{"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":"When Sweden invented the reality game show","slug":"when-sweden-invented-the-reality-game-show","published_at":"2026-05-14T06:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365/when-sweden-invented-the-reality-game-show","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/witness-history-162365","url":"http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct98bb","audio_url":"http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0nfvz67.mp3","summary":"In 1997, Sweden changed television history. That year saw the launch of Expedition Robinson, widely regarded as the world’s first reality-based competitive television programme. The premise was strikingly simple. A group of ordinary people were stranded on a remote island, where they were required to build shelter, compete in challenges and vote one another out — until only one contestant remained. When the final votes were cast, it was Martin Melin who stood alone. In doing so, he became the world’s first reality TV winner — years before the genre would grow into a global entertainment force. The programme’s path to broadcast was far from smooth. It prompted fierce ethical debate in Sweden and came close to being pulled before transmission. Yet once it aired, it became one of the country’s most talked-about and successful television shows. Its format would go on to inspire the international hit Survivor, which marks its 50th US season in 2026. Martin tells Maddy Savage how it felt to be part of a new cultural phenomenon. A Podlit 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…","meta_description":"In 1997, Sweden changed television history. That year saw the launch of Expedition Robinson, widely regarded as the world’s first reality-based competitiv…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":606,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/witness-history-162365/episodes/when-sweden-invented-the-reality-game-show/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/when-sweden-invented-the-reality-game-show.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}