Travels Through Time
In each episode we ask a leading historian, novelist or public figure the tantalising question, ”If you could travel back through time, which year would you visit?” Once they have made their choice, then they guide us through that year in three telling scenes. We have visited Pompeii in 79AD, Jerusalem in 1187, the Tower of London in 1483, Colonial America in 1776, 10 Downing Street in 1940 and the Moon in 1969. Featured in the Guardian, Times and Evening Standard. Presented weekly by Sunday Times bestselling writer Peter Moore, award-winning historian Violet Moller and Artemis Irvine.
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Episodes
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Welcome to a different and very special episode of Travels Through Time. Today’s interviewee is the extraordinary Holocaust survivor and resistance fighter Selma van de Perre. At the age of ninety-eight, three quarters of a century after she was liberated from Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, Selma tells us her remarkable story and takes us back to the events of 1945.
This interview took place on the eve of the British publication of Selma's memoir, My Name is Selma. We're very grateful to Selma and to Ariana Neumann, the New York Times Bestselling author of When Time Stopped, who conducted this interview on our behalf.
As ever, much much more about this episode can be found at www.tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: 23 April 1945. A man from the Swedish Red Cross arrives at Ravensbrück. He offers the imprisoned women chocolate and cigarettes.
Scene Two: Late April 1945, After leaving Ravensbrück for Sweden, the aid convoy is mistakenly attacked by the British.
Scene Three: Late May/early June 1945. At a refugee “holiday”camp in Sweden. Selma is in the dining room and hears someone call her by her real name for the first time in years.
Memento: A dressing gown, specially made by the Swedish family that Selma stayed with after being liberated
People
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Ariana Neumann
Guest: Selma van de Perre
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
See where 1945 fits on our Timeline
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
In this episode of Travels Through Time the author and journalist Hugh Aldersey-Williams takes us back to 1655 and the vibrant heart of the Dutch Golden Age to meet Christiaan Huygens, a figure oddly forgotten by us today but who was once venerated as the greatest mathematician, astronomer and physicist of his age.
Hugh guides us back to the year 1655 to see Christiaan make his thrilling discovery of one of Saturn's moons; to watch him struggle with the mathematical problem of pendular motion, and to follow him as he enters Paris - the city he would come to love - for the very first time.
Much much more about the scenes, characters and materials discussed in this conversation can be found at www.tttpodcast.com
The discussion in this episode of Travels Through Time arises from the characters and events described by Hugh Aldersey-Williams in his new book, Dutch Light: Christiaan Huygens and the making of science in Europe which is recently published in hardback by Picador
Show notes
Scene One: 25 March 1655. With Christiaan and his telescope in the garden of the Huygens’s house in The Hague. The discovery of Saturn’s moon later to be called Titan.
Scene Two: 4 March 1655, Huygens recommends a Polish inventor’s clock for Dutch patent, demonstrating that he is already thinking about the problem of pendular motion.
Scene Three: 23 July 1655, Huygens arrives in Paris - the city that he would grow to love - for the very first time
Memento: One of Huygens’s magic lanterns
People
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
See where 1655 fits on our Timeline
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
How close did we come to a world without the USSR? A world with no Stalin, no KGB, or even Putin today? In this episode of Travels Through Time we head back to 1918 and the scene of the audacious, thrilling Lockhart Plot to find out.
Our guide in this episode is the American historian Jonathan Schneer. He takes us back to revolutionary Russia to visit the Smolny Institute in Petrograd, the American Consulate and the scene of the final showdown in Grain Alley.
He explains just who Bruce Lockhart was and what his plot set out to achieve.
The subject matter and scenes that feature in this episode come from Jonathan Schneer's book, The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia
For much much more visit: tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: February 15, 1918: Bruce Lockhart’s first appointment with Leon Trotsky at the Smolny Institute in Petrograd.
Scene Two: August 25, 1918: secret meeting at the American Consulate in Moscow, hosted by American Consul General, DeWitt Clinton Poole, but presided over by French Consul General Josef Fernand Grenard.
Scene Three: Earliest hours of September 1, 1918: #24 Khlebnyi pereulok (Grain Alley), Cheka agents arrive to arrest Lockhart, George Hicks, and Moura von Benckendorff .
Memento: Sidney Reilly’s full report on the status of the plot for British Intelligence
People
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: John Hillman
Guest: Jonathan Schneer
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Who were the Ottomans? Why have they been so neglected in the traditional Western approach to history? What precisely was their influence on the fabled events of the sixteenth century? In this episode of Travels Through Time, the historian Alan Mikhail takes us back to the monumental events of the year 1517 to find out.
We look at the conquest of Cairo, the start of the Reformation and the arrival of the Europeans in Mexico. Everywhere, the influence of the Ottomans was felt. In particular, Mikhail tells us about the life of Sultan Selim I.
The subject matter and scenes that feature in this episode come from Alan Mikhail's new book, God’s Shadow: The Ottoman Sultan Who Shaped the Modern World.
Alan Mikhail is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Yale University.
For much much more visit: tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: February 1517, Ottoman Sultan Selim captures Cairo
Scene Two: October 1517, Wittenberg, Germany. Disaffected Professor of Theology Martin Luther writes the 95 Theses
Scene Three: Early 1517, The first Europeans land on the coast of Mexico
Memento: The Map of Piri Reis
People
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Professor Alan Mikhail
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
In this fascinating and unusual episode of Travels Through Time the archaeologist and writer Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes takes us back further than we’ve ever been before, 125,000 years, to meet our extinct kindred: the Neanderthals.
We visit the vibrant wild woodlands of Britain, a hornbeam forest on the European continent and a German lakeshore. Rebecca describes the world as it was in the interglacial age known as the Eemian and tell us how the Neanderthals lived, worked and loved in this warm woodland environment.
The subject matter and scenes that feature in this episode come from Rebecca Wragg Sykes's new book, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art.
For much much more visit: tttpodcast.com
Show Notes:
Scene One: Britain, 123,000 years ago. A catastrophic flood breaks the ridge connecting Britain to the rest of Europe. The island becomes a wasteland for many thousands of years.
Scene Two: A hornbeam forest in Germany, during the Eemian. We meet the weird and wonderful animals that populated the continent at the time.
Scene Three: Neumark lakeshore, also during the Eemian. Tiny remains of organic material provide insight into the kinds of tools the Neanderthals were making and using.
Memento: One of the spears used to kill deer at the Neumark lakeshore.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
Friday Aug 28, 2020
Friday Aug 28, 2020
In this politically-charged episode of Travels Through Time, Professor Simon Hall takes us on a fascinating tour of the United States in 1960.
We watch on as 'the Greensboro Four’ ignite a nation-wide series of sit-ins. We take a visit to see Fidel Castro and his swashbuckling entourage at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. And we watch as Nixon and Kennedy go head to head in the most famous presidential debate of them all.
The subject matter, the scenes and characters that feature in this episode come from Simon Hall's new book, Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s. To be in with a chance of winning a hardback copy of this book and a superb colourised image of Fidel Castro, visit: tttpodcast.com
Simon Hall is Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds.
Show notes
Scene One: 1 February 1960; the lunch counter at the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Scene Two: Evening of Thursday 22 September; the Skyline Lounge, Hotel Theresa, Harlem.
Scene Three: 26 September, CBS’s McClurg Court studios, Chicago.
Memento: One of Fidel Castro’s cigars
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Simon Hall
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
So much more at: tttpodcast.com
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
Tuesday Aug 25, 2020
In this episode of Travels Through Time, the writer Thomas Levenson guides us back to the scene of one the first and most devastating of all stock market crashes, an event that traumatised Georgian Britain: the South Sea Bubble.
The subject matter, the scenes and characters that feature in this episode come from Levenson's new book, Money for Nothing. Much more information is to be found at tttpodcast.com
Thomas Levenson is Professor of Science Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Show notes
Scene One: 22 January, 1720: John Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, rises in the House of Commons to present the South Sea deal to the members.
Scene Two: A Sunday in May, 1720. Daniel Defoe goes to church and witnesses the ‘South Sea’ hysteria.
Scene Three: 20 December, 1720, the House of Commons. Robert Walpole decides the fate of the speculators.
Memento: A pocket watch made in the year 1720
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Thomas Levenson
Editorial: Artemis Irvine
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
So much more at: tttpodcast.com
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
In this fascinating episode of Travels Through Time, Ken Follett, one of the world’s best loved historical novelists, guides us back to the beginning of the last millennium. The year we visit, 1002, comes at a time of change when, after centuries of stagnation, English society was beginning to emerge from that gloomy period we call ‘The Dark Ages.’
The subject matter, the scenes and the characters that feature in this episode come from the world depicted by Follett in his hugely-anticipated new novel The Evening and the Morning, the prequel to his bestselling masterpiece, The Pillars of the Earth.
For a chance to win a first edition hardback copy of The Evening and the Morning, to read more about the scenes discussed in this episode and to see images and show notes, please head to our website: tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: 1002, The Slave Market, Bristol
Scene Two: 1002, The Viking seige of Exeter
Scene Three: 1002, The wedding of King Æthelred II & Emma of Normandy
Memento: A four-legged chair
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Ken Follett
Editorial: Artemis Irvine
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
So much more at: tttpodcast.com
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
In this episode of Travels Through Time we are taken on an invigorating tour of the ports, coasts and oceans of the world with Professor David Abulafia, winner of the prestigious 2020 Wolfson Prize for History for his book, The Boundless Sea.
For much more information about this episode, including images of the people and places involved, head to our website, tttpodcast.com
The scenes discussed in this episode come from The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans (Allen Lane).
Show notes:
Scene One: 21 August 1415, The Portuguese attack on Ceuta, North Africa
Scene Two: 1415, The Eastern Settlement Greenland
Scene Three: 1415 Nanjing, east coast of central China
Memento: A piece of Chinese porcelain from Nanjing
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Professor David Abulafia
Editorial: Artemis Irvine
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
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Check out the amazing colourised images made by our podcast partner, ColorGraph!
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
In this swashbuckling episode of Travels Through Time we head back to the year 1453. We watch on as the brilliant, ruthless young sultan, Mehmet II, makes use of terrifying modern weaponry as he seeks to capture the prize of his heart’s desire: the ancient city of Constantinople.
Our guest this week is the award-winning and bestselling writer Justin Marozzi. Marozzi has lived for much of his professional life in the Middle East and North Africa and is known for books like The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008) and Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood.
The events described and the characters involved in this episode are taken from Marozzi’s latest book, Islamic Empires Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization. That book is published in paperback on 6 August by Penguin Press.
For much, much more about this episode, including battle plans and portraits of Mehmed and Constantine, head to our website: tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: January 1453. A Hungarian siege engineer called Orban offers the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the most powerful new weapon in the world.
Scene Two: 22 April 1453, Mehmet displays an astonishing example of his military genius to seize control of the Golden Horn, Constantinople
Scene Three: 1:30am on 29th May, the battle for Constantinople reaches its dramatic climax
Memento: The magnificent cannon cast for the seige in 1453 by the Hungarian engineer Orban
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Justin Marozzi
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Colorgraph
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_