Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.
These include memories of the horsemeat scandal of 2013 from the man who uncovered what was happening. We'll hear analysis of other historical food scandals from expert Professor Saskia van Ruth.
Plus the last passenger off the plane, which landed on the Hudson river in 2009, shares his story.
Also on the programme: secret schools for Kosovar Albanians, nuclear testing in Algeria and teenagers with narcolepsy in Sweden.
Contributors:
Professor Alan Reilly - former Chief Executive of the Irish Food Safety Authority
Professor Saskia van Ruth - expert on food authenticity and integrity of supply networks, based at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Christopher Tyvi - lives with narcolepsy
Abdelkrim Touhami - lives near former nuclear testing site in Algeria
Linda Gusia - former student of Kosovo house schools
Professor Drita Halimi - former Kosovo house school teacher
Dave Sanderson - last passenger off US Airways flight 1549
(Photo: Raw burgers. Credit: Getty Images)
1/21/2023
51:32
Plastics in oceans and sea cucumbers
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.
You'll hear the story of how a marine biologist made a shocking discovery finding small bits of plastics floating thousands of miles of the east coast of America.
Then, marine biologist Christine Figgener talks about the history of oceans.
Also, the world's first transatlantic concert, a dispute over sea cucumbers in the Galapagos Islands, the world's first tidal power station and the first woman to win a Olympic windsurfing gold medal.
(Photo: Garbage on beach. Credit: Getty Images)
Contributors:
Edward Carpenter - Marine biologist
John Liffen - Curator emeritus at the Science Museum in London
Marcos Escaraby - Fisherman in the Galapagos Islands
Alan Tye - Conservationist
Marc Bonnel - Brittany historian
Babara Kendall - Windsurfing champion
1/14/2023
51:44
Pussy Riot and other Russian rebels
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.
You'll hear the story of how a protest led by the punk band Pussy Riot in one of Moscow's main cathedrals led to a trial which made the news inside Russia and around the world.
Then, historian Robert Service talks about other examples of rebellion, from the time of the Russian empire through to modern day.
Also, the man Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet wanted dead, the most bizarre football match of all time and the African man who travelled across the world to live in the Arctic.
(Photo: Pussy Riot. Credit: Getty Images)
Contributors:
Diana Burkot - member of Pussy Riot
Robert Service - Professor of Russian History at the University of Oxford
Carmen Castillo - wife of Miguel Enriquez who led resistance against Augusto Pichochet
Paul Lambert - former Scotland footballer
Alan Matarasso - American plastic surgeon
Tété-Michel Kpomassie - Arctic explorer
1/7/2023
50:49
Food
Stories about the history of food, including the creation of ciabatta bread by a rally driver in Italy in 1982 and the Maltese bakers' strike in 1977.
Also, the invention of instant noodles in Japan, the start of the Slow Food Movement in Rome and the creation of Chicken Manchurian in India.
(Photo: Different shaped artisan bread loaves. Credit: Getty Images)
Contributors:
Marco Vianello - baker and friend of the creator of ciabatta, Arnaldo Cavallari
Noel Buttigieg - food historian
Dr Sue Bailey - food historian, writer and lecturer
Carlo Petrini - founder of the Slow Food Movement
Momofuku Ando - colleague of the inventor of instant noodles, Yukitaka Tsutsui
Edward Wang - son of Nelson Wang, the chef behind Chicken Manchurian
12/31/2022
49:58
90 years of the BBC World Service
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.
Sir Trevor McDonald reflects on the BBC's first black producer, Una Marson, and her legacy in the development of the BBC Caribbean Service.
Also, how the BBC managed to broadcast through the Iron Curtain, Colombia's false positives scandal and the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped in Chile.
(Photo: Sir Trevor McDonald. Credit: BBC)
Contributors:
Sir Trevor McDonald, Una Marson, Debbie Ransome and Neil Nunes - BBC presenters
Bridget Kendall - the BBC’s former Moscow correspondent
Peter Udell - the BBC's former controller of European Services
Jacqueline Castillo - whose brother was a victim of the 'false positives' scandal
Dr Aslan Doukaev - university teacher when the first Chechen war started
Mario Sepulveda - Chilean mine disaster survivor