The Suez Canal is one of the world’s most famous waterways - connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and opening up trade between the East and the West. But ever since its legendary construction in 1869, the Suez Canal has been at the centre of conflict and controversy. Why does a ditch in a desert spark years of political crises? Who helped turn a phar ... Show More
Jul 12
The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
In 1986, seven astronauts boarded Space Shuttle Challenger for what was meant to be a routine tenth flight of the orbiter. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the shuttle broke apart in front of millions of viewers, in what remains one of the worst disasters in the history of h ... Show More
52m 45s
Aug 2023
Lucia Carminati. "Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said: Labor Migration and the Making of the Suez Canal, 1859-1906" (U California Press, 2023)
Lucia Carminati's book Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said: Labor Migration and the Making of the Suez Canal, 1859-1906 (U California Press, 2023) probes migrant labor's role in shaping the history of the Suez Canal and modern Egypt. It maps the everyday life of Port Said's re ... Show More
55m 3s
Feb 2022
Trouble in the Suez
Four words that bring together Nasser, Eisenhower, Khrushchev and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden for what might be Billy's most difficult lyric to sing. But, what was the Suez crisis all about? And what did it mean for Egypt, Britain, France, Israel, the US and more? Tarek O ... Show More
49m 45s
Jul 2021
The Panama Canal: The real story behind the engineering triumph
Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has long been regarded as a triumph of American ingenuity, a conquest over nature that helped secure the United States’ position as a world power. Taking ten years to build, it opened up new trading routes between East and West by providing a v ... Show More
39m 18s