{"podcast":{"title":"Cold War Conversations - \"vivid & compelling\" The NY Times","slug":"cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119","podcast_index_feed_id":1014119,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NSR5326520675","website_url":"http://www.coldwarconversations.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/4c941332-cd54-11ed-891b-5f881caae663/image/da8be3ef2859660cc8ab746c9a7dd7ed.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Ian Sanders","episode_count":460,"summary":"Experience the Cold War like never before with Cold War Conversations — an award-winning podcast recommended by The New York Times. Each week, host Ian Sanders brings you raw, firsthand accounts from the people who lived through one of history’s most tense and transformative eras — soldiers, spies, civilians, and more. These aren’t stories from textbooks. They’re unfiltered voices from the frontlines of history — emotional, gripping, and deeply human. This is Cold War history, told from the inside out. We cover subjects such as spies, spying, the Iron Curtain, nuclear weapons, warfare, tanks, jet aircraft, fighters, bombers, transport aircraft, aviation, culture, and politics. We also cover personalities such as Fidel Castro, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Konstantin Chernenko, Margaret Thatcher, John F. Kennedy, Josef Stalin, Richard Nixon, Lech Walesa, General Jaruzelski, Nicolae Ceaușescu. Other subjects include Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, West Berlin, East Berlin, Cuban missile Crisis, Berlin Airlift, Bay of Pigs, SALT, Perestroika, Space Race, superpower, USSR, Soviet Union, DDR, G…","last_synced_at":"2026-06-13T22:20:29.243580+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119"},"episode":{"title":"From East Berlin to West Ireland (452)","slug":"from-east-berlin-to-west-ireland-452","published_at":"2026-04-17T23:35:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119/from-east-berlin-to-west-ireland-452","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119","url":"https://coldwarconversations.com/episode452","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR2645713677.mp3?updated=1776460457","summary":"Juli begins by recounting her early years in East Berlin, a time marked by the tragic loss of her father. Drafted into the army just days before her birth, her father continually deserted to see his family, ultimately leading to his untimely death. This early loss left Juli and her mother to navigate a harsh landscape in East Germany alone. Life in East Berlin was a world of contrasts. Juli describes the indoctrination she experienced in school, where lessons were steeped in socialist propaganda. The Berlin Wall, a symbol of division and oppression, loomed large in her family’s life, cutting them off from relatives in the West. Despite the regime’s efforts to control information, Juli’s family found ways to glimpse the outside world through Western television channels, fuelling her desire for freedom. As Juli grew older, she became increasingly aware of the regime’s lies and the oppressive nature of the state. The revolutionary movements of the late 1980s, sparked by events like the Tiananmen Square massacre, galvanised her. Juli joined the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, risking her safety to demand change. Juli’s story doesn’t end with the fall of the Wall. She moved to Ireland, where she built a new life and family. She speaks candidly about the challenges of adapting to a new way of life and the lingering impact of her upbringing. Due to some last-minute production problems, this episode is a repeat of a brilliant episode from 18 months ago. It’s well worth hearing again! Episode extras here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode452 Go to ⁠⁠⁠https://surfshark.com/coldwardeal⁠⁠⁠ or use code COLDWARDEAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation, You’ll become part of our community, get ad-f…","meta_description":"Juli begins by recounting her early years in East Berlin, a time marked by the tragic loss of her father. Drafted into the army just days before her birth…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5649,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119/episodes/from-east-berlin-to-west-ireland-452/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/cold-war-conversations-vivid-compelling-the-ny-times-1014119/from-east-berlin-to-west-ireland-452.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}