leaves Hong Kong to step across a border and become the first group of Americans welcomed to China in over 20 years. These competitors find themselves becoming unlikely diplomats at the center of a media frenzy, and at the heart of one of the 20th century’s major geopolitical shifts. How did table tennis turn into ... Show More
Yesterday
The First Robot
March 29th, 1923. A new play opens in Berlin, and quietly changes the future. Onstage are workers who never tire, never complain, and never stop. They’re faster, stronger, and more efficient than humans in every way. They’re called robots. A sci-fi play born out of war and indust ... Show More
32m 40s
Mar 16
HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum
March 18, 1879. A crowd gathers around an indoor track in Brooklyn, NY, as an Irish immigrant named Bartholomew O’Donnell attempts a strange feat: walking 80 miles in 26 hours. Newspapers claim he’s eighty years old. Lap after lap, he circles the track: smoking a pipe, sipping ho ... Show More
40m 56s
Mar 12
From Radio Diaries: Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier
Why did Orson Welles take on a murder mystery? Listen for yourself. This week, we're sharing a special preview of Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier from the podcast Radio Diaries. In this series, we learn how Welles used his platform to shed light on a crime in a small, southern ... Show More
11m 5s
Oct 2021
Pourquoi parle-t-on de “la diplomatie du ping-pong” ?
<p>Le 10 avril 1971, des joueurs de ping-pong américains se rendent en Chine, à l'invitation des autorités. Ce voyage marque le dégel des relations sino-américaines, ouvrant la voie, dès l'année suivante, à la visite du président Nixon à Pékin.</p><br><p>La rencontre de deux joue ... Show More
2m 55s
Feb 2022
Heather L. Dichter, "Bidding for the 1968 Olympic Games: International Sport's Cold War Battle with NATO" (U Massachusetts Press, 2021)
Today we are joined by Heather Dichter, Associate Professor of Sports History and Sports Management at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University. She is also the author of Bidding for the 68 Olympic Games: International Sport’s Cold War Bat ... Show More
1 h
Feb 2022
How bad could China-US relations get? With Rana Mitter
This week marks the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's visit to China. In 2022, there are warnings the US and China are entering a new Cold War, while the latter's relationship with Russia is strengthening.
The New Statesman’s senior editor of China and global affairs, ... Show More
23m 33s
Jan 2022
Graham Allison on how China’s rising global power could lead to superpower conflict—or something else.
It takes a lot to impress Professor Graham Allison when it comes to geopolitics. He is, after all, the Cold Warrior’s Cold Warrior—as one of America’s most influential defense policy analysts and advisors, he was twice awarded the Defense Department’s highest civilian honor for h ... Show More
44m 17s
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Episode 207 of</span> <a href="https://www.hiddenforces.io/podcasts"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hidden Forces</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Daniel Markey, Senior Expert on South Asia at the Uni ... Show More
