The Balkans: The Birth and Death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny returns to the Balkans to report on the birth and death of Yugoslavia. With contributions from Lea Ypi, Radina Vucetic, Ivan Ve...
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How to Invent a Country
When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny on the borders, the stories and the people of countries worldwide.
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Listen to How to Invent a Country, a Society & Culture podcast by BBC. Stream 75 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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The birth and death of Yugoslavia
Misha Glenny talks to contributors from Bosnia and Belgrade and Albania too about the history of Yugoslavia from 1918 via Tito until now. Re...
The Balkans: Episode 2
Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out...
More history than you can consume!
Misha Glenny + Miles Warde on a journey through the Balkans - was Churchill's quote true?
What are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian in Sarajevo fired the shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable? Misha Glenny returns...
The Balkans: What Are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian on a street corner in Sarajevo fired a shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable, and...
Hungary: Two World Wars and One Failed Revolution
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the cou...
Two World Wars, One Failed Revolution
Misha Glenny asks how the losers of two world wars, which drastically reshaped Hungary's borders, tried to fight off Soviet tanks on Budapes...
Hungary: The Butcher and the Poet
"Brussels is abusing its power," said Victor Orban, "just as Vienna once did." The date, March 15 2025 - this year - but the reference was t...
The Butcher And The Poet
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head to a rally in Budapest where Viktor Orban compares the EU to the Habsburgs, forgetting it was tsarist Russ...
Hungary: Hungary and Mohacs 500
Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest and beyond to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban stays in powe...
Hungary and Mohacs 500
McMafia author Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban uses history begin...
Taiwan
At the beginning of this year the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed that people living on both sides of the Ta...
Taiwan
At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Strai...
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel east to tell the story of China - what it is and where it came from. "Twentieth century China is the mos...
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
China: Imperial Collapse
"You could do a whole programme on why you shouldn't build a capital in Beijing. It's a Mongolian camel camp." Paul French Beijing means cap...
China: imperial collapse
The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen
China: To Kowtow or Not Kowtow
Britain was late in its contacts with China and the Qing dynasty - the Portuguese, the Dutch and the Spanish had all headed east long before...
China - to kowtow or not to kowtow
Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars