Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Death of Kissing
Episode 1429
Kissing was a big deal in the Middle Ages: for signing contracts, for greeting colleagues, and for showing deference to the King - a tradition that e…
2 weeks ago
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!
Episode 1428
The inventor of margarine, French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, patented his butter substitute on 15th July, 1869. Inspired by a competition launch…
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Mr. Dynamite
Episode 1427
Dynamite was invented by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who demonstrated it in Britain for the first time on 14th July, 1867. He had discovered that w…
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Hollywood's Iconic Landmark
Episode 1426
Designed as a temporary billboard for a luxury housing development, the iconic ‘Hollywood’ sign (originally spelling out ‘Hollywoodland’) was dedicat…
2 weeks, 3 days ago
Evolution on Trial
Episode 1424
The Scopes Monkey Trial - one of the most famous show trials in U.S. history - began in Dayton, Tennessee on 10th July, 1925.
Though it centred on J…
2 weeks, 6 days ago
The Sun Sets on 'Eldorado'
Episode 1423
One of the BBC’s biggest-ever flops, soap opera ‘Eldorado’, broadcast its final episode on 9th July, 1993 - just one year after it had begun, at a re…
3 weeks ago
Let's Build A Rollercoaster
Episode 1422
Promenades Aériennes, the world’s first modern rollercoaster, opened in Paris on 8th July, 1817. Thrillseekers climbed a towering wooden structure be…
3 weeks, 1 day ago
Meet Pinocchio
Episode 1421
Pinocchio, ‘The Story of a Puppet’, debuted in Giornale per i bambini, an Italian weekly magazine for children, on 7th July, 1881. Its author, Carlo …
3 weeks, 2 days ago
When Lennon Met McCartney
Episode 1420
The Quarrymen took to the stage at a parish fête near Liverpool on 6th July, 1957: the event that first brought together the brains behind the Beatle…
3 weeks, 3 days ago
Sailing Alone Around The World
Episode 1418
Captain Joshua Slocum set sail from Nova Scotia in The Spray, his revamped oyster sloop, on 3rd July, 1895: the first solo circumnavigation of the wo…
3 weeks, 6 days ago