Sex, spies and scandal : the John Vassall affair

Alex Grant’s new book Sex, Spies and Scandal The John Vassall Affair has everything: a honey trap, industrial-scale espionage, journalists jailed for not revealing their sources and the first modern tabloid witch-hunt, which resulted in a ministerial resignation and almost brought down Harold Macmillan’s government. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a … Read more

V-Bombers: Britain’s Nuclear Frontline in the Cold War

V-Bombers: Britain’s Nuclear Frontline in the Cold War is a new book by Dr Tony Redding that takes a deep dive into Britain’s V-bomber force’s operational nuclear war role. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Tony reveals the intense preparations and the stark realities faced by the aircrews, who lived … Read more

The Picnic That Ripped Open The Iron Curtain

  In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain – and held a picnic. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German … Read more

How To Catch A Cold War Spy

Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Since 1985, Ana Montes has been an asset of the Cuban intelligence service. In that time, she’s risen through the ranks to become one of the Pentagon’s most respected voices on Cuban affairs with easy access to classified documents. By night, she was working … Read more

Cold War, Warm Hearts – Hitchhiking behind the 1960s Iron Curtain

  In 1966 most of Bridget’s friends, in their early twenties, were settling down with jobs and/or husbands… Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! She, on the other hand, set off alone to travel across Poland relying on the kindness of strangers.  Fascinated by what she experienced she continued to … Read more

Cold War, Warm Hearts – Hitchhiking behind the 1960s Iron Curtain

  In 1966 most of Bridget’s friends, in their early twenties, were settling down with jobs and/or husbands… Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! She, on the other hand, set off alone to travel across Poland relying on the kindness of strangers.  Fascinated by what she experienced she continued to … Read more

The Cold War Atomic Spies

  On 29 August 1949 at 7:00 a.m. the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! The test stunned the Western powers. American intelligence had estimated that the Soviets would not produce an atomic weapon until 1953, while the British did not expect it … Read more

The Rise and Fall of Erich Honecker

Honecker emerged as an ambitious political player and became the shadowy mastermind behind the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, a crucial moment in twentieth-century history. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google PodcastsBecome a Patron! Author Nathan Morley brings to life the story of the longtime leader of the German Democratic Republic. … Read more

Dickey Chapelle – trailblazing female Cold War journalist

  Now have you ever heard of Dickey Chapelle? No, I hadn’t either, but I’m delighted to bring you the unknown story of this trailblazing female war correspondent. Dickey’s career started in World War 2 where she reported from some of the Pacific wars’ toughest battlefields of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. During the Cold War, … Read more