Since the World's been Turning

In this episode we delve into one of modern histories deadliest diseases AIDS.   The AIDS epidemic swept through the United States and the world at large in the 1980’s and 90’s, devastating the communities of queer people and drug users.

Here to help us understand the history of AIDS is Professor Jonathon Engel from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in Manhattan. Professor Engel is the author of The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS

 In this episode we’re returning to America and catching up with the Vietnam veterans who proudly served their country in the 1960s and 70s.

We explore the complex damages caused by war and one of the darker sides of the American dream: a problem with apparently no easy solution, in a country that prides itself on its military might. 

 In this episode we’re looking at foreign debts in the 1980s, as we explore the economic system introduced by American President (and former B movie actor) Ronald Reagan.

 The 80s also saw a massive debt crisis in Latin America, where it’s known as La Decada Perdida or the Lost Decade. Money might seem like a dry topic compared to some of the many colorful events and personalities we’ve profiled on this podcast: but in the increasingly globalized world of the late 20th century, everything is connected. 

Throughout modern history, there have been few things in popular culture as stigmatised as heavy metal music.  Coated in all forms of macabre imagery and dealing with dark and provocative themes - metal has always sought to test the limits of what is socially acceptable. 

 In this episode, we’ll be telling many tragic stories about people who’ve suffered the ultimate loss and wound up putting their grief into the wrong places. 

We’ll examine how this stigma affected heavy metal as a music genre, its fans, and even the connections between metal music and our patron saint Billy Joel himself.

 Here to help us tell this story is our guest, co-founder of the International Institute of Metal Studies Brian Hickham. First he explains what is actually covered by the term “heavy metal.”

Throughout modern history, there have been few things in popular culture as stigmatised as heavy metal music. Coated in all forms of macabre imagery and dealing with dark and provocative themes - metal has always sought to test the limits of what is socially acceptable. 

 In this episode, we’ll be telling many tragic stories about people who’ve suffered the ultimate loss and wound up putting their grief into the wrong places.  We’ll examine how this stigma affected heavy metal as a music genre, its fans, and even the connections between metal music and our patron saint Billy Joel himself.

Here to help us tell this story is our guest, co-founder of the International Institute of Metal Studies Brian Hickham. First he explains what is actually covered by the term “heavy metal.”

 In this episode we’re looking at foreign debts in the 1980s, as we explore the economic system introduced by American President (and former B movie actor) Ronald Reagan.

 The 80s also saw a massive debt crisis in Latin America, where it’s known as La Decada Perdida or the Lost Decade. Money might seem like a dry topic compared to some of the many colorful events and personalities we’ve profiled on this podcast: but in the increasingly globalized world of the late 20th century, everything is connected. 

In the early 1980s, more than a decade after the Moon Landing, America saw the stratospheric rise of Sally Ride, the third female astronaut and the first woman from the United States to go into space. Overnight, she became a national hero: but she never felt comfortable with her celebrity status. She also became a pioneer when it came to promoting science education, particularly for girls.

 Here with us to discuss Sally Ride is a very special guest, former NASA official from the Office of Communications, Alan Ladwig. Alan worked with Sally on numerous occasions at NASA, in the private sector, and in the academic world. 

This time we’re focussing on one of the more seemingly innocuous inclusions in Billy Joel’s lyrics, the TV game show Wheel of Fortune.

 Thriving off a deceptive simplicity, and a healthy amount of audiences yelling at their TV screens, this spruced up version of Hangman was at one point the highest rated television show in all of syndication.

 However, the story of Wheel and its creator is far more complex than you might expect. 

In this episode, we return to the Middle East and explore the country known as the Graveyard of Empires: Afghanistan. 
More than 30 years before America’s War on Terror began, Russian troops invaded the mountainous region and plunged the country into conflict.

 Joining us to talk about the Russian presence in Afghanistan is special guest, British military historian and author of over 60 books Anthony Tucker-Jones. He takes us through the background to, and the main events of the war – and how the conflict helped both to end the Cold War and led to the growth of militant Islam in the Middle East. 

 In this episode we’re back in the Middle East and one of the world’s most hotly-discussed countries – the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Today, it’s often depicted in Western media as a closed and repressive society. But prior to the Revolution of 1979, Iran looked very different.

  We’re joined by a very special guest, Ervand Abrahamian, to discuss the downfall of the Shah, Iran’s last monarch, and the rise of the Islamic leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Ervand Abrahamian is widely regarded as a leading historian of modern Iran, and he’s lectured at the City University of New York for 40 years.