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Reverberate

The Guardian’s Chris Michael explores incredible stories from around the world about when music shook history. Each episode focuses on a turning point in a city’s story, as told through a song that sparked a moment – and reveals the deeper social and political issues that shaped these pivotal events

3 March 2021

  • Photo by: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. Plastic People of the Universe performing at Hradecek Cottage that belonged to playwright Vaclav Havel in 1977.

    Reverberate, episode 6: The plastic people of Prague – podcast

    When the Communist regime put a bunch of scruffy Czech psychedelic rockers on trial in 1977, they had no idea what they were about to unleash

24 February 2021

  • A shopkeeper looks out from his doorway on Soho Road in the Handsworth area of Birmingham. Photo by Justin Tallis, via AFP.

    Reverberate, episode 5: Birmingham's bhangra revolution – podcast

    In the heat of anti-immigrant fever in 1980s Birmingham, one song about a street helped forge a new British south Asian identity

17 February 2021

  • Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images. Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer, during the Siege of Leningrad, 1941

    Reverberate, episode 4: the bloody symphony of Leningrad – podcast

    Crippled by Hitler’s forces during history’s deadliest siege, Leningrad rallied under the most unlikely of anthems – Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony

10 February 2021

  • An Egyptian protestor climbs a pole waving his national flag during a demonstration in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. (AP Photo/Nathalie Bardou)

    Reverberate, episode 3: the call and response that changed Cairo – podcast

    The bittersweet story of Egypt’s revolution began with a vast call-and-response song that helped bring down Hosni Mubarak. But it didn’t end there

3 February 2021

  • Miss USA, Christy Fichtner, left, and Miss Panama, Gilda García López, salute while flanking Gen Manuel Antonio Noriega in Panama City.

    Reverberate, episode 2: Rick Astley versus the dictator of Panama – podcast

    When Manuel Noriega holed up in the Vatican embassy to escape an invasion, the US military tried a new technique of psychological warfare – blasting pop music through loudspeakers

1 February 2021

  • NWA in New York in 1991 (left to right) DJ Yella, MC Ren, Eazy-E and Dr Dre

    Reverberate: the Guardian's new podcast on the soundtrack to history

    Chris Michael on our new podcast series examining moments when music was the story behind the news, or became the focus for change

27 January 2021

  • The Occupy Central democracy protests in Hong Kong, October 2014.

    Reverberate, episode 1: Hong Kong's accidental pop star – podcast

    How an English musician became an overnight pop star in Hong Kong – only to discover he was the face of a huge new protest movement against China

19 January 2021

  • Podcast Reverberate ApplePodcasts PromotionalArt 3

    Reverberate: a new podcast from the Guardian – coming soon...

    The Guardian’s Chris Michael explores incredible stories from around the world about when music shook history
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