Podcast
Today In History with The Retrospectors
Hosted by The Retrospectors · EN
Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll.
From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages. In just ten minutes!
Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee).
Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
76episodes
Episodes
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Greyhound Hits The Road
May 2100:11:31Tap to summarizeWhen Carl Wickman started America’s first bus company on 21st May, 1914, they weren’t a bus company, and they weren’t called Greyhound - they were a commuter service for miners in Hibbing, Minnesota. But, despite their ‘dirty dog’ reputation (and the fact they’re now owned by a British conglomerate), the company is still seen as a cornerstone of American culture, and undoubtedly the most famous bus company in the world. In this episode, Olly, Arion and Rebecca consider the role of Hollywood in enshrining Greyhound’s exalted status in the popular imagination, speculate as to whether the development of highways killed the romance of inter-city travel, and reveal why, after the longest coach journey in the world, Father Christmas made Rebecca cry... Further Reading: • The ‘bus scene’ from It Happened One Night (1934): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvzgCo-As6A • Mental Floss celebrate 100 years of Greyhound: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/54273/100-years-dirty-dog-history-greyhound • ‘Facts and Figures’ from Greyhound’s official website: https://news.greyhound.com/facts-figures Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2021. #1910s #Inventions #US Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Make Me Some Levi's
May 2000:13:09Tap to summarizeLevi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a US patent for reinforcing work trousers with copper rivets on 20th May 1873; an innovation that would eventually create the global market for blue jeans. Davis, a Jewish tailor in Nevada, had already been using metal fasteners to strengthen horse blankets and other hard-wearing goods. When a labourer’s wife asked him to make trousers sturdy enough to survive her husband’s punishing work, Davis realised that the weak points were the seams and pockets, and used copper rivets to transform them from fragile clothing into industrial equipment. So he wrote to Strauss, from whom he regularly bought cloth, proposing a partnership… Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant who had arrived during the California Gold Rush and built a thriving wholesale business supplying miners, railway workers and frontier towns with practical goods, agreed to finance the patent and mass production. It proved a remarkable pairing of talents. Davis understood the practical needs of labourers; Strauss understood supply chains, branding and expansion. Together they turned reinforced work trousers into a product that could spread across the American West more profitably than panning for gold itself. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly trace the origin of Levi’s enduring Two Horse logo of 1886; explain how the Second World War accelerated the adoption of the style; and reveal just how much money a pair of nineteenth-century Levi’s are worth today… Further Reading: • ‘A Riveting Story’ (Levi’s, 2023): https://www.levi.com/US/en_US/blog/article/lvc-a-riveting-story?msockid=23c525cc0876634208c637a40951628f • ‘Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Abandoned Arizona Mineshaft’ (Smithsonian Magazine, 2022): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cache-of-19th-century-blue-jeans-discovered-in-abandoned-arizona-mineshaft-180981014/ • ‘150 years of Levi's 501 blue jeans’ (CBS Sunday Morning, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LAxKoChwN8 #Fashion #Inventions #Jewish #1800s Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Fox's 'Glee' Gambit
May 1900:12:12Tap to summarizeRyan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s musical comedy-drama ‘Glee’ was first screened on Fox on May 19th, 2009. In a strategy to whip up excitement before the season premiere in the Autumn, the network showed the pilot in a plum post-‘American Idol’ slot, and then besieged websites and social networks with advertisements over the Summer. The strategy worked - justifying ‘Glee’s enormous budget, relatively unknown cast, and complex musical rights negotiations - and by the end of 2009 the show had generated 25 Billboard Hot 100 hits from its soundtrack. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how this tightly-structured pilot cunningly conceals its Broadway roots whilst introducing its cast of characters; consider how the success of the series launched Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ onto an unsuspecting UK; and consider whether the show’s happy vibes had the good fortune to launch in the midst of the financial crisis… Further Reading: • ‘Glee Pilot Oral History, Part 4: The Premiere’ (Out Magazine, 2015): https://www.out.com/television/2015/3/19/glee-pilot-oral-history-part-4-premiere • ‘How Ryan Murphy Became the Most Powerful Man in TV’ (The New Yorker, 2018): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-ryan-murphy-became-the-most-powerful-man-in-tv • ‘Glee Pilot Promo - May 19th, 2009’ (Fox, 2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5O28G7TgOw Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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How Shrek Changed Hollywood
May 1800:12:24Tap to summarizeDreamworks’ irreverent animated comedy Shrek opened in 3,500 U.S. theaters on 18th May, 2001 - dethroning The Mummy Returns with a $42 million opening weekend, and eventually raking in nearly $500 million worldwide. But the journey to swampy superstardom was anything but smooth. The project bounced around for a decade, surviving the death of Chris Farley, the original voice of Shrek, and burning through so many scriptwriters (whose work never saw the light of day) that the animation department became known as the ‘gulag’. In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca reveal how Jeffrey Katzenberg modelled Lord Farquaad after Disney CEO Michael Eisner; recall a time when computer animation needed to be seen to be believed; and consider how the film’s innovative use of pop music, celebrity voices and adult humour changed animated filmmaking forever… Further Reading: • ‘Shrek at 20: How a Chaotic Project Became a Beloved Hit’ (The New York Times, 2021): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/movies/shrek-20th-anniversary.html • ’How 'Shrek' was created as a skewed criticism of Disney’ (Far Out Magazine, 2024): https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/shrek-criticism-disney/ • ‘Shrek (2001) Trailer #1’ (Dreamworks, 2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwXOrWvPBPk Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it. The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: Ollie Peart. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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The Unkillable King George
May 1500:10:42Tap to summarizeGeorge III narrowly dodged a bullet for the SECOND time in one day on 15th May, 1800, as he attended a performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The assassination attempt came from James Hadfield, a clinically insane former soldier, who rose from the pit and fired a pistol at the King, causing uproar in the audience. Despite the danger, George remained composed, even using his opera glasses to survey the disarray. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how the leading playwright of the era swiftly calmed nerves with some poetic ingenuity; explain why George III remained popular in this era, despite the repeated attempts on his life; and marvel at how, amidst apparent danger everywhere, the Show really did Go On… Further Reading: • ‘The Theatre Royal and The Case of Two Mad King Georges’ (The National Archives, 2013): https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-theatre-royal-and-the-case-of-two-mad-king-georges/ • ‘James Hadfield: His Attempt on King George III’s Life’ (Geri Walton, 2021): https://www.geriwalton.com/james-hadfield-his-attempt-on-king-george-iiis-life/#_ftn1 • ‘The Madness of King George’ (Channel Four Films, 1994): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8lJ8XzX_GM We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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America's Last Witchtrial
May 1400:11:11Tap to summarizeCan ‘mesmeric’ mental powers harm you from afar? Well, no. But that didn’t stop Lucretia L. S. Brown accusing fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of ‘malicious animal magnetism’ in court; a case that concluded on 14th May, 1878. No doubt bolstered by the fact it took place in Salem, Massachusetts - home of the historic American witchcraft trials, in the 1690s - the case aroused public interest with its judgements on mind control and spiritualism. In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion consider the gender politics of witchcraft trials, examine the enduring popularity of folk magic in rural communities, and uncover the surprising rise of witchcraft in the 21st century... Further reading: • ‘The Other Salem Witchtrials’ - a blog-post from the Oxford University Press: https://blog.oup.com/2013/04/the-other-salem-witch-trials/ • Brian A. Pavlac investigates the ‘original’ Salem witch trials for TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVd8kuufBhM • ‘The Long Lost Friend’ by John George Hohman (1820): https://archive.org/details/0223252.nlm.nih.gov/page/n5/mode/2up Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2021. #1800s #US Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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The Man Who Shot The Pope
May 1300:13:50Tap to summarizePope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square on 13th May 1981, in front of thousands of pilgrims attending his weekly general audience. Struck multiple times at close range, he collapsed in his Fiat Popemobile, as panic swept through the square. The gunman was Mehmet Ali Ağca, a 23-year-old Turkish national with a history of political violence (an accomplice was reportedly meant to have triggered an explosion to aid his escape, but this plan failed). Ağca was immediately overpowered by bystanders, including security personnel and a nun, while the Pope was rushed to hospital, where he underwent hours of emergency surgery after life-threatening internal injuries and massive blood loss. Prior to the attack, Ağca had escaped from prison in Turkey, where he had been convicted of murdering journalist Abdi İpekçi. He left behind threats explicitly targeting the Pope, yet after his arrest offered shifting and often conflicting explanations for his actions - variously blaming Western imperialism, the Soviet Union, or other global actors. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the likelihood the attack was ordered by an extremist group such as the Grey Wolves; marvel at the Pope’s response, including visiting Ağca in prison and persuading the Italian President to pardon him; and explain how the date of the attempted assasination coinciding with the earlier Our Lady of Fátima apparitions added a divine dimension to the story… Further Reading: • ‘May 13, 1981: Pope John Paul II shot in St. Peter's square’ (CBS News, 2016): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/on-this-day-may-13-1981-pope-john-paul-ii-shot-in-st-peters-square/ • ‘Mehmet Ali Ağca, The Man Who Tried To Kill Pope John Paul II’ (All That’s Interesting, 2026): https://allthatsinteresting.com/mehmet-ali-agca • ‘On this day: Pope John Paul II shot outside the Vatican’ (CBS News, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26JPN4Qh7gs #Catholic #80s #Shocking #ColdWar We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Richard I's Awkward Wedding Night
May 1200:11:08Tap to summarizeRichard the Lionheart was a bachelor into his thirties, but finally got hitched on May 12th, 1191, at the Chapel of St. George at Limassol, Cyprus. His Bride? Berengaria of Navarre, daughter of King Sancho VI - a key ally in extending his Kingdom across Europe. Sure, he may have already slept with her brother, but hey, that’s less awkward than marrying his original betrothed princess, his father’s mistress. The marriage was indifferent and potentially unconsummated; Berengaria becoming the only English Queen in history never to set foot in England. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the happy couple came to be wed in Cyprus in the first place; investigate whether it really is sacrilegious to get married over Lent; and consider historians’ claims that Richard’s proclivity for sharing a bed with the King of France was purely symbolic... Further Reading: • 8 Surprising Facts About Medieval King Richard the Lionheart (HistoryExtra, 2020): https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/8-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-richard-the-lionheart/ • ‘Berengaria of Navarre: Queen Consort to Richard I’ (ThoughtCo, 2020): https://www.thoughtco.com/berengaria-of-navarre-3529619 • ‘LGBTQ Kings & Queen of England’ (History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eeJqrJ84Xs Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #Royals #1100s #Cyprus #LGBT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Dynasty's Flamboyant Finale
May 1100:12:35Tap to summarizeWith big hair, big drama, and even bigger shoulder pads, Aaron Spelling’s primetime soap-opera ‘Dynasty’ defined the 1980s. But, by May 11th, 1989, the show’s popularity was waning - and, even though the showrunners didn’t know it, ABC broadcast what was to be its final episode. The nine-season saga chronicled the jaw-dropping lives of the fabulously wealthy Carringtons. Known for its ludicrously dramatic storylines — from amnesia to surprise murders — the show wrapped up in spectacularly unresolved fashion, with gunshots, people falling off balconies, and characters locked in bank vaults. Created as a glitzy response to Dallas, Dynasty began modestly, but all that changed with the arrival of Joan Collins as the delightfully vicious Alexis Carrington. Her catfights with her rival Krystle — often conducted in designer gowns and usually ending in ponds or fountains — became the stuff of television legend. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the show’s weekly wardrobe budget; revisit a shocking terrorist storyline; and reveal which famous executive was responsible for the series’ demise… Further Reading: • ‘End of the reign for ''Dynasty'’ (Entertainment Weekly, 1997): https://ew.com/article/1997/05/09/end-reign-dynasty/ • ‘Return to 'Dynasty' : Those Loose Ends? They're Tying Them Up Now’ (Los Angeles Times, 1991): https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-16-ca-2527-story.html • ’Dynasty’ (ABC, 1989): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK1f4KtCwzk Love the show? Support us! Join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcribe →Cocaine + Caffeine = Coca-Cola
May 800:12:26Tap to summarizeJohn Pemberton launched Coca-Cola from a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, on 8th May, 1886. Legend has it that a serendipitous mishap had led to the addition of carbonated water, transforming the medicinal tonic into a fizzy beverage that would capture the public's imagination. But in fact, Pemberton's original formula - Pemberton's French Wine Coca - had already been attracting a following; but it had to be relaunched to the market in a non-alcoholic formula, because it boasted wine among its ingredients, at the onset of temperance legislation in Atlanta. Nobody seemed bothered that it contained cocaine, however... In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Coke’s origins lay in curing morphine addiction; consider how strategic marketing, aggressive advertising, and a stroke of luck in a bottling deal pushed Coca-Cola’s proliferation across the globe; and reveal why their iconic logo is written in handwritten script… Further Reading: • ‘Vin Mariani: The Cocaine Wine Beloved by Popes and Presidents’ (Mental Floss, 2021): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/644226/vin-mariani-cocaine-wine-history • ’John Pemberton And The Quiet Tragedy Behind Coca-Cola's Invention’ (All That’s Interesting, 2017): https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-pemberton • ‘John Pemberton and the invention of Coca-Cola (The Coca-Cola Company, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxrIgUGfJ8c We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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