We Didn't Start the Fire: The History Podcast

Watch out for that brown acid - it’s WOODSTOCK time baby!! We’ve always wished we were alive for Woodstock (and not the ’94 one that Katie worked at…) But what was it really like behind the scenes? And how did a drug deal turn into the most famous music festival of all time? Luckily author and pal of the Woodstock stars, Bob Spitz is here to chat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....

It's episode 100, LET'S GO TO THE MOON! The 1969 Apollo 11 landing was iconic, but what happened to the earlier missions? What kind of impact did it have on pop culture and the Cold War? Why are there so many conspiracy theories? And most importantly - who was the first person to poo on the moon? Our old pal, science journalist Kit Chapman, has returned to gab about it all with us!  Learn more abo...

Tricky Dicky’s back! He quite the comeback kid…It’s 1969, a slew of assassinations have recently hit the country, anti-war protests are taking over college campuses, and Nixon’s finally won the presidency for the Republicans. But how did it all happen, why was Nixon so damn awkward, and why did Elvis show up at the White House? Let’s chat Nixon with David Greenberg! Learn more about your ad choice...

Ho Chi Minh is a man of many mysteries and many names (including the Kissing President…). But to most, he’s the man who midwifed a nation and kicked out the colonisers. He’s the revolutionary head of the Viet Minh who lead Viet Nam to independence in 1945. And through it all he found time to be a ferry pastry chef! In 1969, Billy is struck by his death, so it’s time for us to reflect on the life o...

Here’s another podcast we think you’ll enjoy. It’s a tale of secrets, smugglers, spies, and how 852 people died on a ferry. From the team behind The Secret History of Flight 149, journalist Stephen Davis investigates the tragic sinking of the passenger ship, The Estonia, uncovering a mysterious trail that leads back to the Cold War. You can listen to the series by searching ‘The Secret History of...

The free love of the 1960s was a crucial step in the world becoming more sex positive, but would any of it have happened without the invention of The Pill?  This week, we're chatting all things birth control - how it came about, the reaction (hello again Pope Paul!), and allll the weird old timey forms of birth controls that once existed. Plus, we discuss the long term legacy of The Pill, the cont...

The assassination of John F Kennedy was one of the most significant events of the 20th Century. The young president who was supposed to change America, has his life cut short in an open topped limousine in Dallas, Texas. Supposedly, he’s killed by lone gunsman Lee Harvey Oswald, who’s later shot on live TV in the basement of Dallas’ Police HQ. But, according to some, the official story doesn’t qui...

In the 1960s, a sordid sex scandal rocked the British press. What appeared to be a shallow affair between Conservative MP John Profumo and teenage call girl Christine Keeler, spiralled into a suspected case of Soviet espionage. But how did it change the trajectory of sex-positivity in the UK? And how did it bring down a government? Kate Lister, host of Betwixt the Sheets is here to talk us through...

Malcolm X is a civil rights revolutionary. He’s not playing the establishment’s game. He’s not keeping the peace and hoping if he’s a good enough Black man, he’ll be allowed to get ahead. Instead, he’s calling out white segregationists. And to some people, he’s an aggressive reverse-racist. But to the African American community, he’s a game-changer. Before this, our exposure to Malcolm was restric...

Pope Paul VI was in charge of the Catholic Church in a tumultuous time. Communists are locking up Catholic priests, the Vietnam War is raging on, and free love is in full swing. Does he modernise and change with the time? Or does he batten the hatches and stick to the status quo? How does he react to birth control? And how does Billy Joel come to have a Beatlemania-esque experience with this pope?...

Liston vs Patterson is a boxing match to remember. It's an easy win for Liston and his 14 inch fists and he's extraordinary to watch. So why are the crowd so upset when it's over? It's because they think it's a fix, that the mob's somehow involves. Because everyone hates Sonny Liston. With his mob ties and bad attitude, he's wrong kind of African American. The NAACP even warn against the fight bec...

In 1962, the US is scrambling to catch up with the USSR in the Space Race and it's finally time for an American to orbit the Earth. John Glenn is the perfectly stoic character for the job, and what follows is an action packed journey into outer space, full of close calls and national propaganda. But what's it really like to be an astronaut? What's the NASA campus like? What happened to him afterwa...

In 1962, a riot broke out in the University of Mississippi after African American student, James Meredith is enrolled. It essentially becomes the last stand of the Civil War, with people turning up with old Civil War muskets to defend the favoured institution of Southern elites. It would help transform the kinds of opportunities available to black people in the South, but how were they able to avo...

YEAH YEAH YEAH, we’ve been waiting 88 episode for this and it’s finally here!! In the 60s, The Beatles’ rise to fame would change the landscape of pop music and fandom forever. People were so excited to watch them, they’d urinate and scream so loud you’d struggle to hear the music. No one had ever seen fan culture or heard music like it. So it’s no surprise that we’re absolutely ecstatic to chat t...

We told you we'd be back for more baby! We couldn't condense all of the Fab Four's urine filled success to one episode, so welcome to Part 2 of our bumper chat with the world's leading Beatles expert, Mark Lewisohn. In this part we're chatting US takeover, song writing style, John-Paul-George-Ringo friendships, and lots more. This is the second part of our conversation, so make sure you've listene...

It’s the greatest film of all time… Or is it? Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 EPIC historical drama based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It’s a tale full of familiar faces like Omar Sharif, David Lean and Peter O’Toole, and it impacted generations of film making. But how accurate is it? And how does it measure up to modern eyes? Our friend and film critic Helen O’Hara is back to talk us through it al...

In 1961, an attack is launched on the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in an attempt to weaken Castro’s Revolution. But, the attack is a huge failure and it's shrouded in scandal and conspiracy. We have SO many questions - was the CIA actually behind it all? How did it all go so wrong? How did it lead to an escalation of the Cold War? Luckily Dr Stephen Wilkinson is back to help us sort through the weeds! Lear...

What would you do if you fell in love, but borders stopped you from being together? For some couples in East Berlin, the only options were to break up, end up in jail, be killed...or escape. In this episode we meet a mustachioed young East German, the American woman he falls in love with, and the stranger who helps them orchestrate an escape. It's a story full of heart, bravery, and far too many c...

Tom and Katie aren't quite sure what to think about Dylan. To be honest, they kind of prefer Dylan covers... He's a weird guy. But he's an icon of Billy's era. He's known as the Shakespeare of his generation. And his turn to electric guitar has people calling him Judas, so clearly he's influential. So today, we're joined by co-host of the podcast, 'Is it Rolling Bob? Talking Dylan' and Bob Dylan s...

The 1960s is supposed to be sci-fi’s golden age. But when we look back at some of the era's books, it turns out some of them are a little strange. Stranger in a Strange Land might seem like an interesting premise, but really it’s just a 14 year old’s very confusing wet dream… But how does a book like this inspire Charles Manson's cult? What’s its connection to scientology? And did the book invent...

In this special second part of our Eichmann episodes, we speak to a Holocaust survivor about the horrors that Eichmann caused. Ruth Barnett was just 4 years old when she escaped Germany for England via the Kindertransport, because of her father's Jewish identity. She grew up between foster homes, in a strange country where she didn't know the language, as a person of no nationality. But despite it...

Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi bureaucrat. But the fact he's just a paper pusher,"doing his job", doesn't absolve him from his gruesome involvement in organising and enacting the Holocaust. And despite escaping the consequences by hiding under various false identities, he was finally captured by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in 1960, leading to a televised trial which cemented the Holocaust in public c...

Ernest Hemingway was a radical Nobel prize winning writer who lived at the centre of Paris’ glamorous Lost Generation. But, he's troubled by mental illness, and his image as the über macho male may be ruining his legacy. Is he an extraordinary writer being lost in the clichés? It’s time for us to look delve deeper into his life. And luckily Hemingway expert, Dr Linda Patterson Miller is here to ta...

Recorded live at the DS podcast festival in Ostend, Belgium, in early April, Katie and Tom were very lucky to be joined by policy adviser Reine Nkiambote and renowned Belgian historian David Van Reybrouck for a very special episode of We Didn't Start The Fire. Surrounded by statues of King Leopold III and staying in hotels built by blood money from that time, they're asking: what was life like for...

It’s the groundbreaking 1960 movie that’s essentially a cheapie slasher film… of COURSE it’s time for us to chat about Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic Psycho. It’s become both a meme and a cult staple, but how did they film *that* shower scene? Why is it black and white? What happened to Anthony Perkins? And why were all those remakes made? Cara Rodway is back to chat all things Psycho! Learn more about...