Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Ten minute daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history, with Olly Mann, Rebec...
Violent ‘town versus gown’ confrontations have been part of Oxford life ever since the University was founded - but reached an ignominious peak on 10th February, 1355, when almost 100 people were massacred in what became known as the ‘St Scholastica’s Day Riot’.
The killing spree began as a brawl in a bar. When a pair of students at the Swindlestock Tavern complained about the quality of the wine, the Landlord responded with “saucie language” - and the students by bottling him. Then, it escalated. A lot.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate how the blood-letting was preceded by decades of tension in the city; explain why such events explain the foundation of Cambridge University; and reveal why the fight was still being discussed in Parliament, some six hundred years later…
Further Reading:
• ‘Rioting over wine led to 90 deaths’ (Oxford Mail, 2011): https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9200746.rioting-wine-led-90-deaths/
• ‘St. Scholastica Day Riot: When English People Killed Dozens Over The Taste Of Wine’ (History Daily): https://historydaily.org/st-scholastica-day-riot-facts-stories-trivia
• ‘The St. Scholastica's Day Riot’ (The History Guy, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3qPzNcJKQM
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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 2025.
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11:37
Preventing Technological Surprise
Inventing the internet and pioneering satellite navigation, U.S. government agency DARPA has had an illustrious history since being founded by President Eisenhower (as the Advanced Research Projects Agency) on February 7th, 1958.
Created in response to the Soviets launching Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, its mission, which continues to this day, is ‘to prevent technological surprise.’
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover how DARPA helped create the humble computer mouse; explain how former Nazi Wernher von Braun found his way to the head of this supposedly All-American organisation; and look forward to a world of self-sustaining surveillance robots eating us out of house and home…
Further Reading:
• ‘Fifty years of DARPA: A surprising history’ (New Scientist, 2008): https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13908-fifty-years-of-darpa-a-surprising-history/
• ‘The Nazi Science That Fed the Apollo 11 Moon Landing’ (Time, 2019): https://time.com/5627637/nasa-nazi-von-braun/
• ‘3 of the strangest projects DARPA has worked on’ (Tech Insider, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hSs0S5FVx8
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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.
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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 2025.
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11:50
Here Come The Minstrels
Blackface performers The Virginia Minstrels - replete with white clown mouths, oversized tailcoats, and bookended by tambourine and bones players - first appeared on 6th February, 1843, at the New York Bowery Amphitheatre. They were an instant hit, but it wasn’t the first time a blackface act had been making (white) crowds laugh.
American minstrelsy originated some 12 years earlier, when white performer Thomas ‘Daddy’ Rice first appeared as ‘Jim Crow’ - a comic parody of an elderly, disabled, enslaved African-American. His act proved so wildly popular the Boston Post reported that only Queen Victoria was a more crowd-pleasing character.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal why it wasn’t only white performers who performed in blackface; examine how Hollywood kept this racist tradition alive long after it had fallen from favour in theatres; and discover that, over the decades, blackface became such an established and celebrated entertainment that it was performed at The White House…
CONTENT WARNING: historical racist language, discussion of racially offensive tropes
Further Reading:
• ‘Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype’ (National Museum of African American History and Culture): https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/blackface-birth-american-stereotype
• ‘Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy - Ed. Stephen Burge Johnson’ (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Burnt_Cork/yxupgt6nNFMC?hl=en&gbpv=0
• ‘Blackface: A cultural history of a racist art form’ (CBS Sunday Morning, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqlD-eZm1ck
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 2025
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11:54
Too Mad To Rule: King George III
George III’s mental incapacitation was formally recognised by Parliament on February 5th, 1811, when The Regency Act handed power to his son, the future George IV.
Though George III had struggled with bouts of illness for decades, his periods of lucidity made it difficult to decide when, or even if, he should be replaced. He resisted the idea of ceding power, particularly to his son, with whom he had a notoriously difficult relationship. Parliament wasn’t thrilled about George IV either, seeing him as indulgent, irresponsible, and politically aligned with the opposition.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine George III’s "mad spells"; discover the shockingly cruel treatments contemporary medicine offered up - including blistering his skin with arsenic, dunking him in freezing water, and using leeches to "suck out the madness" - and explain how he kept the love of his people even as his health declined…
CONTENT WARNING: mental health trauma, infant mortality.
Further Reading:
• ’The King's 'Malady': George III's Mental Illness Explored’ (Historic Royal Palaces):
https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/the-kings-malady-george-iiis-mental-illness-explored/#gs.jra39q
• ‘George IV’ (Historic UK):
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/George-IV/
• ‘Mad King of Britain: King George III 👑 Private Lives of Monarchs’ (Smithsonian Channel, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh0RV27qxSA
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 2025.
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13:03
Meet The Sims
The debut of ‘The Sims’ happened on this day, February 4th, 2000.
Will Wright (‘Sim City’) developed an initial concept which revolved around architecture - but soon the Sims themselves proved to be the most captivating aspect of the gameplay. Unlike other avatars, The Sims lived full lives with jobs, hobbies, relationships, and even their own language, Simlish.
Despite initial scepticism from publisher EA (due to the game’s perceived mundanity and lack of interest to boys) The Sims sold 8 million copies, and millions more in Extension Packs; and, beyond its success, was praised for its humour, soundtrack, and commitment to self-expression.
In this episode, The Retrospectors reveal how same-sex relationships have always been part of the Sims appeal; explain how the game’s sequels pulled off the ultimate in-game meta twist; and uncover how its predecessor Sim City evolved from conventional game design…
Further Reading:
• ‘The Way We Live Now: Questions for Will Wright; How to Win at Life’ (The New York Times, 1999): https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/31/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-10-31-99-questions-for-will-wright-how-to-win-at-life.html?searchResultPosition=5
• ‘Sex and the Sim city: welcome to a whole new world’ (The Times, 2004); https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-and-the-sim-city-welcome-to-a-whole-new-world-nt27s3t6tf8
• ‘The History Of The Sims’ (GameSpot, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7HwKKyUecs
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 2025.
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Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Ten minute daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history, with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll: The Retrospectors.
It's history, but not as you know it!
New eps Mon-Wed; reruns Thurs/Fri; Sunday exclusives at Patreon.com/Retrospectors and for Apple Subscribers.