Shows
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Ending Animal Cruelty one Bear at a TimeMichaela Strachan's nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is one of the most selfless people we have heard of – Jill Robinson, who has dedicated her life to saving bears from the cruelty of the bear bile industry in China and across Asia.It is a story rooted in horror but also in love. And Jill's life bears witness to our capacity for both. If you feel moved by her story, please visit Animals Asia to see how you can support Jill in her fight to save bears from this torment: https://www.animalsasia.org/support-us/
2025-12-2204 minTrapped HistoryThe Pride of the Peaks: Michaela Strachan on the Woman who Fought for NatureWe have a wonderful season opener for you – as wildlife TV legend Michaela Strachan joins Trapped History to help us tell the tale of the woman who fought for nature. Her name was a bit of a mouthful – Ethel Haythornthwaite – but we know her as the defender of Britain’s National Parks and the Green Belt. She even has nearly 100 hills named after her (don’t worry, they’re ‘Ethels’ not ‘Haythornthwaites’!).It's a delightful episode, full of passion, joy and hope as Michaela shares her love of nature, walking and conservation. She even persuades Oswin to pull on his boots .
2025-12-1555 minTrapped HistorySeason 6 Taster: Beer, Sex, Rice and Freedom – the Very Best of Trapped HistoryWe're delighted – chuffed even – to welcome you to Season 6. Trapped History is out of nappies and toddling all over the place (we're three years old this Christmas), clutching two international awards and a host of fabulous guests as we go!So here's a quick taster of some of the stories you're going to be hearing over the next few months. Sit back, relax and set your reminders: the first episode drops on Monday 15th December.Hope to see you there!
2025-12-0809 min
Trapped HistoryIt Only Takes a Minute: Vote for Trapped History Now!It's not a new episode I'm afraid, but we really need your votes! We're chuffed, delighted, over the moon – pick your favourite – to announce that Trapped History is a finalist in three international podcast awards. And we can shoot for the stars and try to get another award – the Listener's Choice – in two of them: America's Signal Award and Europe's Lovie Awards.So please please please head over to vote.signalaward.com and vote.lovieawards.com, search for 'trapped history' and then just press a few buttons. Bingo. We're up against the big boys here so every vote cou...
2025-10-0301 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Throwing Stones, Winning the Vote and Changing Women's HistoryJoin us for Helen Lewis' nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: Constance Bulwer-Lytton, daughter of a Viceroy, sister to an Earl – but one of the bravest suffragettes of them all.In changing women's history, she was imprisoned four times for campaigning for the vote, carved "V" for votes on her breast, went on hunger strike and was force-fed by prison guards.In Constance's own words, which can stand for so much political action:"People say, what does this hunger strike mean? Surely it is all folly. If it is not hysteria, at...
2025-09-1607 minTrapped HistoryThe Genius Myth: Helen Lewis on Why We Fall for the Same Old Shtick Throughout HistoryWe are delighted to be joined today by Helen Lewis, whose new book, The Genius Myth, rips apart the stories we like to tell ourselves about ‘them’ – the heroic geniuses we idolise and adore. This is the ultimate history reboot.And it's one of the reasons we created Trapped History in the first place – because we don’t need more stories about Leonardo, Churchill or Elon. We need the hidden history, the forgotten history, the untold stories. But if anyone can take down ‘The Great Men of History’ it’s going to be Helen!So strap in as we r...
2025-09-0945 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Medieval Sibyl of the RhineJet's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is an oldie – 850 years old, to be precise. A Renaissance Woman centuries before the Renaissance, a medieval queen of music, philosophy, science and medicine, the Mother of Everything: we give you Hildegard von Bingen. Throw in poetry, mysticism and sainthood and you have perhaps the greatest genius of the medieval world. A paragon of women's history and cultural history. Kings, emperors and popes certainly thought so as they sought our her teachings on the weightiest matters of the medieval age.So tune in to find out wh...
2025-09-0205 minTrapped HistoryThe Body is the Statement: Jet from Gladiators on History's Fitness Queen, Lady Lisa LyonThere’s a photo – you can google it – which when you see it, you’ll laugh, you’ll double-take, you’ll think ‘whaaaat?’. It’s of a young woman, she’s small, five foot nothing and she’s in a fitness gym. But it’s what she’s carrying that makes you stare. Because balanced on her shoulders is none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.Her name is Lisa Lyon and she is a legend in the fitness world. The first female bodybuilding world champion, the inspiration for the Marvel superhero Elektra and the muse for the mould-breaking photographer Robert Mapple...
2025-08-2636 min
History DailySaturday Matinee: Trapped HistoryOn today’s Saturday Matinee, we are dazzled by magician and skeptic "The Amazing Randi" whose mission was to expose charlatans and champion the truth.
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2025-08-2345 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Joshua Levine on History's Fancy Dress SASTune in for a riveting Hall of Fame as Joshua Levine nominates Mick Gurmin, a member of the SAS before the SAS even existed. This is the very apex of forgotten history, hidden history and untold stories.Warned by the debonair master of deception Dudley Clark that "any carelessness or indiscretion on your part may well upset carefully arranged and important plans and have far-reaching consequences" Mick and a fellow soldier carried out their mission to bring the SAS to life with perfection.Find out what they did, what it meant and what Mick did...
2025-08-1905 minTrapped HistoryMaking History Matter: A Live Debate with Joshua Levine and OswinIt's time for a history reboot. In this Trapped History Special, Oswin and historian Joshua Levine discuss truth, myth and storytelling in front of an invited audience at an event hosted by Saboteur, a London-based brand agency.In a wide-ranging conversation which covers everything from Trump and Putin to Downton and Dunkirk, we grapple with the fundamentals of what we mean when we talk about history, hidden history, forgotten history and unsung heroes. Josh gives us some fascinating insights into how history is turned into entertainment from his time as a historical consultant on blockbuster movies, while...
2025-08-1243 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Gwen Strauss on a Resistance Hero and Witness to HistoryTune in to hear the historian Gwen Strauss' nominee for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. A hidden history hero of the Resistance, she is someone we have truly never heard of but she is perhaps one of the bravest people we should know about.Please be upstanding for Odette Pilpoul, the Parisian soul of the French Resistance who took it upon herself to document and save evidence of atrocities when she survived a series of concentration camps and bore witness to the horrors perpetrated against the Resistance and the people of France.
2025-08-0503 minTrapped HistoryUseless Mouths: Gwen Strauss on Untold Stories of Forbidden Love in the HolocaustIt’s October 1940 and you are walking down a dusty lane when someone slips a scrap of paper into your hand. You hold it tightly in your palm, waiting until you’re round a corner and away from prying eyes. When you manage to find that moment and open the folded paper square, you read: “Milena from Prague requests a meeting.”You are Margarete Buber-Neumann and you are a prisoner in Ravensbruck concentration camp. The note in your hand is from Milena Jesenska, a Czech legend who has just arrived in the camp after being swept up in the Ho...
2025-07-2943 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Sarah-Jane Morris Hails Music's Miss AmericaPlease put your hands together for Sarah-Jane Morris' Hall of Fame nominee, music's hidden hero Mary Margaret O'Hara. So many of our nominees are lost in the mists of history. They are part of our forgotten history, our hidden history. But Mary Margaret O'Hara is very much still with us.She is loved and admired by other music industry greats, such as Michael Stipe, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and Everything But The Girl. Mary makes music magic and Sarah-Jane thinks we should love her too. And we think she's right!
2025-07-2203 minTrapped HistoryThe Lost Singer-Songwriter: Sarah-Jane Morris on Connie Converse, Music's Hidden HeroA decade before Dylan, there was Connie Converse – arguably the very first singer-songwriter with inner-city tales of loss and longing. But have you heard of her? Have you heard her music?Connie's story is the epitome of forgotten history, hidden history. But her name deserves to be shouted from the rooftops.Oswin and Carla are joined today by the singer Sarah-Jane Morris to help us understand the joy and sorrow of Connie’s short life, the pressures on women in the music industry then and now and how luck, time and place can conspire to swee...
2025-07-1540 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Forgotten Hero of Architecture Minnette de SilvaNihal Arthanayake's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is a great one. The lost, forgotten and overlooked Sri Lankan hidden hero of architecture Minnette de Silva.She was the first Asian woman elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects and a friend of Le Corbusier and Picasso. But she's been overshadowed by those men of architecture and cultural history.So tune in to hear her architecture story and why she means so much to Nihal.
2025-07-0802 minTrapped HistoryThe Difficult Conversation: The Real Nihal on Helen Bamber’s Mission to Bear Witness to History's HorrorsHow do you hear the testimony of someone who has been terrorised and tortured? How do you listen as a perpetrator defends their crimes? How can two peoples who have hated and killed each other throughout history learn to live in peace?These are the questions unsung hero Helen Bamber asked herself when she travelled to Belsen at the end of WW2 and bore witness to untold stories when she engaged survivors in conversation. She would spend her whole life working with victims of genocide, torture and human trafficking and her questions are as vital today as...
2025-07-0146 min
Trapped HistorySeason 5 Special: It's A Continent x Trapped History on Patrice LumumbaOur new season kicks off proper next week with an enthralling episode where the broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake helps us tell the story of the woman who listened – the great Helen Bamber. And we’ll be taking you all the way through the summer till it starts getting cold again – introducing you to the tragic tale of the first singer-songwriter alongside the Communards’ Sarah-Jane Morris, the first female bodybuilding world champion with Jet from Gladiators, a story of love among the ruins of the concentration camps with the historian Gwen Strauss and the rollicking tale of genius and self-deception with the auth...
2025-06-2435 minTrapped HistorySeason 5: History for the CuriousA heads-up for Season 5 of Trapped History which drops from 1st July. Carla can't wait and neither can we, so head over to trappedhistory.com and subscribe!
2025-06-2100 minTrapped HistoryThe Hall of Fame Special: Who Would You Like to Add?We've spent so long asking our guests who they'd like to see in the Trapped History Hall of Fame, that for our 30th episode we thought we'd do something a bit different.And so Carla, MK and Oswin have each brought along someone they'd like to see honoured in the Hall of Fame. Tune in for a whistle-stop tour through the lives of a First World War heroine, a couple who fought for freedom in South Africa and a union leader who was a conscientious objector.Three different stories, four hidden heroes and forgotten stories...
2024-11-1427 minTrapped HistorySeason 4 taster: From Broken Threads to the Animal KingHere's a taster of Season 4, starting with Mishal Husain's Broken Threads before moving on to Mishka Sinha on Untold Lives, Kim Wager on Making Sense of Murder, Chris French on the Amazing Randi, Clare Mulley on Agent Zo and finally, Martin Burton AKA Zippo the Clown on the Animal King. Enjoy!
2024-09-2721 minTrapped HistoryThe Animal King: Frank Bostock and the Magic of CircusRoll up, roll up for the Season Four closer — as we take a trip to the circus!At Trapped History, we look at lives and stories which have been forgotten or ignored, and there is one community in Britain which is still shrouded in mystery even in the 21st century: that of the circus people. So who better to lift the curtain than the King of the Ring himself, Zippo the Clown — or just plain Martin Burton to us.Not only does Martin shine a light on the lure of the circus but he also join...
2024-09-2036 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: Seventy-Five LettersJoin Oswin and Carla for this moving Hall of Fame from historian Clare Mulley as she remembers wartime nurses, Dorothy Field and Mollie Evershed. They are the only women among over 22,000 men to be remembered on the Normandy Memorial in Bayeux.It is a story of courage and selflessness. Prepare to have your heart broken.history, ww2 history, inspiration, heroes, forgotten history, hidden heroes, podcast
2024-09-1302 minTrapped HistoryThe Missing Holes: Agent Zo and the Women of the Home ArmyShe is one of the most important women of the Second World War — a fighter, a secret agent, a government envoy and a commando. But have we heard of her? Can we sing her name? If not, you've come to the right place.Tune in to hear the astounding story of Elżbieta Zawacka, AKA Agent Zo. It's a tale which takes us from Warsaw and Berlin to Paris and London, a tale of hope and fear, of courage and terror. Above all else, it is the tale of a young woman who won't take no for an...
2024-09-0642 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Meaning of MemoryTune in to a fascinating Hall of Fame as Professor Chris French nominates Ellizabeth Loftus, a psychologist famed for her work on false, recovered and repressed memory.It's not just Elizabeth's life story here — Chris fills us in on the theory of false memory (remember getting lost in a supermarket?) and the controversies around recovered and repressed childhood memories which she researched and challenged.It makes for a powerful nomination and we believe this longer format justifies Elizabeth's inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
2024-08-3015 minTrapped HistoryDikki Redux: The Woman Behind the RecordWe might have heard of Amelia Earhart or even Amy Johnson, but who remembers Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to fly around the world?Well, someone does because on 19th August this year, a blue plaque was unveiled at Cambridge Airport to mark the 75th anniversary of her truly momentous achievement.We featured Dikki in our first ever season and we couldn't pass up the chance to celebrate her once more. So Oswin travelled to Cambridge to see the blue plaque, catch up with old friends and meet some of Dikki's family to try to...
2024-08-2540 minTrapped HistoryThe Amazing Randi: Patron Saint of ScepticsWelcome back after our mid-season break! And what a return – with (drum roll) the mysteries, magic and mayhem of The Amazing Randi. He had everything a conjuror should have – the baffling genius, the cape, the beard, the mortal enemies – but more than anything, he had a mission: to uncover and expose cheats and frauds.Join Carla and Oswin as Goldsmith's Professor Chris French takes us on a rollercoaster journey of psychics and charlatans, secrecy and snake-oil salesmen – and above all else, of doubt and belief. Hold onto your hats – there might be a rabbit in it . . .
2024-08-2243 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: Mark Twain and the Dishonesty of the American FlagEvery episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Usually, it's someone we've never heard of but really should have. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's someone we think we know all about. In the historian Kim Wagner's nominee, prepare to find out something new about someone you thought you knew.
2024-07-1903 minTrapped HistoryMaking Sense of Murder: From Paris to the PhilippinesIt's October 1961. The Beatles are in Hamburg, JFK in the White House, Yuri Gagarin has just shot into space. And a state-sponsored killing spree is going down on the streets of a capital city. But this isn't Rio, Washington or Johannesburg. This isn't Moscow or Port-au-Prince or Saigon. This is Paris, the City of LIght, and by the month's end, over 200 north Africans will have been murdered by the city police.Rewind a further 60 years and the same thing is playing out in the hills and forests of the Philippines, as the Moro resistance is being wiped...
2024-07-1249 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: The Statue Problem — To Raise Up Or To Tear Down?In this special bonus episode of the Trapped History podcast, historian Kim Wagner talks statues with Oswin, Carla and MK. How do we critically and sensitively challenge outdated readings of the past? How do we write history again for the modern age? And is there a 'right' way of doing this? We think you'll be surprised by our conclusions.Listen out for the full episode later this week.
2024-07-1005 minTrapped HistoryUntold Lives: The Power Behind the ThroneJoin Oswin and Carla as we go back – way back – to a time before podcasts and instagram, before radio and photographs. Join us as we journey back to the 18th century and meet the people who made monarchy work.And they're not the people you might expect to meet. At a time when Britain's kings and queens barely spoke the language, please let us introduce you to Mehmet and Mustapha, two Turkish men who ran the life of George I. And what about Abdullah, who brought a caracal from India all the way to the King's Menagerie at t...
2024-06-2141 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: The Shah Goest — Zoos, Empire and the Strangest Wild Cat EverWith its long tufted ears – sometimes mistaken for horns – the caracal is a precious animal. So precious in fact, that one particular animal was gifted to George II in 1759.Ahead of next week's episode, Mishka Sinha, curator of the Untold Lives exhibition at Kensington Palace, gives Oswin and Carla an exclusive insight into the powers behind the throne. So listen to this special bonus all about that very cat – confusingly named 'The Shah Goest' – and its keeper, Abdullah. And find out how the seemingly simple act of 'gifting' can have deep and far-reaching meanings.
2024-06-1305 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: Mother of the NationWe ask all our guests to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Someone we've not heard of but should have.In this Season Four opener, please meet Mishal Husain's nominee: Fatima Jinnah, known as Madr-e-Millat or 'Mother of the Nation', a woman who broke the rules and the barriers as Pakistan emerged from the chaos of Partition. She became the conscience of Pakistan, who as opposition leader and presidential candidate, constantly reminded people about the founding principles of the new nation.It's a great introduction to our new season.
2024-06-0708 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: The PassportIn an exclusive bonus, Mishal Husain tells us about the chance discovery of her grandfather Shahid's passport.It may seem a small, insignificant thing, a old irrelevant document from another age. But Shahid's passport tells us so much more – about the past but also about the present and perhaps even the future. Because it declared this man born in Lucknow who had lived all his life in British India to be a 'British Subject By Birth'. So when he travelled to England in the 1930s, it was not as a tourist. Not as a foreigner. Not as an...
2024-06-0302 minTrapped HistoryBroken Threads: Family, Memory, Loss and LongingMishal Husain joins Oswin and Carla for a truly special Season 4 opener, telling the tale of her family's journey through the stormy waters of Indian and Pakistani independence. It's a story of joy and freedom, but also one of fear, loss and terror.Shahid, Tahirah, Mumtaz and Mary live through Empire, world war, independence and partition. They meet the people who will shape their future, men like Mountbatten and Jinnah - but they also find themselves unable to meet the people who really matter to them, the friends and family they grew up with but who end...
2024-05-3053 minTrapped HistoryJeremy Corbyn Redux: The Charlotte Despard of the 21st CenturyWith Jeremy Corbyn announcing that he’s standing as an independent in the upcoming general election, we thought we should revisit his time in the Trapped History studio.This all-new ‘director’s cut’ contains golden nuggets on the French and American Revolutions and on Charlotte’s campaigning for animal rights. It’s a real treat! On top of that, the former leader of the Labour Party was really excited to be part of this episode – Charlotte is one of his all-time greats – and he tells us a thing or two about finding and losing tribes, how injustice ca...
2024-05-2448 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: Guitars, Light Shows and the Reluctant LeaderGuitars, light shows, psychedelia . . . Any idea who might unexpectedly be making their way into the Hall of Fame?Tune in to hear Martin Gutmann's nominee. We guarantee you'll have heard of them before but not necessarily for Martin's reasons. It's a truly fascinating listen which might change the way you think about bands, friends and music.
2024-02-2903 minTrapped HistoryThe Hidden Leader: Why Roald Amundsen won the Race to The Pole | Episode 21He's the greatest explorer the world has ever known – the first to navigate the fabled North-West Passage, the first to reach the South Pole, the first to the impossible North. But how much do we really know about Roald Amundsen?More precisely, how much do we want to know? Surely, the tangled heroics of Scott of the Antarctic and of Ernest Shackleton make for more exciting reading than the careful, boring tales of Amundsen? They faced crises with fortitude, didn't they – while he simply, well, succeeded?That is, perhaps, the point. So join Oswin and Carla...
2024-02-2240 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: Winston Churchill And The Action FallacyDidn’t think we’d need to introduce you to Winston Churchill on Trapped History, but if you want to understand the hidden traits of leadership, he’s actually quite important. Though not necessarily for the reasons you might think . . .Tune in to hear Professor Martin Gutmann discuss the ‘Action Fallacy’ in this exclusive bonus episode. It’s not just about Churchill but it’s key to understanding not only how we so often get leadership all wrong but also the enduring significance of this week’s subject – the greatest explorer the world has ever known: Roald Amundsen.
2024-02-2002 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: The Hero's JourneyThe Hero's Journey is an ancient human phenomenon. We see it, hear it, read it in stories all the way from the Odyssey to Harry Potter. It is a gripping tale of triumph over adversity, of crisis and fulfillment.But sometimes we need more than heroes. Tune in to hear Professor Martin Gutmann challenge the way the Hero's Journey has been used to teach people about leadership. In this exclusive extract from our latest episode, Martin compares the heroics of Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen and reaches some unexpected conclusions.It's a fascinating...
2024-02-1600 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: Daughters of AfricaWe ask all our guests to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Someone we've not heard of but should have.Most of our nominees are long gone – but Dee Jarrett-Macauley follows in the footsteps of Pete Paphides and nominates someone who is well and truly alive and kicking: the great publisher and writer Margaret Busby, whose Daughters Of Africa anthologies changed the way poetry was published in Britain.
2024-02-1303 minTrapped HistoryUna Marson: More Clever, More Wise, More Discreet, More Courageous | Episode 20Poet, playwright, publisher. Campaigner, broadcaster, journalist. Six people in one, but if we've heard of Una Marson, it's usually because of her brief shining moment during the Second World War when she became the voice and face of the Caribbean through her pioneering work at the BBC.Tune in to hear about the six lives of Una Marson as Oswin and Carla are joined by her biographer and Orwell Prize winner, Dee Jarrett-Macauley. It's a tale of a young woman who came to represent a whole region, a whole continent even – and who sometimes found that burden to...
2024-02-0841 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: Kinky Hair BluesUna Marson's politics and poetry come together so powerfully in her famed 'Kinky Hair Blues' from 1937. Life-affirming but ultimately heartbreaking, the poem sets out the internal battles a young Black woman goes through as she tries to fit into a world which doesn't fit around her.It's one of Una's greatest poems, alongside 'Cinema Eyes' tackling racism and colourism both in Britain and her Jamaican homeland – and in this exclusive Trapped History bonus, it's read today by the wonderful Aisha Ricketts, a Jamaican singer and voice actor.Tune in on 8th February for the full ep...
2024-02-0601 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: She Had Things To SayAs we limber up for next week's new episode about the great Una Marson, join us for this exclusive bonus about her international work. We know Una now as the voice and face of the BBC's wartime 'Caribbean Voices' but she was so much more, representing women of colour at major international conferences and working with world leaders like Haile Selassie and Ataturk.Next week, there's more exclusive material about Una's time in Jamaica in the 1930s before we launch the full episode on Thursday.
2024-02-0102 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Most Beautiful Music I've Ever HeardWe ask all our guests to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Someone we've not heard of but should have.Most guests nominate someone who's, well, dead. But Pete Paphides joins Polly Vacher in nominating a living legend. In this case, the mesmeric Paolo Conte, Italy's answer to Tom Waits.Listen to Pete's nomination exclusively here.
2024-01-2302 minTrapped HistoryBlues Run The Game: The Lost World of Jackson C Frank | Episode 19See if you can join the dots – Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, The Beatles. Well, there’s one man who sits at the centre of it all, and it’s more than likely that you won’t have heard of him: Jackson C Frank. A damaged, wounded singer-songwriter who wowed the British folk scene and presaged psychedelia and punk, Jackson only produced one album – but its influence can still be heard today in the work of artists like Laura Marling, Counting Crows, even Daft Punk.Oswin and Carla are delighted...
2024-01-1842 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: Jackson C Frank | The AlbumHere's another exclusive bonus as we wait to drop Jackson's episode later this week. Listen to Pete Paphides dissect three of Jackson's key tracks (you'll have to wait for the main episode for his thoughts on Blues Run The Game).Main episode out on 18th January.
2024-01-1503 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: A Trick Of The LightWe've got a taster for you today to whet your appetite for next week's episode on the lost and forgotten singer, Jackson C Frank. The music journalist Pete Paphides joins us to join the dots between Jackson, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Elvis and even The Beatles. It's a fascinating story so here's a few bonus moments as Pete paints the picture of Jackson, the man and the music.Full episode drops Thursday 18th January.
2024-01-1102 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: The German Amelia EarhartEvery episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: someone we haven't heard of but really should have.Today, it's the turn of @that.spitfire.bird, instagram's very own Jo Rogers. We take a quick detour into Tilly Shilling's orifice – no, really! – before finding out what a Messerschmitt 108 turned up when it taxied into Jo's life. Find all about the magnificent Elly Beinhorn, a German aviatrix who rivalled Amy Johnson, fell in love with a dashing racing driver and turned her nose up at the Nazis who tried to co...
2024-01-0404 minTrapped HistorySpitfires, Wellingtons and Anything in Between: Pauline Gower and the Barnstorming Women of the ATA | Episode 18The Battle of Britain is at its height. Spitfires and Hurricanes urgently need to get from the factories to the airfields and into the hands of ‘the Few’. Step forward Pauline Gower, a pioneering pilot of the 1930s, who alongside the 168 women who she brought into the Air Transport Auxiliary, would help ferry over 300,000 planes from where they were built to where they were needed. Tune in to hear Pauline’s story as Oswin and Carla are joined – buckled up inside a Dakota troop carrier – by Jo Rogers, AKA instagram’s magnificent @that.spitfire.bird. It’s a tale of brav...
2023-12-2834 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Shepherd Cannot RunEvery episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: someone we haven't heard of but really should have.As it's the holiday season, today we have a twofer for you: first, there's Peter's light-hearted nomination of the explorer Richard Burton, in all his magnificent messiness. And then, hear about the courageous Father Stanley Rother, a missionary among the Tz'utujil people of Guatemala in the 1970s, who famously wrote, "The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger" and was murdered by paramilitary forces in 1981.It's a moving...
2023-12-2603 minTrapped HistoryThe Steamship Hajj: How Empire, Fear and Greed Took on Religion | Episode 17In 1880, the SS Jeddah was steaming across the Indian Ocean when her captain abandoned ship. He told his rescuers the 1,000 passengers had mutinied and that the ship had sunk. But this was a lie and the case became a cause celebre of British disregard – because the Jeddah’s passengers weren’t any ordinary passengers. They were Indonesian and Malaysian pilgrims – Muslims on their way to Mecca to perform the Hajj. Join Oswin and Carla and the great writer on religion, Peter Stanford, as we try to understand the mechanics, the money-making and the magic of pilgrimage.It’s a...
2023-12-2140 minTrapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Phoenix of AmericaEvery episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame: someone we haven't heard of but really should have.Tune in this week to hear Jeremy Corbyn's nomination – the quite brilliant Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican writer, poet and philosopher from four centuries ago, variously known as The Phoenix of America and The Tenth Muse. Her's was an astonishing life and this is a great nominee.
2023-12-1902 minTrapped HistoryThe Radical’s Radical: Charlotte Despard and the Age of Protest | Episode 16She was a super-rich romantic novelist, sister to one of the most famous men in late-Victorian England. And then, out of nowhere, Charlotte Despard suddenly finds her true calling. Over the next 40 years, she is a suffragette, a socialist, a peace campaigner, an animal rights activist and an Irish nationalist. So who better to help Oswin and Carla tell her story than the Charlotte Despard of the 21st century – Jeremy Corbyn. The former leader of the Labour Party was so excited to be part of this episode – Charlotte is one of his all-time greats – and he tells us a t...
2023-12-1439 minTrapped HistoryA Delicate and Dangerous Job: Evelyn Dunbar and Female War Art | Episode 15Evelyn Dunbar was the only full-time female war artist in World War II. She recorded an almost exclusively female experience of war, painting Land Girls and members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force going about their work. Meticulously, quietly and with an air of supreme concentration.Join Oswin, Carla and the art historian Frances Spalding as we delve into Evelyn's life and art, understand life in the 1930s and what being a woman artist means today.You can find the paintings we're talking about on the Trapped History website, trappedhistory.com, and on our instagram...
2023-07-0435 minTrapped HistoryBen Ferencz and the Quest for World Peace | Episode 14He was a war hero but never felt that he was. Ben Ferencz was sickened to the core by his experience of battling through Europe in 1945 – and of uncovering horrific evidence of war crimes, atrocities and genocide. And so he decided to do something about it.Tune in to hear the compelling story of the last of the Nuremberg prosecutors in the company of the great historian of our post-war world, Keith Lowe. History is fascinating and exciting but it can also be complex, murky and compromised. Ben's story is the story of our times.
2023-06-2733 minTrapped HistoryJohn La Rose: Black British Identity and the Problem of Black Boy Lane | Episode 13John La Rose is one of the most important – and most overlooked – cultural icons of the last 60 years. Helping to forge a Black British identity, he set up dozens of political, cultural and community organisations and campaigned for justice for the victims of police brutality and of the New Cross Fire. So earlier this year, it seemed obvious – and right – to name a street in his honour. But the furore over the renaming of Black Boy Lane threw John and everything he stood for back into the cultural and political spotlight.Join Oswin, Carla and our very spec...
2023-06-2033 minTrapped HistoryThe Women who ran The Resistance | Episode 12You're falling through the sky above Belgium after your bomber has been hit. It's August 1941 and you're an RAF front gunner. Who will save you when you land? Who will look after you, hide you, keep you safe? Who will get you home?Meet the women of the Resistance, Dédée, Tante Go and countless others – the women of the Comet Line. Join Carla, Oswin and our special guest the historian Anne Sebba who last year made the journey which hundreds of downed aircrew took, over the Pyrenees and into neutral Spain. Hear about her cr...
2023-06-1335 minTrapped HistoryThe Indian Imperialist | Episode 11Meet Cornelia Sorabji, an Indian woman who broke through barriers – the first woman at an Indian university, the first woman to study law anywhere, the first woman to plead a criminal case in a British-run court. And yet, Cornelia was also an arch-imperialist, extolling the British Empire, castigating Gandhi and dismissing the Indian independence movement.Join Oswin, Carla and our very special guest Sathnam Sanghera as we try to understand what drove someone like Cornelia – and why 'empire' still resonates more than 75 years after India gained its independence.
2023-06-0634 minTrapped HistoryEurovision Special: The Song Contest which ended The Cold War | Episode 10With Eurovision upon us, join Oswin and Carla in a special episode of Trapped History as we take a look back at the song contest's history and lift the Iron Curtain on Eurovision's big brother: Intervision and the incredible Sopot Song Festival.Tune in to hear the Northern Soul Legend Sam Jones tell us all about the time she won Sopot – and what John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and others thought about her. It's a great listen!
2023-05-0938 minTrapped HistoryHow The Newsies beat the Press Barons | Episode 9Thrill to the story of the boys and girls who took on the richest men in America: and won. It's 1899, we're in New York and the 'newsies' – the boys and girls who sell papers on the city's streets – have had enough.Join Oswin, Carla and six young people from today as we time travel 125 years to find out about Kid Blink, Joseph Pulitzer and how news has changed – or remained the same . . .And listen in to hear who Shane, Dillon, Dalani, Elijah, Marley and Maya agree on for their Hall of Fame nominee.
2023-03-1735 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Silent and UnseenTune in to hear Clare Mulley's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame.
2023-03-1002 minTrapped HistoryThe Women who flew for Hitler | Episode 8In earlier episodes, we have featured women who have flown the world and men who have flown for freedom. But what about the courageous, pioneering women who powered the Nazi war machine?Join Oswin and Carla as we learn about the troubled and troubling lives of Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg. The acclaimed historian, Clare Mulley, guides us through this knotty moral, ethical and historical challenge – a story which will open your eyes and your ears to the very nature of history, memory and truth.
2023-03-1034 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: The Genius in the LibraryIt's Hall of Fame time! Tune in to hear an extended nomination from Sums of Anarchy's wonderful Dominique Miranda. This has everything: revolution, freedom and poetry, with a smattering of maths thrown in . . .
2023-03-0305 minTrapped HistoryEmmy Noether: Einstein's Greatest Mathematician | Episode 7Trapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we find out about Emmy Noether, the greatest mathematician of the 20th century.Emmy fought multiple prejudices all her life – she was a woman, she was Jewish and she came from a left-wing family. And this was Germany before the Nazis, already one of the most conservative places on earth. And yet, her pioneering work in abstract algebra and her proofs of Einstein's theory of relativity still stand today and are the basis of so much of our modern world.Join Oswin and Car...
2023-03-0338 min
Trapped HistoryHall of Fame: Helping Ukrainian RefugeesPolly Vacher's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is a true hero of our time.
2023-02-2402 minTrapped HistoryThe Women who Flew the World | Episode 6Trapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we find out about Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to fly around the world.Richarda was a bored and lonely young woman in post-war Britain. But she had a dream and she knew that she was the only person who could make it happen.Join Oswin and Carla and the legendary circumnavigator Polly Vacher MBE as we try to understand what drives someone to climb into a cockpit and set off on a year-long journey. Just like Richarda, Polly did it too – as the...
2023-02-2436 minTrapped HistoryTrapped History: You Can Always Do SomethingThis Friday, tune in to Trapped History as we tell the story of Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to fly around the world. Join Oswin, Carla and the legendary circumnavigator Polly Vacher as we find out about the fear, the boredom and the bravery behind this remarkable feat.Listen, stream and download the first six episodes of Trapped History today.
2023-02-2101 minTrapped HistoryGetting It Wrong | Who Shouldn't Be On The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice?Join Oswin and Carla on a cold day in London for this exclusive bonus episode on the 'one that got away', the supposed hero who maybe shouldn't have got a plaque on the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice . . .
2023-02-0703 minTrapped HistoryFrom Richard Gere to Barbara Windsor | Adelaide and the Cotton ClubIt's bonus time! If you enjoyed our episode on Adelaide Hall, tune in to the second of two specials about her life which we couldn't include in the main edit. Hear about Adelaide's renaissance when The Cotton Club movie came out and listen in to find out how Barbara Windsor remembered 'my Addie'.
2023-01-2706 minTrapped HistoryWritten Out Of History | The African-American European ExodusIt's bonus time! If you enjoyed our episode about the great Adelaide Hall, here's the first of two extra shorts which we couldn't include in the main edit. Tune in to hear how Adelaide and other African-Americans tried to escape the racism and restrictions they faced in America by travelling to Europe and to Paris, Berlin and London in particular . . .
2023-01-2305 minTrapped HistoryMonkeys, Cold Cream and Cameras | Meet Nellie and McGintyIt's bonus time! It you enjoyed our episode about the wonderful Nellie Bly, tune in to hear a bit more about her record-breaking journey around the world: about what she took with her, what she didn't take and what joined her along the way . . .McGinty the Monkey is waiting for you.
2023-01-1605 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: I Was Gobsmacked!Tune into Trapped History at the half-way point in the season as we pay a visit to the astonishing Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice.Join Oswin, Carla and the acclaimed sculptor Ian Wolter as we find out about the people and the ideas behind this remarkable unfinished piece of Victorian remembrance.Download, listen and subscribe to the first half-season of Trapped History now.
2023-01-0701 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: They Were Just IgnorantTune into Trapped History as we tell the story of Johnny Smythe, World War II bomber navigator, Prisoner of War and the mastermind behind the Windrush.Join Oswin, Carla and former RAF pilot Trevor Edwards as we find out about this truly heroic man and discuss what it's like being one of the very few Black pilots in the air force.Download, listen and subscribe to the first half-season of Trapped History now.
2023-01-0500 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: She Wasn't Even Written InTune into Trapped History as we tell the story of Adelaide Hall, the greatest singer you’ve never heard of.Join Oswin, Carla and the historian Stephen Bourne as we find out about this remarkable singer who wowed international audiences for seven decades but who is now almost forgotten.Download, listen and subscribe to the first half-season of Trapped History now.
2023-01-0300 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: How Far Are You Willing To Go?Tune in to Trapped History as we tell the story of Peter Stevens, World War II bomber pilot, Prisoner of War and one of the most fascinating people you'll ever come across . . .Join Oswin, Carla and the military historian Joshua Levine as we try to unravel the enigma of this remarkable man.Listen, subscribe and download the first half-season of Trapped History today.
2022-12-3001 min
Trapped HistoryTrapped History: The Kindness Of StrangersTune in to Trapped History as we tell the story of Nellie Bly, the greatest reporter, writer, adventurer and entrepreneur you've never heard of! Join Oswin, Carla and the historian and traveller Rosemary Brown as we find out about this remarkable woman.Listen, subscribe and download the first half-season of Trapped History today.
2022-12-2800 minTrapped HistoryRemembering the Ordinary: The Memorial to Heroic Self-SacrificeTrapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. But as we hit mid-season, we thought we'd do something slightly different: look at a whole bunch of unsung heroes. The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in fact.Join us as we leave the studio and venture out into wintery London to find out about this fascinating place. It's Victorian, but not as you know it – there's no pomp, there's no circumstance. Instead, this is a memorial to ordinary people who did extraordinary things.The artist and sculptor Ian Wolter leads us through the complex world of me...
2022-12-2042 minTrapped HistoryThe Four Heroic Lives of Johnny SmytheTrapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we explore the world of Johnny Smythe – four heroes in one, across three continents.Sierra Leonean Johnny was an RAF bomber navigator, a Prisoner of War, his country's top lawyer and the mastermind behind the Windrush.In this special episode, Oswin and Carla are joined by Trevor Edwards, who flew for the RAF for a decade and who clues us in about the fear, the nerves, the pain, the racism and the ignorance he and Johnny would have faced every time they climbed int...
2022-12-2046 minTrapped HistoryAdelaide Hall: The Greatest Singer you've Never Heard OfTrapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we explore the world of Adelaide Hall, the greatest singer we’d never heard of. Ella Fitzgerald called her the first lady of jazz. She was the first to dance the Charleston, one of the richest Black women in America, the highest paid female entertainer in Britain during the war – so whatever happened to Adelaide Hall?Join Oswin and Carla as we hear Adelaide sing and find out from the great Stephen Bourne all about Adelaide's life, the Cotton Club, the Harlem Renaissance, the...
2022-12-2036 minTrapped HistoryThe Enigma of Peter StevensTrapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we explore the world of Peter Stevens, a complex courageous man who speaks to our age more than anyone we've come across before.Peter is a chancer, a thief, a scrounger and a fraudster. But he's also a genuine war hero. And one of the most complicated, hidden and secretive people you'll ever meet.Join Oswin and Carla and the military historian Joshua Levine as we try to understand the tangled world of Peter Stevens – and to make sense of how war can fr...
2022-12-2043 minTrapped HistoryNellie Bly: The Greatest Person Ever!Trapped History reveals the hidden stories of unsung heroes. In this episode, we explore the world of Nellie Bly, one of the greatest people we've never heard of!Nellie was born in the 19th century but she is a 21st century woman. An investigative journalist before the job existed, a travel writer before people knew what to write about, an anthropologist before people wanted to understand different cultures – and an entrepreneur at the dawn of a new age. You really want to hear about Nellie . . . you really need to.Join Oswin and Carla as we de...
2022-12-2042 min