Show overview
How to Invent a Country has been publishing since 2018, and across the 8 years since has built a catalogue of 64 episodes. That works out to roughly 35 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a roughly quarterly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 28 min and 34 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language History show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 weeks ago, with 3 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2018, with 28 episodes published. Published by BBC.
From the publisher
When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny on the borders, the stories and the people of countries worldwide.
Latest Episodes
View all 64 episodesThe birth and death of Yugoslavia
More history than you can consume!
What are the Balkans?
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian in Sarajevo fired the shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable? Misha Glenny returns to a region he's known for years
Two World Wars, One Failed Revolution
Misha Glenny asks how the losers of two world wars, which drastically reshaped Hungary's borders, tried to fight off Soviet tanks on Budapest's streets. Produced by Miles Warde
The Butcher And The Poet
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head to a rally in Budapest where Viktor Orban compares the EU to the Habsburgs, forgetting it was tsarist Russia that crushed the revolution of 1848
Hungary and Mohacs 500
McMafia author Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban uses history beginning with the battle of Mohacs of 1526
Taiwan
At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and Tainan City in the south to find out about this relationship with the Chinese mainland."I've obviously been following the situation in Ukraine, and it strikes me that before our eyes we're seeing the rapid development of a new Ukrainian consciousness and national identity. What's struck me about coming here to Taiwan is the same process is underway." Misha GlennyContributors include Amanda Hsiao senior analyst of the Crisis Group, Linda Jaivin the author of the Shortest History of China, and Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent for the New York Times now relocated to Taipei. Plus you'll hear from long time resident Chris Taylor, author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet. "All Xi Jinping understands is complete control .... he's given up on what the Taiwanese call the silver bullet, promises of great trade opportunities and get rich, join us. Nobody's buying that. So the only way he's going to get it is by force of some kind."Taiwan is episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, the series that has previously travelled to Germany, Brazil, Turkey and Russia. Misha Glenny is a former Central Europe correspondent for the BBC and the author of McMafia. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde.
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
China: imperial collapse
The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen
China - to kowtow or not to kowtow
Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars
China - the first emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?
Turkey - Ottoman or Turk
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny
Turkey - A Delicate Balancing Act
Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One
Turkey - The Military and Decline
EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna
Turkey - The Ottomans: East or West
Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire
Russia - A Tale of Two Ivans
Ep 1 The Invention of Russia ... told from a time when it was still very small
Russia - the Empire Strikes Back
Ep 2 - The Invention of Russia and the expansion east to Siberia, west into Ukraine
Russia - the sacred song of war
Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
Russia - the bear moves west
Ep 3 - The Invention of Russia and Catherine the Great, presented by Misha Glenny
Return to Spain
with Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news