Chernobyl, Abd-El Krim, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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This week’s history podcast showcases three unrelated but timely radio features. In light of the nuclear crisis in Japan, Brigid McCarthy reminds us what happened at Chernobyl in 1986. Gerry Hadden introduces us to a Berber hero in Morocco and explains where he fits in the contemporary political landscape. And Jason Margolis retells the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire a century ago and explains why it’s still relevant today.Download MP3

Dirk Vandewalle on Gaddafi and Libya

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Dirk Vandewalle of Dartmouth College and author of A History of Modern Libya tells us about the life and times of Muammar Gaddafi. Also we hear eyewitness accounts of the 1969 Coup in Libya from the BBC World Service program Witness. Download MP3

Mona Russell on Women in Egypt

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How We Got Here #61 looks at the role of women in Egypt and in Egyptian protest movements. Historian Mona Russell of East Carolina University, author of Creating the New Egyptian Woman, underscores the central place of women in Egyptian society. Also The World’s Lisa Mullins interviews historian Mike Rapport, author of 1848: Year of Revolution. Lots of parallels between Europe in 1948 and the uprisings we’re witnessing in North Africa and the Middle East today. Download MP3

Change in Egypt

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he will not stand for re-election in September, as protests against his rule grow. In the latest episode of ‘How We Got Here’, Michael Wahid Hanna of the Century Foundation (pictured) discusses the historical context behind events in Egypt. Download MP3

Remembering Richard Holbrooke

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The tributes poured in after Richard Holbrooke’s death on Monday at the age of 69. His career spanned from the Vietnam War to the current war in Afghanistan but it’s probably true that he will be most remembered for his role in brokering the Dayton Peace Accords for Bosnia. We’ll take this episode of How We Got Here (#56) to remember him and his work and to look back at the end of the war in Bosnia. (Photo: Martha Stewart/Harvard’s Institute of Politics)Download MP3

Reporting on history and memory in Germany

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Independent radio producer Daniel Estrin gives us the backstories to three features he reported from Germany earlier this year, all of them about history and memory in one way or another. The first is a visit to the newly-opened SS quarters at the Ravensbruck concentration camp memorial. The second is a tour of Germany’s “Central Hiding Place,” a national archive of cultural documents buried in a vault under the Black Forest. And the third is a look at the German practice of recycling cemetery plots. Download MP3

A Rope and a Prayer

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David Rohde and Kristin Mulvihill speak at length about their new book A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides. Rohde is a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for seven months before he escaped. Mulvihill is his wife. She directed the efforts to secure his release throughout the ordeal. They talk about David’s ill-fated decision to set out to interview a Taliban leader, what it was like for Kristen to find out he’d been kidnapped, how they both endured, what he did to escape, what she did to try to find out where he was. Download MP3

The Trouble with the Congo

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News programs don’t usually devote much coverage to The Democratic Republic of Congo. When they do the stories are usually about horrific violence, including mass rape, in the eastern part of the country. If you’ve ever wondered what that violence in eastern Congo is all about, this episode of How We Got Here is for you. Political scientist Severine Autesserre walks us through the complexities of Congo’s recent (and extremely destructive) wars. Download MP3

Chilean Miners and Spanish Civil War Photos

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How We Got Here #52 highlights two recent stories from The World with historical angles. First a grim backstory to the Chilean miners’ tale brought to you by Mark Ensalaco, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Dayton. And second, Adeline Sire’s look at The Mexican Suitcase exhibit at New York’s International Center of Photography. As she says, it’s not about a suitcase and it’s not really Mexican–the show features recovered Spanish Civil War images by three iconic photographers.Download MP3

Slideshow of rediscovered Spanish Civil War negatives

Revisiting the Trial of Slobodan Milosevic

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In How We Got Here #51, we revisit the trial of Slobodan Milosevic with lawyer Judith Armatta, the author of the new book Twilight of Impunity. Armatta spent three years in the Hague monitoring the historic trial for the Washington-based Coalition for International Justice. Her book is both a detailed account of what transpired in the courtroom and an in-depth analysis of its meaning and implications for the burgeoning new world of international criminal justice.

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Yael Hersonski’s A Film Unfinished

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Jeb Sharp interviews Israeli filmmaker Yael Hersonski about her documentary A Film Unfinished. It’s about the Nazi propaganda footage shot in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. Hersonski pieces together the backstory to the reels of film found after the war and in so doing challenges our assumptions about memory, history and reality. (photo by Steven Davy) Download MP3

Reflections on Serving in Iraq

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Former U.S. Army Captain Blake Hall reflects on his time in Iraq. A shorter version of this interview ran on the radio show on August 19, 2010.

Krygyzstan, Galicia, Tinian

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It’s been a good couple of weeks for show segments with historical angles. How We Got Here features three of them on Episode 47. First you get a Marco Werman Q & A on the background to the violence in Kyrgyzstan with Peter Zeihan of the global intelligence company Stratfor, then Gerry Hadden on the legacy of a 2002 oil spill of the coast of Spain, and finally Mary Kay Magistad with an evocative piece about the Pacific Island of Tinian and its outsized role in U.S. military history.

World Cup History

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How We Got Here takes on soccer this week. We speak with Duke history professor Laurent Dubois, author of Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France.

Soccer spread so quickly. A lot of sports spread along the sinews of empire, you can think of cricket or rugby or even baseball in the U.S. case. What happened with soccer is it did spread via English–it was created and codifed in England and it spread with English people who crossed into other countries but very quickly it took root in those other countries. France is one case among many where in the early 20th-century English communities brought it there and then very quickly it became just part of the social fabric of every day life and very quickly it became an extremely important pastime for many many people. – Laurent Dubois

Dubois explores the roots — in Empire — of the diversity of the French national team, long celebrated but also maligned for its preponderance of players of African and Caribbean descent. And he profiles two players in particular, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane, in his tale of how soccer and French identity are intertwined. Download MP3

Missing in America, Alissa Quart in Berlin, Oil Spills in WWII

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On this week’s history podcast we replay three stories from our Memorial Day broadcast on May 31, 2010. Here’s the lineup: Marco Werman’s interview with Major Fred Salanti of the Missing in America Project, Alissa Quart‘s essay on the Neues Museum in Berlin, and reporter Molly Murray on oil spilled in the Atlantic during WWII. Download MP3