8 episodes

'History repeats... first as tragedy, then as farce'. Karl Marx said that, and what has he ever got wrong?



The purpose of this podcast is to look back at the times when History has repeated (or rhymed) and try to learn some tentative lessons: try to draw up some common themes, trails, and threads that can inform our future action. Or, perhaps, just despair at the inevitability of endless human erring.

Repeat Until Funny repeatuntilfunny

    • History

'History repeats... first as tragedy, then as farce'. Karl Marx said that, and what has he ever got wrong?



The purpose of this podcast is to look back at the times when History has repeated (or rhymed) and try to learn some tentative lessons: try to draw up some common themes, trails, and threads that can inform our future action. Or, perhaps, just despair at the inevitability of endless human erring.

    Christory/ Histmas

    Christory/ Histmas

    In 'A Christmas Carol', Charles Dickens wrote: “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.” While Dickens clearly wasn’t keeping abreast of the latest developments regarding mutant coronavirus strains, his heart was most probably in the right place. After all, who isn’t moved to tears by that moment in ‘A Christmas Carol’ where Michael Caine buys a turkey for Kermit and his son Robin?
     
    In this Christmas cracker of a podcast (cheaply made, bad jokes, and ultimately disappointing), James and I look at the history of winter revelry. We talk about the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, the (first) cancellation of Christmas, and disconcerting Victorian Christmas cards.      

    • 1 hr 19 min
    Dogstory

    Dogstory

    In a special edition of Repeat Until Funny, James and I bark up the history of dogs, picking the bones of [multiple puns about dogs].
     
    We look at Greyfriars Bobby, the Nazis, and the first dog in space.
     
    Bone appetite.

    • 1 hr 4 min
    Episode 6- Statues: Taken for Granite?

    Episode 6- Statues: Taken for Granite?

    Statues: should they stay or should they go? If they stay there will be trouble, if they go there will be double (which suggests that they should stay as that would reduce the trouble by half).
     
    In this episode, History teacher Cassie Cope and I grapple (not literally) with the topical issue of statues depicting questionable historical figures.

    • 57 min
    Episode 5- (Moral) Panic on the streets of London

    Episode 5- (Moral) Panic on the streets of London

    A moral panic: widespread fear, most often irrational, that someone or something is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of a community or society at large.
     
    This episode of 'Repeat Until Funny' tries to learn the lessons of the Garrotting panic of 1862, where Londoners wore exuberant spiked collars to protect themselves from a wildly exagerrated threat.

    • 1 hr 18 min
    Episode 4- Japantastic

    Episode 4- Japantastic

    This episode of Repeat Until Funny is led by James, who describes himself as a 'globally renowned scholar on Japan who never has made (and never will make) any mistakes on the subject.'
     
    We look at three major Japanese civil wars, the importance of legends and collectivism to Japanese society, as well as how to pronounce Oda Nobunaga.

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Episode 3- Teenage Kicks

    Episode 3- Teenage Kicks

     
    In this episode of Repeat Until Funny, me and James talked about why the old always seem to hate the young.
     
    We look at Ancient Greece, 19th Century Britain, and the American ‘teenager’ of the 1950s and 60s. We also manage to repeatedly lambast and lament the youth of today.
     

    • 1 hr 1 min

Top Podcasts In History

Real Survival Stories
NOISER
Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
Rachel Maddow, MSNBC
History Daily
Airship | Noiser | Wondery
Conspiracy Theories
Spotify Studios
The Ancients
History Hit
Real Dictators
NOISER