Ordinary Observations

This episode of Ordinary Observations is actually not an episode of Ordinary Observations at all! It is in fact Gothenburg Student Radio K103's submission to World College Radio Day 2024. In light of the looming US election, Mark and Jack team up with fellow K103 member Marion to give the rundown on some troublesome democratic speedbumps from recent American electoral history. Jack digs up the his...

Join Jack & Mark for a free falling discussion through the time honoured tradition of humans throwing each other out of windows. Jack lays out some history behind the word 'Defenestration' itself and how the good people of Prague put it on the map. We discuss the proud Russian past time of allowing your clumsy political rivals to fall from great heights and it's rapid growth in popularity over...

This week Mark and Jack are joined by long time friend of the show Callum to discuss the time honoured tradition of making friends through binge drinking. Competitively. We lace up the lamborfeeties and get trotting round the Bierkastenlauf trail. Set our sports watches for the Beer Mile. And suit up for the fine wine Marathon Du Medoc. We ponder the impossible logistics of drinking a yard glass a...

Join Jack and Mark as they take a perfectly un-peer-reviewed stroll trough the world of geographically specific illnesses and syndromes. We take a look at what it is about Paris that makes some tourists feel so terrible, the events that lead to Stockholm Syndrome getting its name, and the artwork and architecture behind Florence Syndrome. Jack takes us back to the 1840s and the antics of the fans...

Join Jack and Mark as they peel back the pages of history and peek into some of the worst jobs to ever need doing. Clean out the Houses of Easement with London's gang of gong farmers, tasked with carting away human excrement in the dead of night. Stomp around in the bucket full of wool and piss, and find out how people in the middle ages made their wool bright and clean, with the Wool Fullers. And...

Join Mark & Jack as they rap up the first the half year with the 2024 Summer Omnibus. We open the fridge on each of our previous 16 episodes and heat up the left overs we didn't manage to squeeze into the show at the respective time of broadcast. We've been banging on about it all year, so why not come to the table and share a plate? There's plenty to go round. Hosts: Mark Stribling & Jack...

Join Jack and Mark for another episode of Ordinary Observations, this time to discuss a perhaps under appreciated artform, the humble nickname. We rummage through a laundry list of some of the great nicknames from throughout history. Football players, vikings, presidents, swimmers, dictators, organised criminals, other criminals. A great nickname can really capture the essence of a personality, be...

Join Jack and Mark on this instalment of Ordinary Observations as they take a look at the World of fraudsters and scammers, crooks and forgers, this time on K103 its an investigation into some of the famous con artists through the years. We sit on the bench and feign injury with Carlos Raposo, the footballer who never played football, through his 26 year career of partying and socialising. We get...

Join Mark & Jack as we adorn our spacesuits and blast off on the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Jack gives us the rundown on the history of Area 51 and how it became the centrepiece of innumerable conspiracy theories. We also meet some of the interesting characters who have really added rocket fuel to the space-being fire that is our favourite secret US Air Force testing facility - Bob Lazar...

Join Mark and Jack as they once again welcome Captain Anton onto the show, this time to discuss a little nautical naughtiness aboard the comically large cruise ships that patrol our oceans. Jack poses some tough logistical questions in his recount of 'The Poop Cruise From Hell'. Anton walks us step by step through just how Salty Seaman Francesco Schettino managed to create a 35m hole in the hull o...

Join Jack & Mark as we welcome special guest Dr Joey Gregan on the show for our special live day discussion on all things Bovine. We discuss the origins of domestication and how history has shaped the humble cow as we know it today. Mark chats about a couple of his favourite breeds and Jack shares the bittersweet story of his beloved childhood pet calf. All rounded out with a handful of storie...

Join Jack and Mark as we lace up our boots and take a stroll through the walk-in-wardrobe of high fashion & high society. We powder our wigs and duck though the doorway of 17th century class structures. We deliberately rot our teeth to flex our exuberant wealth. We fold up our ruffs and choke ourselves in the name of clean collars and good posture. All while tiptoeing around in our hobbled ski...

Join Jack and Mark as they spin the globe and explore some truly cursed islands around the World. Inflate your packraft and paddle with us to North Sentinel Island as we try to win the trust of the locals, one of the World's last remaining uncontacted tribes. We recount the dark history of Nazino Island and the horrors endured by those forced to relocate there. And we try to keep the fire lit and...

Listen in to Jack recount some of the highlights from his recent presentation at Vetenskapsfestivalen, the local science festival in Gothenburg. We will go through Sir Isaac Newton poking needles into his eyes, follow up on Charles Darwin’s dietary habits, and discuss Albert Einstein’s blatant disregard for the sacredness of marriage. Did Werner Heisenberg trick the Nazi’s into giving up on the at...

Join Jack and Mark as they open their wallets and splurge on exciting and downright bizarre engineering vanity projects. Clip on your snowboard bindings and join us as we test out the wintersports facilities at Trojena, one of Saudi Arabia's luxury NEOM projects. Joined once by long time friend of the show Dr Anton as he details the spectacular downgrades facing Elon Musk's futuristic Hyperloop, a...

Arggghhhh me Hearties, it's time to Hoist the Colours and raise the Jolly Rodger!! Join Jack and Mark on a swashbuckling adventure of Pirate Tales from the high seas. From the mighty Prince of Pirates, Black Sam, to the Gentlemen Pirate Stede Bonnet, and the quest for precious pirate plunder. We call all hands on deck and declare a mutiny here on K103's Live Day, with our favourite stories of pira...

Join Jack and Mark as they don their business thinking caps and investigate the strange world that is LinkedIn. This week we are joined by OO Business Strategy Analyst and long time friend of the show Mattias "Dr Zipe" Johansson, who is here to help us increase shareholder value, talk strategy, find market opportunities, and navigate the social media cesspit of the business world. We dis...

Join Mark & Jack once again as we max out the credit cards and see how the rich waste their money on trying to live forever. We harvest the blood of the young, healthy, and broke, with tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, supposedly the most measured man on Earth. Pull on a labcoat with human-monkey-embryo (evil) scientist Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who's been doing a lot of thinking about how...

Join Jack and Mark as they dust off the history books and take another look at the lives and behaviours of some more famous dictators in this part two of "Deranged Leaders of the Modern Era". We discuss Saddam Hussein and his rise to power in Iraq with the Ba'ath Party, before his eventual demise in 2006. We take a closer look at the spending habits of Grace "Gucci" Mugabe, and...

Join Jack & Mark as we discuss the horrific mechanics of torture devices from the days of Ancient Rome and Greece. We turn back time and get toasty in the Brazen Bull with Perilaus of Athens. We discuss the extensive list that made Romans so fond of crucifiction, over other tortures. And we treat ourselves to a picnic of milk and honey, on a day spent floating around a lake in "The Boats&...

Join Jack and Mark as they sweep off the hay bales and wade through the manure that's been smeared by angry French farmers in this week's episode discussing Protest Shithousery and shenanigans, the stranger and more bizarre protests of recent history. We try to break down what exactly has got these farmers so hot and bothered, as well as the tactics they've deployed around the French Capital. Join...

Ordinary Observations is back and ready to kick off 2024 with some selected stories of Bad On-Stage Behaviour. This week Mark and Jack are joined by very special guest and long term fan of the show Linnea Weinz, the Cancel Consultant herself. Join us for backstage stories about some of the worst people to ever grace the stage. We grab a bite to eat with Ozzy Osbourne, enter a dance competition at...

Keep drifting into the hazy holiday buzz with Mark & Jack, in this Part 2 of the Ordinary Observations Christmas Omnibus. Yes we realise now that having a two-part "omnibus" is an oxymoron, but that's just the way things are going to have to be. For now. Join us on another round up of all the scraps we didn't manage to squeeze into shows/episodes 6 - 13. We cook up some pancakes with...

Get into the Christmas Spirit with Mark and Jack as we relitigate some of our previous mistakes from the first few episodes and flip through the notepads to find the leftovers we didn't have time to get to this autumn. Perfect listening for those lazy holiday afternoons when you need a break from that punishing family chat. Catch up on some dragon energy with Kanye & Donald Trump. Shoot some p...

Join Jack and Mark as they stomach some Strange Diets on this K103 Live Day Special. We open the toolbox and eat anything we can get our hands on with Mr Mangetout, known as the man who ate everything, even a plane! We serve up a gastronomic delight of just carrots for Steve Jobs, and Supersize our Maccas order with Morgan Spurlock. Grab the cutlery, set the table, and dig in with Ordinary Observa...