Author

Planning an Escape for 13 Years: How One Family Outsmarted the Iron Curtain

 Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! What would you risk to escape a totalitarian state—and how long would you be willing to wait? In this gripping episode, Peter Kasl, author of⁠ Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism⁠, tells the extraordinary true story of … Read more

When Terrorism Went Global: Plane Hijackings and Violence in the 1970s

 Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! In the 1970s, a network of radical extremists terrorised the West with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage-takings. Among them was the young Leila Khaled with her jewellery made from grenade rings, the hard-drinking Carlos the Jackal in … Read more

The Berlin Airlift – Victories, Myths, and the Berlin Blockade

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. I speak with … Read more

Outnumbered 8-1 : An untold story of the Korean War

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! At Chosin in the Korean War, a US Army force of 2,300 soldiers—a unit known as Task Force Faith—was positioned on the east side of the reservoir to protect the Marines’ flank but was overwhelmed by a Chinese force … Read more

The KGB defector who saved MI5 and changed the Cold War

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! ​Oleg Lyalin, was a KGB officer whose actions would provide British intelligence with pivotal information during the Cold War. I speak with Richard Kerbaj,  the author of a new book, ‘The Defector. The untold story of the KGB agent … Read more

Cold War Kids: The Unique Life of US Military BRATs

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron!   Author Tom Hapgood is a US military BRAT  aka the child of a parent or parents serving full-time in the United States Armed Forces. He talks about his 5 years in West Germany during the Cold War. He … Read more

The Cambridge Five Spy Ring: Philby, Burgess, Maclean, Blunt & Cairncross

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! ​The incredible story of the five most damaging spies in British history, from their recruitment at Cambridge University to their infiltration of the government and the security services, all while successfully eluding prosecution. I speak with Shawnna Morris the … Read more

Cold War Britain: Fifty years in the shadow of the bomb

  Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! British history, politics, literature and popular culture that defined the Cold War era. Fraser McCallum is the author of a new book Cold War Britain: Fifty years in the shadow of the bomb which gives a fascinating insight … Read more

The Atomic Bombing of Japan – The First Shots of the Cold War?

   Today is 80 years since the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on YouTubeListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! I talk with  author Stephen Walker who is the author of  Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima. He has spent years researching the atomic bombings … Read more