Recall: How to Start a Revolution

The 1950s & 60s saw a wave of radical movements. Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. The Black Panthers. Quebec and Canada had the FLQ — a showdown that dissolved into crisis. By October 1970, there were soldiers in the streets, communities on edge, kidnapping and terror in the headlines. But those frightening weeks were just the crescendo of a wave of terror and violence that was nearly a decade in the making. This series will reveal the stories of that time through immersive storytelling and the people who lived it: the bomb disposal expert on defusing live explosives, the survivors of terror, their families, and the radicals themselves.

Episodes

Recall Introduces | Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer

April 2, 2025 • 38 mins

In the wake of 9/11, anthrax-laced letters unleashed a new wave of terror across the nation. But who was behind the attacks — and why has America nearly forgotten this story?

As government buildings shut down and law enforcement scrambled to track the perpetrator, the FBI launched one of the largest and most complex investigations in its history. Untangling a web of scientific evidence and false leads, the case took unexpected t...

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Episode 7: The War of Nerves

October 4, 2020 • 66 mins

In response to the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte, the federal government invokes the War Measures Act. And when the body of Pierre Laporte is discovered, popular sentiment turns against the FLQ and leads to the collapse of the group. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227

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Episode 6: Liberation

October 4, 2020 • 51 mins

With the kidnappings of James Cross and Pierre Laporte, the FLQ earns the headline attention it craves, and creates a national crisis in the process. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227

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Episode 5: The Bomber

September 27, 2020 • 48 mins

Pierre-Paul Geoffroy and Bob Côté were at opposite ends of the busiest period of FLQ bombing activity. It began in May 1968 with a bomb at the 7-Up factory, and ended in February 1969 with the explosion at the Montreal Stock Exchange. Geoffroy was planting the bombs, Côté had to defuse them. For both men, the period took a toll. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start...

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Episode 4: The Whole Wide World

September 20, 2020 • 41 mins

The FLQ’s campaign for liberation did not spring from a vacuum: radical Québec separatists were inspired by and in turn inspired decolonization movements around the world, including the Black Panthers. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227

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Episode 3: The Mastermind

September 13, 2020 • 40 mins

Pierre Vallieres taps into the anger and alienation felt by Francophone Quebecers by penning a book of essays that earns him comparisons to Malcolm X and Che Guevara. The revolutionary text inflames separatist sentiment, cements Vallieres’s position as the intellectual and philosophical father of the FLQ… and is held up in the courts as evidence of his guilt in earlier FLQ bombing campaigns. For transcripts of this series, please ...

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Episode 2: The Stranger

September 7, 2020 • 40 mins

The story of how a Hungarian born, Austro-German raised, ex-French Foreign Legionnaire became a radical Quebec separatist demonstrates the allure of the FLQ message in the political tinderbox that was Montreal in 1964. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/recall-how-to-start-a-revolution-transcripts-listen-1.6756227

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Episode 1: Suicide Commandos

September 7, 2020 • 30 mins

The 1960s began as a time of promise for Quebec, with the feeling that the province was throwing off the shackles of its parochial past. But despite plenty of reason for hope, the seeds were being sown for radical revolt, and by 1963, Montreal would be shaken by political violence. We meet the victim of an early FLQ bombing, and dig into how her story was lost to history. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.c...

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Recall: How to Start a Revolution - Trailer

August 24, 2020 • 2 mins

Introducing Recall, a series about history that is still hot to the touch. The first season, How to Start a Revolution, explores the story of a groundbreaking political movement that rocked Canada in the 1960s. Host Geoff Turner will examine how the movement grew from a global spirit of liberation and how the dream of revolution became a nightmare of bombs, kidnapping and murder.

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