In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis don the waders, bait the hook of history and cast out to land the unexpected history of FISH! Which is all about the fascinating history of cod (via the Vikings and Mr Birds Eye), it's about Samuel Pepys, the Royal Society, Sir Isaac Newton and Willughby and Ray’s exceptionally unsuccessful De Historia Piscium (The History of Fishes). It's also all about the History of Fish and Chips, fly fishing and feathers stolen from historic birds, and marlin fishing off the coast of Australia. Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all mechanised and programme the unexpected history of ROBOTS! Which is all about AI and the rise of ChatGPT, popular culture, science fiction and imagining good and bad machines (think C3PO, R2D2 and Metal Mickey). It's also all about the Brazen Head automaton and the late medieval polymath Roget Bacon, via Robert Greene's Elizabethan play, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (c.1590), as well as the Industrial Revolution, dancing bears and mechanical automata. Who knew!

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In this RERELEASE episode from the archive the Histories of the Unexpected team explain how the history of Christmas is actually all about BAD LUCK - Who Knew!

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In this latest RERELEASED episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis don their most Artic-like winter wear to track down the extraordinarily unexpected history of SNOW! A festive taster for all our listeners! Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis take stock of half a century (in honour of the Daybell's milestone Birthday!) to unwrap the extraordinarily unexpected history of THE NUMBER 50! Which is all about models of how we interpret the past, the headlines on 3 December 1972, and the remarkable meanings and symbolisms of the number 50!! It's also about the fascinating history of the £50 bank note, and the notion of historical figures on the back of legal tender. Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis pinch the historical pus out of the extraordinarily unexpected history of SPOTS! Which is all about female beauty and false advertising in the nineteenth century in the United States of America, and the strangely titled Arsenic Wafers, which it was advertised were entirely safe and ensured a blemish free complexion. It's also all about the Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, and the history of acne, teenagers and dermatology!! Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis shout TALLY HO! and follow the historical scent of the extraordinarily unexpected history of FOXES! Which has nothing whatsoever to do with fox-hunting, but is in fact all about the remarkable sport of fox-tossing (as well as aerial golf!), and Basil Brush and the history of British light entertainment. It's also all about Operation Fantasia in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour when the Office of Strategic Service (America’s wartime intelligence agency) experimented with psychological warfare against the Japanese based on Shinto kitsune, or fox-shaped spirits with magical abilities. And it's also all about stuffed foxes (and/or wolves) in museums; Aesop's Fables and the story of the fox and the grapes, and the board game Fox and Geese. Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all hush, hush (we'd love to tell you, but then we'd have to kill you....) about the extraordinarily unexpected history of SECRETS! Which is all about Elizabethan Catholics, recusancy laws and priest holes (and a recent adventure at the wonderful Harvington Hall); it's about secret codes and ciphers, and the practice of hiding sweaty gloves in chimneys to deter malign spirits. It's also all about D-Day and operations in WW2, misogynistic attitudes in the past of women not being able to keep secrets, and Charles Swynnerton's Indian Nights' Entertainment; or, Folk-Tales from the Upper Indus. Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis tackle the extraordinarily unexpected history of BEARS! It's not all about Teddy Bears - Paddington, Winnie-the-Pooh and Rupert bear - in fact it's all about bear attacks and how to avoid them; keep bears at pets (via Lord Byron). It's also all about accidents and bear-baiting in Shakespearean England, and travel. Who knew!

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In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis tackle the extraordinarily unexpected history of MUMBLING! Yes! It does have a history, and this one takes us back to the basics of the concept of histories of the unexpected, which is the historical equivalent of rambling around the past like a bull in a historical china shop. Mumbling is all about historical definitions and talking with your mouth full; it's about 90s rap phenomenon, mumble rap; linguistic compression trips and the history of colour, as well as Rocky Balboa and Marlon Brando's Don Corleone in The Godfather. It's also all about speaking in tongues, and the great vowel shift and mass migrations! Who knew!

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