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BBC World Service


A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.


The History Hour

In partnership with the BBC 100 Women list, we have a selection of stories about inspiring and influential women from around the world. 

Scientist Katalin Karikó, who won the Nobel Prize and helped save millions of lives in the Covid 19 pandemic, Julia Gillard, the former Australian prime minister who took a stand against misogyny in politics, and Indian artist Nalini Malani whose instillation got people thinking about the consequences of nuclear conflict.

We also hear from the founder of Ms Magazine, the feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem who in 1972, co-founded the first magazine in the US which was owned, run and written by women.

And the story of Portugal's "Three Marias" whose book ‘Novas Cartas Portuguesas’, was banned after it was published. 

Contributors:

Maria Teresa Horta - one of the "Three Marias".

Dr Katalin Karikó - Nobel Prize winning scientist.

Valeria Perasso - Team leader at the BBC's 100 Women project.

Julia Gillard - Former Australian Prime Minister.

Nalini Malani - Indian artist. 

Gloria Steinem - Co-founder of Ms Magazine. 

(Photo: Nalini Malani. Credit: Ritesh Uttamchandani/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Women making a mark

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Joan Flores-Villalobos, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern California, and author of The Silver Women: How Black Women’s Labor Made the Panama Canal.

First, we hear from a man involved in the handover of the canal from the United States to Panama in 1999. Then, DJ and singer Leonardo Renato Aulder explains how the canal led to the creation of Reggaeton music. 

Next we go to Cuba. An old comrade of Fidel Castro recounts the violent start of the Cuban revolution in 1953. And a member of the Obama administration explains how he negotiated better US-Cuba relations in 2014.

Finally, the story of the 442nd US military regiment, made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans, that earned more than 4,000 Purple Heart medals for extraordinary heroism during World War Two.

Contributors:
Alberto Aleman Zubieta - Panama Canal administrator.
Leonardo Renato Aulder - Reggaeton singer and DJ.
Joan Flores-Villalobos - Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California.
Agustín Díaz Cartaya - Cuban revolutionary.
Ben Rhodes - Speechwriter for US President Barack Obama.
Clyde Kusatsu - son of 442nd Regiment veteran.

(Photo: World War Two veterans from the highly decorated 442nd Regiment in 2015. Credit: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Panama and the 'Purple Heart Battalion'

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Chandrika Kaul, a specialist on modern British and Imperial history at the University of St Andrews in the UK.

We start by hearing from both sides of Australia's 1999 referendum on becoming a republic. 

Then, a survivor recounts the horrific 1972 Andes plane crash and the extraordinary things he had to do to survive. 

We hear how the BBC put text on our television screens for the first time. 

Plus, a grieving mother recounts the Taliban's horrific 2014 attack on a military school in Pakistan. 

Finally, we hear how the communist authorities enforced martial law in Poland over Christmas in 1981.

Contributors:

Malcolm Turnbull - former Australian Prime Minister and leader of republican campaign.
Professor David Flint - leader of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.
Nando Parrado - Andes plane crash survivor.
Angus McIntyre - son of Colin McIntyre, Ceefax's first editor.
Andaleeb Aftab - survivor of Pakistani military school attack.
Maciek Romejko - Polish Solidarity member and activist

(Photo: Malcolm Turnbull, leader of the Australian Republican Movement, 1999. Credit: Torsten Blackwood/AFP via Getty Images)

Referendums and cannibalism

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews which all relate to food.
First, Dinner for One, the British TV sketch that's become a German New Year’s Eve tradition.
Our expert guest is Ingrid Sharp, professor of German cultural and gender history at the University of Leeds. She tells us about some other festive traditions in Northern Europe including Krampus – the horned figure said to punish children who misbehave at Christmas.
We also hear about when South Korea and Japan had a diplomatic row over kimchi.
Plus, the arrival of instant noodles in India and how they changed people’s cooking habits.
Next we find out how the BBC's Masterchef conquered the world of TV cookery.
Finally, the first woman to become White House head chef describes what it’s like to cook for five presidents.

Contributors:

Thomas Frankenfeld – son of Peter Frankenfeld who produced Dinner for One.

Ingrid Sharp - professor of German cultural and gender history at the University of Leeds.

Dr Chaelin Park - World Institute of Kimchi. 

Sangeeta Talwar – former executive vice president of Nestle India.

Franc Roddam – creator of Masterchef.

Cristeta Comerford – former White House chef.

(Photo: Dinner for One. Credit: Getty Images)

German traditions and cooking for presidents

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.

We hear two stories from the deadly 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed thousands of people in south-east Asia.

Our expert guest is Ani Naqvi, a former journalist who was on holiday in Sri Lanka when the wave hit.

We also hear from the two Polish students who created the voice of Alexa, the smart speaker.

Plus, the story of Klaus Fuchs, the German-born physicist who passed nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union while working on the first atomic bomb.

Finally, we find out about Robert Ripley, the American cartoonist who made millions from sharing bizarre facts.

Contributors:

Choodamani and Karibeeran Paramesvaran – couple whose three children died in the Boxing Day tsunami.

Dendy Montgomery – photographer who captured the tsunami devastation.

Ani Naqvi – former journalist who was caught up in the tsunami.

Lukasz Osowski and Michal Kaszczuk – creators of Alexa.

Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski – nephew of atomic spy Klaus Fuchs.

John Corcoran – director of exhibits at Ripley’s.

(Photo: Tsunami devastation in Indonesia. Credit: Getty Images)

The Boxing Day tsunami, and Alexa’s creation

In this programme: Korea split along the 38th parallel, child prisoners of the Japanese during World War Two, the notorious Devil's Island penal colony, the man who published Harry Potter and Sue the T-Rex skeleton.

Photo: Korea 38th parallel Credit: AFP

Korea Divided

Angie Dickinson remembers her friend, the Hollywood superstar who became the most high profile celebrity to acknowledge he was suffering from Aids; plus one of the founding members of Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club, the Danish cartoon controversy, remembering Kabul's musicians' quarter and the birth of Karaoke. 

Photo: Rock Hudson at the BBC.

The Death of Rock Hudson

Suicide bombings in Amman; a massacre in East Timor that was a turning point on the road to independence; the fall of the Taliban; anti-Sikh riots in India; and the BBC's first wildlife broadcaster

The Amman Bombings

The hunt for Bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan; a Ku Klux Klan trial in 1965; the siege of Kut in World War 1; an unexpected alliance in 1980s Britain with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners; and seminal alternative rock band the Velvet Underground's first gig.

(Photo: Afghan fighters look out over a smoking valley after a US B-52 aircraft bombed a front line position in the mountains of Tora Bora in north-eastern Afghanistan. Credit: Associated Press)

The Battle of Tora Bora

The 1982 release of the world's best selling album; plus the untimely death of General George S Patton; the former child star Karolyn Grimes on the film It's A Wonderful Life, the Beagle 2 mission to Mars, and Vladimir Nabokov's scandalous book, Lolita.

(Photo: Michael Jackson and assorted zombies in the video for Thriller in 1983. Credit: 01/01/1983 Publicity Handout)

Michael Jackson's Thriller

Executives of the German company that made the drug Thalodomide go on trial. Plus, Chechen rebels negotiate peace with President Yeltsin; the Israeli airlift of 14,000 Ethiopian Jews; Hands Across America, the day millions of Americans formed a human chain to try to end poverty; and the execution of the Queen of England, Anne Boleyn.

Photograph: A Thalidomide child undergoes rehabilitation, 1963 (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

The Thalidomide Trial

The Thalidomide Trial

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