14th November 1957
Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. The annual newsreel looks back at the main events that affected Holland and the world in 1957: scientific …
31st December 1958
Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective, with interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the world in 1958: Queen Elizabeth I and …
31st December 1960
Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. This newsreel-style programme contains interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the …
1st January 1982
This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis second episode on the history of radio propaganda looks at the media wars in the Dutch East Indies, present-day …
2nd January 1982
This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis episode looks at clandestine broadcasting across Africa, illustrated with unique off-air recordings from the …
21st December 1982
This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsBorn in Seoul, South Korea in 1948, Kyung Wha Chung became an internationally renowned violinist. She was a child prodigy, even by the …
9th July 1983
In June 1983, at the height of the international debate on the proposed deployment of Cruise missiles in Europe to counter the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe, a panel …
27th September 1988
The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the world’s greatest concert halls, renowned for its nearly perfect acoustics, and the host to performances by some of the most memorable musicians of …
7th June 1989
This programme is part of the series VIP LoungeVIP Lounge was a series of portraits produced in the late 1980’s of well-known Dutch people who gained international fame for their professional …
26th December 1989
The Edison Award, the annual Dutch distinction for achievement in music, is one of the world’s oldest music awards. First presented in 1960, the Edison goes to musicians and performers in many …
13th April 1990
Born in Bombay, the charismatic and cosmopolitan orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta has had an international career that has spanned the continents and brought together the Western classical music …
6th August 1990
As a young rising star in radio at the BBC, Pete Myers interviewed some of the most memorable people in the entertainment world of his time. He decided in 1972 to keep a record of his impressions of …
9th March 1991
This programme is part of the series Great Balls of FireIn this nine-part radio essay, Pete Myers tells the stories behind the music and the people that created the sounds of the 1950’s. This …
1st January 1992
Music and thoughts about the big events expected in the forthcoming year. In this special edition of Happy Station, Pete Myers looks forward to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, the U.S. …
22nd November 1992
At the start of 1980’s, the Radio Netherlands’ English department led the transition from mainly entertainment shows to high-quality feature programmes. The focus also switched from being …
4th April 1993
Pete Myers takes a look at the voices behind the gorgeous and glamorous actors who could not sing—the ghost singers who sang for stars like Rita Hayworth and Susan Hayward in the golden age of …
5th October 1995
Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
5th October 1995
Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
30th April 1996
The United Nations proclaimed 1996 the international year for the eradication of poverty. The goal was to lift a quarter of the world’s population out of extreme poverty, which, for over one billion …
7th June 1996
The sinking of the luxury ocean liner RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage in 1912 continues to fascinate people. The loss of over 1,500 lives made it one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters in …
5th September 1996
This programme is part of the series The Senses In the first in a five-part series on the senses, we look at one of our most overlooked senses, the sense of smell. And yet it is difficult to …
12th September 1996
This programme is part of the series The SensesThis second part of a “Siren Song” special series looks at our sense of sound. How would we communicate without speech and laughter even in …
19th September 1996
This programme is part of the series The SensesThis third part of a “Siren Song” special series looks at our sense of sight. It is said that eighty percent of our perception comes from …
26th September 1996
This programme is part of the series The SensesWith its inevitable link to food and drink, taste is probably the one sense that links health to pleasure more closely than any of the other senses. …
3rd October 1996
This programme is part of the series The SensesIn this last part of the series on the senses, we discuss one of the most controversial of our senses: touch, the subject of numerous rules and rituals …
28th November 1996
The Battle of the Atlantic, a fierce five-year battle fought in the ocean during World War II, was one of the most intense and violent naval confrontations in history. It is the story of the ships …
20th December 1996
In Western Christian culture, the arrival of a millenium, a one-thousand-year milestone measuring the time since the birth of Jesus Christ, is a date of great psychological significance. This …
27th December 1996
It’s just a number, you might say — the year 2000. And yet, the start of a new millennium has been the focus of great fears of destruction and extinction, on the one hand, and …
9th March 1997
Marking International Women’s Day 1997, Siren Song presenter Dheera Sujan speaks with two leading writers: Marilyn French (1929-2009), whose many thought-provoking books include “The …
6th April 1997
In 1997, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was accused of inflating the number of Rwandan refugees it helped in Zaire, in order to boost donations. In this edition of Wide …
8th July 1997
Roughly every five years, a world summit of contemporary art is held in Kassel, Germany. In 1997, “Documenta”, as this 100-day event is called, was held for the tenth time. Documenta X …
26th September 1997
This is a live UN-organised, one-hour interview with the appointed UN High Commissioner, former Irish President, Mary Robinson. The interviewers come from a range of radio stations, including VOA, …
11th November 1997
Two features in this programme: Michele Ernsting meets three women leaders from very different cultures at a conference of the UNPO, the Unrepresented People’s Organisation. Dheera Sujan …
14th November 1997
Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in a country such as the Netherlands—for centuries the victim of flooding—pollution and population pressures are putting ever greater …
14th November 1997
Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in the a country like the Netherlands, for centuries the victims of flooding, pollution and population pressure are putting ever greater …
14th November 1997
It’s assumed that just about everybody loves babies and wants to have children. That is, of course, a fallacy. So why do some people never have children? Overpopulation, a dislike of children, …
14th November 1997
The United Nations Children’s Fund is an organisation which resonates with hope for our tomorrows but rings with despair for all our yesterdays. Hope because children are our future, despair …
14th November 1997
Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in the a country like the Netherlands, for centuries the victims of flooding, pollution and population pressure are putting ever greater …
14th November 1997
Hemp can be used for rope, textiles, clothing, shoes and insulation; the seed is edible; the oils can be used in cosmetics and even in cancer and AIDS research. In short, hemp is a very useful …
14th November 1997
Schizophrenia hits one in every 100 people around the world – men and women, old and young, rich and poor – yet scientists are still not entirely sure why and how schizophrenia occurs. Is …
15th November 1997
Mention the word plastic nowadays and you immediately envision piles of toxic trash swirling around the oceans and choking the fish and seabirds. But there is also the problem of the loss of valuable …
3rd March 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
11th March 1998
The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly 200 years, from the time it was established in 1602 to …
17th June 1998
Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, colour and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
23rd June 1998
Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, color and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
2nd August 1998
Dheera Sujan meets Oxford don but most of all travel writer and jungle explorer Redmond O’Hanlon and finds out why he undertakes these difficult, uncomfortable and dangerous journeys. Producer: …
25th September 1998
The hunting of whales is a very sensitive environmental issue. Most European countries have harshly condemned the practice, yet it was not so long ago that their own fishing fleets were aggressively …
23rd October 1998
Around the world, women are postponing motherhood, usually in order to take time to study and start their careers. When this programme was made, Dutch women were on average 29 years old when they had …
19th November 1998
David Swatling visits the 11th International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Its “gay” programme featured several impressive films. David meets the maker of “You can’t …
1st January 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st January 1999
In 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each programme, a guest speaker gives us the historical background behind …
1st January 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st February 1999
This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
2nd April 1999
One thousand years ago, an Arab scientist described the amazing magnifying properties of a glass lens. It took another three hundred years before an accurate lens was made, and another three hundred …
23rd July 1999
Rice, often called “the white goddess”, is the staple food of half of the planet’s population. Its history is the history of organised agriculture. It has changed societies, played …
30th July 1999
How did potatoes get to Europe? How did they become so popular? Michele Ernsting answers these questions and many more as she travels from Holland to England, Ireland and the Andes mountains in …
2nd August 1999
Noodles can be made of wheat, buckwheat, rice, potatoes, beans, peas…you name it. Noodles are cheap, convenient and keep almost forever. Jane Murphy explores the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, …
20th August 1999
Smallpox is regarded as one of the most consequential of all the pestilential diseases that have plagued humanity for the past ten thousand years. One in three could die from it during an epidemic, …
26th January 2000
When the young soldiers who had fought in the trenches of World War I returned home after the armistice of 1918, they were no longer boys but men. Many of them traumatised by their experience of the …
20th March 2000
At the Second World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, Saskia van Rhenen speaks to Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander, the chairman of the meeting. They discuss what the Netherlands can offer the …
14th April 2000
Gold is an essential element in the cultures of many lands. In most African and Asian countries, births, marriages and deaths feature gold in the rituals. But just what that price has been in human …
21st April 2000
The legendary Golden Fleece of Greek mythology was the prize for the best men of the times. Since then, there have been many generations of Argonauts who have undertaken journeys to the edges of …
1st June 2000
Radio Netherlands recorded the programming of Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival from its inception in 1970. A wide variety of international poets are heard reading their own work, including …
13th August 2000
Following the success of “Dog Dag Afternoons” in 1988, David Swatling continues his story about the emotional life of canines and the relationship between man and dog. And, of course, we …
1st September 2000
The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. Having said that, this first programme in the series is not about what we eat, but rather what …
8th September 2000
Douchi – fermented black soybeans (© Flickr/Ogiyoshisan) The Sound Fountain series on Food Philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. With the occasional exception …
15th September 2000
The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. In this programme, three women — Sharon, Vicky and Tracy — tell of their phobias and eating …
22nd September 2000
“Meat, morals and murder” is the story of three campaigners: one is a scientist who warns of the effects of what she calls: the dangerous alliance between science and industry. A second …
5th November 2000
After three decades with the United Nations, Dutchman Erick de Mul was about to retire. He began his U.N. career in Venezuela, then moved to Africa, and then back to Latin America and then back …
15th November 2000
Rubber has been crucial to the modern age. The pneumatic tyre made modern car and plane travel possible. The substance has a long history. It’s been known for well over a thousand years, …
2nd December 2000
The Sound Fountain, a weekly documentary program produced by Dheera Sujan and Michele Ernsting, produced four different stories in 2000 about various fences that mark us off from our inner and …
3rd December 2000
From the Sound Fountain, the programme “Erik and Milene”: a story about love. It’s about a boy meeting and getting his girl. All set to live happily ever after when suddenly disaster …
9th December 2000
When this programme was made in 2000, the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the global eradication of the dreaded smallpox disease. Encouraged by this tremendous achievement, a global campaign …
10th December 2000
What happens when you do something that makes society decide to fence you off completely from the rest of the world? When you live 23 hours a day inside a tiny cell with no human contact? When you …
29th December 2000
For well over a thousand years, the saints have been held up as examples for Catholics around the world. Though the Church sets the standards for sainthood, the choice of saints is often dependent on …
16th March 2001
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, talks to Ginger da Silva about her career, from Peace Corps worker in the earlier 1960’s, to lawyer, politician and now head of UNICEF. She also …
18th March 2001
Home is where the heart is. What if your heart lies somewhere in a territory just beyond your reach? What if you are an exile, an immigrant, a refugee? What if your parents’ home was not yours? …
25th March 2001
Our guests in this programme are from many different backgrounds and countries: Iraq, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Australia and Surinam. They all live in the Netherlands, and they have different answers …
6th April 2001
We all feel the need to belong, but what is it that shapes our sense of belonging? What happens when we’re transplanted to new cultures where we form new roots? Can we long for a home we know …
5th May 2001
In 1999 and 2000, Peter van Walsum (1934-2019) served as the Dutch ambassador to the United Nations, at a time when the Netherlands had a seat on the Security Council. Much of the interview focuses …
23rd July 2001
Dr. Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia is a professor of HIV/AIDS Research at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. He chaired the 13th …
4th October 2001
Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, an addiction, with a complex chemical composition and a dramatic history. Montezuma, the Aztec king, is said to have drunk it to gain the strength to satisfy his many …
4th October 2001
The history of chili is fascinating. Traced back to 7000 BC in South America, the chili comes in dozens of different shapes, sizes, colours and degrees of hotness. There are cults of chili eaters, …
7th October 2001
After September 11, 2001, security became a major issue. But how far should security measures go and will they really protect us? How much loss of personal freedom is acceptable? Laura Durnford has …
23rd October 2001
What is the shape and size of the Earth and of the cosmos containing it? For thousands of years, man has tried to map the world accurately. For a long time, no effective means existed for determining …
5th April 2002
According to psychologists, one out of three people are likely to develop a fear of flying, most likely during particularly stressful periods of their lives. Flying phobia is often an expression of …
28th April 2002
More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, the only remaining superpower once again seems to be contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. Ann Marie Michel looks at the strong anti-nuclear …
13th May 2002
The 2002 Arctic Science Summit Week was held recently at the University of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. The main focus of the summit: the interaction between the Arctic and the …
20th July 2002
This programme is part of the series Research FileWhen the 14th AIDS Conference was held in Barcelona, the battle against HIV was in what was described as the “good-wish-list” phase. …
5th September 2002
For centuries, European explorers sought a westward route to Asia, a short-cut which would guarantee untold riches for their patrons. The Northwest Passage became a deadly obsession, and from the …
19th September 2002
When this programme was recorded in 2002, there were 1.7 million known species. Scientists estimate that there are an additional 20 to 100 million species that have not yet been described. 90% of all …
20th October 2002
Speakers: Dr. Piet Smolders: Dutch space expert and former director of the Artis Planetarium, Amsterdam, Netherlands Artemis Westenberg & Jim Volp: Spokespersons for the Lunar Explorer Society …
1st November 2002
This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
3rd November 2002
Dragons appear in mythology in all parts of the world. In the Far East, dragons tend to be benevolent and intelligent. In the West, they tend to be symbols of an evil force. David Swatling …
26th January 2003
This edition of Sound Fountain is one of a series called “stigma” on various forms of mental phenomena that we tend not to speak about often or candidly. One such mental quirk, …
31st January 2003
This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
23rd February 2003
What happens to a person who has an out of body experience? People who have had a near death experience often describe floating above the operating table, for example, or moving towards a brilliant …
24th February 2003
“War of words” was a five-part series in the weekly Sound Fountain programme about information in times of conflict. Some of the world’s leading experts in the field of communications and peace …
20th March 2003
Dam Busting: How? Why? Who Benefits? Thijs Westerbeek with Dr. Jack Schroeder, University of Nebraska, Omaka; Dr. Michelle Marvier, Santa Clara University, California; Dr. Peter Kareeva, United …
25th April 2003
An Israeli woman tracks down the man who shot her in a terrorist attack 23 years ago and works for his release from prison. A young Polish woman travels to Algeria to look for terrorists and falls in …
30th May 2003
“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real”: Jules Verne probably never imagined how right he was when he wrote those words. At the start of the last century, the notion of a …
6th June 2003
50 years ago, few people understood the threat posed by a nuclear arms race. The destructive power of these new weapons was simply beyond the comprehension of most people. But one man – the British …
3rd October 2003
Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival 2003 had a special programme to highlight minority languages, such as Welsh, Mayan, Corsican and Livonian. This programme features interviews with the Welsh …
15th December 2003
December 17, 2003 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of aviation, when Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights in their first powered aircraft. This special edition of the Research …
1st January 2004
This musical journey through the centuries and across world cultures takes us to the Middle East, Japan, India, China and 16th-century Europe. Guest musicians introduce us to string …
2nd January 2004
Blonde is the chosen colour of princesses and prime ministers. It’s the sexy look of Marilyn and the woman in power makeover of Hilary. It’s been the colour of choice of harlots through the ages, of …
19th March 2004
Fifty years ago at the age of twenty-five, Bernard Duncan Mayes (1929-2014) entered a Yorkshire monastery to become an Anglican priest. However, his life would take many twists and turns. He became a …
21st April 2004
A group of women talk of their experiences with a rare condition: intersexuality. They are women who have the male XY chromosome. One was forcibly raised as a boy. One only found out about her …
4th May 2004
What happens when you set up a court without a judge or a real prosecution or a proper defence or even an actual jury? What happens when you fill that room instead with concerned citizens? Some might …
6th May 2004
Climate change inevitably affects the life cycles of plants and animals. In this special award-winning edition of the Research File, reporter Daniel Grossman explains the science of observing how …
1st June 2004
“Throughout the history of warfare technology changes rapidly. A revolution in technology can occur in the space of 20 odd years, but the human emotions of those involved in a battle remain the …
13th August 2004
Sun, fun and snorkeling among the beauties of the sea is what we would like to associate with coral reefs. But disease, bleaching and unsustainable fishing practices are destroying the Earth’s …
27th September 2004
Swans have inspired some of the world’s most beautiful music, poetry and legends. Many people from saints to kings have been identified with swans, like the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova …
29th September 2004
Anne Blair Gould asks what biodiversity is and why it’s important to stop the loss of biological diversity (animals, plants, fungi, bacteria). Scientists estimate that species are now going …
1st January 2005
Why do people play board games? Who invents them? What makes a game so good it is played for thousands of years, while others flop? In this programme, we meet Paul Clark, who has just launched his …
1st February 2005
Although this programme was made in 2005, as part of a Radio Netherlands’ theme month on aging, the basic facts have not changed: the world is “getting older” because we are living …
2nd May 2005
For centuries, we have been obsessed with creating machines just like us. In this programme, we look at how our expectations of machines has changed over the years. Do we want robots to be our slaves …
22nd May 2005
The International Criminal Court began its work in 2002, having been granted the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war …
30th July 2005
The detonation of an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 marked the start of a deadly new race for military supremacy. The blast in Hiroshima, Japan was the largest the world had ever seen and was …
11th September 2005
New York author Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is part of a wave of what has been dubbed “post-9/11 fiction”. But some critics say not enough time has passed to …
27th September 2005
In 2005, the United Nations held an emergency to announce the startling fact that within the next 30 years, the world’s great apes will ALL be extinct. In other words, by 2035, there will be no …
2nd February 2006
During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty played a crucial role in the struggle against communism. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, they needed a new purpose. In the wake of …
29th March 2006
We called the First World War the “war to end all wars”, but even considering the monstrous killing that invariably followed and continues to this day, there are some who believe, …
6th December 2006
The term “failed state” first emerged in the 1990’s. Today it is being used more and more frequently by diplomats, policymakers, charities and the media when they refer to countries such as …
10th September 2007
Retired Major-General Patrick Cammaert of the Royal Dutch Marines is one of the world’s most experienced and distinguished professional peacekeepers. He was appointed In December 2018 to …
29th June 2008
Language is the greatest tool of communication we have and it brings people together. So why is it that such a precious and essential tool is often at the heart of ethnic conflict and injustice, even …
28th December 2008
This edition of The State We’re, a weekly programme on “human rights, human wrongs and how we treat each other”, features the right to silence, the right to sex and a conversation with the author of …
5th January 2012
Earth Beat, a.k.a. “clean green radio”, was a weekly programme about our impact on the planet and its impact on us. There’s probably no human activity more destructive to …
14th November 1957Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. The annual newsreel looks back at the main events that affected Holland and the world in 1957: scientific …
31st December 1960Good old-fashioned radio roundup of the year’s main events from the Dutch perspective. This newsreel-style programme contains interesting little facts and sound bites about Holland and the …
1st January 1982This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis second episode on the history of radio propaganda looks at the media wars in the Dutch East Indies, present-day …
2nd January 1982This programme is part of the series Media Wars: Radio Propaganda Past and PresentThis episode looks at clandestine broadcasting across Africa, illustrated with unique off-air recordings from the …
21st December 1982This programme is part of the series Pete Myers' interviewsBorn in Seoul, South Korea in 1948, Kyung Wha Chung became an internationally renowned violinist. She was a child prodigy, even by the …
9th July 1983In June 1983, at the height of the international debate on the proposed deployment of Cruise missiles in Europe to counter the deployment of Soviet SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe, a panel …
27th September 1988The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the world’s greatest concert halls, renowned for its nearly perfect acoustics, and the host to performances by some of the most memorable musicians of …
7th June 1989This programme is part of the series VIP LoungeVIP Lounge was a series of portraits produced in the late 1980’s of well-known Dutch people who gained international fame for their professional …
26th December 1989The Edison Award, the annual Dutch distinction for achievement in music, is one of the world’s oldest music awards. First presented in 1960, the Edison goes to musicians and performers in many …
13th April 1990Born in Bombay, the charismatic and cosmopolitan orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta has had an international career that has spanned the continents and brought together the Western classical music …
6th August 1990As a young rising star in radio at the BBC, Pete Myers interviewed some of the most memorable people in the entertainment world of his time. He decided in 1972 to keep a record of his impressions of …
9th March 1991This programme is part of the series Great Balls of FireIn this nine-part radio essay, Pete Myers tells the stories behind the music and the people that created the sounds of the 1950’s. This …
1st January 1992Music and thoughts about the big events expected in the forthcoming year. In this special edition of Happy Station, Pete Myers looks forward to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, the U.S. …
22nd November 1992At the start of 1980’s, the Radio Netherlands’ English department led the transition from mainly entertainment shows to high-quality feature programmes. The focus also switched from being …
4th April 1993Pete Myers takes a look at the voices behind the gorgeous and glamorous actors who could not sing—the ghost singers who sang for stars like Rita Hayworth and Susan Hayward in the golden age of …
5th October 1995Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
5th October 1995Everyone now knows the facts. And the facts keep coming: mass production and consumption of meat and dairy products cannot be sustained. Meat is not a viable global source of nutrition or income, …
30th April 1996The United Nations proclaimed 1996 the international year for the eradication of poverty. The goal was to lift a quarter of the world’s population out of extreme poverty, which, for over one billion …
7th June 1996The sinking of the luxury ocean liner RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage in 1912 continues to fascinate people. The loss of over 1,500 lives made it one of the greatest peacetime maritime disasters in …
5th September 1996This programme is part of the series The Senses In the first in a five-part series on the senses, we look at one of our most overlooked senses, the sense of smell. And yet it is difficult to …
12th September 1996This programme is part of the series The SensesThis second part of a “Siren Song” special series looks at our sense of sound. How would we communicate without speech and laughter even in …
26th September 1996This programme is part of the series The SensesWith its inevitable link to food and drink, taste is probably the one sense that links health to pleasure more closely than any of the other senses. …
3rd October 1996This programme is part of the series The SensesIn this last part of the series on the senses, we discuss one of the most controversial of our senses: touch, the subject of numerous rules and rituals …
28th November 1996The Battle of the Atlantic, a fierce five-year battle fought in the ocean during World War II, was one of the most intense and violent naval confrontations in history. It is the story of the ships …
20th December 1996In Western Christian culture, the arrival of a millenium, a one-thousand-year milestone measuring the time since the birth of Jesus Christ, is a date of great psychological significance. This …
27th December 1996It’s just a number, you might say — the year 2000. And yet, the start of a new millennium has been the focus of great fears of destruction and extinction, on the one hand, and …
9th March 1997Marking International Women’s Day 1997, Siren Song presenter Dheera Sujan speaks with two leading writers: Marilyn French (1929-2009), whose many thought-provoking books include “The …
6th April 1997In 1997, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was accused of inflating the number of Rwandan refugees it helped in Zaire, in order to boost donations. In this edition of Wide …
8th July 1997Roughly every five years, a world summit of contemporary art is held in Kassel, Germany. In 1997, “Documenta”, as this 100-day event is called, was held for the tenth time. Documenta X …
26th September 1997This is a live UN-organised, one-hour interview with the appointed UN High Commissioner, former Irish President, Mary Robinson. The interviewers come from a range of radio stations, including VOA, …
11th November 1997Two features in this programme: Michele Ernsting meets three women leaders from very different cultures at a conference of the UNPO, the Unrepresented People’s Organisation. Dheera Sujan …
14th November 1997Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in a country such as the Netherlands—for centuries the victim of flooding—pollution and population pressures are putting ever greater …
14th November 1997Water resources are getting scarcer all around the world. Even in the a country like the Netherlands, for centuries the victims of flooding, pollution and population pressure are putting ever greater …
14th November 1997It’s assumed that just about everybody loves babies and wants to have children. That is, of course, a fallacy. So why do some people never have children? Overpopulation, a dislike of children, …
14th November 1997The United Nations Children’s Fund is an organisation which resonates with hope for our tomorrows but rings with despair for all our yesterdays. Hope because children are our future, despair …
14th November 1997Hemp can be used for rope, textiles, clothing, shoes and insulation; the seed is edible; the oils can be used in cosmetics and even in cancer and AIDS research. In short, hemp is a very useful …
14th November 1997Schizophrenia hits one in every 100 people around the world – men and women, old and young, rich and poor – yet scientists are still not entirely sure why and how schizophrenia occurs. Is …
15th November 1997Mention the word plastic nowadays and you immediately envision piles of toxic trash swirling around the oceans and choking the fish and seabirds. But there is also the problem of the loss of valuable …
3rd March 1998The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly two hundred years, from the time it was established in …
11th March 1998The VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company was the world’s first multinational commercial empire. For nearly 200 years, from the time it was established in 1602 to …
17th June 1998Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, colour and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
23rd June 1998Experts traditionally judge the quality of a finished diamond by four criteria: cut, clarity, color and carat. But there is a dark side to the story of this brilliant, beautiful stone—the hardest …
2nd August 1998Dheera Sujan meets Oxford don but most of all travel writer and jungle explorer Redmond O’Hanlon and finds out why he undertakes these difficult, uncomfortable and dangerous journeys. Producer: …
25th September 1998The hunting of whales is a very sensitive environmental issue. Most European countries have harshly condemned the practice, yet it was not so long ago that their own fishing fleets were aggressively …
23rd October 1998Around the world, women are postponing motherhood, usually in order to take time to study and start their careers. When this programme was made, Dutch women were on average 29 years old when they had …
19th November 1998David Swatling visits the 11th International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Its “gay” programme featured several impressive films. David meets the maker of “You can’t …
1st January 1999This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st January 1999In 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each programme, a guest speaker gives us the historical background behind …
1st January 1999This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
1st February 1999This programme is part of the series Stories of Our CenturyIn 1999, Radio Netherlands broadcast a series of 12 programmes telling the story of the 20th century through famous books. In each …
2nd April 1999One thousand years ago, an Arab scientist described the amazing magnifying properties of a glass lens. It took another three hundred years before an accurate lens was made, and another three hundred …
23rd July 1999Rice, often called “the white goddess”, is the staple food of half of the planet’s population. Its history is the history of organised agriculture. It has changed societies, played …
30th July 1999How did potatoes get to Europe? How did they become so popular? Michele Ernsting answers these questions and many more as she travels from Holland to England, Ireland and the Andes mountains in …
2nd August 1999Noodles can be made of wheat, buckwheat, rice, potatoes, beans, peas…you name it. Noodles are cheap, convenient and keep almost forever. Jane Murphy explores the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, …
20th August 1999Smallpox is regarded as one of the most consequential of all the pestilential diseases that have plagued humanity for the past ten thousand years. One in three could die from it during an epidemic, …
20th March 2000At the Second World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, Saskia van Rhenen speaks to Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander, the chairman of the meeting. They discuss what the Netherlands can offer the …
14th April 2000Gold is an essential element in the cultures of many lands. In most African and Asian countries, births, marriages and deaths feature gold in the rituals. But just what that price has been in human …
21st April 2000The legendary Golden Fleece of Greek mythology was the prize for the best men of the times. Since then, there have been many generations of Argonauts who have undertaken journeys to the edges of …
13th August 2000Following the success of “Dog Dag Afternoons” in 1988, David Swatling continues his story about the emotional life of canines and the relationship between man and dog. And, of course, we …
1st September 2000The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. Having said that, this first programme in the series is not about what we eat, but rather what …
8th September 2000Douchi – fermented black soybeans (© Flickr/Ogiyoshisan) The Sound Fountain series on Food Philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. With the occasional exception …
15th September 2000The Sound Fountain series on food philosophies examines our attitudes to our food and our bodies. In this programme, three women — Sharon, Vicky and Tracy — tell of their phobias and eating …
22nd September 2000“Meat, morals and murder” is the story of three campaigners: one is a scientist who warns of the effects of what she calls: the dangerous alliance between science and industry. A second …
5th November 2000After three decades with the United Nations, Dutchman Erick de Mul was about to retire. He began his U.N. career in Venezuela, then moved to Africa, and then back to Latin America and then back …
15th November 2000Rubber has been crucial to the modern age. The pneumatic tyre made modern car and plane travel possible. The substance has a long history. It’s been known for well over a thousand years, …
2nd December 2000The Sound Fountain, a weekly documentary program produced by Dheera Sujan and Michele Ernsting, produced four different stories in 2000 about various fences that mark us off from our inner and …
3rd December 2000From the Sound Fountain, the programme “Erik and Milene”: a story about love. It’s about a boy meeting and getting his girl. All set to live happily ever after when suddenly disaster …
9th December 2000When this programme was made in 2000, the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of the global eradication of the dreaded smallpox disease. Encouraged by this tremendous achievement, a global campaign …
10th December 2000What happens when you do something that makes society decide to fence you off completely from the rest of the world? When you live 23 hours a day inside a tiny cell with no human contact? When you …
29th December 2000For well over a thousand years, the saints have been held up as examples for Catholics around the world. Though the Church sets the standards for sainthood, the choice of saints is often dependent on …
16th March 2001Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, talks to Ginger da Silva about her career, from Peace Corps worker in the earlier 1960’s, to lawyer, politician and now head of UNICEF. She also …
18th March 2001Home is where the heart is. What if your heart lies somewhere in a territory just beyond your reach? What if you are an exile, an immigrant, a refugee? What if your parents’ home was not yours? …
25th March 2001Our guests in this programme are from many different backgrounds and countries: Iraq, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Australia and Surinam. They all live in the Netherlands, and they have different answers …
6th April 2001We all feel the need to belong, but what is it that shapes our sense of belonging? What happens when we’re transplanted to new cultures where we form new roots? Can we long for a home we know …
5th May 2001In 1999 and 2000, Peter van Walsum (1934-2019) served as the Dutch ambassador to the United Nations, at a time when the Netherlands had a seat on the Security Council. Much of the interview focuses …
23rd July 2001Dr. Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia is a professor of HIV/AIDS Research at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. He chaired the 13th …
4th October 2001Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, an addiction, with a complex chemical composition and a dramatic history. Montezuma, the Aztec king, is said to have drunk it to gain the strength to satisfy his many …
4th October 2001The history of chili is fascinating. Traced back to 7000 BC in South America, the chili comes in dozens of different shapes, sizes, colours and degrees of hotness. There are cults of chili eaters, …
7th October 2001After September 11, 2001, security became a major issue. But how far should security measures go and will they really protect us? How much loss of personal freedom is acceptable? Laura Durnford has …
23rd October 2001What is the shape and size of the Earth and of the cosmos containing it? For thousands of years, man has tried to map the world accurately. For a long time, no effective means existed for determining …
28th April 2002More than a decade after the end of the Cold War, the only remaining superpower once again seems to be contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. Ann Marie Michel looks at the strong anti-nuclear …
13th May 2002The 2002 Arctic Science Summit Week was held recently at the University of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. The main focus of the summit: the interaction between the Arctic and the …
20th July 2002This programme is part of the series Research FileWhen the 14th AIDS Conference was held in Barcelona, the battle against HIV was in what was described as the “good-wish-list” phase. …
5th September 2002For centuries, European explorers sought a westward route to Asia, a short-cut which would guarantee untold riches for their patrons. The Northwest Passage became a deadly obsession, and from the …
19th September 2002When this programme was recorded in 2002, there were 1.7 million known species. Scientists estimate that there are an additional 20 to 100 million species that have not yet been described. 90% of all …
20th October 2002Speakers: Dr. Piet Smolders: Dutch space expert and former director of the Artis Planetarium, Amsterdam, Netherlands Artemis Westenberg & Jim Volp: Spokespersons for the Lunar Explorer Society …
1st November 2002This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
3rd November 2002Dragons appear in mythology in all parts of the world. In the Far East, dragons tend to be benevolent and intelligent. In the West, they tend to be symbols of an evil force. David Swatling …
26th January 2003This edition of Sound Fountain is one of a series called “stigma” on various forms of mental phenomena that we tend not to speak about often or candidly. One such mental quirk, …
31st January 2003This programme is part of the series Rivers of the WorldRivers are the cradle of the world’s earliest civilisations. Mythology and religion were born on their banks. They provide us with life-giving …
23rd February 2003What happens to a person who has an out of body experience? People who have had a near death experience often describe floating above the operating table, for example, or moving towards a brilliant …
24th February 2003“War of words” was a five-part series in the weekly Sound Fountain programme about information in times of conflict. Some of the world’s leading experts in the field of communications and peace …
20th March 2003Dam Busting: How? Why? Who Benefits? Thijs Westerbeek with Dr. Jack Schroeder, University of Nebraska, Omaka; Dr. Michelle Marvier, Santa Clara University, California; Dr. Peter Kareeva, United …
25th April 2003An Israeli woman tracks down the man who shot her in a terrorist attack 23 years ago and works for his release from prison. A young Polish woman travels to Algeria to look for terrorists and falls in …
30th May 2003“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real”: Jules Verne probably never imagined how right he was when he wrote those words. At the start of the last century, the notion of a …
3rd October 2003Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival 2003 had a special programme to highlight minority languages, such as Welsh, Mayan, Corsican and Livonian. This programme features interviews with the Welsh …
15th December 2003December 17, 2003 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of aviation, when Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights in their first powered aircraft. This special edition of the Research …
1st January 2004This musical journey through the centuries and across world cultures takes us to the Middle East, Japan, India, China and 16th-century Europe. Guest musicians introduce us to string …
2nd January 2004Blonde is the chosen colour of princesses and prime ministers. It’s the sexy look of Marilyn and the woman in power makeover of Hilary. It’s been the colour of choice of harlots through the ages, of …
19th March 2004Fifty years ago at the age of twenty-five, Bernard Duncan Mayes (1929-2014) entered a Yorkshire monastery to become an Anglican priest. However, his life would take many twists and turns. He became a …
21st April 2004A group of women talk of their experiences with a rare condition: intersexuality. They are women who have the male XY chromosome. One was forcibly raised as a boy. One only found out about her …
4th May 2004What happens when you set up a court without a judge or a real prosecution or a proper defence or even an actual jury? What happens when you fill that room instead with concerned citizens? Some might …
6th May 2004Climate change inevitably affects the life cycles of plants and animals. In this special award-winning edition of the Research File, reporter Daniel Grossman explains the science of observing how …
1st June 2004“Throughout the history of warfare technology changes rapidly. A revolution in technology can occur in the space of 20 odd years, but the human emotions of those involved in a battle remain the …
13th August 2004Sun, fun and snorkeling among the beauties of the sea is what we would like to associate with coral reefs. But disease, bleaching and unsustainable fishing practices are destroying the Earth’s …
27th September 2004Swans have inspired some of the world’s most beautiful music, poetry and legends. Many people from saints to kings have been identified with swans, like the Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova …
29th September 2004Anne Blair Gould asks what biodiversity is and why it’s important to stop the loss of biological diversity (animals, plants, fungi, bacteria). Scientists estimate that species are now going …
1st January 2005Why do people play board games? Who invents them? What makes a game so good it is played for thousands of years, while others flop? In this programme, we meet Paul Clark, who has just launched his …
1st February 2005Although this programme was made in 2005, as part of a Radio Netherlands’ theme month on aging, the basic facts have not changed: the world is “getting older” because we are living …
2nd May 2005For centuries, we have been obsessed with creating machines just like us. In this programme, we look at how our expectations of machines has changed over the years. Do we want robots to be our slaves …
22nd May 2005The International Criminal Court began its work in 2002, having been granted the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war …
30th July 2005The detonation of an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 marked the start of a deadly new race for military supremacy. The blast in Hiroshima, Japan was the largest the world had ever seen and was …
11th September 2005New York author Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is part of a wave of what has been dubbed “post-9/11 fiction”. But some critics say not enough time has passed to …
27th September 2005In 2005, the United Nations held an emergency to announce the startling fact that within the next 30 years, the world’s great apes will ALL be extinct. In other words, by 2035, there will be no …
2nd February 2006During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty played a crucial role in the struggle against communism. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, they needed a new purpose. In the wake of …
29th March 2006We called the First World War the “war to end all wars”, but even considering the monstrous killing that invariably followed and continues to this day, there are some who believe, …
6th December 2006The term “failed state” first emerged in the 1990’s. Today it is being used more and more frequently by diplomats, policymakers, charities and the media when they refer to countries such as …
10th September 2007Retired Major-General Patrick Cammaert of the Royal Dutch Marines is one of the world’s most experienced and distinguished professional peacekeepers. He was appointed In December 2018 to …
29th June 2008Language is the greatest tool of communication we have and it brings people together. So why is it that such a precious and essential tool is often at the heart of ethnic conflict and injustice, even …
28th December 2008This edition of The State We’re, a weekly programme on “human rights, human wrongs and how we treat each other”, features the right to silence, the right to sex and a conversation with the author of …
5th January 2012Earth Beat, a.k.a. “clean green radio”, was a weekly programme about our impact on the planet and its impact on us. There’s probably no human activity more destructive to …