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A comedy history podcast looking at the forgotten side of the past. The jokes are silly, the accents are terrible, and the history will amaze you.
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
There once was a podcast on history. And why they still did it's a mystery. This week's about verse, so Sam's picked the worst. And Tom's done Catullus for his story.
Yes, it's poetry week! Tom kicks us off with a look at the absolutely filthy mind of the famed Roman poet Catullus. Telling your rival to quite literally suck your d**k has never sounded so beautiful.
Next, Sam takes us on a tour of the poets and poems widely believed to be the worst in the English language: The Tay Bridge Disaster by William McGonagall, A Tragedy by Theophile Marzials, and On Visiting Westminster Abbey by Amanda McKittrick Ros. Three terrible poems, topped by a very funny, very rude one from Gulliver's Travels author, Jonathan Swift.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Feb 05, 2020
Wednesday Feb 05, 2020
Oh have mercy, it's serial killers week! Featuring Sam murdering a song in our first proper musical interlude!
Tom kicks us off with a look at Alexander Pearce, the Irish convict sent to Tasmania for stealing shoes, who pretty quickly found a taste for his fellow inmates.
Next, Sam takes a look at some of the murderous cults and assassins through Indian history, from the Visha Kanyas - beautiful young women with a knack for poison - to the Thugees; a group of robbers and murderers responsible for millions of deaths. And for the word Thug.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Welcome to the age of discovery, as we attempt something we've never done before: An episode on world firsts! And it's a good'un this week.
Tom kicks us off with a look at the lesser known stories and backwaters from Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe. From deaths, to revolts, to the gretest hits of Enrique Iglesias.
Next, Sam takes a look at the adventures of Maurice Wilson; Climber who couldn't climb, pilot who couldn't fly, and Christian mystic who made a bold and incredibly stupid attempt to be the first man up Mount Everest.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Sacre Bleu! It is ze week we av all been waiting for, kick arse Frenchmen week!Yes, after months of baiting our cousins across the sea, it's finally their time to shine as we explore some of the most competent, brave souls from the beautiful country. We do mock the Swiss though, don't worry.Tom kicks us off with a look at Marcel "Bruno" Bigeard, a French commander in the first indochina war and Algerian independence uprising who was famed for his incredible fitness, devotion to his men, and brutality against his enemies.Next, Sam takes a look not so much at French success, but more at their competence in the face of British stupidity with the Boudan Expedition, a napoleonic era French mission to map, colonise and even invade Australia.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Finally, something to laugh about - this week's episode is all about the humour (well it's rarely about the history)!
Tom kicks us off with a look at the Philogelos (Love of Laughter), the oldest known jokebook. Written by a couple of witty Greeks in around 400AD, it pokes fun at students, foreigners, and sufferers of bad breath. And it has at least a 5% success rate when it comes to actually making you laugh.
Meanwhile Sam's discovered the Berners Street Hoax, an 1810 prank which saw every tradesman in London called to one house in London, grinding the entire city to a halt and causing a national scandal.
Honourable mentions go to whoopee cushion inventor, the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, and biological bat poo prankster William Buckland, who's fertiliser graffiti got heads scratching at Oxford University in the 1790s.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 08, 2020
Wednesday Jan 08, 2020
What a nice cheery one this week. It's all about genocide. But don't worry, we've still managed to squeeze out some (awkward) laughs.
Don't say we never give ourselves a challenge! This week we're discussing all things mass murder (or, at least, attempted). Sam kicks us off with the story of Nakam, the post-WW2 Jewish organisation who tried to kill of Germany once and for all by poisoning the entire population, and actually succeeded in poisoning thousands of SS prisoners.
Meanwhile Tom goes biblical - literally - with a whistle stop tour of mass murder in the Old Testament and Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
When two tribes go to war... Or don't. Because this week we're talking about wars which didn't quite happen. Or did, just not very successfully.
Tom kicks us off with the Huéscar - Denmark war, a 172-year-long war between Denmark and a tiny town in Spain in which no-one died, and which was completely forgotten about until 1981.
Meanwhile, Sam talks about the Battle of Fishguard, a particularly terrible attempt by France to invade Wales, and the last time mainland Britain was invaded all the way back in 1797. An invasion that involved heavy drinking, a lot of fistfighting, and some terrible accents courtesy of Sam and Tom. Well, it is That Was Genius after all...
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Happy 2020! As a special welcome in to the new year and thanks to all our listeners, we've done a Q&A answering your questions. From hot water taps to 90s TV and the emu wars, here's everything you ever wanted to know about Sam and Tom.
(A normal episode, our first of 2020, will be arriving in a few hours!)
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Dec 25, 2019
Wednesday Dec 25, 2019
How do you prove an arch-nemesis history teacher wrong? How many facts can you find beginning with the letter Q, and how many make it onto a major British TV panel show? How do you stay curious? John Lloyd knows the answers to all these questions and many more (including plenty of general knowledge), as the creator of the TV series QI and host of BBC podcast The Museum of Curiosity. He's also the name behind sketch shows Not The Nine O'Clock News and Spitting Image, as well as legendary comedies Blackadder and the radio version of Douglas Adams' legendary Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So we've got plenty to talk about!
Welcome to That Was Genius' "the Other Genius", a little side-hustle in which we catch up with other history creators and fanatics and talk about why they love history, what they get out of it, and their favourite quirky stories from the past.
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.
Wednesday Dec 18, 2019
Wednesday Dec 18, 2019
Roll up, roll up for the greatest show on Earth! Yes, we plumb the depths of what humans will do for entertainment in this week's podcast, which is all about shows.
Sam kicks us off with a look at Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, two 17th Century conjoined twins who became one of the first 'freak shows', when they toured the courts of European royals amazing all who witnessed them with their unusual condition - and great stories.
Next, Tom takes us to the seedy backstreets of Victorian London and the Penny Gaffs - the ruder, racier, more drunken and generally worse predecessors of today's musical theatre. Places where taste (and talent) went straight out the window!
Subscribe and listen to us! Apple Music // Podbean // Overcast // Stitcher // TuneIn // Spotify
This week we also gave a shout out to History Impossible - they are a great podcast and you can find them here or on your app of choice: https://www.historyimpossible.com/
Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.
Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.
From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).
Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and via our website, and please do subscribe to us and leave us a review if you like what you hear!
That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.