The Year Is

The Time Machine has been fitted with the ability to go forward in time for our final episode, after we catch up with how everyone has been for the past 5 weeks, we travel ahead 30 years and Red reveals what the future has in store for Bobby, Red and Jody, and assess what we have all learnt and taken from our experience of doing the podcast. Get a free 7 day trial to our Patreon subscription and j...

Red is still in a Dubai Prison at the time of recording so our much anticipated guest Sean McLoughlin makes a 40 minute walk to chat with Bobby about the first few months of 2020. Flash floods struck Jakarta , Indonesia , killing 66 people in a worst flooding in over a decade, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down by Iranian forces shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini I...

Red is imprisoned in a Dubai prison so the brilliant Radu Isac steps in to guest host and joins Bobby to break down an important year for Radu's home country. By a speech in the Parliament of Romania by Mihail Kogălniceanu , the country declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire (recognized in 1878 after the end of the Romanian independence war). American Indian Wars : Oglala Sioux chief...

This is a very funny episode with the very funny and patient Micky Overman who is left alone with Red whilst Bobby is still away to make sense of a better world, before the world descended, the last year when everything was great, 2015. Musicians Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars recruit 11 writers to pen the sound of the summer "Uptown Funk", 100 people rush to the rescue of a unicyclist trapped under a...

Bobby is still on the run from Interpol, somewhere in the world, so Red sits down with the brilliant Phil Ellis for a deep dive of the most important things that happened in 1981 starting with the birth of very funny Edinburgh Award winning comedian, Phil Ellis, also the very first London Marathon happens and Mozart's Undiscovered Symphony is discovered, also in London. Get tickets to Phil Ellis's...

Red is back and Bobby's gone away so our close friend, Sunil Patel, namesake of Bobby and Harriet's dog steps in to host with Red. The Time Machine is still out of action after we loaned it to OceanGate so we had to walk to 1998, when James Cameron's blockbuster film of the Titanic became the first film to gross $1 billion, California bans smoking in public places, Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham an...

Our very funny friend and honorary Super Genius, Luke Chilton joins Bobby for a deep historical dive of the year 1817 whilst Red is on holiday. An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín , starts crossing the Andes from Argentina , to liberate Chile and then Peru . German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse ("Draisine" or Laufmaschine ), the earliest form of bicycle , in M...

Explorer Red Richardson takes us to the depths of 1935 but not before some chat about the Titanic Titan Submersible that captured everyone's attention and imaginations this week. Of course the first thing that catches his attention is shark that vomited a murder victim's arm, driving tests become compulsory, Sonny Bono, Jerry Lee Lewis and Robert Downey Senior were all born, the Lindbergh Baby is...

The Miami Cruiser Bobby Mair, whisks us to 1957, when The Soviet Union announces that Swedish envoy Raoul Wallenberg had died in a Soviet prison, a fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri, United States, killing 72 people, The last person to be executed in New Zealand, Walter James Bolton, is hanged at Mount Eden Prison for poisoning his wife. Also Red has heard about a terrifying sh...

Eshaan Akbar eventually arrives after a big night out to join us for a historical tour of the year after he was born. In 1985, the fictional Australian town of Erinsborough is discovered, when television soap opera Neighbours begins and launches the careers of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, and Guy Pierce, Michael Jackson takes the advice of his friend Paul McCartney...

We welcome our very funny friend Alex Haddow, and the man with the highest IQ in the world Bobby Mair takes her on a tour of the year she was born 1988. A year when the cargo ship Khan Sea deposits 4,000 tons of toxic waste in Haiti after wandering around the Atlantic for sixteen months. A Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim, Austrian President and Secretary General of the U.N. in World Wa...

The brilliant and very funny and tolerant, Rob Mulholland joins us for one of our funniest episodes as historian Red Richardson takes us on a tour deep dive tour of 2002, a year when Eminem releases Lose Yourself and his biopic 8 Mile is released in cinemas, Afghanistan changes its name to the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan, Ben Affleck was finally named People magazine's sexiest man al...

Renaissance man Bobby Mair takes us on his own personal tour of 1776, and introduces us to King Ekkathat of Thailand when the country is besieged by invaders from Burma, the Meermin Slave Mutiny when the captive Malagasy prisoners take the ship over, Mozart returns to Salzburg after a grand tour of Europe and Paper Entrepreneur, Henry Fourdrinier is born. Also Red is considering a holiday to Tulum...

Red Richardson whisks us to the scene of Mahatma Gandhi's Assassination, and the Winter Olympics that happened the same day, the founding of the Hells Angels Biker gang and introduces us to their founder Sonny Barger, the Australian cricket team set a record against England and the Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America radio. Also is Red the reincarnation of Gandhi, Bobby is suffering from n...

This week Bobby has been watching Yellowstone so was inspired to take us to 1923 where he's mostly interested in natural disasters such as large hailstones killing 23 people in the Soviet Union, The Great Kanto Earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama killing more than 100,000 people, Mount Etna erupts in Italy making 60,000 homeless, Walter Wever, a Luftwaffe flying ace who claimed 44 aerial vict...

Esteemable historian Red Richardson escorts us on a personalised excursion to 1956, when the most important things that happened were firstly the invention of the snooze alarm, Tom Hanks was born, British Rail gets rid of 3rd Class seats, Royal Navy Frogman Lionel Buster Crabb disappears, Violet Gibson dies, the woman who shot Mussolini in the nose, and Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her nam...

Robert Lindsay Mair transports us to 1893, when Rudolph Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine, in Belgium Adam Worth is sentenced to 7 years for robbery, and Caleb Bradham invents the recipe for what he calls "Brad's Drink" that would later go on to become known as the brand Pepsi. Also a Putin War Fanatic is being scammed by hackers and how did Ted Bunny father a child whilst in a maximu...

This week historian Red Richardson takes us to 1992, where the first thing that piques his interest is the Sydney River McDonald's Murders in Nova Scotia, Canada, Home Alone 2 is released, Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" from the The Bodyguard is number one for 10 weeks, Colombia drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison La Catedral, Sinead O'Connor tears up a pict...

Robert Mair has taken over controls of the time machine, to go to 1916, when Louis Enright claims he has a substitute for gasoline, Mary the Elephant is hanged, and shark attacks in Jersey Shore inspire the seminal film Jaws. Meanwhile back in the present day the heir of the Porsche dynasty has got a new girlfriend, what's the best war, and what does Am Fam mean? Sign up now to our Patreon for ear...

Strap in for another bumper ride helmed by the research of historian Red Richardson, as we go to 2007, which was notable for his favourite TV show coming to an end, The Sopranos, a national anti-hero coming to prominence John Darwin, better known as Canoe Man, a fire at the restoration at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, Steve Jobs launches the Apple iPhone, and Red explains the Sub Prime Mortgage Cri...

The Year Is 1839, where Britain open's the 3 Year First Opium War against China, Slaves aboard the Amistad , rebel and capture the ship, leading to an Oscar nominated film by Steven Spielberg 158 years later, Josephine Cochrane, inventor of the first commercially successful dishwasher is born, a cyclone hits India and wipes out the city of Coringa killing 300,000 people, and William Otis receives...

Red Richardson, the man, the legend is back, and takes us back to 1967, with the birth of Rogue trader Nick Leeson whose training collapsed Britains oldest merchant bank, 10,000 people join together In New York's Central Park on New Year's Eve for a "Be-In" to protest against racism and the Vietnam War, Ronald Ryan becomes the last man hanged in Australia, for murdering a guard while escaping...

We have proud SpongeBob SquarePants fan, our friend Luke Chilton, back for another off the wall chat and misunderstandings with Bobby. Grady the Cow teaches us all about not getting stuck in a silo shortly after giving birth, Albert II is the first primate to be blasted into space, the legend of Tokyo Rose, and serial killer Gary Ridgway. Sign up now to our Patreon for early access, bonus weekly e...

BBC "Jerk" writer and star Tim Renkow can now add guest host to The Year Is to his IMDb page now. Tim brings his own learned and cultured facts and untruths to challenge Bobby with as we go to 1902. Oil magnate Sarah Rector is born, having been given what was thought to be worthless land aged 12, a new land speed record is set driving a steam car in France, a newspaper cartoon inspires the creatio...

A significant episode where we travel to 1984, to discuss the George Orwell, Orwellian classic novel 1984, which was written in 1948, the Crack Cocaine epidemic spreads across America, Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona is sold Italian team Napoli, and political commentator Ben Shapiro, entrepreneur and fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are all born Watch Red...