Myspace and MTV: how will future historians study the 21st century?

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From social-media accounts to TV shows and video games, recent decades offer an enormous wealth of material for future historians to explore. But what are the challenges presented by this vast amount of data? And how will historical researchers a hundred years from now make sense of 2025? Matt Elton spoke to historians Jane Winters and John Wills to answer these questions – and find out how the ephemeral digital archives of our current era might differ from the historical sources of previous generations. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This History Extra podcast is sponsored by Guide Dogs. Training dogs to support people with sight loss
0:05.7	goes back almost 100 years when they were used to help German veterans in the First World War.
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0:17.7	helps people with sight loss live the lives they choose.
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0:25.9	with life in the way they want.
0:27.9	Not a lot of people realise that there's so much more to guide dogs than the dogs themselves.
0:32.6	Of course, those furry life changes are incredible, but the charity also helps people with
0:37.3	sight loss in so many ways,
0:39.2	giving them the tools and confidence to fulfill their ambitions, from the everyday to the extraordinary.
0:44.8	Because you don't just have to manage with sight loss, you can thrive with it.
0:48.7	Anyone can help by getting involved, by donating, volunteering or sponsoring a puppy.
0:54.2	Find out more about guide dogs' life-changing services or how you can support their incredible
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	...

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