Experience the Cold War like never before with Cold War Conversations — an award-winning podcast recommended by The New York Times.
Each week, host Ian Sanders brings you raw, firsthand accounts from the people who lived through one of history’s most tense and transformative eras — soldiers, spies, civilians, and more.
These aren’t stories from textbooks. They’re unfiltered voices from the frontlines of history — emotional, gripping, and deeply human.
This is Cold War history, told from the inside out.
We cover subjects such as spies, spying, the Iron Curtain, nuclear weapons, warfare, tanks, jet aircraft, fighters, bombers, transport aircraft, aviation, culture, and politics.
We also cover personalities such as Fidel Castro, JFK, Ronald Reagan, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Konstantin Chernenko, Margaret Thatcher, John F. Kennedy, Josef Stalin, Richard Nixon, Lech Walesa, General Jaruzelski, Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Other subjects include Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, West Berlin, East Berlin, Cuban missile Crisis, Berlin Airlift, Bay of Pigs, SALT, Perestroika, Space Race, superpower, USSR, Soviet Union, DDR, GDR, East Germany, SDI, Vietnam War, Korean War, Solidarność, Fall of the Wall, Berliner Mauer, Trabant, Communist, Capitalist, Able Archer, KGB, Stasi, STB, SB, Securitate, CIA, NSA, MI5, MI6, Berlin Wall, escape, defection, Cuba, Albania, football, sport, Bulgaria, Soviet Union, Poland, China, Taiwan, Austria, West Germany, Solidarity, espionage, HUMINT, SIGINT, OSINT, IMINT, GEOINT, RAF, USAF, British Army, US Army, Red Army, Soviet Army, Afghanistan, NVA, East German Army, KAL007, T-72, T-64, Chieftain, M60
The podcast is for military veterans, school teachers, university lecturers, students and those interested in Cold War history, museums, bunkers, weapons, AFVs, wargamers, planes, A Level, GCSE students studying Superpower Relations and the Cold War.
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Tilo offers an engaging and personal account of growing up in East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He begins by describing his early childhood in a rundown building in Prenzlauer Berg before moving to a new prefab neighbourhood in Lichtenberg. Tilo’s grandfather on his mother’s side was a pastor in the Lutheran church and second in command to a Bishop at the end of his career. His grandfather on his father’s side had been a teacher and had joined the Nazi party After the World War Two...
Bill Woodman is a former US Navy nuclear missile submarine commander, who shares his rich experiences from joining the US Naval Academy in 1964 to commanding two SSBN submarines, the USS James Monroe and the USS Alabama during the Cold War. Bill opens up about his initial aspirations, rigorous training at the Naval Academy, and his challenging interviews with the legendary Admiral Rickover who directed the original development of US naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for thre...
Burt recounts the surreal experience of learning about Fisher's true identity from a newspaper headline, the subsequent FBI interrogations, and the emotional courtroom testimony where he struggled to reconcile his friendship with the stark reality of espionage. Burt's journey leads him to Moscow in a failed attempt to reconnect with Fisher, revealing a labyrinthine world of secrets and paranoia. He shares a heartfelt letter he left for Fisher, expressing regret and longing for a simpler time whe...
In a riveting episode that peels back the layers of Cold War espionage, we sit down with Burt, an artist who unwittingly befriended a man better known as Colonel Abel, the infamous Bridge of Spies Spy who was exchanged for shot down US U2 pilot Gary Powers. Burt knew Abel as Emil Goldfuss but his real name was Willie Fisher from Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. Fisher was a Soviet agent deeply embedded in the fabric of New York City's bustling art scene. Burt's tale unfolds in a studio building e...
Valeriy was a Soviet Navy diver sapper and was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. I have used a human translator for this episode so the main voice you will hear is my translator Galina Ryabova who was kindly funded by one of my financial supporters Valeriy opens up about his childhood, the impact of the Great Patriotic War on his family, and his mother's resilience in raising him after his father's untimely death. He shares insights into his schooling, where history and geography sparked his cur...
Sirka offers a comprehensive exploration of life in East Germany, detailing the experiences of growing up in Neubrandenburg, the influence of the East German state and the Stasi, and the societal impacts of Mikhail Gorbachev's policies leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. She also talks of her intensive gymnastics training and being given pills by her trainer... Sirka also describes the transition to reunification, highlighting the challenges of adapting to a new economic system and the mi...
The Soviet-Afghan War lasted ten years between 1979-1989 and led to the deaths of between 500k and 2m Afghan civilians. I speak with Nick Geering a Russian history and language teacher. From his memories of the haunting sight of uniformed amputees in St Petersburg to the complex origins of the conflict, we explore the intricacies of a war that was both an accident and a tragedy. Our conversation traverses the murky politics that led to the Soviet invasion, the unpreparedness of the conscript-hea...
Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War, is a nine-part documentary series from director Brian Knappenberger, that provides a comprehensive appraisal of the events that led to the Cold War and traces the conflict around the world and through the decades. While the Cold War ended in 1991, even a casual appraisal of current headlines reveals that relations between the United States and Russia — the one-time centre of the Soviet Union — remain tense, to say the least. The global repercussions of t...
Alex Grant’s new book Sex, Spies and Scandal The John Vassall Affair has everything: a honey trap, industrial-scale espionage, journalists jailed for not revealing their sources and the first modern tabloid witch-hunt, which resulted in a ministerial resignation and almost brought down Harold Macmillan’s government. With access to newly released MI5 files and interviews with people who knew Vassall from the 1950s until he died in 1996, this book sheds new light on a neglected spy scandal. Despit...
V-Bombers: Britain's Nuclear Frontline in the Cold War is a new book by Dr Tony Redding that takes a deep dive into Britain's V-bomber force's operational nuclear war role. Tony reveals the intense preparations and the stark realities faced by the aircrews, who lived in a perpetual state of wartime readiness despite being in a country at peace. The narrative intertwines technical analysis and personal accounts, offering a comprehensive view of the crews' complex systems and psychological burdens...
Timo takes us on a journey through the tumultuous events of the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, as experienced from the streets of the Baltic States. As the coup unfolds, Timo finds himself in Lithuania, planning to covertly visit the closed city of Kaliningrad. He shares the tension sharing a dining table with a Soviet officer, unknowingly on the eve of the coup. As the coup escalates, Timo's narrative becomes a vivid street-level account of the Estonian people's defiance. He describes the formation ...
Timo takes us to the remote Finnish border town of Kuusamo. He paints a vivid picture of a childhood overshadowed by his grandparent’s memories of their home lost during World War II and their proximity to the Soviet Union. As a child, he was fascinated by the invisible line that marked the end of the world— the heavily guarded border with the USSR. Timo recounts a tense encounter with border guards while visiting his grandparents, and his meeting with a Soviet escaper. He travels to Moscow and ...
Leigh joined the RAAF in 1978 to train as a pilot but was scrubbed after a few months and transitioned to training as an Air Electronics Officer (AEO) at the RAAF School of Air Navigation. He flew on the P-3C Orion and was employed in operations across the Indo-Pacific region on maritime patrol surveillance operations in the region - which included both usual surface surveillance of the region and operations alongside the US against Soviet submarines transiting the area. He also had the opportun...
In this deeply personal episode, our guest, Norbert, vividly recounts his traumatic childhood journey from Cold War Poland to the United States. With vivid recollections, he describes the struggles of his parents amid food shortages and the poignant decision of the family to leave everything behind for an uncertain future in the United States. We also explore the cultural shock and the struggle to find identity in a new world, as Norbert navigates life as a Polish immigrant in 1980s America. Fro...
Dan served in the War Plans office of the US Army VII Corps working on counterattack plans and reorganization of the US Army’s General Defence Plan. He describes the debriefing of a Polish Special Forces operator who had defected to the West and who revealed surprising knowledge of US plans and order of battle. Dan also details his experiences on the Able Archer 83 exercise and his views about how dangerous that was. In addition to his work in the War Plans office, we discuss terror attacks on t...
In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain - and held a picnic. Word had spread of what was going to happen. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border between Hungary and Austria, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: that day hundreds would cross f...
Dan served as a lieutenant and captain in a US Army air defence artillery battalion in West Germany from 1980 until 1985. He describes details of Soviet overflights deep into West Germany and we discuss how the Warsaw Pact attempted to track their units. Now who knew that the US Army experimented with geese for perimeter security?! Dan reveals details of this little-known specialist unit. Dan worked with the improved Hawk anti-aircraft missile system. We talk about its capabilities, the challeng...
The Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire in the UK played a significant secret role during the Cold War. It was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astronomer at the university, to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in the Second World War. We hear some intriguing details of the site’s Cold War roles including being Britain’s first nuclear attack early warning station and its signals intelligence collaboration with GCHQ, the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters. Ev...
In the mid-1980s Dag was a T72 tank commander in the NVA, the East German Army and is now a volunteer at the Tank Museum at Bovington in the UK. He describes his initial tank commander training, the battle readiness of the NVA, and the challenges of a conscript army as well as a startling revelation about a significant change in doctrine in 1987. We also dig deep into the technical details of the T72, including the autoloader, deep water wading, radio communication and its advantages and disadva...
Kate is sent to Moscow in 1985 to write articles for The Morning Star, a left-wing British daily newspaper founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker by the Communist Party of Great Britain. She lives in a block of flats alongside Soviet citizens and enrols her 3 children in Soviet schools. Three weeks after Kate arrives Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power and she finds herself having to cover the disorientating number of rapid reforms and attacks on the Soviet system by its leadership for a newspaper, th...
Tim participates in Kangaroo 89, a huge military exercise with the entire Australian Army using an area the size of Western Europe and we hear about the Australian equivalent of Wolfgang the Bratty Man who used to turn up on British exercises in Germany. Tim was also part of an exchange program with the British Army and he describes his experiences there and the advantages and disadvantages between Leopard 1 and the British Challenger 1 tank Tim also worked with the Bundeswehr where he had a fas...
Since 1985, Ana Montes has been an asset of the Cuban intelligence service. In that time, she’s risen through the ranks to become one of the Pentagon’s most respected voices on Cuban affairs with easy access to classified documents. Peter Lapp reveals Montez's tradecraft and how the FBI found the proverbial "needle in a haystack". To learn more about the woman labelled "one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history" by America's top counter-intelligence official listen to episode 277. Buy the b...
In 1966 most of Bridget’s friends, in their early twenties, were settling down with jobs and/or husbands… She, on the other hand, set off alone to travel across Poland relying on the kindness of strangers. Fascinated by what she experienced she continued to wander the highways and byways of, Hungary Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia for the next couple of years seeking out remote rural communities almost untouched by the passage of time... Bridget travelled with virtually no money...
Many of Tim’s family had served in WW1 and WW2 and from a young age, he was determined to follow their path. Overcoming huge competition for places he became a driver of the Leopard AS1 MBT at 1st Armoured Regiment of the Australian Army. Australia is largely ignored in most Cold War histories, however, we hear how the Australian Army prepared to fight the Musorians, a thinly disguised notional enemy which was obviously the Soviets or one of their satellites in everything but name. Photos, video...
Jack Wesolek was born in East Germany in 1966. His grandfather was a member of the Red Orchestra, a Communist Anti-Nazi resistance organisation in Germany during World War 2. He later became Chief of the Signals Service of the Volksmarine, the East German Navy. In the 1980s an East German Army signals regiment was named after him. Jack’s father was an actor and we discuss how accurate the depiction of East German actors is in the film “The Lives of Others”. At age 6 his parents divorce and Jack ...
On 23rd Nov 1963 at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea a detachment of US Air Force B-57 Canberra bombers were parked on an alert pad each with a live nuclear weapon in their bomb bay and ready to fly at a moment’s notice. At 0400 klaxon horns aroused the crews from their slumber and they rushed to their waiting aircraft, for what they likely thought was just one more drill But this morning was different. As the crew strapped themselves into their cockpits, they were told to await a signal to fly thei...
Kevin was born in Wigan in North West England and joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1956 with only 3 O Levels. He came top of his course but was posted into supplies at RAF St Mawgan. However, he quickly became in charge of their clothing stores and via a fortuitous route became a trainee pilot. By May 1963 he joined the RAF V Force as a Vulcan pilot and served with 44 Squadron where Vulcan crews were being converted to low-level flying. He describes the challenges of low-level flying, Vulcan h...
Andrew McNeile decided to travel through Eastern Europe in a yellow MG Midget Sports car, a car that's going to stand out no matter where you are! He recalls his adventures travelling through East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia He talks about the warmth and friendliness of people, challenges with petrol quality, and an accidental visit to a nudist beach. Peter Ryan is your host today and I’m delighted to welcome Andrew McNeile to our Cold War Conversa...
This week is the 40th anniversary of the Able Archer NATO Exercise where it is reckoned that the Soviet Union and NATO almost started a nuclear war. 1990 an investigation by the US President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, culminating in its highly secret report “The Soviet ‘War Scare’” The detailed PFIAB report concluded that the U.S. “may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger”. The following is an audio version of the talk I delivered to the Man...
Denmark joined NATO as a founding member in 1949. However, it originally laid down limitations to NATO membership, effectively excluding the country from full military integration. The conditions were threefold: no non-Danish bases, no nuclear warheads, and no Allied military activity on Danish territory. Bo Hermansen served in a conscript reconnaissance platoon of the Danish Jutland Dragoon Regiment during the 1980s. His squadron was part of the divisional reconnaissance for the Danish Jutland ...
