Seemingly Unrelated

Seemingly Unrelated Podcast

Welcome to Seemingly Unrelated! The podcast where we connect the seemingly mundane elements of everyday life, to the most unbelievable but true stories and events across: history, society, and culture. Each episode Dr. Andrew Johnstone will draw completely outrageous connections between simple things in life and their seemingly unrelated connections. How did Sperm Whales help re-elect Margaret Thatcher? What do Spelling Bees have to do with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1888? Is the guy who invented CAPTCHA secretly Batman? These questions and more are answer in Seemingly Unrelated. Seemingly Unrelated Podcast is owned and produced by Life's Little Murder Boards Ltd. Company number: SC852204 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 31 JAN

    Did Nintendo Start as a Criminal Organization?

    Well...not entirely but...sort of? Welcome back to Seemingly Unrelated, while the main feed is on hiatus the bonus feed is still racking up coins and smashing our heads inexplicably into floating bricks. The full bonus episodes are available exclusively on Patreon for the low price of $2/month sign up now to find out what Nintendo has to do with Arab oil cartels, tobacco giants, and the Yakuza themselves... go to http://www.patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated to get the rest of this episode #nintendo  @NintendoJP  @beforemario  @GameHistoryOrg  #hanafuda #yakuza #darkhistory #videogamehistory Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11 min

  2. 16/12/2025

    The Terrifying Tale of Christmas Island w/Alice Fraser (preview)

    Here is a little preview of our final bonus episode with Alice Fraser. Go to patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated to unlock the rest of the episode for as little as $2. Also, you can book Alice Fraser to help you with your creative work just go to https://www.patreon.com/AliceFraser or https://www.alicecomedyfraser.com/ for details her workshops are exceptional and reasonably priced. Christmas Island is a really bad song, but not nearly as bad as what's been happening on Christmas Island. That means we needed to find someone extra good to help explore this history and we invited romance novelist, prolific podcaster, comedian/lawyer and all around good egg Alice Fraser to help us answer some questions about Christmas Island like: How boring was the naming of islands in the 17th/18th century? Is the British military responsible for giving a bunch of people cancer? How important is it to introduce your toddler to Godzilla? And of course: If Batman funded his vigilante life style with his own poo would we be so mad about all the punching of poor people? All this and more in our holiday bonus spectacular of Seemingly Unrelated Bibliography: Alexis-Martin, Becky. “The Atomic History of Kiritimati – a Tiny Island Where Humanity Realised Its Most Lethal Potential.” The Conversation, July 4, 2019. https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.uhxvuqp3p. Australian Border Force Website. “Australian Border Force Website.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://www.abf.gov.au/. “Bird-Lore/Volume 01/No. 2/Suggestions for Bird-Day Programs - Wikisource, the Free Online Library.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bird-Lore/Volume_01/No2/Suggestionsfor_Bird-Day_Programs. “Bugbog.Com/Kiribati_line/Christmas_island.Htm.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://www.bugbog.com/kiribati_line/christmas_island.htm. “Christms Island.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/history-online/christmas-island.html. “Formerly Disputed Islands | U.S. Department of the Interior.” Site page. June 12, 2015. https://www.doi.gov/oia/islands/disputedislands. Gómez-gallego, Tamara, Iván Sánchez-castro, Lázaro Molina, et al. “Phosphorus Acquisition by Plants: Challenges and Promising Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century.” Pedosphere 35, no. 1 (2025): 193–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedsph.2024.05.002. “Protecting Birds Where They Live and Migrate.” BirdLife International, March 22, 2021. https://www.birdlife.org/projects/ibas-mapping-most-important-places/. The Andrews Sisters – The Vocal Group Hall of Fame. n.d. Accessed December 14, 2025. https://vocalgroup.org/inductees/the-andrews-sisters/. “TimesMachine: July 25, 1856 - NYTimes.Com.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1856/07/25/77054566.html?zoom=14.61&pageNumber=8. We Were but Sailing by – Early Impressions of Christmas Island. April 19, 2019. https://christmasislandarchives.com/we-were-but-sailing-by-early-impressions-christmas-island/. Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    31 min

  3. 09/12/2025

    The Christmas Curse of Japan- Season 2 Finale! w/Alicia Britt

    Welcome to the season finale of Seemingly Unrelated! We've managed 46 episodes so far and we'll be returning in March with season 3 (bonus eps continually monthly patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated ) To cap it off this festive season we'll be traveling to Japan where holidays like Christmas should seem to be unrelated already, but it gets even weirder. Why is there a Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa Suit every December? What decidely un-Christian like business has its busiest day of the year on Dec 25th? More importantly: Who is Randy Bass and what has he got to do with buckets of Christmas Chicken? Joining us again is fan favorite co-host Alicia Britt to answer this secret blend of 11 secrets and spices and to tackle the most daunting mystery of them all: Is 7-11 actually from Asia? All this and more on the seasonally themed season finale of Seemingly Unrelated! 02:48 Episode Proper Starts for new people Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min

  4. 25/11/2025

    Do Nutrition Labels Actually Tell Us Anything About Nutrition? w/Amy Weldon

    When you look at the back of the box of your favorite ready-to-eat meal, where does the list of macromolecules and daily requirements on the nutrition label come from? That's what we are going to find out this week on Seemingly Unrelated as we explore the unusually recent history of the nutrition label by asking: What did we do before we added these things in 1994? Why don't vitamins and minerals show up on every nutrition label? What role did World War II play in getting the governments of the world to take action on minimal nutrition? And why do the founders of vitamines [sic] Funk & McCollum sound like second rate musical writers? We're joined this week by the host of the Blue Collar White Coat podcast, she is a professional science communicator perfectly positioned to talk about the difficulties in translating hard science to public consumption it's Amy Weldon! Together we will find out the greatest mystery of all: Did a corpulant, Victorian undertaker trick us all into counting carbs from beyond the grave? Only here, on Seemingly Unrelated! Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
  5. Have Zoos Been Running the World for 4000 Years? w/Chris Mancini

    11/11/2025

    Have Zoos Been Running the World for 4000 Years? w/Chris Mancini

    !!ALERT ALERT!! GO TO BIT.LY/ALPHACAT1 RIGHT NOW THE FUND ENDS FRI 14 NOV !!ALERT ALERT!! The gorilla enclosure seconds the motion to sanction the cave bats for their hoarding of fresh fruit resources. More like the Zoo-nited Nations amirite? I'll stop. On this episode we are diving into the other controversial history behind zoos as explore the ways in which zoos and zoo animals have been used in international diplomacy. Was the first ever zoo made up of trophies from conquest or a contemplative garden to debate the animalistic nature of man? Does the English heraldry actually feature three leopards instead of lions? How long is too long for a zoo to put animals in poorly maintained cages before someone intervenes? And of course, did a polar bear really go swimming in the Thames river every day? To help us answer these questions we must call upon podcasting veteran, director of the film Earbuds: The Podcasting Documentary and current media mogul at White Cat Entertainment it's Chris Mancini! He'll help us answer that most important question of all: What makes panda bears so damn popular and is it a secret conspiracy? All this and more will be answered this week on Seemingly Unrelated! To get the full show notes click here Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 6m
  6. The True Terror Behind Witch Costumes

    28/10/2025

    The True Terror Behind Witch Costumes

    It's the Seemingly Unrelated Spoooooktacular! We've got a terrifying and spinetingling episode for you this week as we look deep into the history of Witch iconography: the point hat, the broom, the black cat, not the nose though...the nose thing is just exactly what you think it is. Our guide through this spectre of deeply problematic horrors is in fact Michael Johnstone from Walkie Talky Brewing who has to take the reigns because of a Halloween curse placed on Andrew in 1987 that prevents him from leading on main feed spooky episodes. Michael is better placed for this one because we'll be tackling a popular internet question: Were witches actually just beer brewers who ran afoul of Christian anti-drinking sentiments? Find out as we repeat the same incantation as a woman around the cauldron did but get all the credit this Halloween on Seemingly Unrelated! Get the full bibliography on the free post patreon.com/Seeminglyunrelated Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
  7. Was the 2008 Housing Collapse Predicted by Hollywood? w/Phil W. Bayles

    14/10/2025

    Was the 2008 Housing Collapse Predicted by Hollywood? w/Phil W. Bayles

    We're talking about the very real and physical place that is Hollywood, CA on this episode of Seemingly Unrelated. Why are the hills around Los Angeles filled with the rich and famous while the valleys are home to much more socio-economic diversity? Did film studios set up shop in Hollywood because of the weather? Has the 9th circuit court of appeals been holding back patent law for 150 years? Were the seeds of the Great Recession sown in the Great Depression itself? We dig into these questions with our special guest co-host Phil W. Bayles! Plus, the most famous billboard in the world tricked us all into thinking it was a legitimate piece of history. All this week on a star studded episode of Seemingly Unrelated. Here are those wild 9th Circuit Cases I mentioned in the episode: Click Here #Hollywood #RealEstateScam #Edendale #BoyleHeights #UniversalCity #ThomasEdison #Hollywoodhistory #historypodcast #podcast Find the full bibliography for the episode here Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 9m

  8. 30/09/2025

    "No amount of water can wash away genocide" w/ Ophira Gamliel

    At the time of this episode's release we are in the middle of a 10 day period of reflection and piety for the Jewish people. The window between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the 'High Holidays' to many. So, we at Seemingly Unrelated want to take this confluence of events where the High Holidays overlap with an extra 3rd episode of the show inside of a calendar month to put the spotlight on these holidays. What are the High Holidays about? Why are they celebrated so much in the home and not at the temple? How did the Jews of the Malabar coast in South India and the Egyptian god Anubis help shape the meaning of the word "atonement" during these Holidays? What does it mean to atone anyway and how does the shifting nature of that word reflect a flexible Jewish identity spread over thousands of years and bound to no single region of the world? These are the questions we set out to answer on this extra episode as well as to ask what atonement means for the High Holidays of 2025. To help guide us on our journey is our special guest and the person who will be leading the discussion while Andrew learns some new things, Dr. Ophira Gamliel. Ophira is a senior lecturer in religious studies at the University of Glasgow and author of Judaism in South India 849-1489: Relocating Malabar Jewry. If you are listening to this before Oct 2, we also think you'll appreciate this screening of The Rose of Ioannina that is definitely worth checking out. Bibliography: “Eyal Weizman ← Forensic Architecture.” Accessed September 28, 2025. https://forensic-architecture.org/about/team/member/eyal-weizman. Gamliel, Ophira. “Land Fetishism and Genocidal Iconoclasm.” Palestine/Israel Review, The Pennsylvania State University Press, September 2, 2025. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/366001/. Gamliel, Ophira. Matrilineal Jews or Slave Descendants? Halakhic Laws and Trade Alliances in Medieval Malabar. Edited by Mahmood Kooria. Amsterdam University Press, 2024. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/287725/. Google Arts & Culture. “A 13th-Century Manuscript Depicts an Eastern Muslim Boat from Maqamat al-Hariri.” Accessed September 28, 2025. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-13th-century-manuscript-depicts-an-eastern-muslim-boat-from-maqamat-al-hariri/pwHrty-7mcYEsw. Lambourn, Elizabeth A. “‘Things for the Cabin’: Inhabiting the Ocean.” Chapter. In Abraham’s Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World, 189–218. Asian Connections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. 🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube 🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 6m
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About

Welcome to Seemingly Unrelated! The podcast where we connect the seemingly mundane elements of everyday life, to the most unbelievable but true stories and events across: history, society, and culture. Each episode Dr. Andrew Johnstone will draw completely outrageous connections between simple things in life and their seemingly unrelated connections. How did Sperm Whales help re-elect Margaret Thatcher? What do Spelling Bees have to do with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1888? Is the guy who invented CAPTCHA secretly Batman? These questions and more are answer in Seemingly Unrelated. Seemingly Unrelated Podcast is owned and produced by Life's Little Murder Boards Ltd. Company number: SC852204 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Seemingly Unrelated Podcast
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    34
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Seemingly Unrelated Podcast
  • Show Website
    Seemingly Unrelated