The Bomb, unearths a gripping true story of espionage at the core of the British-American

Atomic Research programmes. Find out more in Season 2 of The Bomb, a podcast from the BBC

World Service, available now.

Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service

with me, Rachel Nailer. This week we're going to bring you stories about women's

reproductive rights around the world. This follows the US Supreme Court's ruling on Roe

versus Wade, which removes the constitutional rights to abortion in America. I'm going

to take you back 71 years to Mexico City, to an invention that changed women's lives

forever, the contraceptive pill. I've been listening to archive interviews with the

scientists behind it, the late Dr. Karl Gerrassi.

It's 1949 and the young Austrian chemist, Karl Gerrassi, is making waves in the pharmaceutical

industry. He'd already helped develop under his means age 19, had a PhD by 21 and was

on track to become one of the youngest chemistry professors in the US. But he's adventurous,

ambitious and a bit cocky. He thinks he knows a quicker way to climb the ladder. He ditches

academic life in New Jersey and takes a job with an unknown company, Syntax, in a country

thousands of miles from home, Mexico.

It was a very interesting country, I thought I'd learn a new language, and that was a very

exciting year, 1949, with a year when Cortisolne exploded and everyone was trying to develop

their synthesis of Cortisolne. That was probably the hottest chemical topic at that time in

academia and industry.

Cortisolne, a steroid that acts as a hormone, was in demand to treat arthritis. Despite

a small team, limited experience and a very basic lab, Karl was confident he could be the

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