No One Saw It Coming

These days chemotherapy or ‘chemo’ is a common treatment for cancer. But did you know that part of the reason it exists today is because of a terrible accident that happened in Italy during World War 2? The Bari bombing was known as the ‘Little Pearl Harbour’ and it saw hundreds of American and British soldiers killed by mustard gas that was being secretly transported to Europe inside an American...

After the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the United States was on edge. So when it seemed like spies for the Nazis and Mussolini were operating along the harbour in New York, the government decided that something had to be done. So they turned to an unlikely wartime ally: the Italian Mafia.  As Podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) discovers, the clandestine co...

The fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November, 1989, is one of the most famous events of modern history. Not only did it lead to the reunification of East and West Germany, it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the formation of the global political and economic landscape that we know today.  But did you know that this momentous event started with a s...

In schools, universities and colleges around the world, a story gets told about a man named Phineas Gage. He was an American railroad foreman, until one day when an iron rod shot through his head and nearly killed him. After that, he was never the same. In fact, he was something of a monster, a man with limited inhibitions or impulse control, a social outcast. It’s a story that has shaped neurosci...

‘Would you like fries with that?’ It’s the question you’re likely to be asked at McDonalds, Burger King, KFC or Chick-fil-A, no matter where in the world you visit. But what if the only reason French fries are so popular throughout the West today is because of a Queen who lost her head during the French Revolution?  Dr Lauren Samuelsson is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Wollongong wher...

Submarine warfare was considered ‘ungentlemanly’ in terms of the rules of engagement of war until relatively recently… or so we thought!  Dr James Hunter hunts shipwrecks for a living, as part of his job as Curator of Naval Heritage and Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum. This job has allowed him to research a question that could change how we view some historic battles. Were s...

These days people line up for hours to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. But at one stage there were so few people wanting to see this Renaissance painting that she was remarkably easy to steal from the Louvre Museum in Paris. In fact, for a while following the theft, no one even noticed she was gone...  Tiktoker and Art Historian  Mary McGillivray tells podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff The Briti...

The bit players, the unexpected twists, the turning point you missed. Join Walkley award-winner Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) as he uncovers the incredible moments that changed the course of history.