
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


On 24th December 1979 Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan in support of an anti-government coup. The Soviet occupation would last for nine years.
Plus, the hidden history of the board game Monopoly, the invention of chemotherapy, the heaviest aerial bombardment of the Vietnam war at Christmas 1972, and the street-performer origins of the global circus phenomenon Cirque du Soleil.
Picture: Russian tanks take up positions in front of the Darulaman (Abode of Peace) Palace in Kabul, January 1980. (Henri Bureau/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
By BBC World Service4.3
556556 ratings
On 24th December 1979 Soviet troops poured into Afghanistan in support of an anti-government coup. The Soviet occupation would last for nine years.
Plus, the hidden history of the board game Monopoly, the invention of chemotherapy, the heaviest aerial bombardment of the Vietnam war at Christmas 1972, and the street-performer origins of the global circus phenomenon Cirque du Soleil.
Picture: Russian tanks take up positions in front of the Darulaman (Abode of Peace) Palace in Kabul, January 1980. (Henri Bureau/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

7,598 Listeners

376 Listeners

1,050 Listeners

5,453 Listeners

1,797 Listeners

3,218 Listeners

958 Listeners

1,878 Listeners

1,746 Listeners

1,040 Listeners

2,090 Listeners

479 Listeners

589 Listeners

4,791 Listeners

409 Listeners

743 Listeners

847 Listeners

335 Listeners

353 Listeners

3,189 Listeners

715 Listeners

1,022 Listeners

2,475 Listeners