Jonestown: The Birth of Peoples Temple

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On November 18th, 1978, over 900 people died at an American settlement in the jungle of Guyana called Jonestown. In this first of two episodes, we are going to find out how they ended up in South America.

Who was the eponymous Reverend Jim Jones, notorious leader of the cult? What did the Peoples Temple believe in? How and why did they make the journey from Indiana to California to Guyana?

Don is joined by author and scholar Annie Dawid, who has spent over two decades researching Peoples Temple.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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1:02.4	Warning, everyone, it's Don here,
1:04.4	jumping in to caution you that this episode contains details of murder-suicide
1:08.7	that may be distressing for some listeners. Please proceed at your own discretion.
1:18.3	The Port Kaituma airstrip is cut into the remote jungle of Guyana. Created for military use, it has no
1:29.8	control tower or shelter to speak of, and the small propeller planes that can land here are all
1:35.6	privately chartered. It's an 11-kilometer journey from the nearest settlement, an encampment
1:41.4	of mostly Americans, known as Jonestown, from which a battered
1:45.5	dirt-encrusted truck now arrives, lurching along the road.
1:49.6	The truck carries a U.S. congressional delegation to Jonestown from the States, accompanied
1:54.6	by a handful of detectors from the settlement.
	...

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