Matt Bevan on the history you think you know

About this episode

Matt Bevan discusses how myths and narratives shape our understanding of history.

The ABC journalist explains how competing, overlapping narratives and outright myths form our understanding of events of the past, featuring an impersonation of Winston Churchill talking about a lemon tree. Matt presents and writes the ABC TV show and podcast “If You’re listening”, where he says he explains the world’s most important stories while hiding in his basement from assassins and authoritarian regimes. He applies his Australian lens on major turning points in history; the villains, visionaries and vanquished and invites us to question what we think we know about the world. From the assassination of Julius Ceaser to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Matt has uncovered unknown, often bizarre and at times laughable tales swirling in the murky waters of history. Further information If You're Listening: Declassified is published by HarperCollins. You can watch and listen to Matt's program, If You're Listening. This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan. The Executive Producer is Eliza Kirsch. It covers world politics, Trump, Putin, Winston Churchill, Matthias Rust, Red Square, Iron Curtain, Soviet Union, Chernobyl, M Gessen, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group, Cessna, Yalta…

People in this episode

Guest: Matt Bevan

Topics covered

• history
• narratives
• politics
• myths
• Australian perspective
• world events

Keywords

• history
• narratives
• politics
• Winston Churchill
• Soviet Union
• Chernobyl
• Trump
• Putin
• assassination
• myths

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ABC, HarperCollins, If You're Listening, Conversations, Wagner Group

Places: Australia, Red Square, Iron Curtain

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