March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But ... Show More
Yesterday
Parting the Desert Between Two Seas
April 25, 1859. About 150 people have gathered on the shores of Lake Manzala in Egypt. And one of them, a mustachioed, retired French diplomat, steps forward. He raises his pickaxe and strikes a ceremonial blow. The audacious goal is to cut through the desert to connect the Medit ... Show More
36m 10s
Apr 20
One Eco-Arson After Another: The Earth Liberation Front
April 20th, 2004. A quiet suburban development outside Seattle. Brand-new homes. Fresh lawns not yet grown in. Then, in the middle of the night—sirens. Flames ripping through two houses. Investigators quickly find the cause: homemade incendiary devices. And a message, left behind ... Show More
34m 2s
Apr 13
Jefferson’s Trade War Shuts Down America
April 18, 1806. In his study, President Thomas Jefferson signs a law that doesn’t look like an act of war. It bans imports. Leather. Silk. Glass. Playing cards. A strange list. A quiet move. But Jefferson is trying to confront one of the most powerful empires in the world, withou ... Show More
28m 30s
Aug 2025
American Traitors: The Rosenbergs
This week we’re stepping heart of Cold War America with the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Accused of espionage and executed at the height of anti-communist paranoia, their trial gripped the nation due to the controversy, family betrayal, and questions of justice that still ... Show More
51m 23s
Nov 2019
Aphra Behn and Female Espionage
Aphra Behn, one of the first women in England to make her living as a writer, also just so happened to be one of the country's first female spies.
To discover more about the world of female spies, Dr Fern Riddell speaks with Dr Nadine Akkerman, Senior Lecturer at Leiden Universit ... Show More
36m 56s
Nov 2022
Secrets of a Spy: Alan Nunn May
Alan Nunn May, a British physicist, died aged 91 in 2003. But before he passed away, he gave a dramatic deathbed confession. Nunn had been jailed and sentenced to ten years’ hard labour in 1946 for passing information from the Western allies’ atomic bomb project, to the Soviet Un ... Show More
40m 27s
Jun 2024
Season 3, Episode 8: James & Tom Risen, The Last Honest Man: the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedy's - and one Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
Send a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs in his conversation with authors James and Tom Risen on their important, new book The Last Honest Man, a gripping biography of Idaho Senator, Frank Church. The Risens describe the remarkable events of 1975, when Senator Church almost single ... Show More
52m 20s
Jul 2025
The Dreyfus Affair: France's Anti-Semitic Military Scandal
In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French officer, was falsely accused of espionage and sentenced to life in prison on the remote Devil’s Island in French Guiana. As evidence came to light pointing to his innocence, a bitter national debate erupted that would change France forever ... Show More
32m 44s