[History documentary]  

Pablo De Miguel tells the little known story of how Turkish diplomats saved the lives of 1,000 refugees during the Spanish Civil War’s longest siege. It involves espionage, international negotiations and murder but above all else it's a story about the will to survive and fight to get home.

Pablo's research website:

zurbano21.com

Special thanks to Martin and Sofía.

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Clips taken from:

• British Pathé films
• British Movietone
• While at War (2019)
• The Spanish Civil War (1983)
• The Spanish Earth (1937)

Music: Epidemic Sound --- Full episode transcript available here: 42475.medium.com/escape-from-madrid-the-untold-story-of-how-turkish-diplomats-saved-the-lives-of-a-thousand-cadf2f156e4b">https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/escape-from-madrid-the-untold-story-of-how-turkish-diplomats-saved-the-lives-of-a-thousand-cadf2f156e4b --- Yarn is produced and edited by John Roche --- Comments and feedback very welcome! Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com. X: @YarnStoryPod

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[Sports documentary] In 2007 the legendary Scottish track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy set out to break the 1km time trial world record. The record and then only sub one minute 1km time was set by Hoy's longtime rival; Arnaud Tournant. Hoy was determined to go sub one minute himself and even more determined to snatch the record away from the French cyclist. Hoy embarked on a journey to the most remote cycling venue on the planet; The Alto Irpavi Velodrome, high in the Bolivian Andes. The fastest track on earth. Hoy's attempt pushed the boundaries of what his body could take. Throw in the very real risks of altitude sickness, a shoestring budget, an extremely tight deadline, unpredictable weather conditions, malfunctioning airplanes, some very curious locals and join us as we revisit the circus atmosphere that surrounded Chris Hoy when he became the highest cyclist in the world. To help us along with this story we talk to kilo track cyclist; Eamonn Byrne and to an expert in high altitude training; Nick Hart. Featuring original music score by Drembot. References: Heroes, Villains and Velodromes: Chris Hoy and Britain’s Track Cycling Revolution - Richard Moore (Author). Chris Hoy: The Autobiography of Britain's most successful ever olympian - Sir Chris Hoy (Author). Arnaud Tournant: le phénomène - Pascal Sergent (Author). Eamonn Byrne is a coach at blacklinecoaching.com Nick Hart is a performance specialist at altitudecentre.com --- Full episode transcript available here: 42475.medium.com/yarn-26-the-highest-cyclist-in-the-world-78333e6b3fd1">https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-26-the-highest-cyclist-in-the-world-78333e6b3fd1 --- Yarn is produced and edited by John Roche --- Comments and feedback very welcome! Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com. Twitter: @YarnStoryPod --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/yarnstorypod/message

As an extra bonus here are 3 complete music tracks that our composer Drembot created for the episode "The Highest Cyclist in the World". Enjoy the tracks in full and uninterrupted.

You can get more of Drembot's music on Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PjdfdGAzsxgAX3GFuMWR4?si=uYMGzZWFQJyaF0YwwhlQxQ

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[Audio drama collection]

We've released 25 and a bit stories for Yarn. To celebrate we're going to take a look back in this omnibus episode. Lately most of our episodes have been documentaries so I decided to dig out some of our fiction stories and pull them together into a neat bingable collection for your listening pleasure. I've selected 4 stories and recorded new introductions for each. Enjoy! 

New episodes coming soon.

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Comments and feedback very welcome! Twitter: @YarnStoryPod

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[Documentary]

"I had no contact with this man. All I ever said was hello to him. It's stalking. And it builds and builds."

These are the words of my mother, Eileen Byrne. She’s going to recount her ordeal with a stalker. 

I was just a kid at the time. I knew very little about it, until lately when she started talking about the incident. It was a recent Irish news story that triggered her memory. The murder of Aisling Murphy in broad daylight, sparked a national conversation not just about violence against women but also about the level of harassment and intimidation women are forced to endure on a daily basis. Aisling’s murder added fuel to a prominent campaign to make stalking a criminal offence in Ireland.

For more information about this campaign see Stalking.ie

Full episode transcript here: 42475.medium.com/yarn-25-the-stalker-3399f983ff0">https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-25-the-stalker-3399f983ff0

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Yarn is produced and edited by John Roche

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Comments and feedback very welcome! Twitter: @YarnStoryPod

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[Special Interview] On Day 6 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine I talked to an old friend of the podcast, our tour guide from the Chernobyl episode. He talks about the Russian takeover of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and what it's like to be staying put in Kyiv during the invasion. If you would like to support Ukrainian refugees and aid organisations working in Ukraine or get protest information here is some information: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ways-to-help-ukraine-conflict/ If you would like to donate directly to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defenсe of Ukraine you can use the details here: https://war.ukraine.ua/donate/ If you would like to support our friend specifically from this episode please email me and I will pass on his payment details. Any contribution size is very welcome.  Produced by John Roche Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/yarnstorypod/message

[Documentary]

Inside stories from the jury room.

I wanted to see inside this secretive world and get a sense of what it feels like to serve. I talked to 7 former jurors about their 7 separate trials.

I also talked to a practicing criminal law barrister for his thoughts on the jury system. We’ll explore the selection process, the characters in the courtroom and the atmosphere in the deliberation room.

Then we'll do a deep dive into a few cases and hear them told from a juror's perspective in their own words.

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Thanks to Barrister Seamus Clarke SC

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Produced and edited by John Roche

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Comments and feedback very welcome! Twitter: @YarnStoryPod

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[Deep Dive Interview] 

The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995… The 2011 Norway attacks… The 2016 Nice truck attack… The 2019 Christcurch, New Zealand shootings… 

What do all these attacks have in common? They were all formulated, planned and executed by a single individual. 

The popular fear of lone actor attacks is that they are completely unpredictable and so almost impossible to prevent. We speak to Dr. Francis O’Connor, an expert on lone actor radicalisation. Dr. O’connor and his colleagues have been funded by the EU Commission to research lone actor attacks. 

They have collected what they think is the largest dataset of lone actor attacks and attackers in the western world dating from 1990 until the present. 

Full Episode transcript available here: 42475.medium.com/yarn-22-lone-actor-errorism-e651ee20d569">https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-22-lone-actor-errorism-e651ee20d569

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Dr. O'Connor's book is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Insurgency-Popular-Support-Turkey/dp/1108838502 

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Produced and edited by John Roche 

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Comments and feedback very welcome! Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com. Twitter: @YarnStoryPod

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[Documentary]

We visit the Mezhyhirya estate in the Ukraine.

The vast estate covers over 340 acres. That’s just shy of the area of Monaco. The glamorous and opulent principality has a lot in common with Mezhyirya. Except Monaco is home to 38,000 people. Mezhyhirya was most recently home to just one family.

This is the story of the former president of Ukraine - Victor Yanukovych.

His mafia style cartel, nick named ‘the family’, his extravagant lifestyle and the construction of his monument to greed - The Mezhyhirya palace and estate. Now known as the world’s only 'Museum of Corruption'.

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Produced and edited by John Roche

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Comments and feedback very welcome!

Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com.

Twitter: @YarnStoryPod

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Full transcript available here:

42475.medium.com/yarn-21-the-secret-palace-fb2440c68a01">https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-21-the-secret-palace-fb2440c68a01

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[3-part documentary]

Episode 3 of 3 - Darkest before the dawn.   

1900s - 2000s   

In this new Yarn Miniseries I’m going to give you a rough history of Disability.   

In episode three things start with one of modern history's darkest ideas, Eugenics. We explore its prevalence, especially in America and some of its most famous proponents. Then we jump over to Post WW2 Britain and we uncover how wars not only created Disabled people but how post war periods also led to infrastructure and programmes that helped people with disabilities.   

We will confront the horrific conditions Disabled residents of institutions were forced to live in and see how the era of the big institution eventually came to an end. We'll intersect with the Civil Rights movement and see how it inspired the Parent's movement, which led to the Independent Living movement and the fight for Human Rights for people with Disabilities.   

Written and narrated by John Roche.   

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Full episode transcript available here:  https://medium.com/@mrjohnroche_42475 

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Sources 

Short  history of disability By Dr Robert Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2qgVhmH88  MN Department of Administration - Council on Development Disabilities https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/index.html  World Bank https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability  Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/  History Channel https://www.history.com/topics/germany/eugenics  PBS https://www.pbs.org/weta/throughdeafeyes/deaflife/bell_nad.html  United Nations Human Rights Office of High Commissioner https://www.ohchr.org/  Dr. William Bronston, Willowbrook Memorial Lecture bronston-memorial.html">https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/five/5f/willowbrook-bronston-memorial.html  Welcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/works  IWM Archive https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock  RTE Archive https://www.rte.ie/archives/  The Times Archive https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ancient-walking-aids-5232vx5n9j0  Special Olympics https://www.specialolympics.org  JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/3288457?seq=1  IPC https://www.paralympic.org/  Greek Gods info gods.info/greek-gods/hephaestus/">https://www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/hephaestus/  YouTube

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