{"podcast":{"title":"Witness History","slug":"witness-history-162365","podcast_index_feed_id":162365,"rss_url":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p004t1hd.rss","website_url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004t1hd","image_url":"http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/3000x3000/p0kt82ds.jpg","author":"BBC","episode_count":2000,"summary":"Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories. When you subscribe to Witness History, you’ll be taken inside turning points in world affairs, from West Africa’s fight back against Boko Haram in 2015, to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations. You’ll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. You’ll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden’s Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles’ George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy’s show to a sudden…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-01T16:20:02.831337+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365"},"episode":{"title":"Uncovering a lost burial ground in Rio","slug":"uncovering-a-lost-burial-ground-in-rio","published_at":"2026-05-13T06:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365/uncovering-a-lost-burial-ground-in-rio","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct9882","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0nfpz6b.mp3","summary":"In 1996, the bricklayer renovating Merced dos Anjos’ home in Rio de Janeiro told her something strange had happened. Bones appeared as he was breaking ground. As she inspected the site, she found they were human. But why so many bones? Was it the work of a serial killer? The answer was more macabre. They had unearthed an ancient cemetery. The discovery shed light on the brutal history of Brazil’s slavery past – and Rio’s role as the biggest slavery port in the Americas. The neighbouring Valongo Wharf, today a World Heritage Site, received roughly one million African captives by 1831. Many were too weak after the transatlantic crossing and died soon after arriving. They were buried in the so-called New Blacks Cemetery. Merced dos Anjos tells Julia Carneiro how the discovery upended her life and led her to create a research centre to shed light on Rio's painful past. An Overcoat Media production. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a s…","meta_description":"In 1996, the bricklayer renovating Merced dos Anjos’ home in Rio de Janeiro told her something strange had happened. Bones appeared as he was breaking gro…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":568,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/witness-history-162365/episodes/uncovering-a-lost-burial-ground-in-rio/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365/uncovering-a-lost-burial-ground-in-rio.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}