Podcasts: history

One of the most violent episodes in the Northern Ireland conflict was Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972. On that day, soldiers of the British army confronted Catholic demonstrators in the city of Londonderry. Thirteen of the demonstrators were shot and killed.

Doug Bolduc from the US is here with me in the studio today to read an excerpt from our travel feature on Colorado. The west is still wild in this part of the country — but it's not always quite what you expect.

In our travel feature this month, we visit England's great cathedrals. In the podcast, we are going to visit Canterbury cathedral for a story of intrigue and murder. David Creedon is here to tell you the story of Thomas à Becket.

With Christmas just around the corner, our focus for this week’s podcast is the popular story A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens in 1843. David Ingram reads an excerpt from the piece.

Genealogy — finding out about your family background — is a popular hobby. It’s also a great topic of conversation. This month, it’s the focus of our Everyday English dialogues.

Our travel feature this month takes you to the great castles of Wales, which the Welsh fought for a long time to protect. Listen now as David Creedon recounts one dramatic day in this war.

What do you think of as typically Scottish? Did I hear you say bagpipes
— a musical instrument made of a number of pipes and a bag? Dagmar Taylor from Aberdeen reads “Mythical music” taken from the World View section of Spotlight magazine.

We look back at the iconic summer of 1968 in the June issue of Spotlight. Here on the podcast, American speaker Laurie Norquist reads an excerpt from the feature "Those were the days".

On a spring weekend, British people love nothing better than to go to a local historical site for a day out. Sutton Hoo in Suffolk is one such place. "A day out" is the theme of this month's Everyday English.