Living Through History

On January 31, 1968 according to the lunar calendar, the Year of the Monkey begins. And perfectly embodying the cunning and genius attributed in the Far East to this symbolic animal, General Võ Nguyên Giáp prepared a terrible surprise for the American, Australian and South Vietnamese soldiers: instead of the usual truce for the Tet anniversary, little after midnight a massive offensive starts which sees the regular troops from the North invading the regions close to the border. For months there was bitter fighting, in Hue and Khe Sanh in particular, marking a turning point in the Vietnam conflict.Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni Zorzi

The Munich Massacre was a terrorist event that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics, in Munich, West Germany. A commando from the Palestinian socialist terrorist organization Black September broke into the accommodation intended for Israeli athletes in the Olympic village, immediately killing two athletes who had attempted to resist and taking nine other members of Israel's Olympic team hostage. A subsequent rescue attempt by the German police led to the death of all the kidnapped athletes, five fedayeen and a German policeman.While the shooting was still in progress, a statement was issued announcing the release of all the hostages and the killing of the terrorists. Due to time zone reasons, Israeli newspapers went to press with this news. Subsequently, an official of the International Olympic Committee announced that: "The initial news was far too optimistic."Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni Zorzi

Als brillanter Architekt, Schüler großer Designer, zunächst unpolitisch, wurde Albert Speer in den 1930er Jahren Mitglied des engsten Kreises Hitlers. Zunächst als Designer der Bühnenbilder für die Ozeanparaden, dann als Renovierer großer öffentlicher Gebäude wurde Speer mit der Aufgabe betraut, Berlin als künftige Welthauptstadt des Nationalsozialismus wieder aufzubauen und umzugestalten und dann die deutsche Industrieproduktionsmaschinerie zu leiten. Hinter sich ließ er die Erinnerung an seine Skizzen und Modelle, die widersprüchlichen Erklärungen in Nürnberg, Erinnerungsbücher, aber auch eine Tochter, die mit Taten und nicht mit Worten bewies, dass der beste Weg, mit der Vergangenheit abzurechnen, darin besteht, sie umzudrehen Seite.

Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni ZorziHe defined himself as the last true Stalinist in Europe. From his youth studies in France in the 1930s onwards, Enver Hoxha shaped his political life around absolute faith in the Georgian dictator, to the extent of modeling the new independent Albania as a carbon copy of Stalin's USSR. Resistant to change, intentionally isolated, Hoxha left his country with a rich arsenal, hundreds of thousands of bunkers, state atheism, persecutions, human rights violations, and a reputation difficult to shake off. That of being Stalin's last faithful follower.

Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni ZorziFrank Herbert's imagination gave birth to the universe of Dune, with its cycle of novels and various derivative films. But the writer didn't invent everything from scratch: drawing from documented historical events like the Mahdist uprising of the late 19th century, Herbert simply transposed events, battles, intrigues, and characters from historical reality into a new dimension, that of fantasy. In this video, we retrace the story of the Mahdi, of Sudan, of Gordon Pasha, and of Lord Kitchener, and how they were transformed into the houses of the Landsraad and in the creation of a planet, Arrakis, modeled with its populations on ancient feudal Sudan.

Mercenaries, fortune soldiers, fighters without a flag—there are different ways to define those who fight for compensation. After the end of the Second World War, the decolonization of Africa increasingly witnesses conflicts, uprisings, and coups. In newly independent Belgian Congo, two men, two mercenaries, Bob Denard and Jacques Schramme, meet to decide whether and how to rebel against the new president of Congo, Mobutu.Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni Zorzi

A climate of violence, ambushes, and nighttime killings. And a final proclamation that leaves no room for interpretation but decrees only open conflict. On the morning of July 17, 1936, a plane lands in Melilla, on board is a high-ranking Spanish army officer arriving from the Canary Islands. His task is to address the troops that have just risen and plan the initial moves to overthrow the legitimate government in power. It is the beginning of a dark period for Spain, the day when the generals' coup marks the start of the civil war.Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni Zorzi

In the common understanding, the term "ghost town" refers to abandoned and forgotten urban settlements. These are communities created by humans for specific purposes, often economic, and left by the communities that once inhabited them once their raison d'être was exhausted. Along the old Gold Rush trail in the Yukon or in mining regions, there are numerous cases of ghost towns that now lie in dust, carrying distant memories of fortune seekers and wealth extractors, now reduced to fragments of heroic or tragic times. However, in Cyprus, there is a particularly unique ghost town, a seaside metropolis emptied in the course of an afternoon by residents and tourists alike, transformed from a holiday destination to a no man's land in the brief span of a few hours.Living Through History,where we embark on a captivating journey through the events, people, and stories that have shaped the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. Join us as we unravel the intricate tapestry of modern history, exploring pivotal moments, cultural shifts, political revolutions, and technological breakthroughs that have defined our contemporary world. With expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and deep dives into archives, Living Through History offers a fresh perspective on the recent past, revealing the fascinating and sometimes surprising connections between yesterday and today. Whether you're a history enthusiast or simply curious about how we got to where we are now, this podcast will inspire your curiosity and deepen your understanding of the modern era.Script: Federico BettuzziProduction: Giovanni Zorzi