Histories of the Unexpected

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis peel back the layers to uncover the unexpected history of BANANAS! Which is all the quest for the lost perfect tasting banana, the development of the Cavendish banana at Chatsworth House, and the first time a banana appeared in a British shop window! It’s also all banana republics, colonialism and the United Fruit Company and the 1928 Columbian massacre of workers, and the 1954 coup that saw the overthrow of...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis inspired by real life events uncover the unexpected history of THE THUMB! Which is all torture, extraction of confessions and leaning on people (via slave owners, witches, the Gestapo, mobsters and early modern Scotland), and gladiatorial combat! It’s also all about hitchhiking, hand gestures and the folklore tale of Tom Thumb and Charles Sherwood Stratton, AKA "General Tom Thumb" the US stage performer...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis swing through the trees of the past to uncover the unexpected history of MONKEYS! Which is all Shakespeare and the infinite monkey theorem, monkeys (and dogs!) in space, and Dutch art! It’s also all about the history of racism and ancient Egypt! Who knew!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James and Sam tackle the humbling history of RIBBONS! From the use of ribbons for commemoration, mourning, decoration and gifting, Sam and James rampage around history of ribbons before settling on the tragic history of the eighteenth-century Foundling...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis explore the UNEXPECTED history of CORRIDORS! Which is all about the history of humanitarian corridors, it's about Victorian hierarchy, French social planning, madness, crime and social control, and the anti-corridic (yes, that is a term!) world of the open space. It is also all about diplomacy and corridors of power (via C.P...

RE-RELEASE: THE UNEXPECTED HISTORY OF MOTHERS! A boy’s best friend is his mother’   (Norman Bates – Psycho, written and directed by Joseph Stefano and Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). Welcome to Histories of the Unexpected where you will discover the history of things you did not know even had a history, like the history of nonsense or the history of the itch...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis explore the UNEXPECTED history of HUNGER! Which is all about the history of free school meals (which meanders from the 1941 free school meals policy via 'Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher' to Marcus Rashford and Jamie Oliver in more modern history) and Ernesto Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis bid a heartfelt goodbye to the UNEXPECTED history of FAREWELLS! Which is all about the history of separation, WWI and the trenches, letters to loved ones thrown from a train in a matchbox, and love letters to the dead in sixteenth-century Korea. It is also all about unexpected history of ancient tombs, travel and shipwrecks! Who knew!

Hosted on Acast. See acast...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis hide behind the hedge of the past and jump out with the UNEXPECTED history of SURPRISES! Which is all about the history of Jack-in-the-Boxes, the remarkable finds uncovered by the archaeological excavations of Britain’s stone age culture at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar, the Schifferstadt gold hat, and ambushes and surprise attacks (including the Trojan Horse)...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis take a deep drink from the glass of the past to deliver to you the UNEXPECTED history of THIRST! Which is all about the history of California and access to water, and a global history of drinking water...