Witness History
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | On BBC Sounds, there are podcasts to help you look after your body and your mind. |
| 0:12.7 | From increasing your immunity to feeling more confident. |
| 0:16.6 | Or tips on how to focus. |
| 0:18.5 | Sorry, what will you say? |
| 0:19.7 | If it matters to you, it matters to us. |
| 0:22.6 | Feel good inside of it. |
| 0:24.3 | With what's up docs. |
| 0:25.9 | And complex with Kimberly Wilson. |
| 0:27.9 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.4 | Hi, this is the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:40.4 | I'm Rina Stanton Sharma. |
| 0:42.6 | If you've been here before, you can skip the next few seconds. |
| 0:47.0 | We're the podcast that brings history to life by hearing from those who are there using incredible archive. |
| 0:54.5 | Episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday. |
| 0:58.4 | If that appeals to you, why not subscribe and turn your push notifications on so you never |
| 1:04.0 | miss an episode? |
| 1:06.1 | For the fascinating story I've got for you today, I'm taking you back to 1953, when an Indian diplomat |
| 1:13.3 | nicknamed the somber porcupine met Stalin, one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. |
| 1:21.8 | We've discovered a scratchy tape in the BBC archives about the meeting, which took place |
| 1:27.2 | just weeks before Stalin's death. |
| 1:29.8 | Curiously enough, my very first impression was how short he was. |
... |
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