Kultur & Gesellschaft
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Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories. When you subscribe to Witness History, you’ll be taken inside turning points in world affairs, from West Africa’s fight back against Boko Haram in 2015, to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations.You’ll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.You’ll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden’s Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles’ George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy’s show to a sudden end.And if you’re curious about inventions, we’ll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created.If you’re new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.
Folgen von Witness History
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Folge vom 24.11.2021The doctor who helped her mother to dieIn 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise voluntary euthanasia: although the new law was ground-breaking, it was based in part on the result of a dramatic criminal trial that happened nearly three decades earlier, in 1973. The case concerned a doctor who helped her elderly and terminally ill mother to die after her mother had repeatedly begged her to do so. Dr Truus Postma was put on trial for carrying out voluntary euthanasia and was facing a sentence of up to 12 years if found guilty. Her dilemma as both a doctor and a daughter triggered a national debate about whether her actions were murder or mercy. The case broke taboos and led to the founding of the NVVE, a Dutch organisation which began to campaign for voluntary euthanasia to be made legal. Viv Jones speaks to Dr Postma’s daughter, Marga Postma, and to Klazien Albeda, founder of the NVVE.(Photo: Dr Truus Postma outside court. Bert Verhoeff / Anefo. National Archives of the Netherlands.)
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Folge vom 23.11.2021Europe's last smallpox epidemicEighteen million people were vaccinated against smallpox in the former communist Yugoslavia in only a month and a half in 1972. The mass vaccination campaign succeeded in containing the last smallpox epidemic in Europe. Dr Ana Gligic was a virologist who detected the first cases of the disease and helped tackle the outbreak. PHOTO: A smallpox patient in Yugoslavia in 1972 (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
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Folge vom 22.11.2021The Woman in Gold by Gustav Klimt'The Woman in Gold' was one of Gustav Klimt's most famous paintings. It was a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, but it was taken from her family by the Nazis and only returned to them after a long legal battle. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Randol Schoenberg the young lawyer who took on the case.Picture: Adele Bloch-Bauer I, or 'The Woman in Gold', painted in 1907 by Gustav Klimt, from the collection of the Neue Galerie in New York. (Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
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Folge vom 18.11.2021Sudan's October RevolutionA first-hand account of how Sudanese civilian protesters first brought down a military regime in 1964. The protests began after a student was shot and killed by police during a confrontation at the prestigious University of Khartoum. Demonstrations and a nationwide general strike followed which forced the military to hand over power. Alex Last hears from historian Professor Abdullahi Ibrahim who was a prominent member of the Student's Union at Khartoum University at the time.Photo: People celebrate the fall of the military regime in Khartoum, November 1964 (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)