In the February 1945, the U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met at an old Romanov palace in Crimea, which had once been enjoyed by Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Over eight days the 'Big Three' discussed and debated issues of vast international importance - such as the endgame of the war against Nazi Germany, the constitution of the United Nations, the price of Soviet entry into the war against Japan and the new borders of Poland. Diana Preston joined me on the podcast to discuss this remarkable event. She gave me an inside picture of eavesdropping amongst the delegates, the dwindling health of Churchill and Roosevelt, the laborious dinners with endless Russian toasts, and whether Yalta was really a turning point in 20th century history.
I was thrilled to be joined by Andrew Bayliss, a Senior Lecturer in Greek History at the University of Birmingham. He's an expert on Sparta and Ancient Greece, and he joined me on the pod to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the battle of Themopylae, when 300 Spartans battled the Persian army. We d...
Garrett Graff's tells the oral histories of 9/11, from archive material he has collated to interviews he has conducted with people who responded to events on the day, such as one of the key advisors to Dick Cheney. He tells Dan some of those stories, such as the couple of firefighter and World Tr...
Ruth Ben-Ghiat joined me on the podcast to discuss what modern authoritarian leaders have in common and how they can be stopped. We discussed the strongman playbook from Mussolini to Putin, Johnson and Trump.
