Ronald Reagan and Lonesome George

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dolly Jørgensen, Professor of History at the University of Stavanger in Norway and a specialist in the history of extinction.

We start in 2012 with the death of a famous Galapagos tortoise called Lonesome George, who was the last of his species.

Then, the incredible tale of how an Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, saved thousands of prisoners of war and Jews in Rome during World War 2.

We hear how the Sino-Indian War of 1962 left a painful legacy for Indian families of Chinese descent.

Plus, one of the signatories of the Schengen Agreement recalls the day it was signed in 1985.

Finally, Ronald Reagan's former speechwriter looks back on the President's 1987 'Tear down this wall' speech, delivered in Berlin.

Contributors:

Dolly Jørgensen - Professor of History at the University of Stavanger. James Gibbs - Vice President of Science and Conservation at the Galapagos Conservancy. Hugh O’Flaherty - relative of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty. Joy Ma - Indian woman of Chinese descent born in the Deoli camp. Robert Goebbels - signed the Schengen Agreement. Peter Robinson - US President Reagan's former speechwriter.

(Photo: Lonesome George the tortoise. Credit: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is love?
0:03.0	Is it chemistry, fate or a disaster waiting to happen?
0:07.0	Sometimes you mistake other things for love.
0:09.9	Join me, Ryland, on my new podcast,
0:12.2	as I ask experts and a few familiar faces what love really means.
0:16.3	Because it turns out it's a bit more complicated than happily ever after.
0:20.6	You should think of it as the daily commitment you make to someone that you care about.
0:25.2	Ryland, how to be in love. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:34.5	Hello and welcome to The History Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson,
0:40.0	voices from the past featured on the Witness History podcast.
0:43.7	This week, Second World War Heroics in the Rome POW Escape Line.
0:48.5	These were dark days, and I shall always remember the difficulties we had in trying to keep one step ahead and we
0:57.5	get set for. Also, the Indian citizens of Chinese descent held after the Sino-Indian War of 1962.
1:05.6	The whole camp had barbed wires and that became almost a symbol of their imprisonment. At intervals, they had
1:12.4	guards in watchtowers. And President Reagan's Berlin moment. Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.
1:22.7	That's all coming up later in this podcast. But first, a moment which highlighted the fragility of life on Earth.
1:29.8	In 2012, Lonesome George, the last tortoise of his particular species, died.
1:36.7	George, from Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, was a global symbol of conservation
1:41.2	and brought to the attention of the world, the reality of extinction.
1:45.8	Jill Kersley has been exploring this sad story.
1:54.6	I half expect to see some frozen peas, a tub of mint chalk chip ice cream and a bag of oven-ready
2:00.8	chips, but instead I'm looking
	...

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