Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll. From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages. In just ten minutes! Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

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  1. 22h ago

    California's Courtroom Siege

    Jonathan Jackson, teenage brother of imprisoned black power activist George Jackson, entered the Marin County Courthouse concealing three guns under his raincoat on 7th August, 1970.  In the middle of a trial, he took Judge Harold Haley hostage in a bid to secure his brother's release. The previous year had seen a landmark incident at San Quentin Correctional Facility, when three black inmates were shot dead by white prison guards. George Jackson, Jonathan’s brother, had become a prominent figure, founding a Marxist revolutionary group within the prison and campaigning for justice for the ‘Soledad Brothers’. This context made the courtroom siege an explosive event in the fight against systemic racism. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly detail the brief but deadly shootout that followed in the court’s parking lot; discover why the police opened fire, despite the high-profile hostages; and consider how George Jackson later smuggled a gun into prison… CONTENT WARNING: violence, murder, racism. Further Reading: • ’Marin County Courtroom Shootout’ (Bay Area Television Archive, 1970): https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/190039 • ‘Bloody Breakout at San Rafael’ (LIFE, 1970): https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t1UEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&dq=harold+haley+james+mcclain&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEnYX1q9aGAxWGWEEAHYg8DBoQuwV6BAgEEAY#v=onepage&q=harold%20haley%20james%20mcclain&f=false • ‘San Quentin's Bloodiest Riot | The Story of George Jackson’ (19XX, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzDoYNd5xjk We'll be back on Monday - unless you join 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast. Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    California's Courtroom Siege

  2. 1d ago

    The Shocking Debut of the Electric Chair

    Axe murderer William Kemler became the first person to be put to death by electric chair at Auburn Prison, New York on 6th August, 1890. It did not go smoothly. The first charge failed, and the second was abandoned only after two minutes. Despite the gruesome spectacle, Ohio soon became the second state to authorise death by electrocution. In this episode, Rebecca, Olly and Arion reveal the origins of the word ‘electrocution’, examine the underhand business practices of Thomas Edison; and review the most popular ‘final meal’ choices on Death Row... Content Warning: description of prolonged execution; botched hangings; suicidal thoughts; animal electrocution. Further Reading: • ‘Death and Money: The History of the Electric Chair’ (thoughtco, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/death-money-and-the-history-of-the-electric-chair-1991890 • ‘On This Day: The first execution by electric chair’ (HISTORY, 2010): https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-execution-by-electric-chair • ‘How Does The Electric Chair Work?’ (The Infographics Show, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsPm3VfNoiE 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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2021. #1800s #Inventions #Person #Crime #White #Macabre #US Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The Shocking Debut of the Electric Chair

  3. 2d ago

    Pepsi Owes Me a Fighter Jet

    Is an ad a legally binding contract? Judge Kimba Wood finally brought the curtain down on one of the strangest disputes to ever reach a courtroom on 5th August, 1999 - concluding that Pepsi's ‘Drink Pepsi, Get Stuff’ promotion had not, in fact, truly promised customers a Harrier jump jet in return for 7 million ‘Pepsi points’. Seattle student John Leonard had spotted that Pepsi's promotion allowed customers to buy additional Pepsi Points for 10 cents each, provided they submitted at least 15 genuine points. Backed by millionaire investor Todd Hoffman, he submitted a cheque for $700,008.50, claiming enough points to redeem the fighter jet. Pepsi refused, insisting the advert was clearly tongue-in-cheek, but the audacious stunt sparked a years-long legal battle. Pepsi emerged victorious, but many observers felt the company had missed a golden opportunity to embrace the joke and turn Leonard into part of their ‘Cola wars’ campaign, rather than fighting him in court. Instead, Pepsi quietly altered the advert, increasing the Harrier's price to 700 million points and adding the words "Just Kidding", and the Pentagon stepped in to confirm that Harrier jump jets were not available for private purchase. In today's episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the Simpsons episode that might have influenced Leonard’s thinking; consider whether Pepsi ultimately benefitted from the publicity; and discover just how much money Leonard turned down in a pre-court settlement... Further Reading: • ‘‘Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?’ - when Pepsi was sued and advertising changed forever’ (Content, 2022): https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news/pepsi-wheres-my-jet-when-pepsi-was-sued-and-advertising-changed-forever/ • ‘What Happened to John Leonard? Where the Man Who Sued Pepsi Is Now’ (Newsweek, 2022): https://www.newsweek.com/what-happened-john-leonard-sued-pepsi-wheres-my-jet-netflix-1760569 • ‘Harrier Jet Commercial 1’ (Pepsi, 1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdackF2H7Qc&t=1s #Legal #Strange #90s #Advertising #Business 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 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Pepsi Owes Me a Fighter Jet

  4. 3d ago

    Put Him in the Stocks!

    The public stocks in St Clement’s Dane’s parish (now Portugal Street in London’s Strand) were finally dismantled on 4th August, 1826. They had originally been mandated in 1351, to subjugate labourers demanding higher wages.  Not to be confused for pillories (which restrain both head and hands), stocks (which restrain only the feet) were used for lesser ‘crimes’, such as homosexuality, heresy, and drunkenness. The treatment of prisoners was essentially at the crowd’s discretion: at the minor end of the scale, humiliation, but, if rocks or bricks were thrown, sometimes fatality.  In this episode, Arion, Rebeca and Olly uncover celebrities-in-the-stocks Cardinal Wolsey and Daniel Defoe; explain why this medieval punishment was never formally abolished in Britain; and reveal the ecclesiastical purpose of ‘the finger stocks’...  Further Reading: • ‘Haydn's Dictionary of Dates Relating to All Ages and Nations’ (E. Moxon and Company, 1866): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Haydn_s_Dictionary_of_Dates_Relating_to/Aq9CAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1826+stocks+removed+from+st+clement+danes&pg=PA690&printsec=frontcover • ‘The use of public corporal punishment up to the 19th century - Methods of punishment’ (BBC Bitesize): https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z938v9q/revision/3 • ‘What It Was Like to Be In the Stocks’ (Weird History, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sUhH3SYrU 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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #London #Crime #Medieval #Victorian #Strange Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Put Him in the Stocks!

  5. 4d ago

    Virginia Woolf's Diary

    Virginia Woolf returned to her journal after a two-year hiatus on 3rd August, 1917. In the gap, she had suffered a major mental breakdown, attempted suicide, and been under intense medical supervision. Her rural retreat at Asheham in Sussex became both her sanctuary and a kind of nature-fueled therapy zone where she convalesced under a strict routine of “bed, walk, bed.” Woolf's diary captures everything—creative breakthroughs, emotional collapses, what she had for lunch, and who annoyed her that week - from mundane observations to reflections on depression and mortality. She compared her journaling to practicing musical scales, a creative warm-up: one day she’s raving about Eliot and fretting about Joyce, and the next she’s lamenting a lack of eggs. Through it all, we see a mind battling itself: sharp, self-aware, and constantly asking, what’s the point of all this? In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly dig out some warts-and-all passages for scrutiny; explain how archivists literally had to stick certain bits back together again; and ask how Woolf would fare as a twenty-first century micro-blogger… Content Warning: suicide, clinical depression, eugenics. Further Reading: • ‘Virginia Woolf’s living book’ (New Statesman, 2023): https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/07/virginia-woolfs-diaries-review • ‘Discover the Bloomsbury Group's connection to Sussex’ (Great British Life, 2021): https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/sussex/22568606.discover-bloomsbury-groups-connection-sussex/ • ‘The Recorded Voice Of Virginia Woolf’ (BBC, 1937): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8czs8v6PuI 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 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Virginia Woolf's Diary

  6. 5d ago ·  Bonus • Subscribers Only

    EXTRA: Smashing Up Carthage

    Did Hannibal and the Romans have anything in common? We’ll never know, because the Romans smashed up the evidence… as Olly and Arion discuss, in this bonus bit exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon. Thanks for supporting the show!

  7. 5d ago • Subscribers Only

    Hannibal's Tactical Victory

    The Battle of Cannae on 2nd August 216 BC, is considered one of history's greatest tactical victories. During the Second Punic War, Hannibal's Carthaginian army faced a Roman force almost twice its size in southern Italy, yet achieved a devastating victory that came closer than any other battle to destroying the Roman Republic. By the time the two armies met, Hannibal had already pulled off the seemingly impossible by marching his army - including war elephants - across the Alps and defeating the Romans at Trebia and Lake Trasimene. Rome briefly adopted a cautious strategy of avoiding pitched battles, but for this clash assembled an enormous army, confident that sheer numbers would overwhelm Hannibal once and for all. Instead, Hannibal lured them into one of the most famous traps in military history. His deliberately weakened centre slowly fell back, tempting the Romans to push ever deeper into what looked like a retreat. At the same time, his veteran troops and superior cavalry swept around both flanks, surrounding the Roman army from every direction. Trapped so tightly that many soldiers could scarcely lift their weapons, tens of thousands were killed over the course of the day. In this Sunday Special, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover why Rome's largest army became its greatest military disaster; consider whether Rome should have stuck with its ‘Cunctator’; and reveal how one of history's worst defeats ultimately helped transform the Roman army into the force that built an empire… Further Reading: • ‘A Summer Slaughter – Cannae, August 2, 216 B.C.’ (WarHistory, 2016): https://warhistory.org/article/a-summer-slaughter-cannae-august-2-216-b-c • ‘2,200 years ago Rome got caught in the Thucydides Trap. The result transformed the ancient world’ (HistoryExtra, 2026): https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/long-before-the-ancient-roman-empire-a-different-rival-superpower-looked-destined-for-supremacy/ • ‘Battle of Cannae - Hannibal’ (BBC, 2007): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewWIuow-SLs Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it. The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: Ollie Peart Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

  8. Jul 31

    Little Hugh and the Blood Libel

    Nine year-old ‘Little Hugh’ went missing in Lincoln on 31st July, 1255. A popular narrative emerged that local Jews (in fact gathering for a wedding) had kidnapped, tortured, and crucified him, perhaps even eating his blood; an antisemitic myth that persisted for centuries, only called out by the Church of England in 1955. A local Jewish man called Copin confessed to the crime (after being tortured), claiming to  annually sacrifice Christian children. He was executed and over ninety other Jews were arrested. However, behind-the-scenes negotiations, possibly involving friars and the king’s brother Richard of Cornwall, saw most Jews quietly released by May 1256, suggesting an awareness of the falsehoods fuelling the hysteria. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why it was often in the population’s financial interest to perpetuate the ‘blood libel’; consider how the legacy of ‘Little Hugh’ has morphed into modern conspiracy theories like QAnon; and reveal how one enterprising Lincoln resident tried to cash in on Little Hugh tourism in the 1920s… Further Reading: • ‘Religion: The Legend of Little Hugh’ (TIME, 1959) https://time.com/archive/6827883/religion-the-legend-of-little-hugh/ • ‘Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln revisited | Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks’ (Times Of Israel, 2016): https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/little-saint-hugh-of-lincoln-revisited/ • ‘780. Little Sir Hugh (Child 155) - (Traditional)’ (Raymond Crooke, 2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXUL3h5Q5lY We'll be back on Monday - unless you join🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!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 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Little Hugh and the Blood Libel
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Curious, funny, surprising daily history - with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll. From the invention of the Game Boy to the Mancunian beer-poisoning of 1900, from Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain to America's Nazi summer schools... each day we uncover an unexpected story for the ages. In just ten minutes! Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Get early access and ad-free listening at Patreon.com/Retrospectors or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

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