Podcast Episodes

A Gossip Writer Invented the Renaissance!?

What if Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo weren’t really the best artists of the Renaissance, they were just the subject of some really good PR? 

In this episode of No One Saw it Coming, TikToker and…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

The Nazi siege and the secret seeds

Try to stop famine, or save your own life? This was the impossible choice facing the Russian scientists behind the world's first seed bank during World War 2, when the Soviet city of Leningrad came u…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Where Freestyle Swimming REALLY Comes From

You probably know the names of famous freestyle swimmers - whether it’s Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Ian Thorpe or Dawn Fraser. But do you know where the ‘freestyle’ swimming stroke actually comes …

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Cecil Rhodes and his Secret Plan for World Domination

Bob Hawke, Bill Clinton, Malcolm Turnbull – all were recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest and most prestigious academic scholarships in the world. It was started posthumously by a …

Published on 5 months ago

When X-Rays Were an Amusement Park Attraction

Before selfies, before CT scans, before social media filters and front-facing cameras… there was the X-Ray. Discovered by accident in a 19th-century lab, it went on to become a craze. Displayed as a …

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Absinthe isn’t Dangerous. It was Framed for Murder

Have you ever tried absinthe - that fluorescent green spirit that people used to set on fire in the 90’s?  It’s had a pretty bad reputation over the years. In fact, it was illegal in a lot of countri…

Published on 5 months, 2 weeks ago

The Hidden Origins of Chemotherapy

These days chemotherapy or ‘chemo’ is a common treatment for cancer. But did you know that part of the reason it exists today is because of a terrible accident that happened in Italy during World War…

Published on 5 months, 3 weeks ago

America’s Secret Pact with the Mafia

After the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the United States was on edge. So when it seemed like spies for the Nazis and Mussolini were operating along the harbour in New York, the governmen…

Published on 5 months, 4 weeks ago

The Blunder that Broke the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November, 1989, is one of the most famous events of modern history. Not only did it lead to the reunification of East and West Germany, it contributed to the…

Published on 6 months ago

This Tragic Accident Changed How We Think About the Brain

In schools, universities and colleges around the world, a story gets told about a man named Phineas Gage. He was an American railroad foreman, until one day when an iron rod shot through his head and…

Published on 6 months, 1 week ago