Journey Through Time
Forgotten stories from history and how they shaped the way we live today. Hear about the ordinary people from history and the extraordinary impact they’ve had on the present. Hosted by historians David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell, Journey Through Time will show how everyday actions have the most remarkable unintended consequences that ripple through time. From the first woman to run for President to the unknown story of how the world came to the brink of nuclear war in 1983, this podcast is for everyone, not just history lovers. To hear more Goalhanger podcasts, go to www.goalhanger.com
Episodes
January 7, 2026 • 34 mins
Why did 35,000 foreign volunteers join the International Brigades? How did the conflict lead to the first racially integrated military unit in US history? What was women’s role in the conflict? How was modern conflict journalism pioneered in Spain?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell examine the role of foreign volunteers and journalists in the Spanish Civil War
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Assistant Producers: ...
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January 4, 2026 • 41 mins
What caused Spain to collapse into civil war in 1936? How did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin become involved in the conflict? Why did western democracies do nothing to aid Spain’s government? What connected Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gelhorn, George Orwell and Kim Philby to the war?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell explore the events that led to Spain’s 1936-1939 Civil War.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Assistant...
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December 31, 2025 • 43 mins
In what significant ways did the bestselling book ‘A Christmas Carol’ change Victorian behaviour around Christmas? From Christmas movies to the office Christmas party, what traditions do we have Charles Dickens to thank for? Why does this story still resonate in modern debates around poverty, responsibility, and compassion?
Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell exploring the enduring legacy of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Ca...
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December 28, 2025 • 31 mins
How did the three Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future manage to save Scrooge, Tiny Time, and the Christmas spirit? What deadly social problem was Dickens looking to solve with A Christmas Carol? Who is actually on trial in the story: Scrooge or the society that made him possible?
Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they look at the Ghost story that terrified Victorian Britain into helping the poor.
Social P...
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December 24, 2025 • 57 mins
Why had the Victorians stopped celebrating Christmas? How did the wretchedness of a London school for poor children inspire Charles Dickens’ famous Christmas tale? What does the story’s main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, tell us about the state of the UK?
Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they tell the story of how Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ changed Victorian Britain.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry ...
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December 21, 2025 • 38 mins
What does the hysteria around white women sleeping with Black GIs tell us about race and class in wartime Britain? Why were Black GIs banned from marrying their British sweethearts? What was the sad fate of many of the mixed raced babies left behind as a result of this encounter?
Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga tell the final chapter in the story of Black GIs in the UK.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Assis...
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December 17, 2025 • 28 mins
What happened when Black GIs went on strike over their violent treatment at the hands of the white Military Police? Why did the American Army start fighting itself in the heart of a British city? How did the Ministry of Information stop the British public from hearing about this violence?
Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they tell the story of the Park Street Riots, the forgotten American mutiny on the streets of Bris...
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December 14, 2025 • 35 mins
How did an altercation over the wrong uniform lead into a full scale gun battle with Americans shooting their fellow soldiers on the streets of Bamber Bridge? What caused the Black GIs to mutiny? How did this violence forever change the US army?
Listen to Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they tell the story of Americans firing on Americans in the village of Bamber Bridge.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
A...
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December 10, 2025 • 40 mins
How did the American army try to enforce segregation by stealth on British towns? Why did the British public perceive the white American GIs as ‘over paid, over fed, over sexed and over here’? How did Churchill respond to the growing tensions in British towns as a result of the ‘friendly invasion’?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell tell the story of when the American army brought racial segregation to the UK during World War T...
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December 7, 2025 • 34 mins
What happened when 1.5 million American GIs, including 130,000 African Americans, were stationed in the UK during WWII? How did the Jim Crow segregation laws work in the American army? What was surprising about how the Brits reacted when America tried to export this segregation to the UK?
Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga look at the forgotten story behind the ‘friendly invasion’ in WWII.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, H...
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December 4, 2025 • 11 mins
Forget what you think you know about reality. The Rest Is Science is a mind-bending new show from Goalhanger that tears down familiar ideas… time, randomness, beauty, it will reveal just how bizarre the world truly is.
Join Professor Hannah Fry and science creator Michael Stevens (aka Vsauce) twice a week to explore big, small and surprising questions as they deep dive into theories, concepts, objects and thoughts and take us on...
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December 3, 2025 • 41 mins
How did Harriet Tubman free over 750 enslaved people in the Combahee River Raid? Despite her valiant efforts in the Civil War, why did Harriet have to fight the government to have enough money to live on? What does her legacy say about the politics of today?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell look at the final chapter in Harriet’s extraordinary life.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Producer: Alice Horrell
Hea...
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November 30, 2025 • 42 mins
What surprising tactics did Harriet use to avoid detection on her many missions to rescue enslaved people in the south? Who was John Brown, the fierce abolitionist willing to use violence to further his cause? Why was Harriet involved in the Harpers’ Ferry raid, one of the causes of the Civil War?
Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they look at how Harriet Tubman brought so many people to safety.
Social Producers: E...
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November 26, 2025 • 42 mins
Why did Harriet Tubman risk her freedom and become the only formerly enslaved person to return to the slaveholding south? How did the secret Underground Railroad guide people north to freedom? Why did the entire country suddenly become slave-catching territory in September 1850? What did this mean for those who thought they were safe in the North?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell explore the famous Underground Railroad.
S...
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November 23, 2025 • 41 mins
Who was Harriet Tubman? How did Harriet make the perilous journey escaping north to freedom? What was the Underground Railroad, the secret chain of people guiding enslaved people to safety?
Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they explore the early years of abolitionist, spymaster, and activist Harriet Tubman.
Social Producers: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Producer: Alice Horrell
Head of History: Dom Johnson
Exec Pr...
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November 19, 2025 • 49 mins
How many people were slaughtered in the street-to-street battle for Paris known as the ‘bloody week’? Why did the German Chancellor help the French government start a civil war? Who were the ‘Petroleuses’, the mythical wild-eyed working class women accused of setting the city on fire?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell relive the brutal final days of the Paris Commune.
Social Producer: Emma Jackson, Harry Balden
Producer:...
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November 16, 2025 • 33 mins
How many of the radical reforms that the Paris Commune implemented in their 72 day existence influence French laws to this day? Why did the communards tear down a statue of Napoleon III and outlaw morning croissants? How did an attempt to take the Archbishop of Paris hostage backfire badly on the radicals?
Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga explore what this short-lived radical government of Paris managed to achieve.
Social...
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November 12, 2025 • 32 mins
How did pet dogs, street rats, and the zoo’s elephants make their way onto the menu of Parisian fine dining restaurants? Why did Paris feel so slighted by the national government when they surrendered to the Germans? How did defiant Parisian children and housewives defy the national guard and spark a revolution that would lead to the Paris Commune?
David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell relive the Siege of Paris and the fight for P...
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November 9, 2025 • 41 mins
What was the Paris Commune of 1871? How was the first German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, trying to radically reshape the map of Europe? How did the resulting Franco-Prussian war set the scene in Paris for one of the most radical political experiments of the nineteenth century?
Join Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga as they look at the days leading up to The Paris Commune, the working class revolution that shook the world.
...
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November 5, 2025 • 45 mins
How did the remaining conspirators manage to blow themselves up? Why is the defeat of the Gunpowder Plot still celebrated 400 years later? What are the parallels between this plot and the 7/7 bombings?
Join David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell as they relive how the gunpowder plotters met their grisly end.
Visit https://www.LRB.me/Journey to get six months of the London Review of Books for just twelve pounds, plus a free LRB ...
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