#318 | A Job From Hell | Slaves in Ancient Ro...

In 2016, a 21-year-old American student was arrested in North Korea after allegedly stealing a political poster. Weeks later, he appeared in a strange public confession and was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labour. Seventeen months on, he returned home in a coma, raising dis ...  Show more

From The Vault 🔐 — normally a member-only episode, unlocked this month for everyone.--In 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed high in the Andes. Stranded in freezing mountains, the young survivors faced hunger, avalanches, and a terrible moral choice. It would b ...  Show more

In the mid-17th Century, Britain dominated the Slave Trade, shipping over 3 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. Conditions on board slave ships were inhumane, and large numbers of enslaved men, women, and children died en-route. However, during the 18th and early 19th ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role of slavery in the Roman world, from its early conquests to the fall of the Western Empire. The system became so entrenched that no-one appeared to question it, following Aristotle's view that slavery was a natural state. Whole populations ...  Show more

Under a loophole of Muslim law, a sultan could take one-fifth of the spoils of war, including slaves. Learn how the sultan began a slave army -- and why would someone would want to be a soldier-slave -- in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

Slavery may have been abolished in 1838, but its legacy lives on in Britain today. A lot of the nation benefited financially from the trade, none more so than the slaveholders who were compensated during abolition. Today, William and Anita are joined by Alex Renton, whose family ...  Show more