Leonard Grigoryan

Oct 31, 2023 | tttpodcast.com | Leonard Grigoryan

One of the most traumatic air disasters of the twentieth century happened on a stormy October night in 1930. By numbers, the crash of the airship ‘R101’ seems almost inconsequential when set against the huge numbers of those who fell during the First World War. But the 48 who died when R101 came down over the French countryside represented something important for Great Britain. At a time of growing unease, they symbolised the end of a dream.

Jun 13, 2023 | tttpodcast.com | Leonard Grigoryan |Mike Jay

By the 1880s customers could buy all sorts of branded pills, lozenges and ‘tabloids’ in these shops. These variously promised to relieve aliments like stomach cramps, sore throats and exhaustion and they were very often marketed under cheerful names like ‘Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup’. But in these bottles was danger as well as relief. Their ingredients were not usually listed, but in them were powerful substances like opium, alcohol and cocaine.

May 26, 2023 | tttpodcast.com | Leonard Grigoryan

In the great centre of learning and creativity, in 1497, people witnessed the so-called ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’, when supporters of the hugely influential Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, destroyed huge collections of art in the main square. Confronted with the terrible prospect of judgment, people had turned on objects - from mirrors to musicial instruments and paintings - that they believed would tempt them towards sin.

May 23, 2023 | tttpodcast.com | Leonard Grigoryan

This is not only a puzzle that has troubled historians. The USSR’s collapse was an equal surpise to those who witnessed events at first hand. Many, like today’s guest, Serhii Plokhy, watched on in disbelief. Raised in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Plokhy is one of Ukraine’s leading historians. In the summer of 1991 he was working as an academic and preparing for a spell of teaching in Canada, as the nation he had always known - then led by Mikhail Gorbachev - began to totter.

May 17, 2023 | tttpodcast.com | Leonard Grigoryan

Show notes Scene One: Autumn 48 AD, Imperial Palace, Palatine Hill. The emperor Claudius is out of Rome. Messalina, the handsome Gaius Silius, and their friends are partying in celebration of the wine harvest. This, her enemies will argue, is actually a bigamous wedding party. Scene Two: A few days later in autumn 48 AD, From the Via Ostiensis to the Praetorian Camp. Messalina stands accused of adultery, bigamy, and treason. She tries to beg Claudius to spare her life but is blocked.