Journey Through Time

What happened when 1.5 million American GIs, including 130,000 African Americans, were stationed in the UK during WWII? How did the Jim Crow segregation laws work in the American army? What was surprising about how the Brits reacted when America tried to export this segregation to the UK?  Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga look at the forgotten story behind the ‘friendly invasion’ in  WWII.  Soci...

Forget what you think you know about reality. The Rest Is Science is a mind-bending new show from Goalhanger that tears down familiar ideas… time, randomness, beauty, it will reveal just how bizarre the world truly is. Join Professor Hannah Fry and science creator Michael Stevens (aka Vsauce) twice a week to explore big, small and surprising questions as they deep dive into theories, concepts, obj...

How did Harriet Tubman free over 750 enslaved people in the Combahee River Raid? Despite her valiant efforts in the Civil War, why did Harriet have to fight the government to have enough money to live on? What does her legacy say about the politics of today?  David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell look at the final chapter in Harriet’s extraordinary life.  Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden...

What surprising tactics did Harriet use to avoid detection on her many missions to rescue enslaved people in the south? Who was John Brown, the fierce abolitionist willing to use violence to further his cause? Why was Harriet involved in the Harpers’ Ferry raid, one of the causes of the Civil War?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they look at how Harriet Tubman brought so many people to...

Why did Harriet Tubman risk her freedom and become the only formerly enslaved person to return to the slaveholding south? How did the secret Underground Railroad guide people north to freedom? Why did the entire country suddenly become slave-catching territory in September 1850? What did this mean for those who thought they were safe in the North?  David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell explore the fa...

Who was Harriet Tubman? How did Harriet make the perilous journey escaping north to freedom? What was the Underground Railroad, the secret chain of people guiding enslaved people to safety? Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they explore the early years of abolitionist, spymaster, and activist Harriet Tubman.  Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden Producer: Alice Horrell Head of His...

How many people were slaughtered in the street-to-street battle for Paris known as the ‘bloody week’? Why did the German Chancellor help the French government start a civil war? Who were the ‘Petroleuses’, the mythical wild-eyed working class women accused of setting the city on fire?  David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell relive the brutal final days of the Paris Commune.   Social Producer: Emma Jac...

How many of the radical reforms that the Paris Commune implemented in their 72 day existence influence French laws to this day? Why did the communards tear down a statue of Napoleon III and outlaw morning croissants? How did an attempt to take the Archbishop of Paris hostage backfire badly on the radicals?  Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga explore what this short-lived radical government of Pari...

How did pet dogs, street rats, and the zoo’s elephants make their way onto the menu of Parisian fine dining restaurants? Why did Paris feel so slighted by the national government when they surrendered to the Germans? How did defiant Parisian children and housewives defy the national guard and spark a revolution that would lead to the Paris Commune? David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell relive the Sie...

What was the Paris Commune of 1871? How was the first German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, trying to radically reshape the map of Europe? How did the resulting Franco-Prussian war set the scene in Paris for one of the most radical political experiments of the nineteenth century? Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they look at the days leading up to The Paris Commune, the working class rev...

How did the remaining conspirators manage to blow themselves up? Why is the defeat of the Gunpowder Plot still celebrated 400 years later? What are the parallels between this plot and the 7/7 bombings?  Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they relive how the gunpowder plotters met their grisly end.  Visit https://www. LRB.me/Journey to get six months of the London Review of Books for just t...

Once Parliament was blown up, how were the plotters planning on seizing power? How did the King manage to stop the plan to blow up parliament just in time? What is the Monteagle Letter and why is this one of English history’s greatest unsolved mysteries?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga telling the story of how Guy Fawkes was discovered minutes away from lighting the fuse to blow up Westmi...

How did a series of plots to depose and kill King James I ultimately fail? Who was Robert Catesby, the mastermind behind the Gunpowder Plot? Why was Guy Fawkes recruited into the secret group meeting at a pub in central London?  Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell looking at how Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators started to hatch the Gunpowder Plot.   Social Producer: Emma Jackson, Harry Ba...

As Queen Elizabeth I lay dying, why were the nation’s high profile Catholics rounded up and imprisoned? Why has history overlooked James I, the first king of Scotland and England? Who were the small group of wealthy Catholic men so angry with the new king that they ultimately planned to blow up Parliament?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga on their first of four episodes looking at the Gunp...

How did the executions for witchcraft finally come to an end? What does a community do to reckon with the aftermath of all this violence? Why have the Salem Witch Trials become shorthand for the prosecution of outsiders and dissidents for centuries?  Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell for the final chapter in the story of The Salem Witch Trials.  Social Producer: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden Pr...

Now the witch trials have been set up, what evidence is used to send many innocent people to their death? Why are young women shrieking and convulsing at the sight of those accused? Finally, what are Sarah’s tips for surviving an allegation of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they explore the dramatic courtroom scenes of the Salem Witch Trials.  Email...

What were the Salem Witch Trials that resulted in the deaths of more than 20 innocent people? Why was this puritan community in New England so vulnerable to being gripped by a violent witch hunt? What were the crimes of Tituba, the first woman accused of witchcraft? Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell on the first of their three part series discussing the Salem Witch Trials.  Email: journeythr...

What did it feel like to be at the centre of the most popular Reality TV moment of the century? Why was the nation captivated by Big Brother? What can we learn about a country from who wins their game shows?  Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga are joined by Sir Peter Bazalgette, acclaimed television producer behind UK Big Brother, to discuss all this and more.  Email: journeythroughtime@goalhanger...

What unbelievable and ethically dubious Reality TV concepts made it onto our screens in the 2000s? What was behind Big Brother’s game changing popularity?  How did Trump’s time on The Apprentice pave the way for his presidency? Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they explore the latest chapter in the story of Reality TV’s worldwide success.  Email: journeythroughtime@goalhanger.com  X: @Th...

Who was Lance Loud, America's first openly gay TV celebrity? What ethically dubious tactics did producers pioneer in MTV's hit show 'The Real World' to manipulate participants and storylines? What does it mean when reality TV becomes a form of social experiment? Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they explore the developments that brought us the reality TV we know and love. Email: journeyt...

What was David's experience on Celebrity Traitors like? How can we trace the origins of this beloved show back to WWII? How has Reality TV shaped the modern world? Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they explore the history of reality TV. Social Producer: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden Producer: Alice Horrell Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Email: journeythroughtime@goa...

Why did the Confederate states think that stopping the global supply of cotton would force Britain to join their side in the American Civil War? What extraordinary humanitarian effort did the Union pull off to help starving mill workers in Lancashire? Why were Liverpudlians building warships to support of the slave owning states?  Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they discuss the Souther...

Why did Britain and America nearly go to war over the capture of two Confederate officers from a British Ship? What did President Lincoln’s Emergency War Cabinet respond to Britain’s threatening ultimatum? How did Prince Albert keep the peace with the last letter he ever sent?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they discuss the Trent Affair of 1861.  Email: journeythroughtime@goalhanger.c...

David has just come off stage with Barack Obama - what does the 44th President think about the ‘Special Relationship’ between the UK and the US? What is the history of this relationship? What about during the American Civil war when the two countries very nearly went to war? Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they explore a darker chapter in the relationship between Britain and America.  E...

Harry Belafonte, Josephine Baker, Bob Dylan, and which other celebrities joined the 250,000 marching on Washington in August 1963? How were the American Nazi Party planning to incite violence? How did Martin Luther King improvise the most famous speech of the 20th century?  Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they explore the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and enduring its legacy.  Email: journeyt...