We Didn't Start the Fire: The History Podcast

Do you love We Didn't Start The Fire? Then you'll love this new podcast.   Perfect for question-askers and curious minds, welcome to SystemShift! Have a listen, and if you love it, hit one of the links below to see and hear more. Enjoy!   https://podfollow.com/1683278976 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvqNLnE8js Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guests are three very special ladies whom have all appeared on the show before, but this time, all three have memoirs out. Debbie Gendler was the first to appear on SATB (121: New York Stories) and her story as the 1st US fan (as far as I’m concerned) was initially laid out there. But now HER memoir has been published, I Saw Them Standing There: Adventures of an Original Fan During Beatlemania...

Please enjoy this bonus episode from the History Shorts podcast! Who has not heard at least one of Elvis Presley’s songs or knows exactly who they are looking at when they see his image? But did you know that the details surrounding the king of rock and roll’s untimely death are just as big of a part of pop culture as his life and music? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

Please enjoy this bonus episode from The French History Podcast! Is it better to be a hero or great? What is the difference? What makes someone a hero or great in France? Pierre talks all about that and how to get into the Panthéon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please enjoy this bonus episode which is the series premier of Countdown to Dallas, a new show from Evergreen Podcasts. In this episode we recap the basic events surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. We’ll discuss the formation of the famous Warren Commission, its findings — and highlight the one thing about its report that's often overlooked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

The time has finally come... we’ve made it to the end of the song. This episode description is being written on a tearstained laptop as we speak. But we PROMISE we’re going out with a very fizzy bang. The cola wars was a tense battle between soda giants Coca Cola and Pepsi, as they tried to be crowned the hippest, Americanest, tastiest cola. But it’s also the epitoment of American capitalism and t...

It’s the penultimate episode, and Billy’s taken us back to China to talk about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and the massacre that followed. In classic To this day, discussion of the events are strictly censored in China but in this episode we’ll explore it all. What happened to the protestors? Do we know who Tank Man was? What role did rock n roll play? And what’s the state of resistance an...

When you head to the beach, you expect to find some leftover sandcastles and nasty sunburns - not a tide of used syringes. But that’s what was found on the coast of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in 1987-88. It destroyed tourism and caused drastic changes in local waste disposal. It’s a horrifying thing to think about, but what we didn’t realise is how often this still happens. Medical waste...

Ordinary guy turned vigilante icon, Bernie Goetz shook a crime-riddled New York City in 1984, after he shot 4 black teenagers on the subway. It created a rift within public opinion, and forced difficult conversations about race, self-defence, and gun rights. But when does self-defence go too far? How do we know Goetz truly felt threatened by teenagers he suspected would mug him? And was he properl...

Ruben Castaneda is a born storyteller and he's got an extraordinary story to tell. Ruben was The Washington Post's crime reporter in the early 90s when crack addiction was spreading across America, destroying livelihoods and ravaging communities. But what nobody knew is that at the same time as reporting on the crisis, Ruben was addicted to crack himself. WARNING: this episode contains explicit de...

In the 1980s, the world was gripped by a virus that was killing people in their thousands; savaging communities and creating a climate of fear, blame and ignorance. That virus was HIV, and here to sift the facts from the fiction and explain how the AIDS crisis transformed everything from sexuality to healthcare is Deborah Gold, CEO of the National AIDS Trust. One of our partners for today’s episod...

Homelessness has always been present in America: you've probably seen it in movies and TV, from jovial Charlie Chaplin comedies, to traumatised Forrest Gump. But how did we go from the aimless vagabond to nationwide crisis? Why did Americans suddenly start to care after Vietnam? And is there anyway to tackle homelessness? We're chatting all this and more with the Manhattan Institute's Stephen Eide...

We’ve hit the 80s and Reagan’s low tax and defence spending have contributed to the America’s worst foreign debt in history. It turns out the US has consistently been in debt, so why does this time matter? Well, because they’re borrowing heavily from the Japanese, and have turned from creditors to creditees. It leads to the deindustrialisation of the Midwest, the rise of Sony and the Walkman, and...

!sretratseriF kcab emocleW... What's that funny sentence? A secret hidden message of course! Because this week we're getting into the weeds of heavy metal and Satanic Panic. Were Judas Priest hiding secret messages in their songs? Was music threatening the very fabric of the modern world? And where did the moral panic go? It's a complicated, tragic, and often absurd story, so music journalist and...

RIDE SALLY RIDE! We can’t believe it’s true, but Sally Ride is the birth name of the woman who’d later to become the First American woman to orbit space. Talk about nominative determinism! And what an extraordinary woman she was: from tennis player mentored by THE Billy Jean King, to lifelong advocate for women in STEM, her impact can’t be understated. But why were people so averse to woman-astron...

It's the game that's spun its way into the hearts of millions: today we're taking a wild ride through the history of the ICONIC game show, Wheel of Fortune. But how did a billionaire's childhood memories of hangman, turn into a cultural phenomenon? What are things actually like behind the scenes? Who turned up drunk for an audition? And how did David Letterman nearly end up hosting it? Today we're...

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to support the rise of communism in the country, beginning a series of constant conflict that Afghanistan still faces today. It’s also had huge impacts on our geopolitical climate today - to fight Russian communism, the US backed and funded rebels, who’d later become the Taliban, who rose to power, and continue to rule today, after the civil war which...

In 1979, Iran’s pro-Western Shah was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini, ushering in the Iranian Revolution and Iran’s shift to an Islamic Republic. But the hope many people thought Khomeini represented, quickly soured as his zeal led to increasing amounts of oppression. And despite it all, this revolution still holds strong today, only recently starting to face real threats to its stability. So how...

Listeners, strap yourselves in. The late 20th century was an era of glamorous air travel, where you could saunter right through to the plane and buy your ticket in your seat (alongside your martini). But, alongside the glamour was a slew of sky-jackings, with hundreds of hijackings taking place across the world. But who were behind these? why were they so prevalent? How did it impact the public? A...

Why Billy chose to encapsulate this behemoth of a topic in a single lyric, we'll never know. But this week, we're talking Palestine and all it experienced in the 20th century. Wars, protests, land grabs, displacement: the atrocities of this era are still being felt, and carried out, today. It's not something we were ever taught much about, but luckily we're joined by the Edward Said Professor of M...

Ronnie was one of America's most beloved and controversial presidents. From his early days as a B-movie actor and union president, to his pivotal role in heating up the Cold War, Reagan was an icon of the 80s (even for British kids like Tom!). But what was he really like? How did he become president? And did he really bring an end to the Cold War, or was it all just a Hollywood-style illusion?  Le...

Menachem Begin was the sixth Prime Minister of Israel, and a signal of the state’s growing disillusionment. Since its founding, it had been run by socialist Ashkenazi elites, but Begin’s win signified a shift to a conservative coalition of marginalised Mizrahi and Jewish-religious communities. But what did this mean long term for Israel? How does it impact politics today? And what did it all mean...

Fluffies and spikies, get ready to ROCK! It's the music scene that shook (and scared) the 70s, and could've ended Billy's career... this week we're talking punk! How did it all start? Who's THE definitive band? Why was it so scary? And how did Billy feel about it?! We're ready to nerd out, and we're joined by music journalist Michael Hann to delve into all things punk. Learn more about your ad cho...

Our friends at Podmasters have a new podcast you’re going to love: Jam Tomorrow. How did Britain’s dreams of a new postwar world go unfulfilled? And what does that mean for us today? In the first of a new documentary series from the makers of Oh God, What Now?, Ros Taylor looks at the legacy of the War itself. Ιdeals of the Blitz Spirit and dreams of wartime heroism still shape everything from pop...

By the 1970s, Richard Nixon's paranoia has reached new heights. He's become consumed with wiretapping, secret recording devices and surveillances, and he's convinced everyone's out to get him. He's dipping his toes into criminality, and the cover ups on top of cover ups are become more and more incriminating. But how does he get to this point? What's the point of new return? And how does it impact...