Trapped History trappedhistory

Guitars, light shows, psychedelia . . . Any idea who might unexpectedly be making their way into the Hall of Fame?
Tune in to hear Martin Gutmann's nominee. We guarantee you'll have heard of them before but not necessarily for Martin's reasons. It's a truly fascinating listen which might change the way you think about bands, friends and music.

He's the greatest explorer the world has ever known – the first to navigate the fabled North-West Passage, the first to reach the South Pole, the first to the impossible North. But how much do we really know about Roald Amundsen?
More precisely, how much do we want to know? Surely, the tangled heroics of Scott of the Antarctic and of Ernest Shackleton make for more exciting reading than the careful, boring tales of Amundsen? They faced crises with fortitude, didn't they – while he simply, well, succeeded?
That is, perhaps, the point. So join Oswin and Carla on our enthralling season finale as we dissect 'The Hero's Journey' and the 'Action Fallacy' in the company of Professor Martin Gutmann – and find out why we all deserve to know more about Amundsen and his unseen leadership.

Didn’t think we’d need to introduce you to Winston Churchill on Trapped History, but if you want to understand the hidden traits of leadership, he’s actually quite important. Though not necessarily for the reasons you might think . . .
Tune in to hear Professor Martin Gutmann discuss the ‘Action Fallacy’ in this exclusive bonus episode. It’s not just about Churchill but it’s key to understanding not only how we so often get leadership all wrong but also the enduring significance of this week’s subject – the greatest explorer the world has ever known: Roald Amundsen.

The Hero's Journey is an ancient human phenomenon. We see it, hear it, read it in stories all the way from the Odyssey to Harry Potter. It is a gripping tale of triumph over adversity, of crisis and fulfillment.
But sometimes we need more than heroes. Tune in to hear Professor Martin Gutmann challenge the way the Hero's Journey has been used to teach people about leadership. In this exclusive extract from our latest episode, Martin compares the heroics of Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen and reaches some unexpected conclusions.
It's a fascinating taster for the full episode, dropping on 22nd February 2024.

We ask all our guests to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Someone we've not heard of but should have.
Most of our nominees are long gone – but Dee Jarrett-Macauley follows in the footsteps of Pete Paphides and nominates someone who is well and truly alive and kicking: the great publisher and writer Margaret Busby, whose Daughters Of Africa anthologies changed the way poetry was published in Britain.

Poet, playwright, publisher. Campaigner, broadcaster, journalist. Six people in one, but if we've heard of Una Marson, it's usually because of her brief shining moment during the Second World War when she became the voice and face of the Caribbean through her pioneering work at the BBC.
Tune in to hear about the six lives of Una Marson as Oswin and Carla are joined by her biographer and Orwell Prize winner, Dee Jarrett-Macauley. It's a tale of a young woman who came to represent a whole region, a whole continent even – and who sometimes found that burden too heavy to shake off.
It's an inspirational story, it's a sad one too. But it's a story of our times – when the personal and the political become one.