Podcast Classics

UN leaders have been paying tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.  The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, anti-apartheid crusader and human rights activist died on Sunday.

This audio from the UN News archives features Archbishop Tutu speaking before the Special Political Committee in October 1985, where he denounced the apartheid regime in his homeland.

Photo credit: UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
Audio credit: UN Audiovisual Library

Podcast Classics: Desmond Tutu Addresses Special Political Committee in October 1985

Raphael Lemkin is hardly a household name these days, but back in the 1940s he became the driving force behind what would become The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

An American of Polish-Jewish descent, Lemkin coined the term genocide, after dedicating his life to pursuing the international legal means to end the barbarity of mass extermination.

One the eve of the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda, April 7, we have reached into the archives of UN Radio, to bring you this podcast – before the term was even invented – from 1958, on Lemkin, and his extraordinary achievement.

Please listen to the first "podcast classic" episode, from "The Lid is On".

Music credit: Una Reverencia a Bach, by Musick's Recreation, Milena Cord-to-Krax: Gavotte (BVW995)

Duration: 16’00″

"The Lid is On" - UN Radio Podcast classic: "The man who defined genocide"

1959, Hollywood stars Gregory Peck and Doris Day were at the height of their careers.

But thanks to the former First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, - a delegate to the first ever UN General Assembly session in 1946 - that was the year they took part in what was arguably the most star-studded show ever produced by UN Radio.

“Life Begins At Ten”, tells the story of the last great European refugee crisis - before today’s era of epic life-and-death struggles on the part of refugees and migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.

Europe was still recovering from the devastation of World War and the Hungarian uprising against Soviet communist control that saw the so-called Iron Curtain firmly divide east from west.

Volker Türk, the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, tells us he’s “touched by the humanity” of this latest podcast classic, for UN News, from our series,”The Lid Is On”.

“Waiting without knowing what the future will hold, is unfortunately still today a huge experience that refugees face”, especially in protracted conflicts, says Mr Turk.

Duration: 28’10”

"The Lid is On" - Podcast classic: Hollywood helps highlight Europe’s 20th Century refugee crisis

In this latest edition of our Podcast Classics series, we’re going to be connecting the dots between Ancient Greece, rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and the boxer the world knows, simply, as “the greatest”: Muhammad Ali.

With the Winter Olympics due to begin on 9 February in South Korea, the world is holding its breath to see if the decision for both North and South to march under a united flag at the opening ceremony, can translate into real negotiation over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

One legendary sporting figure and former Olympic gold medallist who devoted much of his life to unity and social justice under the UN banner, is three-time world champion Muhammad Ali, who came to the UN back in 1979 to talk to journalists about pretty much everything under the sun.

Matt Wells has also been talking to the head of the Olympic Truce Centre and asking him what the value really is of sporting role models like Ali, to the world at large in times of conflict and strife.

Duration: 27’43”

The archive of Muhammad Ali comes from the UN Audiovisual Library (http://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/). Sample the full range of historic audio at unmultimedia.org/classics.

Music:
Penny the Snitch, by Ikebe Shakedown (Creative Commons licence).
State of Mind, by Audiobinger (Attribution-NonCommercial licence).

Photo credits: World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali met with correspondents following the presentation of his own painting of the United Nations to then Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim in 1979. Credit: UN Photo/Milton Grant

Podcast classic: Ancient Greece meets “the greatest” — Muhammad Ali and peace through sport

To mark World Radio Day, celebrated on 13 February, UN News has reached back into our audio archives to a classic collaboration between UN Radio and the great broadcaster Edward R Murrow.

The voice of World War Two for millions of Americans, Murrow put his talents at the disposal of the UN in 1948, to produce a searing and moving radio documentary on the plight of Europe’s children.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) came into being two years earlier, to combat famine and disease across the war-torn landscape of the shattered continent.

The radio documentary focuses on the testimony and suffering of children themselves, in their own words, with eerie resonance for the children caught up in today’s long-running conflicts, such as Syria and Yemen.

Duration: 29’52”

Music credits:

Chopin: Waltz in A Minor Op 34 No 2, by Nico de Napoli

The Old Country, by Stephan Siebert

“Between the Dark and the Daylight” came from the UN Audiovisual Library. Sample the full range of historic audio at unmultimedia.org/classics.

Audio Credit: Victor Evans-Harvey, UN News
Audio Duration: 28'11"

Photo: Some of the officers of the UN Radio Service in 1960 with signs indicating the languages in which they broadcast. Credit:UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

Podcast Classic: Edward R Murrow joins forces with UN Radio to highlight Europe’s children in need

As the women’s liberation movement gathered pace across the world in the 1970s, the UN responded by designating 1975 the first ever International Women’s Year.

For this edition of our Podcast Classics series, in honour of International Women’s Day, we’re taking you back to that watershed moment which saw the first World Conference on Women take place in Mexico City.

MUSIC CREDITS:
Rise and Shine, by Audiobinger

China town, by Audiobinger

United Nations Audiovisual Library: 
UN Radio series ‘Half the World is Woman’ (1975)
https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/1079/1079300/

Audio Credit: Matt Wells, UN News

Photo:  The World Conference of the International Women's Year opened at the Juan de la Barrera Gymnasium in Mexico City on 19 June 1975. There were 110 delegations represented at the opening session, with women delegates outnumbering the men by about six to one.  UN Photo/B Lane

1975's UN rallying cry for ‘colonized and underdeveloped’ women of the world

It’s World Water Day, and we’re bringing you a double-bill for this edition of our UN Podcast Classics series, kicking off with the legendary actor, Marlon Brando.

In 1956, the Oscar-winning star of On the Waterfront, became UN Radio’s front man on water; narrating the story of how the UN Technical Assistance Administration brought a “pure, sweet, flowing” supply to one Bolivian village.

As the International Decade for Action on water for sustainable development gets under way here at the UN, we also look back at the 1950s struggle to provide access to clean running water in El Salvador.

You’ll find these stories, along with dozens of other unique and unusual radio stories, in our Audiovisual Library archive, at unmultimedia.org/avlibrary.

Photo: Marlon Brando speaks at UNICEF's New York Headquarters about the desperate needs of many of the world's children. (file) Credit: UNICEF/UN0157660/Speiser

For the UN, Marlon Brando highlights “life and death” value of fresh water

As the World Health Organization (WHO) turns 70 this weekend (7 April), this edition of our Podcast Classics series from UN News turns back the clock 60 years to bring you “Ten Steps Forward”, a UN Radio programme looking at WHO’s first decade, narrated by British stage and screen actor Michael Redgrave.

You can find a wealth of other audio, film and video by going to www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/.

MUSIC CREDITS:
“Gravity” by Borrtex.
“Naive” by Sergey Cheremisinov.

Photo: Michael Redgrave, the celebrated British actor, at UN Radio studios, United Nations Headquarters in New York. (October 1956) Credit: UN Photo/Albert Fox

Podcast Classics: The ‘fight against time’ towards healthier living for all

They were two of the 20th Century’s biggest stars of stage and screen, and when it came to the World Health Organization’s campaign to tackle two of the biggest killers of the post-war era, they answered the call.

Singing legend, Frank Sinatra, lent his golden voice to WHO for a UN Radio story in 1959, about upgrading medical care in Indonesia, while Hollywood great, Edward G. Robinson, went in search of the “murderess” malaria, in northern Lebanon, and beyond.

As we mark World Immunization Week, and World Malaria Day, for this latest Podcast Classic from UN News, we also catch up on where the world stands now in the fight against diseases like malaria and polio, with a senior WHO official.

Music Credits: ‘Stardust’, by U.S. Army Blues

Audio Credit:  Matt Wells and Omar Musni

Photo: Pictured here is Dr. Luigi Mara (Italy) of the World Health Organization’s anti-malaria project in Iraq, part of the WHO world-wide campaign to eradicate malaria everywhere. Dr. Mara is examining stagnant water to find out the types of mosquito larvae harboured there. May 1958, Kurdistan, Iraq.

Podcast Classics: Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson join the UN fight against polio and malaria

Russian-born actor, filmmaker and photographer Yul Brynner was appointed a special consultant to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in 1959. As we mark World Refugee Day, this edition of Podcast Classics features UN Radio's "Pattern of Our Lives”, for which he called on fellow Hollywood stars to recount the true-life experiences of refugees.

Music credits: “Our Names Engraved” and “The Zeppelin” by Blue Dot Sessions.

Photo: Actor Yul Brynner in the UN Radio studio at United Nations Headquarters in New York, 20 May 1960. Credit: UN Photo/ MB.

Podcast Classics: World famous voices weave the ‘pattern’ of refugee lives for UNHCR

UN News audio products range from daily interviews to our flagship podcast series, ‘The Lid Is On’.  On our Sound Cloud account we  provide also audio clips of statements. 

For other audio products such as our Monday-Friday 'News in Brief', please visit our UN News website - Audio Hub where you can download the full range of bulletins, packages, podcasts and interviews, in easy-to-use mp3 format. 

All our products can be downloaded and used free of charge and without attribution by broadcasters in their programmes or as a source of information and materials for individual reporters.

https://news.un.org/en/audio-hub

Podcast Classics

United Nations News