ABC

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Channel • 12 Shows

Health & Fitness

Health & Fitness

Series
History

History

Updated weekly
Science

Science

Updated twice weekly
History

History

Weekly series
Documentary

Documentary

Updated weekly
History

History

Series
Personal Journals

Personal Journals

Series

5 JAN

The Forgotten Female Codebreakers of WWII

As the Second World War raged in the Pacific, there was a team of codebreakers in Australia working around the clock intercepting and deciphering Japanese messages. It was Australia’s own Bletchley Park, but the team were young, female and worked in a shed. And they called themselves The Garage Girls. Author Alli Sinclair tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) the story of these codebreakers and how they secured the Allies’ victory in the Pacific, only to be lost in history... until now. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

5 Jan

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26 min
25 JAN

The colony that broke Scotland (and made Great Britain)

It was meant to be Scotland’s saving grace - a bold plan to build a colony and dominate global trade. But disease, starvation, and frankly just bad planning was their undoing... and the failed outpost paved the way for a union with their biggest rival. Archaeologist Mark Horton tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about the story of the Darien Scheme and how the failed venture bankrupted Scotland, deepened economic despair, and indirectly paved the way for the 1707 Act of Union with England, arguably changing the course of British history. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

25 Jan

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22/12/2025

The Nativity Scene You Know—And The One You Don’t

You see it on Christmas cards, in shop windows and at your local church. The nativity scene is everywhere at this time of year. But the scene you know of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus in the manger, with some animals around is actually thanks to some mistranslations and a popular saint in the Middle Ages who wanted to imprint the story of the birth of Christ into people’s memory. Art historian Mary McGillivray tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about the first nativity play and why its tableau has lasted over 800 years. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

22/12/2025

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25 min
12 JAN

The ballet that caused a riot and changed music

When you combine Russian ballet, French aristocracy, and a little bit of Walt Disney you get a recipe for a riot and one of the most important musical moments in history. Host of Radio National’s The Music Show, Andrew Ford, sits down at the piano and tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about why Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was so confronting that it caused a riot in 1913 and how it went on to change music forever. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

12 Jan

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26 min
29/12/2025

Time is Chaos. The Calendar Tries (And Fails) to Fix That.

From moons to mind bending maths and revolutions, the story of how we got the modern calendar is messy. Matthew Champion, Associate Professor in History at the University of Melbourne, takes Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) through time to understand the many iterations of calendars and why the one we use today can still be improved. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

29/12/2025

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26 min
18 JAN

The Hollywood femme fatale who invented wi-fi

She was called the most beautiful woman in the world and was seen as an exotic Hollywood star in the 1930s. But Hedy Lamarr was more than that. She was also an inventor. During WWII she patented a technology to sink German U-boats. It was ignored and shelved, only to be picked up decades later to and be used every day on our phones and computers. Ruth Barton, Emeritus Professor of Film from Trinity College Dublin, tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about how Hedy Lamarr invented the foundations of wi-fi and why it took decades for it to be a part of her legacy. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

18 Jan

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15/12/2025

An 1843 Lifehack Became a Christmas Tradition

There’s one man you can thank - or curse - for your hand cramp after writing all your Christmas cards. Sir Henry Cole was a ‘dumpy’ Englishman who had too many jobs and not enough time to write back to his friends and family so he created the first Christmas card in 1843. It caused quite the stir, and not exactly in the way he expected. Author and all-things-Christmas expert Ace Collins tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) how the Christmas holiday evolved in Victorian England and why the first Christmas card took the country - and the world - by storm. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

15/12/2025

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26 min
11/06/2024

Out of the closet and into the frat house

Growing up, AJ Lamarque was always just ‘one of the girls’. But in his twenties, he inadvertently joined a very big, very American college fraternity. Strangely enough, this crash course in male friendship — in the strangest of settings — taught him a great lesson.

11/06/2024

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22 min
SEASON 1, EPISODE 7

Blood On The Tracks 07 | Face To Face

Years of investigation have led to this moment ... a major breakthrough in the case, a potential answer to thirty years of mystery and pain for the Haines family. An alleged confession has revealed who might have placed Mark’s body on the train tracks on that summer night in 1988. Now it’s time to put the question to him — did he have anything to do with Mark’s death? Will Allan finally have some answers for Uncle Duck?

S1, E7

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30 min
SEASON 2, EPISODE 3

Barrenjoey Road 03 | The Hunting Ground

A chilling visit to bushland where abducted hitch-hikers are taken. In the days and weeks after Trudie’s disappearance, a series of women come forward to the police telling similar, terrible stories about being targeted by two men on the northern beaches. At least 14 women have been abducted while hitchhiking or walking home. They are taken out to bushland, sexually assaulted and warned not to tell anyone. They don’t... until Trudie disappears. Many wonder if what happened to them had also happened to Trudie. The shadows of the bush are about to give up secret horrors... gunshots, a grave and an assault so depraved it could only have been committed by a criminal monster.

S2, E3

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37 min

The ABC's most bingeworthy podcasts.