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
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_
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
In this episode Professor Greg Woolf takes us to 146 BCE – the point at which Roman domination of the Mediterranean became inevitable.
In the West, the Romans destroyed the city of Carthage, ending the decades of military struggle known as the Punic Wars and finally defeating the Phoenicians.
In the East, Roman forces seized control of the important city of Corinth on mainland Greece, giving them a strategic foothold that they would go on to use in building their empire.
At the same time, the glittering intellectual capital of the ancient world, Alexandria, was beset by internal power struggles and so began the period of decline that would eventually lead to it, too, being absorbed into the Roman Empire.
For much, much more about this episode, head to tttpodcast.com
Show notes
Scene One: The demolition of Carthage in Spring of 146
Scene Two: At the sack of the ancient city of Corinth in Greece in 146
Scene Three: The decline of Alexandria and the death of Ptolemy VI in 145
Memento: A painting from the Ancient world
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Violet Moller
Guest: Professor Greg Woolf
Production: Maria Nolan
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Partner: Colorgraph
The conversation in this episode of Travels Through Time revolves around Woolf’s most recent book, The Life and Death of Ancient Cities.
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
In this brilliantly descriptive and entertaining episode of Travels Through Time the award-winning writer and satirist Craig Brown takes us on a cultural tour of 1963. We discuss the Great Train Robbery, the Beatles meteoric rise to fame and the assassination of JFK.
For much, much more about the episode and to be the first to see the amazing new colourised photograph of the Beatles in Washington DC at their first US concert – head to our website: tttpodcast.com
Show Notes:
Scene One: August 1963, lingering with the robbers in their hide-out at Leatherslade Farm.
Scene Two: Second half of 1963, Jane Asher's family home, Wimpole Street, to see/be Paul McCartney, living with the Ashers, at the time of the first flush of the Beatles’ success.
Scene Three: November 23 1963. In the Texas School Book depository with Lee Harvey Oswald as he shoots President Kennedy.
Memento: Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Yesterday’
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Interview: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Craig Brown
Producer: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Podcast Partner: ColorGraph
Craig Brown’s book One, Two, Three Four: The Beatles in Time is available now from 4th Estate books.
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
In this episode of Travels Through Time, the writer and broadcaster Luke Pepera introduces us to Mansa Musa, a dazzling figure in African history. Mansa Musa was the Emperor of Mali in the fourteenth century. We follow him as he embarks on his spectacular pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325.
It was a journey of epic proportions, involving a procession of tens of thousands of people and the transport of extraordinary amounts of gold, the precious metal on which Mali had built its wealth.
For much more information about this episode - including illustrations of the places and people featured - head to our website, tttpodcast.com
To hear more stories from African history, you can follow Luke on Twitter at @LukePepera and read along with his blog.
Show notes:
Scene One: Early 1325, as Mansa Musa sets off on his extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca.
Scene Two: Mid-to-late 1325, in the court of al-Nasir, the Egyptian sultan, to witness the meeting between the two great leaders.
Scene Three: Late 1325, as a scholar in the Djingeureber Mosque at Timbuktu, which was established by the architects and scholars whom Mansa Musa brought back from his pilgrimage.
Memento: A book of poetry from the University of Timbuktu
People/Social
Interview: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Luke Pepera
Producer: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Check out the amazing colourised images made by our podcast partner, ColorGraph!
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
In our fascinating season three opener, Peter talks to Professor James Shapiro, one of the world’s leading scholars of the life and work of William Shakespeare. He tells Peter about the origin of the concept of 'Manifest Destiny'. He takes us to meet a young Ulysses S. Grant, and he evokes the life of the greatest Romeo of the age: Charlotte Cushman. The year is 1845.
For much more information about this episode, including images of the people and places involved, head to our website, tttpodcast.com
The conversation in this podcast revolves around James Shapiro's most recent book, Shakespeare in a Divided America. It is available now from Faber in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA.
Show notes:
Scene One: August, 1845. John O’Sullivan, in an essay called “Annexation” introduces the phrase “Manifest Destiny” into the American vocabulary, capturing America’s shift from republic to empire, the repercussions of which are being felt to this day.
Scene Two: November, 1845. Corpus Christi, Texas. Four thousand US troops are awaiting orders in Corpus Christi, Texas to cross the Rio Grande and invade Mexico.
Scene Three: December 1845. In a revealing act of cross-dressing that speaks to the anxieties about manliness at the time, the star American actress Charlotte Cushman debuts as Romeo - a role that no man at the time was able to perform successfully - at London’s Haymarket Theatre.
Memento: A recording of Ulysses S. Grant speaking Desdomona’s lines in Othello:
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Professor James Shapiro
Producers: Maria Nolan
Titles: Jon O
Check out the amazing colourised images made by our podcast partner, ColorGraph!