Future President Abraham Lincoln had yet to grow his iconic facial fuzz when he received a letter from Grace Bedell - an 11 year-old resident of Westfield, New York - dated 15th October, 1860.  “I have yet got four brothers... and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin”, she wrote. “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.”

When Lincoln returned to Westfield (having just been elected), he had grown a beard - and thanked Bedell personally for the suggestion.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal how jibes about Lincoln’s appearance had become part of his Presidential campaign; explain the origin of ‘sideburns’; and uncover the surprising story of how Lincoln’s beard lead to the creation of MB Games…

(Plus, for our supporters on Patreon* and our paid subscribers on Apple Podcasts, we discuss the SECOND letter Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln in 1864, requesting his help gaining a job with the Treasury so that she could financially support her parents. Sign up now to hear it at patreon.com/Retrospectors)

*top two tiers only.

Further Reading:

• ‘The Surprising Reason Abraham Lincoln Grew a Beard’ (Biography, 2020): https://www.biography.com/news/abraham-lincoln-beard

• ‘Grace Bedell: Abraham Lincoln grew beard after girl, 11, wrote to him and said 'all the ladies like whiskers'’ (Mail Online, 2012): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240765/Grace-Bedell-Abraham-Lincoln-grew-beard-girl-11-wrote-said-ladies-like-whiskers.html

• ‘The Interesting Story Behind Lincoln's Beard’ (Today I Found Out, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJRrusMBGxU 

This episode first aired in 2021

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Accused of planning the assassination of her cousin Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots stood trial for treason on 14th October, 1586.

Mary’s coded letters, delivered to her co-conspirators in beer barrels, had been intercepted by Sir Francis Walsingham, who had deciphered and copied them and built a case against the former Scottish monarch.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Mary had come to be exiled in not one, but two, palaces; consider her pleas of innocence, in the light of her apparent propensity for plotting; and paint a memorable picture of her decapitation at the hands of the State… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Mary, Queen of Scots: Life Story (The Babington Plot)’, (Tudor Times, 2017): https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/mary-queen-of-scots-life-story/the-babington-plot

• ‘Facts about the execution of Mary Queen of Scots’ (History Scotland, 2020):

https://www.historyscotland.com/history/facts-about-the-execution-of-mary-queen-of-scots/

• ‘The Babington Plot’ (Russel Tarr, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1siZxHuzkdU

This episode first aired in 2021

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Margaret Travers Symons was the first woman to make herself heard in the British House of Commons - albeit without permission - on 13th October, 1908.

During a tour of Westminster, the suffragette campaigner escaped her escort and interrupted a debate on children’s issues, making a bold demand for votes for women. Meanwhile, outside Parliament, some 60,000 people were protesting for the cause.

Symons’ act of defiance occurred during a pivotal time for the women’s suffrage movement. The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded by Emmeline Pankhurst, were turning to ever-more extreme and direct forms of action, in pursuit of their motto of ‘Deeds, not Words’.

Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the movement then escalated into acts of vandalism, arson, and even bombings; consider just how ‘equal’ equal voting rights were when they finally arrived; and discover the day suffragettes dispatched the grille on Parliament’s ‘women’s gallery’ in spectacular style…

Further Reading:

• ‘First woman to speak in UK parliament’ (Bangladesh Post, 2019): https://bangladeshpost.net/posts/first-woman-to-speak-in-uk-parliament-14420

• ’Suffragettes History Facts: A Guide To The Votes for Women Campaigners’ (HistoryExtra, 2024):

https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-suffragettes/

• ’Suffragettes vs Suffragists: Did violent protest get women the vote?’ (Channel 4 News, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw0IAFIhVfA

This episode first aired in 2024

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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On 10th October, 1967 a treaty went into force that has gone on to become the backbone for all international space law – a United Nations-approved agreement known as the The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, but better known today as the Outer Space Treaty.

It’s a relatively succinct document of just 17 articles, some as short as a single sentence, but it represented a lot of fundamentally very challenging cooperation at the time. Not least because it came about when the Cold War was in full swing, and both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to prevent the expansion of the nuclear arms race into space. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the principles of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 turned out to be a good fit for rules on what can and can't be done in outer space; revisit everyone's favourite topic of property law in the 13th century; and discuss whether Elon Musk will, according to the law, own other planets if he lands on them.

Further Reading:

• ‘Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies’ (US Department of State, 2009): https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/5181.htm 

• ‘How an international treaty signed 50 years ago became the backbone for space law’ (The Verge, 2017): https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/27/14398492/outer-space-treaty-50-anniversary-exploration-guidelines 

• ‘Who Owns The Moon?’ (Vsauce, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks8WH3xUo_E 

This episode first aired in 2023

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

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The Royal Albert Hall was the unlikely venue for the biggest Sumo wrestling tournament ever staged outside of Japan on 9th October, 1991. Around forty wrestlers, described in the press as “bouncing like fat Buddhas,” thundered across a ring on clay sourced from a field near Heathrow. 

Part of the grand Japan Festival - a four-month cultural takeover marking 100 years of the Japan Society, including kabuki at the National Theatre and Buddhist sculptures at the British Museum - demand for tickets was sky-high, thanks to Channel 4’s cult Friday night sumo broadcasts.

A Shinto-style canopy was shipped over, and reinforced hotels were arranged for the athletes, complete with detachable showers, reinforced beds, and double-sized meals to help them hit their 7,000-calorie daily target. The lineup featured stars with nicknames like “The Killer Whale,” “The Plum,” and the 37-stone “Dump Truck,” Konishiki Yasokichi.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the impact the festival had on introducing Londoners to Japanese culture; reveal why the wrestlers had a pit-stop in Anchorage on their way to England; and explain why some fans didn’t tell their colleagues they were attending…

Further Reading:

• ‘Albert Hall hosts first sumo tournament held outside Japan’ (The Guardian, 1991): https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/oct/10/sumo-wrestling-royal-albert-hall

• ‘Sumo Wrestling's Solid Foundation in the UK and Europe’ (SportsLook, 2023): https://featured.japan-forward.com/sportslook/sumo-wrestlings-solid-foundation-in-the-uk-and-europe/

• ‘Sumo: Terao v Kotogaume 1991 (London)’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa0TrLXi-uk

#Japan #Sport #London #90s

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Hairdressers descended upon Oxford Street on October 8th, 1906 to witness Karl Nessler’s first public demonstration of his pioneering new ‘perm’ - a style which didn’t have its heyday until some eighty years later.

Creating a long-lasting curl had been a goal for many stylists over the decades, but Nessler had hit upon a winning combination of technique and chemicals. He achieved this by subjecting his wife, Catherine, to a seemingly endless onslaught of painful and laborious experiments.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal the system of weights, pulleys and chandeliers that facilitated these early experiments; discuss the parallel movement for (yet more risky) chemical relaxers in the African-American community; and compare notes on the weirdest hairdos they’ve permitted on their own heads... 

Further Reading:

• ‘The Story Of Hair and The Nessler Wave’ (Timeless Tales, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pi11YxY4ww

• ‘Inside the heated history of the permanent wave machine’ (The State Museum of Pennsylvania): http://statemuseumpa.org/wave-machine/

• ‘Making waves: Celebrating the centenary of the perm’ (The Times, 2006): https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/making-waves-tnttbrtt30n

This episode first aired in 2021

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Ron Popeil, inventor of The Pocket Fisherman, the Amazing Smokeless Ashtray, and the Inside-The-Shell Egg Scrambler, was (satirically) awarded an Ignoble Award for Consumer Engineering on 7th November, 1993.

But the ‘Infomercial King’ had spun an enviable career from his talent for selling; from humble beginnings shilling vegetable choppers on the shop floor of Woolworth’s to establishing Ronco, a $55 million ‘As Seen On TV’ company that eventually went bankrupt. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider Popeil’s pathological hatred of runny egg whites and reveal an award-winning way to collect samples of whale snot. But wait, there’s more! They also talk about the magic price point for Popeil’s inventions. It’s just $19.99, so ACT QUICKLY...

Further Reading:

• Popeil interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning (2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdLyKjKH_II

• ‘All Ronco Product Commercials (Internal Reel)’ (1970s-1980s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfcIPuvZE9I

• Homepage of the Ignoble Awards: https://www.improbable.com/

This episode first aired in 2021

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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The Reno Brothers pulled off the first moving train robbery in U.S. history in Jackson County, Indiana, on 6th October, 1866.

Overpowering the guard, the gang made off with a significant haul of gold, cash, and canvas bags (though, while they tried to steal a hefty safe, they couldn’t open it and simply pushed it off the train). Their daring heist revolutionised the way criminals targeted trains forever.

Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how the crew evolved their activities from "bounty jumping" during the Civil War; marvel at the local newspapers’ repeated requests for public lynchings; and reveal how their luck ran out when notorious private security force The Pinkerton Detective Agency got on their case…

Further Reading:

• ‘Of Rails and Robbers’ (Library of Congress): https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/october-06/

• ’Reno Gang & the 1st Big Train Robbery’ (Legends of America, 2021): https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-renogang/

• ‘The Reno Gang - The story of the first train robbery in the U.S.’ (Jackson County Visitor Center, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKo1eblt2Xk

This episode first aired in 2024

Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it.

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: 

Ollie Peart

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Irish popstar Sinéad O’Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during her performance of Bob Marley’s ‘War’ on NBC’s TV show ‘Saturday Night Live’ on 3rd October, 1992. The unexpected act was meticulously planned by O'Connor; a protest against child abuse within the Catholic Church. 

The performance left the audience almost silent, and, although she faced significant backlash, O'Connor remained unapologetic, writing in her memoirs that it was one of her proudest achievements.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how a Top of the Pops performance by Bob Geldof first inspired the stunt; reveal where precisely O’Connor got the photo of the Pope from; and ask if, when it comes to this divisive moment, SNL have fallen on the right side of history…

Further Reading:

• ‘The day Sinead O’Connor tore up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live’ (The Independent, 2022): https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope-photo-b2191296.html

• ‘Sinead O’Connor’s Legacy With Sex Abuse Survivors in Catholic Church’ (Rolling Stone, 2023): https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/sinead-oconnor-catholic-church-abuse-legacy-1234797102/

• ‘Sinéad O'Connor rips up picture of Pope John Paul II’ (NBC, 1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGFj1WClin4

#90s #Religion #Protest #TV #Irish #Catholic

CONTENT WARNING: child abuse

This episode first aired in 2023

Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it.

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: 

Ollie Peart

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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Happy 75th birthday, ‘Peanuts’! Charles Shulz’ iconic comic strip made its debut (although Snoopy had yet to appear) on 2nd October, 1950. 

Peanuts would grow into a global phenomenon, running in 2,600 papers across 75 countries. At its peak, it was translated into 21 languages - but never lost its bittersweet mix of humour, disappointment, and charm, making Charlie Brown and the gang cultural touchstones for decades.

The first words of the strip? “Here comes good ol’ Charlie Brown… How I hate him.” This tone was a notable departure from the loud, chaotic, adventure stories that dominated ‘the funny pages’ at the time. Schulz’ characters weren’t fighting villains or chasing treasure: they were kids, wrestling with life’s quiet frustrations, hopes, and existential questions. It was postwar suburban America in miniature, disguised as a children’s comic, but also aimed at the grown-ups reading the paper over their morning coffee.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider why the strip became such a hit; reveal how Schulz’s own childhood got reflected in his characters; and marvel at how, despite his IP becoming a massive merchandising juggernaut, the cartoonist kept control over his creations until the day he died… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Peanuts Comic Strip Debut October 2 1950’ (TIME, 2014): https://time.com/3445127/peanuts/

• ‘Peanuts' Creator Charles Schulz Dies’ (The Washington Post, 2000): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/02/14/peanuts-creator-charles-schulz-dies/f742958c-dffe-4cef-a481-b9d2cd2749c2/

• ‘Charles M. Schulz on CHARLIE BROWN | Everyman’ (BBC, 1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzu8aLpzIKw

#Comics #50s #Publishing #US

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. 

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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