Explaining autism

One scientist's ground-breaking work that revolutionised our understanding of autism

• 9 mins

Britain's World War Two crime wave

How criminals from looters to con artists thrived in London during the Blitz.

• 9 mins

The book that changed the way we eat

The book that highlighted the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet

• 9 mins

Risking my life to protect Congo's forest

How a conservationist tried to protect Congo's rainforest during the country's civil war.

• 9 mins

The Gwangju massacre

The South Korean army crushed a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju on 27 May 1980

• 9 mins

Winston Churchill's doctor

Winston Churchill's personal doctor published his memories of the British leader in 1966

• 9 mins

Ann Lowe - African American fashion designer

Ann Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress but for years few people knew her name

• 9 mins

The start of eco-tourism

How Costa Rica's Monteverde cloud forest reserve became a major tourist site

• 9 mins

The Zanzibar Revolution

Just one month after gaining independence there was an uprising in Zanzibar in 1964.

• 9 mins

How Christo wrapped the Reichstag

The artist who delighted post-Cold War Berlin by wrapping its greatest monument

• 9 mins

The origin of the WHO

How the cold war helped shape the creation of the WHO and what role China played.

• 9 mins

The portable defibrillator

How Northern Irish doctor Frank Pantridge revolutionised heart-attack treatment.

• 9 mins

Brown v the Board of Education

A landmark case about racial segregation in the USA.

• 9 mins

The 16th Street church bombing

Four young black girls were killed in a racist attack on a church in Alabama in 1963

• 9 mins

Black basketball pioneers - Texas Western

How an all-black college team overturned racist assumptions about basketball in the USA

• 9 mins

Rodney King and the LA riots

People rioted in Los Angeles after police who had assaulted a black man were acquitted

• 9 mins

Three Strikes Law

One man's experience of the controversial US law that saw thousands locked up for life

• 14 mins

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages of Grief

The remarkable Swiss psychiatrist who changed the way we think about dying.

• 9 mins

Beethoven's role in China's Cultural Revolution

Chairman Mao banned all classical music in 1966, but some musicians defied the order.

• 9 mins

Sex trafficking and peacekeepers

Whistle-blowers implicated UN peacekeepers in sex trafficking in Bosnia in the late 90s

• 9 mins

The friendship train

The passenger train service between India and Bangladesh was resumed after 43 years.

• 9 mins

The ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ anti-racist exercise

A teacher decided to separate pupils according to eye colour to teach them about racism.

• 9 mins

The New Deal

How the USA used public spending projects to battle through the Great Depression

• 9 mins

South Korea's economic miracle

How a poor, war-ravaged nation became a global economic powerhouse

• 14 mins

Tanzania's socialist experiment

In the 1960s Tanzania tried out a new form of socialism called Ujamaa

• 9 mins

The Chilean economy and its 'Chicago Boys'

Thinkers trained in free-market economics in Chicago shaped Chile after its military coup

• 9 mins

Russia’s bitter taste of capitalism

Chaos and hardship hit Russia with the sudden market reforms of early 1992.

• 9 mins

Jana Andolan – Nepal’s people power movement

A people’s movement brought an end to Nepal’s absolute monarchy in 1990.

• 9 mins

The Rolling Stones drugs trial

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went on trial for drugs offences in June 1967

• 9 mins

Quarantined in a TB sanatorium

The life of a nine-year-old girl quarantined in a TB sanatorium for 4 years in the 1950s

• 9 mins