Bridget Kendall – Cold War BBC Moscow Correspondent 1989 – 1995

  Today we have James taking the helm again with a fascinating chat with Bridget Kendall, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent from 1989 to 1995 when she was witness to the power struggles in the Soviet Communist party as Mikhail Gorbachev tried to introduce reform. However…before we start I have to thank our fans who are … Read more

Watching Socialism : The Television Revolution in Cold War Eastern Europe

Watching Socialism: The Television Revolution in Eastern Europe is an exhibition co-curated by the Wende Museum and British scholars Sabina Mihelj and Susan Reid.  Both the capitalist West and the communist East attempted to leverage TV as a medium that represented modernity and progress during the Cold War. While television was indeed a tool that … Read more

Stasi Infiltration of the Prenzlauer Berg Underground Literary Scene

  In this episode we speak with Professor Alison Lewis is Professor of German in the School of Languages and Linguistics, The University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the a co-author of Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe which is published in August 2019. Now several of our fans are the proud owners of … Read more

Disarming Doomsday – the human impact of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima

In this episode, we speak with Dr Becky-Alexis Martin, an award-winning pacifist scholar,  lecturer in Cultural and Political Geography at Manchester Metropolitan University,  and photographer. Her first book, “Disarming Doomsday”, critically considers the social, cultural, ​and spatial inequalities and harms perpetuated by nuclear warfare, and was the recipient of the 2020 L.H.M. Ling Outstanding First … Read more

Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe

Today we’re talking to  Alison Lewis, a professor in German at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of several books, including one in German about love and gender in literature during Germany’s reunification and a book in German about the Stasi’s infiltration of the literary underground. We spoke to Alison in episode 71. … Read more

The Cold War Blood Tattoo

  Today’s episode is a bonus episode celebrating our 50th episode which came out on 23rd Feb 2019.  I honestly never thought we’d get this far, but it’s thanks to you the listener. In 1951, a small pilot program was launched in Indiana and Utah as a civilian defense measure to aid in the aftermath … Read more

Freedom’s Laboratory – The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science

Audra J Wolfe is writer, editor, and historian based in Philadelphia. With a background in  both science and history her work specifically focuses on the role of science during the Cold War, a period when science held a special place in maintaining and projecting state power. Now if you’d like to support us with a … Read more

Gillian – A US Student visits Cold War Poland in 1989

Gillian Cox visited Poland in October 1989. In this episode you will hear her eyewitness of account of a country undergoing fundamental change. The free trade union Solidarity has just won it’s first election, although at this point it has to power share with the communist party. The writing is on the wall for major … Read more

Gillian – A US Student visiting Cold War East Germany

Gillian Cox visited the GDR as a student in October 1989 just before the Wall came down. In this episode you will hear her eyewitness of account of what she saw in East Germany on the cusp of it’s destruction. Before we start the episode I wanted to thanks everyone who is supporting the podcast … Read more