
Since the World's been Turning
This podcast series is a journey through history, one guided by the lyrics of Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire". Join us for an educational and fun exploration of the events, people, and inventions that helped to shape the modern world during the Cold War. These roughly half-hour episodes place a microscope on each of Billy Joel’s lyrics, discovering the rich detail that helps breathe life into the past. Narrated by Robin Harrison, each episode also features interviews with guest speakers, including experts in the field and friends and family of the people being discussed. Together, we’ll learn why Billy Joel wrote the lyrics he did and hopefully come to understand what he meant when he sang “We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning, since the world’s been turning.”
Episodes
119 episodes
Episode 117 - Rock N Roller Cola Wars
We’ve covered a lot of military history throughout this series, but in this final episode we’re discussing a different kind of war. It’s the not-so-sweet rivalry that ignited in the 1980s: the Cola Wars between Coke and Pepsi.Both drinks...
•
31:56

Episode 116 - Chinas under martial law
In this episode, we’re returning to communist China after the death of Chairman Mao, and learning about one of the grimmest moments of the 1980s: Tiananmen Square.Footage and photographs of the Chinese army cracking down on protest...
•
38:47

Episode 115 - Hypodermics on the shore
In this episode, we’re heading to America’s Atlantic Coast, circa 1987. People are fleeing the beaches, and it’s not because of sharks. To the horror of both tourists and residents alike, the coasts of New York City, Long Island, and the Jersey...
•
36:02

Episode 114 - Bernie Goetz
In this episode we’re back in New York in the 1980s and looking at a controversial figure who’s little-known today: Bernie Goetz. Goetz, who shot four teenagers on the New York subway, has been variously portrayed as a racist villain, a v...
•
40:08

Episode 113 - Crack
Following on from our previous episode on the AIDS epidemic, this time we’re focussing on another large scale social issue that swept the world - but more specifically the United States - in the late 1980s and early 90s. This is an epidemic of ...
•
49:31

Episode 112 - AIDS
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. <...
•
49:47

Episode 111 - Homeless Vets
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 dre...
•
13:29

Episode 110 - Foreign Debts
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,...
•
27:30

Episode 109 - Heavy Metal suicide
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...
•
25:51

Episode 108 - Sally Ride
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 ...
•
41:47

Episode 107 - Wheel of Fortune
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 ...
•
27:42

Episode 106 - Russians in Afghanistan
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 th...
•
36:37

Episode 105 - Ayatollahs in Iran
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 t...
•
59:31

Episode 104 - Terror on the airline
In this episode, we’re returning to a time before restrictive airline security, where - if you had a ticket - you could stroll onto a plane carrying anything you wanted. The 1960s - 70s are known now as the golden age of airline hijacking. It w...
•
40:08

Episode 103 - Palestine
In this episode we’re returning to the Middle East and taking on a contentious and sad topic: the history of Palestine. We’re joined by a very special guest, the Israeli-born historian Ilan Pappe [Eelahn Pah-pay] who is a Prof...
•
55:45

Episode 102 - Reagan
This episode we’re tossing on our cowboy hats and riding horseback all the way from Sunset Boulevard to the White House. The first celebrity U S president, Ronald Wilson Reagan, marked a turning point in world history. From the aggressive...
•
1:04:39

Episode 101 - Begin
In this episode, we’re traveling back to the Middle East, and the birth of modern Israel. Key to the founding of the state of Israel in the 1940s was Menachem Begin – a soldier, a right-wing zealot and a Zionist.Joining us to discu...
•
51:52

Episode 100 - Punk Rock
While it struggled for radio play, Punk managed to take over the world anyway. Digging its teeth into the pillars holding up “respectable society”, it leaked its way out of the world’s cultural centres to disenfranchised, embittered youth and g...
•
52:16

Episode 99 - Watergate Part 1
This time we’re doing something a little unconventional for us. The Watergate Scandal, even all these years on, is still a controversial issue; in the historical community, potentially more controversial than ever. So, w...
•
53:50

Episode 98 - Woodstock
In this episode, we’re heading to the world’s most famous music festival, Woodstock. This pivotal moment in cultural history was held in the summer of 1969, and more than 50 years later it still has a mesmeric hold over our im...
•
Episode 99
•
31:28

Episode 97 - Moonshot
In this episode we look into the epic story of how man got to the moon. Our guest is historian David Whitehouse, author of “Apollo 11: The Inside Story.” David is a former BBC science editor and Asteroid ‘4036 Whitehouse’ is named ...
•
Episode 98
•
47:08

Episode 96 - Richard Nixon back again
This episode, we’re telling the story of one of the most tumultuous events in contemporary American political history - the 1968 presidential election. Our guest for this episode it Dr Luke Nichter, Professor of History at Chapman U...
•
Episode 97
•
41:41

Episode 95 - Ho Chi Minh
We’re returning to South East Asia and the theme of colonialism, as we explore the story of Ho Chi Minh – the Communist leader who passed away before he could see the end of the Vietnam War. It’s difficult to cover Ho Chi Minh...
•
37:10
