The invention of the shopping trolley and the Calais 'Jungle'
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We find out how Sylvan Goldman’s invention of the shopping trolley in 1930s America turned him into a multi-millionaire.Our expert is Rachel Bowlby, Professor of Comparative Literature at University College London, who is also the author of two books on the history of shopping.We hear about Toyota’s military pick-up trucks that transformed the 1987 north African conflict between Chad and Libya.The 2015 migrant crisis in Europe which led to thousands of people setting-up camp in the French port of Calais.Next, how US forces invaded the Central American state of Panama in 1989 to depose General Manuel Noriega.And finally in 1965 at the height of the USA’s civil rights struggle, the landmark legislation that was brought in to guarantee the rights of African Americans to vote.This programme contains outdated language which some people might find offensive.Contributors:
Charles Kuralt – a journalist for CBS News
Sylvan Goldman – inventor of the shopping trolley
Rachel Bowlby - Professor of Comparative Literature at University College London
Mahamat Saleh Bani - former officer in the Chadian Armed Forces
Enrique Jelenszky – lawyer
Jean-Marc Puissesseau - former President and Chairman of the Port of Calais
C T Vivian – US minister
George Wallace – former Governor of Alabama
Lyndon B Johnson – former President of the United States(Photo: A woman pushing a shopping cart, 1949. Credit: Bettman via Getty Images)
--------
50:55
Discovering the haemoglobin structure and the Nellie massacre
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the moment Dr Max Perutz discovered the haemoglobin structure.Our expert is Professor Sir Alan Fersht, who is a chemist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology and knew Dr Perutz personally.We also hear about 22 Inuit children from Greenland's indigenous population who were sent to Denmark as part of a social experiment in 1951.Also, when mixed-raced children from the then Belgian Congo known as ‘métis’, were forcibly taken from their homes in 1953.When an eruption of violence in Assam led to an estimated 3,000 being killed in the Nellie massacre of 1983.Finally, the devastating impact of the 2010 tsunami in Chile and a woman who survived it.This programme contains outdated language which some people might find offensive.Contributors:
Lectures and programmes from the BBC archive
Professor Sir Alan Fersht - chemist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology.
Helen Thiesen - a child in Denmark's Inuit children social experiment.
Marie-José Loshi - one of the mixed-race ‘métis’ who was forcibly removed from her home in the then Belgian Congo.
Bedabrata Lahkar - a journalist for the Assam Tribune newspaper at the time of the Nellie massacre.
Alison Campbell - a survivor of Chile’s 2010 tsunami.(Photo: Dr Max Perutz and Dr Paul Kedrew. Credit: Hulton Deutsch/Contributor via Getty Images)
--------
51:16
Death of a language and the world’s longest kiss
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the death of one of the oldest languages in the world, when an 85 year old woman died and took it with her in 2010.Our expert guest is Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur, who is the Head of the Endangered Languages Archive which endeavours to preserve languages that are disappearing at “an alarming rate.”We also hear about the historian who helped bring a former Stasi officer to justice decades after he killed a man.Also the moment Bolivia elected its first ever indigenous president in 2005.The Thai couple that broke the world record for the longest kiss twice.Plus, it’s 60 years since the controversial black activist, Malcolm X was assassinated. We hear from a man who was in the audience in New York when it happened.This programme contains outdated and offensive language.Contributors:
Dr Anvita Abbi – linguist who documented one of the oldest languages before it died
Dr Mandana Seyfeddinipur – Head of the Endangered Languages Archive
Dr Filip Gańczak – the historian who helped convict a former Stasi officer of murder
Herman Ferguson who was in the audience when Malcolm X was assassinated
Álvaro García Linera – Vice President of Bolivia under Evo Morales for 14 years
Ekkachai – one half of the couple who broke the record for the world’s longest kiss(Photo: Boa Senior in Hospital. Credit: Anvita Abbi)
--------
51:13
Great speeches from around the world
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We discuss the 1992 speech given by Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, in which he acknowledged the moral responsibility his government should bear for the horrors committed against Indigenous Australians, with our guest Dr Rebe Taylor from Tasmania University.We also look at two female orators from opposite ends of the political spectrum: Eva Peron, also known as Evita, from right-wing Argentina and Dolores Ibárruri, who was a communist and anti-fascist fighter in the Spanish Civil War. There are also two speeches from the USA, one which is remembered as one of the great presidential speeches of all time and another which help to change the view of AIDS in the country.Contributors:
Don Watson - who wrote Paul Keating's Redfern speech in 1992.Dr Rebe Taylor - Australian historian from the University of Tasmania.Archive of Eva Peron - former first lady of Argentina. Mary Fisher - who addressed the Republican Party convention in 1992.David Eisenhower and Stephen Hess - Dwight Eisenhower's grandson and former speechwriter.Archive of Delores Ibárruri - former anti-fascist fighter in the Spanish Civil War.(Photo: Paul Keating Credit: Pickett/The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
--------
51:20
Cult films and a 'rockstar' philosopher
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is film critic and journalist Helen O'Hara who dissects what makes a cult film classic, after we hear about the making of the 1989 American film Heathers.We also learn about the French philosopher behind the theory of deconstruction and how the world first became aware of coral bleaching in the 1980s. As the climax of the American Football season approaches we look back at one of the most memorable moments from Super Bowl history. Contributors:
Lisanne Falk - American star of the film Heathers.Helen O'Hara - film critic and journalist. Helene Cixous - lifetime friend of French philosopher Jacques Derrida.Agathe Hébras - granddaughter of Robert Hébras, survivor of the Oradour Massacre. Clive Wilkinson - the former co-ordinator for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.Osi Umenyiora - two-time Super Bowl winner with the New York Giants.(Photo: Winona Ryder, Kim Walker, Lisanne Falk, and Shannen Doherty on the set of Heathers 1988, New World Pictures/Getty Images)
Sverige