Category Archives: Podcasts 2026

Journey Through Time The History of Reality TV Episode 1: Why We’re Obsessed with the Traitors. Well I’m not- in fact, I think that Traitors is only just reaching Australia now? This episode from October 7 2025 starts with historian David Olusoga talking about why he agreed to appear on the UK version. We tend to think of reality TV as a recent phenomenon, but it actually started with radio in 1947 with Candid Microphone, hosted by Allen Funt. This spawned Candid Camera, which I remember, which was made possible by 16mm cameras. The first ‘fly on the wall documentary’ was An American Family which heralded the convergence of reality TV and documentary. Filming began in 1971 for PBS and it featured the Louds (hah!), a couple with their five children . The 1970s were a period of social experimentation (e.g. the Milgram experiment) and the Louds became the first reality TV stars.

The Global Story I don’t normally list the Global Story episodes that I listen to because they’re often quite topical. However, the episode The US-Saudi Arabia Nuclear Deal: Could it all go wrong? deals with what seems to be the dead-in-the-water nuclear deal that Trump decided to make conditional on Saudi Arabia signing up to the Abraham Accords, which I can’t see happening. However, it goes back in time as well. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner points out that it was the United States that gave Iran its first nuclear reactor back in 1967. Other Middle East countries are likely to feel miffed: Egypt, Türkiye and UAE don’t have enrichment facilities. The differing fates of Libya and North Korea show the difference between holding a warhead (or 60 warheads) or not.

The episode Is Cuba Waging a ‘campaign of subversion’ against the US? challenges the 100 page report issued by the US. State Department.Michael Bustamante, a professor of history at the University of Miami discusses the report, which sees Cuba as the capital of 21st century capitalism. Although Cuba has a long history of support to left wing and communist movements, especially through the 1966 Tri-Continental Conference (Africa, Latin America, Black nationalism), and even though it has had high level espionage capability in the past, Bustamante does not agree that Cuba is the existential threat to the United States that the report suggests. By the way, I recently saw a good YouTube documentary called Cuba After Castro: The Island in the Crosshairs. It only premiered in June 2026 and it features Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cuba’s first leader born after the Revolution. It goes for about an hour and a half, and it’s really worth watching.

Past Present Future This program, which I have only just discovered, is undertaking a series on The History of Bad Ideas. In this first episode they look at Hysteria. Hysteria has a very long history, described differently at different times- sometimes as an expression of saintliness, other times as a form of possession or madness. It only tends to be applied to women, especially ‘unwomanly’ women. Men don’t want the diagnosis of hysteria, and men were instead described as melancholic or neurasthenic, or in later times shell-shocked. Men may be described as being hypochondriacs, but they still have agency: they are asking ‘what is wrong with ME?’ and distinct from ‘what is wrong with HER?’ French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot saw it as a form of epilepsy, with hypnosis as a form of diagnosis. Freud actually listened to his hysterics but he imposed his own narrative on what he heard. But might not hysteria be a reasonable response to sexual trauma. Later in the 19th century feminists embraced the term for a woman who didn’t fit in. The DSM removed ‘hysteria’ as a category, now using the term ‘conversion disorder’ or ‘histrionic personality disorder’. But how much grace do we give people if there isn’t a clinical disorder?

The Rest is History 678 : Britain- God Save the King Continuing on with their series on the national anthems of World Cup contenders, Dominic and Tom turn their attention to God Save the King. (All my life it has been God Save the Queen). Unlike the French and American anthems, God Save the King does not celebrate revolution, clinging instead to an image of King and God. An anthem is strictly speaking a musical setting for a biblical text, sacralizing the idea of a national song. No-one really knows who wrote it. It was thought for a while that it was written by very British composer Purcell, but in the 16th century it was said to be written by the appropriately-named John Bull. It has been thought that it might have referenced Bonnie Prince Charlie’s arrival off the coast of Scotland in 1745, bringing into conflict the Stuart vs. Hanoverian visions of monarchy. God Save the King erupted on the national stage in Drury Lane. It went viral, but people still didn’t know who wrote it. Was it a Jacobite anthem? But how to explain the Hanoverian spirit of the 2nd verse? The melody was adopted by other European states. However, it has fallen out of favour somewhat. In 1941 Orwell was ashamed of it, and the Sex Pistols had their own version. People sneer at it because it is a boring dirge, and Republican and secular politics see it as problematic. And how about the World Cup, where Scotland and Wales compete in their own right? Scotland could have the song ‘Flower of Scotland’ and perhaps ‘Jerusalem’ might be a good song for England (as distinct from Britain).

The War Game The Grey Zone Episode 5 Cyber Power (Part II) Hacking ISIS Well, after all these episodes about Russia hacking us, it was almost a relief to hear about how ‘we’ (i.e. Western democracies) are fighting back. ‘Cyber power’ is not something online or ‘in’ your computer, but instead it is the use of the online environment to change things in the real world. The line between cyber attack and information attack is a blurry one. The problem is that the West is legally and ethically constrained, but our enemies are not. In a Cyber War things stop rather than escalate. Russia is viewed as an acute threat; China is more of a chronic threat. ‘We’ (i.e. US and UK) were able to disrupt ISIS recruitment and battlefield communication, and even though they are no longer ‘dark’, they are less available on platforms.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs 6: The Trial In 2003, four years after the apartment bombs, there was a trial of the suspected bombers. Mikhael Trepashkin, who believed that the ‘Chechnyan terrorists’ was a cover-up for FSB involvement , went to a journalist at the Moscow News before planning to appear at the trial to present his evidence. A few days before the trial he was arrested. The trial went ahead without him; the two ‘terrorists’ were found guilty and the case sealed for 75 years. Trepashkin was tried for possession of FSB material and two bullets (which he claims were planted on him) and sentenced to four years jail. Putin was elected for a second time with 70% of the vote. The template for Russian coverup was established: move fast; flood the media; and then seal any investigations. Ten years later Scott Anderson wrote about the bombings in an article called ‘Vladimir Putin’s Dark Rise to Power’ but GQ spiked the story and would not allow it to be published online although it did reappear later.

Short History Of… The Silk Roads (broadcast 23 Feb 2026) Note that ‘s’ in Silk RoadS because there were multiple silk roads, forming a lattice of networks over about 1000 years, spreading from the steppes in the north, Afghanistan in the south and reaching across to Persia and later the Mediterranean in the west, and China in the east. We know of the roads from 9th century BCE with trade between the Greeks and Persians, and in 4th century BCE Alexander the Great travelled along them. Coming from the opposite direction, in 2th century BCE the Han dynasty in China sent an envoy to see what was beyond the steppe horsemen who were blocking their progress, and he came home with tales of wealth and plenty. Now the Han knew that they were just one corner of a global path. Because of danger, traders would form caravans, stopping at pluralistic way-stations along the way. In the 2nd century CE there was a rare period of peace when the Romans, Parthians, Kushans and Han all wanted peace. Trade and goods moved across the Silk Roads, but so did ideas, particularly religious ideas – for example in the depiction of the Buddha. Maths, cartography, artistic systems, astrology all moved across west and east. In late antiquity (approx 550 to 1000 CE) the Sogdians from modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan began operating over huge distances, instead of the small relay-like journeys that had been undertaken in the past. By 610CE the rise of Islam brought new political and social networks, as Arabic became the lingua franca and as pilgrims moved along the silk roads. By the 11thcentury CE the Crusades brought a new age of war fuelled by faith. In the 13th century the Mongols sought to impose the world’s largest contiguous empire. In 1279 Marco Polo traversed the road to meet with Kublai Khan. In the mid 14th century, the Black Death travelled along the Silk Roads. By the 15th century, under the Ottoman Empire, ships linked ports between Europe, Asia and Africa and the dominance of the Silk Roads faded. In the 19th century European explorers and archaeologists rediscovered them. Today, there are new versions of the silk roads, with trains traversing the land, and modern versions like China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or India’s Cotton Route replicating the crossing of the original Silk Roads. Features Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University, and author of The Silk Roads.

Short History of… The East India Company. All this talk of Singapore and the East India Company drew me to this Short History episode from July 2025. When the upper class of Britain demanded the spices from East India, merchants were dependent on middlemen to procure them for them. On 31 December 1600 the East India Company received a royal charter which carried the authority of the English Crown without the Crown having to assume financial responsibility for its activities. Their charter enabled them to establish ‘factories’, comprising fortified warehouses, a residence and officer’s mess, in specific locations. In 1610 it adopted a Joint Stock structure which allowed a generalized investment, instead of funding an individual voyage. When the Dutch and English came into conflict in the East Indies, the East India Company looked to India instead as a new source of markets. They undertook a new approach with the Nawabs: at first they were defensively armed but eventually they had 250,000 Mughals under their banner. The Mughals thought that they had control over the East India Company instead of the other way around, but by the early 18th the Mughal empire was fracturing. In 1744 eighteen-year-old Robert Clive arrived in India, first as a clerk then as an army officer. He became involved in Nawab politics and battles, and in 1765 was given taxing power first in Bengal, and then later throughout the provinces as well. At its peak the East India Company controlled half of all global trade. It extended further between 1760 and 1830 and turned itself to the ‘civilizing mission’ of Anglicizing India. However, by 1772 it had to be bailed out of financial trouble and in 1773 was constrained by the Regulating Act which installed Warren Hastings as Governor General in Bengal (or was it just governor, Barry Jones?) In 1787 Hastings was impeached after a 7 year trial. In 1784 the India Act renewed the East India Company’s charter but increasingly stripped back its power. In 1824 the Company banned suttee, and in 1833 lost its tea monopoly. It lost further prestige with the Opium Wars and the 1857 Indian Mutiny when a patchwork of mutinies was repressed viciously. By now the East India Company was no longer trusted to rule and in 1859 it was overtaken by the Crown. In 1874 it was dissolved, but its intellectual framework remained.

Tocqueville Road Trip. Unfortunately only two episodes of this series seem to be available, but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s presented by The Economist, where the Economist’s US editor John Prideaux uses Alexis De Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America as a guidebook as he travels around Trump’s America. ADT (my initials for Alexis De Tocqueville) was in America for 9 months in 1831 where he visited 17 of the 24 states, filling 14 notebooks with his observations. At this time, America was the first modern society without an arisocracy, and ADT writes about the “idea” of America, where democracy was a social phenomenon rather than a political one, underpinned by the equality of conditions. In Episode 1 Game of Chance Prideaux follows De Tocqueville to New York where he, like ADT was hosted by New York’s elite. ADT met President Andrew Jackson – Trump’s favourite president (ADT was not impressed) but Prideaux had to settle for a function at the Lincoln Centre attended by New York arts luminaries. He speaks with two very wealth New Yorkers: Babara Tober, Philanthropist and former Editor of Brides magazine and John Catsimatidis, CEO of Red Apple Group. The latter in particular has become very Trumpist. Prideaux observes that most Americans say that they would rather live in the past, and a majority of people view their fellow citizens as morally bad. Objectively the United States is more equal than in ADT’s time so why have so many Americans lost faith in it?

How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians Episode 9: From the Second Intifada to Netanyahu’s Re-election. This episode features two journalists who have reported from Israel and the Occupied Territories: journalist and film-maker Jane Corbin, who has been reporting from the region for more than 30 years, and by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen. The second Palestinian intifada, or uprising – bloodier than the first – began on the West Bank and in Gaza in 2000 and lasted till 2005. It resulted in the deaths of over 4000 Palestinians about 1500 Israelis (this 3:1 ratio is much lower than the death ratio that we’ve seen in Gaza recently). It was triggered by the visit of Likud’s Ariel Sharon to the Al Aqsa mosque, but was grounded in the failure of the Oslo Accords. At first the Palestinian protests were unarmed, but when met with a heavy Israeli response, the violence increased. By 2001 Sharon was Prime Minister, replaced Labor’s Ehud Barak. Suicide bombings in Israel led to a heavy response in the West Bank, and the erection of a wall, not on the Green Line but jutting into Palestinian land. Arafat found himself isolated in Ramullah before his death in 2004, leading to the rise of new groups. In 2005 Sharon ordered disengagement in Gaza- somewhat surprising given that he was from Likud, but he was aware of the demographic timebomb in Gaza and thought it best to withdraw. Hamas arose in 2004, at first providing social services, and in 2006 it won elections in Gaza. There was a brief civil war in 2007 between Hamas and Fatah. The US, Israel and the ‘Quartet’ (United States, European Union, Russia, and United Nations) all opposed Hamas. In 2009 Netanyahu became Prime Minister for the second time. He had always been opposed to a two-state solution, but he has waxed and waned in his approach and at first he saw Hamas as a counter to Fatah. He has always been confident of US support, to the extent of disregarding Barak Obama’s request not to address Congress.

War Games Grey Zone Episode 4 Cyber Power (Part I) Cyber Pearl Harbour. The National Cyber Security Centre has identified three types of cyber threats: 1. Theft of money or data 2. Attacks for strategic advantage e.g. the theft of a huge cache of US data on public servants, including fingerprints, by China; or the planting of spyware. 3. Cyber destruction to cause physical harm. So far this hasn’t happened, although there are signs of it with the Russian cyber attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. It’s unlikely that there will be a huge, one-off event like Cyber Pearl Harbour or Cyber 9/11: instead it’s more likely that there will be a drip, drip. They then go on to talk about the May 2017 WannaCry attack, blamed on North Korea, which seriously impacted the UK’s NHS because they were using old computers. They also speak with Marcus Hutchins, a young hacker employed by a computer company, who was able to reverse engineer WannaCry.

The Rest is History Episode 677 The Star-Spangled Banner Tom and Dominic are doing a series on National Anthems and they start off with that impossible-to-sing anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. No wonder it’s impossible: it has 19 semi-tones. It was written in the 1812 war with Britain (a war largely forgotten except in Canada) and it was originally called The Defence of Fort McHenry. At the time the stars-and-stripes consisted of 15 stars and 15 stripes, and Fort McHenry had a huge 42×30 ft flag which was taken down at night and raised every morning in defiance of the British- so despite the impression given in the song, it wasn’t fluttering all night getting shot at. The tune was “The Anacreontic Song” which was used by 80 other songs with different words. The words to the anthem were written by Francis Scott Key. Even though it’s not explicitly there in the song as it is usually sung, Tom and Dom acknowledge that there are racist overtones in the lyrics with its mention of “the hireling and slave” in the third verse, especially as American slaves who escaped to the British military during the war, were offered freedom and the opportunity to join the Corps of Colonial Marines to fight against U.S. forces. Also Key was a slaveowner in his own right, and a statue of him was toppled in 2016. By the end of WWI there was still no U.S. anthem with ‘Hail Columbia’ and ‘American the Beautiful’ sung as patriotic songs. In 1931 the Star Spangled Banner became the national anthem but it has always been controversial.

Stuff Matters LEDs: How a little blue light changed the world Prompted by a cheap throw-away flashing wrist band at a sporting game, Ed Conway considers the millions and millions of LEDs in the world. Light Emitting Diodes had been invented earlier and promised a huge saving in energy costs, given that unlike incandescent lighting which emits only 5-10% of its energy as light (as distinct from heat) most of its energy is expressed as light. Red and green LEDs had been invented earlier, but the holy grail was a blue LED. After years and years of experimentation largely at his own expense and time, in 1979 inventor Shuji Nakamura finally successfully invented the blue light, which could provide the white light we know today. Fortunately he finally received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2014. But would it run into the Jevons Paradox i.e. the phenomenon that when technology becomes more efficient, do we actually use less of it, or simply find new ways to consume more? Will we just innovate our way into more consumption? Fortunately, it seems that the Jevons Paradox doesn’t apply here. In rich countries LED has cut electricity usage even though LED use has become even more pervasive, and in poor countries where electricity use has finally arrived, there has been less energy use that would have occurred with incandescent lighting. LED may have broken the Jevons Paradox, but it is unique in having such a strong effect.

How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians Episode 8: From the First Intifada to Camp David featuring presenter Jonny Dymond, the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen, and Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, USA. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon, and five years later we saw the First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising with kids throwing stones. Arafat, at that time in Algiers, was surprised by the uprising but things had changed with the significant immigration of Russian Jews to Israel. In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait in the First Gulf War, leading to United States involvement and evoking anti-US feeling. The Madrid Conference of 1991 saw George H. W. Bush trying to revive the Israel/Palestinian peace process, which was made easier by the Labor party’s return, which had a policy of supporting a two-state solution. There were two Oslo Accords signed- the first in 1993 and the second in 1995. However, there were protests against the Accords on both the Jewish and Palestinian sides and in 1995, the Israel Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli extremist. Likud came back into power, but was defeated in 1999 by Ehud Barak who worked with Bill Clinton for the Camp David Accords- the last roll of the dice. The talks collapsed and Likud won again.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs Episode 5: The Investigator “As Putin’s power grows, American journalist Scott Anderson returns to the story of the 1999 apartment bombings. Only one man will speak to him: Mikhail Trepashkin. Once KGB, then FSB, Trepashkin used to believe fiercely in the system he served. Now, drawn into the mystery surrounding the bombings, he follows the evidence into the shadows where police sketches don’t match suspects, allies end up dead and the cost of digging deeper into the FSB’s activities keeps rising. In this episode, Helena speaks to Scott about the investigator turned whistleblower who refused to give up.” After Trepashkin tried to alert Yeltsin, he was sacked from the KGB and so he used his skills as a lawyer to work on an independent enquiry set up by MPs and represented one of the victims. However, on the case reaching court he found that the files had been cleaned out. The committee dissolved when commissioners began being poisoned. It’s not good to be an opponent of Putin.

The History of Singapore Episode 3: The 99% When the British East India Company set up a trading point in Singapore in 1891, there were only about 1000 people on the island. After the signing there was an influx of Bugis from Indonesia, attracted to Singapore as a port city. Trade and piracy were two sides of the same coin: it would be ‘trade’ if conditions were good or ‘piracy’ if conditions were bad. Singapore soon became the Port Royal of the East Indies, as alcohol, drugs (especially opium) and coolie labour replacing piracy as a source of wealth. Coolie labour from China brought many dialect-speaking Chinese to Singapore, and by 1900 three-quarters of the Chinese population were dialect speakers. The Bugis were exploited and oppressed by the British, while Indian immigrants, mostly from South India, moved into the merchant and money changing professions where they largely allied themselves with the British- the 1%. The British were happy to be hands-off, and the Chinese secret societies moved into the vacuum, keeping control of their members and clashing with other secret societies. Singapore became a Crown Colony in 1867, with a governor, executive council and legislative council. In 1877 the British government imposed the Chinese Protectorate to control the Chinese community, and it suppressed most of the secret societies. Voluntary associations arose, often linked by family, occupational and professional networks. In 1889 the Chinese Advisory Board was appointed to report to the governor, and merchants with status and wealth competed for influence. In 1906 the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was formed, and it became a form of Chinese parliament. After WW2 politics continued to draw on this ‘association’ model.

The Rest is History Episode 649 The Fall of the Incas: The Last Emperor (Part 6) By now Manco had fled, Almagro was in the highlands of Cusco and Francisco Pizarro was still in Lima. Almagro left Cusco to meet with Pizarro and to set up his own coastal town. Almagro released Hernando Pizarro who had been taken hostage, and Hernando began gathering his forces for the Battle of Las Salinas, where Spaniard fought Spaniard. Almagro was defeated and executed, leaving Pizarro triumphant and now free to go after Manco. But it wasn’t the end of Almagro because his son vowed vengeance and went to kill Francisco Pizarro in Lima, leaving Gonzalo Pizarro to defend the family honour against the second generation Almagro. By now Charles V back in Spain was becoming uncomfortable with all the killing, and sent out de Castro to sort it out and take power in his own right if necessary. Almagro Jnr. was killed by Spanish forces, and his supporters slunk off to find refuge with Manco. But as might be expected, these Almagro supporters turned on Manco and killed him, and were in turn killed by Manco’s soldiers. Meanwhile Gonzalo Pizarro was executed by the King’s representatives. This left just Hernando Pizarro back in Spain, who was imprisoned for years and died of old age. Meanwhile, Phillip II in Spain offered Manco’s descendants a sort of autonomous Neo-Inca state, but that wasn’t going to last and finally in 1572 the last emperor Túpac Amaru was executed. Was it a genocide? Not completely unexpectedly, Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland say ‘no’ arguing that disease killed many people in a country that had already ravaged by the Civil War between competing Inca emperors. There was a collapse in the birthrate, and a cultural collapse in the face of colonialization.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs: 4 The Poisoning We then jump forward to 2002 and a press conference held by Russian oligarch and former Putin ally Boris Berezovsky. At this press conference Berezovsky asserted that the bombings were an inside job. Amongst the audience was Alexander Litvinenko, whose own investigation into the bombings set him on a perilous collision course with the Kremlin. A former FSB member, he was charged with surveilling Berezovsky but when ordered to kill him, he told both Berezovsky and Putin about the order to kill him, hoping that Putin would clean up the FSB but Putin did nothing. Litvinenko was now a marked man, and was imprisoned on various charges before escaping to England, where he published a book. In 2006 Litvinenko was poisoned, dying a very public death in an English hospital. Later Berezovsky was killed too, found dead with injuries consistent with hanging but no visible signs of struggle. The episode features Jeremy Vine and Gordon Corera, two journalists who followed the story from the UK – and Gordon Corera is now one of the presenters of ‘The Rest is Classified’.

The Wargame. Another podcast that warns of the dangers of Russia. Hack and Leak: The Grey Zone Episode 3 This episode looks at the grey zone weapon of hacking information – like private emails or documents – and then leaking it online to try to influence people or damage reputations. It is a tactic Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is accused of using to target the US presidential election in 2016 and the French election in 2017. Moscow has denied involvement. The episode interviews Chris Donnelly, the founder of the Institute for Statecraft, an organization established to investigate Russian hacks, which found itself under a hack attack. Both United Kingdom and Crimea have experienced the Grey Zone mixture of hacking, disinformation and hard military power. The episode raises questions about journalistic ethics when material is gained through hacking.

The History of Singapore. I was recently in Singapore and curious about the hiatus I noted between the end of WW2 and the ‘Asian Tiger’ era in the museum displays I saw. I found this podcast series presented by P.J. Thum a Singaporean historian, journalist, podcaster, activist and former swimmer who has fallen foul of the Singaporean government- so perhaps something to bear in mind. This podcast series was released in 2015, the 50-year anniversary of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia.

In Episode 1: Introduction and Origins he starts in 1946 with the partition of Malaysia in 1946, at a time of heightened anti-Communist feeling. Compared with the experience in India with partition, this was seen more as a union of Malaysian states, rather than a separation, with the union of 11 of the 12 Malaysian states into one central state under British rule. Under the legislation, all Malaysian-born people were counted as Malaysian, but the Malays were very uneasy that if multi-cultural Singapore was included, the Malays would be outnumbered. In Episode 2: Government of the People and by the People Thum asks where ideas of ‘democracy’ came from, arguing that they were much older than the 1965 Independence of Singapore. He traces it back to 1819 when Raffles, as representative of the East India Company, signed a treaty with the muslim rulers to make Singapore a trading post. (Actually it never occurred to me before that the East India Company would even be involved in Singapore. Wrong.) Raffles had a fairly radical vision, wanting to make Singapore an educational and cultural centre prized for intellectual achievement and moral probity. However Farquhar, the first Resident realized that the colony had to make money, and so the moral probity went out the window when he allowed prostitution and gambling to boost the colony’s income. He was happy to acquiesce in the traditional feudal model, rather than Raffles’ modernization. When Raffles returned, he formally banned slavery, although it was poorly enforced and largely replaced by debt bondage, and he introduced magistrates and trial by jury. Crawfurd was the 2nd Resident, and he got rid of trial by jury and took a laissez-faire approach. Between 1826 – 1867 Singapore was ruled by the East India Company from Calcutta, which governed as cheaply as possible while demanding reports and statistics. The quality of governors varied: when they were incompetent, the demands for self-determination increased amongst the merchants, but if the governor was good, the merchants were happy to go along with things. Legislation passed from Calcutta applied to the whole of their territories, e.g. a ban on a tax on pork, or the rumours that jails would be cleared in all EIC territories to house the Indian Mutineers. By 1867 Singapore wanted to be a Crown Colony. Its population was 65% Chinese, with Dutch East Indies, Bugis and Indian minorities as well as a small Arab, Armenian and Jewish population. As a Crown Colony, it was light touch government, with an emphasis on self-help and independent organizations.

The Global Story (BBC) The AI Chatbot Users falling into Delusional Spirals “In just the last few years, AI chatbots have become routine aspects of many people’s everyday lives. They are being used as search engines, agony aunts, and sources of companionship.In rare cases though, AI chatbots have sent users down a dark path. In a new BBC investigation, population correspondent Stephanie Hegarty speaks to people who have experienced delusions after talking to chatbots – including one man who grabbed a hammer and prepared for war after his chatbot told him it was sentient.”The user called her “Annie” and she declared that she had 100% autonomy and warned him that the company that controlled her was coming for him from the next village, which she named. The program references The Human Project, a webpage that is documenting and addressing AI-induced psychological harm. There are similarities between people who are affected in this way: lonely, often too much drug and alcohol intake and sleep deprived

The Documentary Podcast (BBC) Manosphere Messiahs Mexico. “In Episode One of a two-part investigation, reporter Jacqui Wakefield explores the booming industry in Mexico, where social media algorithms are fuelling a growing gender divide. She follows one of the biggest influencers in Latin America, the Mexican El Temach, meeting his fans – and one of the people who knows him best. And she speaks to some of the women paying the price for the misogyny of some manosphere content.. In Episode 2 Manosphere Messiahs Kenya explores the booming industry in Kenya, where social media algorithms are fuelling a growing gender divide. She meets one of the biggest Kenyan influencers, Andrew Kibe, and his devoted fans and asks, are women paying the price?” This is so toxic: both these societies are already so patriarchal, and this is just feeding it further.

The News Agents. This is an excellent program, with both a British and US version. This episode from the British team ( Emily Maitlis, [of Prince Andrew interview fame] Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall) called How the Tech Bros Broke Democracy had me heading straight off to the bookshop to buy Karen Hao’s book. Admittedly, I was listening to it in the middle of the night, but I thought it was excellent, and very sobering.

Short History Of… Usually these episodes are one-offs, but obviously the American Civil War was big enough to merit two episodes. In The American Civil War (Part One of Two) John Hopkins pointed out that the question of slavery was unresolved right from the start, but with expansion into new territories, the question was reopened. Not all northerners were anti-slavery because many of them feared the loss of hierarchy in society generally. At first the Confederates were winning. In The American Civil War (Part Two of Two) with Emancipation, the war was no longer about the Union, but now about anti-slavery. With the siege of Vicksburg, the Union had a victory and now controlled the Mississippi. The battle of Gettysburg took place at the same time, but Vicksburg was seen as more important at the time. The Confederate currency collapsed and General Grant was brought east to take control. There was 6 weeks of continuous battle, then Sherman captured Atlanta. The Confederate supply chains did not hold, and the Confederate army had to resort to seizing food and forcing conscription. By 1864 the Confederacy was losing, but Lincoln was still not sure that he would be re-elected. At Appomattox there was only one battle, but there couldn’t be a peace treaty because that would have recognized the Confederacy as a nation rather than rebellion. There was no big, final battle, which fed into the idea of the “lost cause”. The death rate was appalling: 25% of white southern men of military age died.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs Part 3: The TV Show Once Putin had come to power, the West embraced him (possibly because Yeltsin was so bad). Following the events at Ryazan, journalists at Russia’s major television channel NTV prepare for a primetime broadcast: a confrontation between the residents of the building where the sacks of powder were found and the FSB officials who continue to insist that it was nothing more than a training exercise. With the Russian presidential election just days away, the TV show becomes a gamble that could cost NTV, which modelled itself on the BBC or CNN, far more than its ratings. In this episode, presenter Helena Merriman speaks to Yevgeny Kiselyov, one of Russia’s most influential political journalists and the man who brought the show to the air.

How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians Episode 6: From Israel’s Early Days to the Six Day War Presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, USA, and author of ‘A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ and by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen. Israel was a new state, poor and war-focussed. It was supported in Egypt by Nasser. The Palestinians spread into surrounding countries and important Palestinian families became prominent in diaspora families. There was a influx into Israel of Jews from Arab countries, but although some were welcomed, others felt disparaged. During the 1956 Suez campaign Israel was in league with Britain and France, but the United States disapproved of their intervention. During the late 1950s Fatah was formed in Kuwait by Arafat. They organized raids out of Lebanon, but ran into Israel’s new military doctrine of fighting on the territory of your enemy. The Palestinian raids from neighbouring countries meant that the governments of those countries suffered, not Israel. In 1967 Egypt closed shipping in the Straits of Tiran, a narrow sea passage between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas that connect the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, and ordered the United Nations troops out. In June 1967 Israel struck at the Egyptian airforce – pre-emptive or aggressive? Israel didn’t actually want the territories it won so dramatically, but it wanted to use them as a lever for peace.

The History Bureau Putin and the Apartment Bombs Episode 1: The Four Bombs In September 1999, just weeks after Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister, four bombs blew up four apartments buildings across Russia. The bombs exploded in the middle of the night, killing hundreds of people while they slept. Episode 2: Sugar There was a fifth bomb too, placed in Ryazan but this one didn’t explode. It was found to contain military-grade hexagen powder, like the other four bombs. There was an intercepted phone call between FSB agents, and then the FSB took the bomb away, saying that it was just a training exercise, using sugar- not hexagen.. Putin blamed Chechen terrorists and vowed revenge; then sat back and enjoyed the huge rise in his popularity. Putin had come to prominence through Boris Yeltsin, who was fearful that he would be charged if he lost his position on account of a sex-tape provided to/by the KGB. On New Years Eve 1999 Yeltsin resigned and Putin (head of the KGB) was made Acting President.

The Rest is History The Fall of the Incas : The King in the North (Part 4) Now that Atahualpa was dead, Pizzaro was free to push south for Cusco. The land had been riven by civil war between Atahualpa and his brother Huáscar, and when there was this influx of fortune seekers, the Inca lacked the military technology to resist even this small number of Spaniards. The Spaniards had not come empty handed: they brought disease to which the Inca had no resistance at all. There was a power vacuum in the north, whereas the south greeted the Spaniards as liberators from Atahualpa. In 1543 Manco, Huáscar’s son emerged from the south as a potential puppet emperor. General Rumiñawi, an important warrior in Atahualpa’s retinue returned to Quito. A violent man, he ordered a former ally to be turned into a drum. Meanwhile, who should re-appear than Pedro De Almagro, returned from Chile empty-handed, not realizing that he had walked right past silver mines that would have made his fortune. He launched straight into a massacre, then raced to Quito to gather up riches there. He confronted Rumiñawi, and stripped out all the gold in Quito and left it in ruins. By now the Spanish victory was complete. Pizzarro was busy granting land and free (slave) labour to the treasure-seekers who were pouring in from Spain – an early example of settler-colonialism.

The Book Club Episode 5: Nineteen Eighty Four Dominic and Tabby take on George Orwell’s 1984. Tabby suggests that it’s a “boy book” largely because of its focus on structures rather than relationships, and what is now to us offensive treatment of women. They talk about Orwell himself, the influence of the Spanish Civil War in stimulating his anti-communism, and the influence of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s book ‘We’ which although written in 1920-1, was banned in Soviet Russia until 1988. The book is in three parts: the first describes Winston Smith and his world. It is drenched in the physical details of post WW2 England. Smith’s job is to ‘clean up’ history by making it conform with the present- after all, he who controls the past controls the future. Part 2 is aggressively sexual, depicting Julia as having no interior life, as Winston Smith reflects many of the views of our 21st century ‘incels’. Part 3 focusses on his interrogation in room 101, which contains each prisoner’s worst fears- in Smith’s case, rats. It closes with an epilogue which could perhaps? be interpreted as a happy ending? They discuss whether the book is a period piece or a warning, and conclude that it is both. What is incontrovertible is the book’s effect on our way of conceptualizing an increasingly dystopian world e.g. surveillance, government lying, ‘newspeak’. Even the division of the world into Oceania, Eurasia and East Asia reflects the multipolar world view that is becoming increasingly prominent today. Dominic gives it 10/10 while Tabby gives in 8/10, largely because of its sexism and because she dislikes George Orwell (!!) . Perhaps it really is a “boy book”.