Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'
HistoryExtra podcast
10/16/25
•38m
About
Comments
Featured In
The phrase 'Make America Great Again' is indelibly associated with President Trump – yet a very similar version of the slogan – 'Let's Make America Great Again' – was in fact used by his predecessor Ronald Reagan. What can this parallel tell us about the United States of the 1980s? And does drawing such comparisons reveal anything about the US today? Speaking to Matt Elton, author and documentarian Phil Tinline offers his take.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode
How enslaved people fought for freedom across the Atlantic
October 14, 2025
•39m
From armed uprisings in the Caribbean to the hidden power of ritual, song and solidarity, the story of enslaved people’s resistance is far richer and more radical than has often been told. In this episode, Sudhir Hazareesingh speaks to Danny Bird about his new book Daring to be Free, which draws on fragmentary archives and oral traditions to highlight the forgotten people who resisted their enslavers, explores the global reverberations of the Haitian Revolution, and reveals the central role of women in shaping struggles for freedom.
(Ad) Sudhir Hazareesingh is the author of Daring to be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World (Allen Lane, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daring-Free-Rebellion-Resistance-Enslaved/dp/0241606500/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.b6yN3LvCqOXHnbafxbsRtFVXi1MIfRs1ljt6Ar5Io28.-VyNROFt1yj3lPJ-vTK5dfBMlgWatp58lQMUrAJTHgM&dib_tag=se&qid=1757509896&refinements=p_lbr_books_authors_browse-bin%3ASudhir+Hazareesingh&s=books&sr=1-2&tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Next Episode
Who laid the fuse for the Gunpowder Plot?
October 18, 2025
•45m
In the autumn of 1605, Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes led a desperate band of Catholic gentlemen in one of history's most daring conspiracies. Having smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the Palace of Westminster, their plan was to blow up James VI & I, along with the majority of England’s Protestant elite, paving the way for the restoration of Catholicism. In this first episode of our four-part series on the plot, Danny Bird speaks to historian John Cooper to uncover a world of persecution, espionage and faith-driven extremism. They unfurl the conspirators’ bold plan and interrogate the powerful spy networks of late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England that set the scene for an explosive act of treason.
–––––
GO BEYOND THE PODCAST
Want to know more about the Gunpowder Plot? Danny Bird has curated a selection of essential reading from the HistoryExtra and BBC History Magazine archive to help you explore the religious tensions, political intrigue and lasting impact of this infamous act of treason: https://bit.ly/3WDunPw.
–––––
(Ad) John Cooper is the author of The Lost Chapel of Westminster: How a Royal Chapel Became the House of Commons (Apollo, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Chapel-Westminster-John-Cooper/dp/1801104514#:~:text=debate....-,John%20Cooper's%20The%20Lost%20Chapel%20of%20Westminster%20is%20a%20meticulously,beating%20heart%20of%20parliamentary%20debate/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted