Since the World's been Turning

We’re returning to the movies in this episode, digging into the first of David Lean's canonical epic films, The Bridge On the River Kwai. 

A defining film both in the history of war movies, and in cinema in general, The Bridge On the River Kwai is as grand as it was excessively ambitious.
Here to help explain is our guest, Film Historian and Blogger Wendy Whittick.

This episode takes us to communist China in the 1950s, where we explore the life of Premier Zhou Enlai. 

Zhou Enlai was the suave revolutionary who became Chairman Mao’s most skilled diplomat.

 In the West, he’s known as the man who helped foster a warmer relationship between China and America - and who gave a humane face to a brutal regime. 

We’re joined by special guest Michael Dillon, Professor of History at King’s College, London, and the author of Zhou Enlai: The Enigma Behind Chairman Mao. 

In this episode we’re focussing on one of the most often talked about periods of the cold war, the Space Race.  More specifically we’re travelling back to the very start of it, with the launch of the first satellite - Sputnik One. 

This metal sphere, barely bigger than a beach ball, would not only spark a decades-long scientific arms race between the world's two biggest political powers, but would end up drastically affecting the place of Science and Technology in the modern world.

But how did this come to be?

Here to help us answer that question we have Roger Launius, the former chief historian for NASA and curator of the National Space Museum at the Smithsonian. 

 This episode takes us into the life of one of the 20th century’s most iconic authors, edgy beat writer and cultural icon Jack Kerouac.

 Reading his most famous book, On the Road, is still a rite of passage for many teens and people in their early 20s: and his coming of age tale continues to inspire writers, musicians and actors. 

We’re joined  by special guest Brian Hassett, a lifelong “beat” and the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Jack Kerouac (and numerous other books on Kerouac and the beat generation). 

This episode takes us into the life and times of one of the best-known sportsmen of the 1950s, star baseball player Mickey Mantle.

Mickey was the charismatic golden boy who rose from the mines of Oklahoma to become perhaps the best-known Yankee slugger of all time. He’s also someone who struggled immensely with fame, and with demons of his own. 

We take a look at the man behind the myth.

This weeks episode covers Russian Author and Poet Boris Pasternak, whose epic novel Doctor Zhivago, released in 1957, became an instant classic, won him the Nobel Prize, and ended up a weapon in the Cold War.
In her book Lara: The Untold Love Story that Inspired Dr Zhivago, Anna Pasternak blows the doors of history wide open and changes the way we remember Boris, both for good and for ill. 

This episode we have a unique situation for our podcast.  While we’ve always been blessed with amazing guests, people who are experts in their field - we’re rarely given the opportunity to speak to people directly involved in the events themselves.  Hence, we couldn’t be more excited to share with you that for this episode we’re joined by Terrence Roberts of the Little Rock Nine.
Back in 1957 Terrence, alongside eight other teenagers, would be the first Black students to integrate into a previously white high school in the American South.  Caught in the middle of a political battlefield, Terrence and his schoolmates had the eyes of the entire world on them. They faced abuse from their classmates, teachers, and untold numbers of locals who showed up outside the school every morning to protest. 
But who were the Little Rock Nine?  and What was it like to be there? 

This episode takes us to Egypt in 1956, when the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by General Nasser led to the “mother of all conspiracies”. 

Behind closed doors, Great Britain and France made a secret plot with Israel to gain control of the waterway, and retain their influence in the Arab world. The conspiracy spelled the end of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s political career: and the Suez Canal Crisis is considered the nail in the coffin of the British Empire. 

As we explore this topic we’re joined once more by special guest Khaled Fahmy, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge. 

In this weeks episode, we’re taking a look at the bestselling novel that scandalized America in the 1950s, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious.

Its themes include abortion, incest and alcoholism, and even today, it probably deserves a trigger warning. 

It’s also a subversively feminist book: it gives a glimpse into hidden aspects of women’s lives, and it explores society’s changing attitudes towards sex. 

We’re joined by special guest Dave O. Dodge, the author of The Seasons of Grace: The Unauthorized Backstory of Peyton Place. 

This time around, we’re exploring the life and work of movie star, fashion icon, and eventual royal - the princess of Monaco herself, Grace Kelly.  Setting new expectations of poise and - no pun intended - grace, in America after the events of the Second World War, Grace Kelly would define the generation of Post-Affluence.  
But what was her inner life like? How did she navigate her short but explosive career in Hollywood?  And what did she leave as her legacy, in the principality of Monaco?