Escaping from East Berlin
How a young West German student helped East Berliners escape communism at the height of the Cold War. Volker Heinz told Robin Lustig how he worked with a Syrian diplomat to smuggle people across the B...
10 Aug 20218min
The building of the Berlin Wall
In August 1961, communist East Germany began building the Berlin Wall, which divided the city for nearly three decades and became a symbol of the Cold War. Simon Watts introduces the memories of Germa...
9 Aug 20219min
Gay activism in 1990s India
In the early 1990s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in India, a group of gay men and lesbian women set up the Counsel Club in the city of Kolkata. It was one of the first queer support...
6 Aug 20218min
Afghanistan's battle of the airwaves
When the US led invasion of Afghanistan ousted the repressive Taliban regime in 2001, it was no longer illegal to listen to music or news on the radio. Afghan businessman Saad Mohseni returned to his...
5 Aug 20219min
Escaping Nigeria’s Civil War
When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped. We bring you one child’s ...
4 Aug 20218min
Chipko: India’s tree-hugging women
The 1970s were a time of rapid development in the Indian Himalayas. New roads had recently been built, allowing logging companies greater access to the region’s vast, remote forests. Local people made...
3 Aug 20218min
Dorothy Butler Gilliam: American news pioneer
In 1961, the Washington Post newspaper hired an African American woman as a reporter for the first time. Dorothy Butler Gilliam was only 24 when she got the job. At the time there were hardly any wome...
2 Aug 202112min
The Tsunami and Fukushima
Remembering the earthquake and tsunami which devastated Japan and triggered a nuclear emergency in 2011. Max Pearson, who reported from Japan at the time, presents eyewitness accounts of the disaster ...
30 Jul 20219min
