Histories of the Unexpected

Latest Episodes:

Christmas Ep.1 Dec 24, 2016

Show notes

“It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!... Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! ...” (Dr Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 1956)

It can only be the Unexpected History of Christmas!

Let us once again join the Santa of Historical Skepticism, Professor James Daybell and the Charles Dickens of Christmas Past, Dr Sam Willis as they untangle the tinsel and unravel the lights to reveal the unexpected history of Christmas. Upon Santa’s sleigh, they will dash from medieval carousing to a Dickensian Christmas, and from racing crabs on Christmas Island in the 1950s to the Puritans and Christmas riots in Canterbury, 1647.

Like Christmas Elves they’ll assemble the links between rituals and traditions, Minst pies (not a typo) and celebrations, international date lines and land shy ravens. Listen out as James plays ‘guess the day an island was discovered,’ and Sam suggests one way to get two Christmases in one day. Oh, and whoever wrote the song about the three kings following the star, well they may need to rewrite, although it may not have quite the same rhyming style! “God bless us, everyone!” (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843)

“Good tidings we bring for you and your kin

We wish you a merry Christmas

And a happy New Year”

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook Producer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Gift Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Smile Dec 13, 2016

Show notes

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Bed Dec 06, 2016

Show notes

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Party Dec 01, 2016

Show notes

It’s our 10th episode!
So blow out the candles, cut the cake and make a wish!
You are cordially invited to join the Cultivator of Chronicles, Dr Sam Willis, and the Tim Peake of Time, Professor James Daybell as these history DJs get the unexpected history of the party started.
From garden parties to peripatetic English monarchs, from the vomiting ladies of the court of James I to the myth of the Roman Vomitorium, there’s much to celebrate as Sam and James make the links between Edvard Munch and wallflowers and bacchanalian excess and yelling at cider trees in an English orchard. And, of course, no real party could be complete without the furniture being trashed, or in the case of John Evelyn a much-prized 400ft long, 9ft high and 5ft wide, now no longer impenetrable hedge. Wow did those Russians know how to party! Keith Richards had his T.V. set, Keith Moon his exploding toilet, Aerosmith their chainsaw, and Peter the Great … a wheelbarrow.
“Here’s to thee, old apple tree,
Whence thou mayst bud,
And whence thou mayst blow!
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!
Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel – Bushel – sacks full,
And my pockets full too! Huzza!”
(South Hams, Devon, 1871 Wassailing song – in case you wanted to sing to the cider trees).
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boxes Nov 20, 2016

Show notes

Boxes, coffins, letter, houses, locks and more. Sam and James audio-google their way through the unexpected history of boxes.
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Letter Nov 11, 2016

Show notes

Doubt thou the stars are fire,Doubt that the sun doth move,Doubt truth to be a liar, ~Shakespeare, Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia
But never doubt the unexpected historical links as the lieutenant of lifetimes, Professor James Daybell, and the investigator of intrigue, Dr Sam Willis, take the old post road from London to Dover. With a stop-off on Dartmoor, it’s then across the sea to Jamaica as they chart the material history of the letter. From statecraft to warfare, from love to diplomacy, join James and Sam as they uncover the unexpected history of letters. Need tips on how to hit just the right note with a letter to the mother-in- law? Listen out for how the Elizabethan gentlewoman Maria Thynne wrote to hers. You may well be inspired.
History, of course, can only be written if there is evidence on which to base it, and letters provide such rich testimony of the past in so many ways. What would history be, and what tales would remain untold if such vast hoards of letters had not survived? And what of the future, in a world of electronic communication, of Twitter and emojis, and the correspondence of lawyers? Pick up a pen and write some lines, seal them in an envelope and send them away, you never know what you may get back.
"My letters! All dead paper, mute and white!And yet they seem alive and quivering …”~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter FacebookProducer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bubbles! Nov 01, 2016

Show notes

Like a well-spring of historical facts, bubbling over with unexpected links, Dr Sam Willis, the maitre’d of museums, and Professor James Daybell, the inspector of eons, take you on another intoxicating ride through history. From Oliver Cromwell’s Navigation Act of 1651, the American Boys Handy Book and the culture of childhood, South American colonies, and early cancer cures, (and with a little help from Lady Luck) they’ll make the links for the history of the bubble.

How did the need to halt deforestation in the early seventeenth-century spur new technological developments which allowed the British to enjoy their cider fizzy? What does the price of tulip bulbs, which in the mid-1600s reached the equivalent of a modest house, and England’s war debt in the 1700s, have to do with the bubble?

If you have a sore throat listen carefully – for we may have a cure for that! ‘Fire burn and cauldron bubble…’

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod Producer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hair Oct 28, 2016

Show notes

“There’s many a man hath more hair than wit”
But worry not for this is no Comedy of Errors and there’s certainly more to this unexpected history.Let us join our host with the Cranium full of Chronicles, Professor James Daybell, and the Authority of the Archives, Dr Sam Willis as they bob and weave their way through the unexpected history of hair. From the Duke of Wellington and theories of Great Men in history, tonsures and ritual practices, to the political implications of French provocation at sea.
“Like quills upon the fretful porpentine”, they make the hair-raising links via the Bodleian Library, Romsey Abbey, and French ballrooms. It’s enough to turn one’s hair grey; for which P.G. Wodehouse suggests there is only one cure, the guillotine. Too drastic, how about this:
Roman ladies were supposed to use pigeon poo to lighten their hair, or there’s always the sixteenth century cure for baldness to consider … boiled slugs and honey anyone?
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillisProfessor James Daybell - @JamesDaybellFollow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPodHistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook
Producer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lightning Oct 24, 2016

Show notes

I call the Living I mourn the Dead I break the Lightning

(inscribed on the Great Bell of the Minster of Schaffhausen)

Join the Preacher of the Past, Dr Sam Willis and the Antidote to Antiquity, Professor James Daybell, as they steer their very own DeLorean through the unexpectedly charged history of lightning. It will be a high voltage flight from Nelson to Dickensian ghosts. Along the way, they will make the lightning flash links between American Independence, superstitious English sailors, Protestant winds and Nazi P.E kits.

Take a seat, for as Dickens himself said: ‘Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler and a corkscrew,’ for this unexpected history may get a little electrifying.This episode is all about the unexpected history of lightning. Which is all about American independence, and Horatio Nelson's front porch...

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook Producer - Dan Morelle

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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