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Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors
  • 4.5 (110)
  • History
  • Updated Daily

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.

  1. The Day Nero Died

    4h ago

    The Day Nero Died

    Nero, the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, killed himself on 9th June AD 68. Having fled Rome to a suburban villa after being declared a ‘public enemy’ by the Senate, he stabbed himself through the throat. Probably. Within months of his death, rumours began that Nero still lived and would return in glory to reclaim his empire. Instead, the historians of the era - albeit never averse to embellishment to make an artistic point - documented the horrors of his reign, including his forced marriage to a  slave boy and turning Christians into wax candles. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look back on the more enlightened early days of Nero’s emperorship; consider his incestuous rise to the throne; and explain why his story, perhaps more than anything, is a warning about working with a frustrated actor…  Content Warning: suicide, incest, torture, religious persecution. Further Reading: • ‘Emperor Nero: Facts, Life and Biography’ (History Extra, 2020): https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/emperor-nero-facts-biography-tyrant-crimes-accomplishments/ • ‘On this day in AD 68: The death of the tyrannical Emperor Nero’ (Telegraph, 2017): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/day-ad-68-death-tyrannical-emperor-nero/ • ‘The Downfall of Nero's Scandalous Reign’ (Smithsonian, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJvQa_cnr5Q 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 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    13 min
  2. The Day Nero Died

    11h ago • Subscribers Only

    The Day Nero Died

    Nero, the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, killed himself on 9th June AD 68. Having fled Rome to a suburban villa after being declared a ‘public enemy’ by the Senate, he stabbed himself through the throat. Probably. Within months of his death, rumours began that Nero still lived and would return in glory to reclaim his empire. Instead, the historians of the era - albeit never averse to embellishment to make an artistic point - documented the horrors of his reign, including his forced marriage to a  slave boy and turning Christians into wax candles. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look back on the more enlightened early days of Nero’s emperorship; consider his incestuous rise to the throne; and explain why his story, perhaps more than anything, is a warning about working with a frustrated actor…  Content Warning: suicide, incest, torture, religious persecution. Further Reading: • ‘Emperor Nero: Facts, Life and Biography’ (History Extra, 2020): https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/emperor-nero-facts-biography-tyrant-crimes-accomplishments/ • ‘On this day in AD 68: The death of the tyrannical Emperor Nero’ (Telegraph, 2017): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/day-ad-68-death-tyrannical-emperor-nero/ • ‘The Downfall of Nero's Scandalous Reign’ (Smithsonian, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJvQa_cnr5Q 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. This episode originally aired in 2024.

    11 min
  3. Who You Gonna Call?

    1d ago

    Who You Gonna Call?

    ‘Ghostbusters’ opened in US cinemas on 8th June, 1984, quickly becoming the highest-grossing comedy of all time.  The brainchild of SNL’s Dan Aykroyd - whose great-grandfather was a 19th-century psychic investigator - the film was pitched and delivered within 13 months. Drawing inspiration from 1930s ghost comedies, the wisecracking ensemble comedy smashed the Hollywood wisdom that big-budget comedies don’t recoup their investment. In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca survey some original alternative titles for the film; revisit Akroyd’s unworkable first draft (set in the future, with intergalactic travel); and reveal why the production necessitated building a whole effects studio from scratch… Further Reading: • 'Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman on the making of the 1984 comedy: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/ghostbusters-director-ivan-reitman-making-911408/ • Ghostbusters at 30: EW looks back at the making of a comedy classic | Longform - EW.com: https://microsites.ew.com/microsite/longform/ghostbusters/ • ‘Ghostbusters Trailer’ (Columbia Pictures, 1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDkhw5Wkas 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

    11 min

  4. 2d ago ·  Bonus • Subscribers Only

    EXTRA: The Cabinet of Obscene Objects

    There’s much more to the British Museum than we had a chance to discuss in today’s episode - from rigged lottery capitalism to collapsing roofs and a gentlemen-only “porn room” - as Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover in this week’s bonus bit, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon. Thanks for supporting the show, ye abominable monuments to human licentiousness!

    7 min
  5. Sunday Special - Inside the British Museum

    2d ago • Subscribers Only

    Sunday Special - Inside the British Museum

    George II granted royal assent to legislation creating the world’s first national public museum on 7th June, 1753, when the British Museum was formally established. Its collection was founded largely on the extraordinary bequest of Hans Sloane, whose vast holdings included books, manuscripts, coins, antiquities, and botanical specimens. Sloane’s collecting was closely tied to Britain’s colonial system, particularly via Jamaica, where his wife owned sugar plantations worked by enslaved people. But over time, the scale of the museum’s collection became so enormous that entire institutions eventually spun out of it, including the British Library and the Natural History Museum. In this Sunday Special, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the controversies around The Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes; reveal why the museum’s policy of being “open to all studious and curious persons” wasn’t quite as democratic as it sounds; and explain why you’ve never seen 99% of the museum’s collection… Further Reading: • ‘The Controversial History of The British Museum, Explained’ (The Art Insider, 2024): https://www.art-insider.com/the-controversial-history-of-the-british-museum-explained/6231 • ‘7 June 1753: the British Museum is established by Act of Parliament’ (MoneyWeek, 2015): https://moneyweek.com/399609/7-july-1753-the-british-museum-is-established-by-act-of-parliament • ‘The British Museum is full of stolen artifacts’ (Vox, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoTxiRWrvp8 #London #1700s #Arts 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.

    12 min
  6. When Lovelace Met Babbage

    4d ago

    When Lovelace Met Babbage

    When Lord Byron’s 17 year-old daughter, Ada Lovelace, attended a soirée at the home of academic Charles Babbage on 5th June, 1833, the pair hit it off immediately. He invited her to see his ‘Difference Engine’ - an early mechanical calculator - kicking off a correspondence that lasted throughout her life. Their lively, intellectual correspondence, and Ada's deep understanding of mathematics and science, lead to her championing of Babbage’s ‘Analytical Engine’, a groundbreaking proto personal computer for which Ada even wrote an algorithm. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly debate whether Ada deserves her 21st century acclaim as the godmother of computer programming; expose her extramarital affairs and gambling habit; and consider whether Babbage himself even fully understood the applications for what he had invented… Further Reading: • ‘Charles Babbage’s Difference Engines and the Science Museum’ (Science Museum, 2023): https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-difference-engines-and-science-museum • ‘How Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage Invented the World’s First Computer: An Illustrated Adventure in Footnotes and Friendship’ (The Marginalian, 2015): https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/06/15/the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage-sydney-padua/ • ‘Ada Lovelace in “Victoria” (ITV, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOoCOUDdoeA 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

    13 min
  7. Crazy Frog v Coldplay

    5d ago

    Crazy Frog v Coldplay

    ‘The Annoying Thing’ is how the begenitaled amphibian animated by Erik Wernquist was first described; but by the time he released his first single ‘Axel F’ he was universally known as The Crazy Frog, and beat Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ to UK #1 on 4th June, 2005. The tale of how this possibly could have happened is unique to the early days of the internet - a teenager messing about imitating motorbike noises emailed the sound to some friends, Wernquist stumbled across it and put it in his portfolio, and then it was adopted for sale by mobile ringtone company Jamster. In this episode, Olly, Arion and Rebecca consider the value of Crazy Frog’s musical legacy, reveal that he’s not even a frog, and applaud the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for standing up to protest, and permitting us to witness his visible scrotum…  Further Reading: • Crazy Frog - Axel F (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE • ‘Find out how the world’s most annoying noise came about’ - The Sun commemorates Crazy Frog’s 20th birthday (2017): https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2974489/crazy-frog-just-turned-20-relive-his-hellish-magic-here/ • Not So Crazy Frog (Documentary, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vVz1KoU2s There is SEVEN MINUTES of bonus material from our discussion about Crazy Frog. We had a lot to discuss. To hear it, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors and support the show. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min
  8. The Zoot Suit Riots

    6d ago

    The Zoot Suit Riots

    Los Angeles erupted in racist violence on 3rd June, 1943 in a week of riots that exposed deep tensions in wartime America. California’s Mexican-American “Pachuco” youth had adopted the zoot suit style from African-American jazz culture. But to many white Americans the fashion appeared rebellious, unpatriotic and even threatening at a time when wartime rationing had placed strict controls on fabric use. Groups of sailors started targeting zoot suit-wearing youths in downtown Los Angeles, and mob violence - egged on by the LAPD and the state’s newspapers - ensued. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the photographs of bruised and half-dressed Mexican American youths, published under approving headlines; discover how the disorder quickly became an international embarrassment for Roosevelt’s administration; and reveal how the event became a turning point for many young Latinos who went on to reclaim the zoot suit as a symbol of cultural pride… CONTENT WARNING: racist violence. Further Reading: • ‘History of The Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots’ (Latinitas Magazine, 2023): https://latinitasmagazine.org/history-of-the-los-angeles-zoot-suit-riots/ • ‘A Brief History of the Zoot Suit’ (Smithsonian Magazine, 2016): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-zoot-suit-180958507/ • ‘How did the Zoot Suit Riots begin? | American Experience’ (PBS, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SisGQx5loKk&list=PLmh4YIWteoGiaCpzImPBkosURu6yBN03f #Latino #Fashion #WW2 #Racism #US 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

    14 min
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out of 5
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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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