We denizens of the twenty-first century look back to the 

last century as the time of the great mass murders: the 

Holocaust, the Soviet gulag, the Cultural Revolution, 

Cambodia, Rwanda. 

We forget -- or never knew -- about the murder in the late 

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of an estimated 

eight million people in Congo. 

Listen to Adam Hochschild give a five-minute update of the anarchy in Congo (recorded via Skype). Read the transcript.

This episode is part of Bookpod, a weekly podcast about writers of lasting value.