No One Saw It Coming

Ever wondered why movies tell you any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental? The answer starts with a Russian prince, a botched poisoning and a very hard-to-kill mystic.

The murder of Grigori Rasputin is one of history’s most absurd killings that it intrigued many around the world. Including Hollywood filmmakers.

Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) speaks with former entertainment lawyer Bill Grantham about how a 1932 Hollywood movie about the life and death of Rasputin ended up costing movie studio MGM a fortune in damages and changed the movies forever.

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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In 1889, millions of people visited Paris for the Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) and walked through an impressive 300-metre-tall gate. That gate was the Eiffel Tower and it was destined for demolition years later. It was never meant to be an icon, and it definitely wasn't built to help save the city from invasion. 

So what happened?

Art historian and tour guide Sandrine Voillet tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) how the tower’s surprise use helped save itself, and the city as a whole.

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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In November 1939, a bomb ripped through a crowded Munich beer hall moments after its target walked out the door. The target was Adolf Hitler and he missed death by mere minutes.

The man behind the attack was not a soldier, a politician, or member of a resistance network. He was just a carpenter and he did it all by himself.

Riley Knight (Podcaster and Author, The Most Interesting People You've Never Heard Of) tells Marc Fennell the incredible story of Georg Elser and how he came so close to changing the course of history, and why do so few people know his story.

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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A warship born from panic. A cannon that was never fired. A shipwreck that's been lost for over a century. And one man determined to find it. 

Dr James Hunter (Manager of Maritime Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the strange, true story of Spitfire. It was Australia's first defence vessel, built for a war that never came, and lost in a wreck that no one has found. 

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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In 1766, a "man" named Jean boarded a French naval ship as a botanist's valet. But Jean was hiding a secret. For years, that secret sailed around the world with them, until one day it was revealed that Jean was actually a woman and was sailing illegally.

Dr Glynis Ridley (English Professor, University of Louisville, and Author, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of Jeanne Baret; the first woman to circumnavigate the globe and her huge botanical legacy that history almost forgot. 

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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A castle sits in the streets of American suburbia and from the outside it looks bizarre. But what’s on the inside is even weirder... 

A dog named Cerberus, a basement nightclub with poles and cages, and a room full of princess costumes. 

Jon Ronson (Author, The Castle) speaks to Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about what he found when he went looking for the man inside the castle, and what unravelled from there: a peep inside the manosphere and the men who are either lashing out, shutting down or building fantasy kingdoms of their own. 

So how did we get here, and did anyone see it coming? 

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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From the mid-1800s, more than 62,000 Pacific Islanders were kidnapped, tricked or coerced into labour on Queensland's sugar and cotton plantations.

Ryan Butta (Author, Blackbirding) and Emelda Davis, whose grandfather was taken from Vanuatu as a boy, tell Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) how Australia avoided the word "slavery" by disguising the trade in euphemism.

 It was called 'blackbirding' and it came to an end thanks to what is arguably the most racist piece of Australian legislation.

Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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A ransacked bakery. A wildly inflated bill. A demand so absurd it should have been laughed out of the room. Instead it triggered warships. 

In 1838, France used a pastry chef's grievance to justify a blockade, a siege, and an assault on Mexico. But was the baker's claim ever really the reason? Or just the excuse the French government had been waiting for? 

Food historian and author Seren Charrington-Hollins tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about how a bakery grievance and unpaid debts led to a war that history barely remembers by its real name. 

This is the fourth and final episode in the special series This Stupid War. Listen to the full series in the No One Saw It Coming podcast feed on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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A pig trots over an invisible border, wandering into a potato farmer's garden. It's not the first time it's trespassed but it is the last. 

The farmer takes his gun off the wall and shoots it dead. But what he doesn't realise was that by pulling that trigger, he set off one of the tensest military stand-offs in history. 

Mike Vouri (former Historian for San Juan Island National Historic Park) takes Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) to San Juan Island where the US and Great Britain came dangerously close to war... all over a pig.

This is the third episode in the special series This Stupid War. Listen to the full series in the No One Saw It Coming podcast feed on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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It’s called The Football War and raged for just 100 hours. It’s a catchy name for a conflict supposedly sparked by a World Cup qualifier game. 

But behind the catchy title, and away from the football pitch lies a deeper, darker history about politics, poverty, power and a war that claimed thousands of lives.

Fionntan O’Hara from the London School of Economics tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how the battle on the pitch became a real war between El Salvador and Honduras and what led up to that football game.

This is the second episode in the special series This Stupid War. Listen to the full series in the No One Saw It Coming podcast feed on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]