The History Podcast

A man wakes up in the middle of the night in Moscow. He is sick. Shivery. Feverish. But he has a mission. A mission that will end up changing the course of world history.
After World War Two was over, America was ready for peace. And to continue working with their ideological adversary, the Soviet Union. Franklin Delano Roosevelt even flew to Crimea to make a deal with Churchill and Stalin.
But there was one man who was sounding the alarm, all the way from a freezing Moscow winter. A Chekhov-obsessed diplomat called George Kennan who’s witnessed Stalin’s repressions first hand and would live to 101. More than anyone else, he will set the trajectory of American foreign policy in the 20th Century - with a telegram. A telegram he would come to deeply regret.
This is the story of how the US and USSR went from allies to enemies. And the man who made this happen - starting what would come to be called the Cold War.
David Dimbleby tells the story of how in the middle of the 20th Century one country - America - became a superpower and shaped the world around it.
It began with a vision. A vision born out of the ashes of World War Two. A vision of a world shaped not by war but by peace. This vision of America at the head of the free world came to be the defining idea at the center of the past 80 years of world politics. And yet now it is under threat.
So how did we get here? How did America become the leader of the free world and why did it go wrong? It’s a story shaped by people. People you have probably never heard of.
In the 20th Century, these ‘invisible hands’ wrote the story America came to believe about itself. A story of moral leadership leading to prosperity and peace. But is it a story that has run out of steam?
Presenter: David Dimbleby
Producer: Redzi Bernard
Sound Design: Jeff Emtman
Executive Producers: Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitsina
Story Editor: Joe Sykes, Dasha Lisitsina, and Peggy Sutton
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Samizdat Audio production for BBC Radio 4

This is the story of the most important person you've probably never heard of. The man who made the dollar the centre of the world. And America along with it.
His name is Harry Dexter White and, as an economist at the Treasury, he had a vision of how to ensure another conflict like World War Two would never happen again.
To do that he had to upend the whole structure of the world financial system - and make the US Dollar the most important currency on Earth. Standing in his way was the greatest celebrity economist of all time, John Maynard Keynes. The battle between these two men - and Harry Dexter White’s eventual victory - would come to define the next 80 years of world history.
And yet, just a few years later, this visionary economist - the man who changed the world - would be dead. Branded as a traitor to his country. Accused of being the worst thing an American could be accused of - a Soviet Spy.
In Series 2 of Invisible Hands: The American Century, David Dimbleby tells the story of how, in the middle of the 20th century, America became a superpower and shaped the world around it.
It began with a vision. A vision born out of the ashes of World War Two. A vision of a world shaped not by war but by peace. This vision of America at the head of the free world came to be the defining idea at the centre of the past 80 years of world politics. And yet now, it is under threat.
So how did we get here? How did America become the leader of the free world and why did it go wrong? It’s a story shaped by people. People you may not know.
These ‘invisible hands’ wrote the story America came to believe about itself. A story of moral leadership leading to prosperity and peace. But is it a story that has run out of steam?
Presenter: David Dimbleby
Producer: Redzi Bernard
Sound Design: Jeff Emtman
Executive Producers: Joe Sykes and Dasha Lisitsina
Story Editor: Joe Sykes, Dasha Lisitsina, and Peggy Sutton
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Samizdat Audio production for BBC Radio 4

David Dimbleby introduces the story of how America became a superpower through the invisible hands who made it happen.

Where does the British love affair with tea begin? It all starts with a Portuguese princess…
In this first episode of Here For The History, Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson explore the origin story of the British love of tea. Starting with the first appearance of tea in England in the 1600s and its popularisation in the English royal court, the story takes a dark turn as the British East India Company seeks to break China’s monopoly on tea production leading to the Opium Wars and corporate espionage.
Here For The History is a new BBC Sounds podcast where every week historians Alice Loxton and Ben Henderson shed light on the stereotypes, social norms, traditions and beliefs that fill our everyday life. From Britain’s stiff upper-lip, to Scottish tartan, the podcast will reveal the surprising roots of the customs and everyday objects that surround us.
If you enjoy this episode, you can listen and subscribe to Here For The History on BBC Sounds. If you’re outside the UK, you can listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Key sources for this episode:
A Social History of Tea - Jane Pettigrew
A journey to the tea countries of China - Robert Fortune
Dinner with Dickens - Penn Vogler

Ahead of England's 2026 World Cup match with Mexico, David Baddiel and Nick Robinson reflect on what it means to be an England Men's Football fan.
They discuss National Anthems and football songs, power vs the underdog, the emotionality of Football, Tuchel’s choice of players, the climate in the Azteca and how taking a penalty is like theatre, plus take questions from the audience.