No One Saw It Coming

Before selfies, before CT scans, before social media filters and front-facing cameras… there was the X-Ray. Discovered by accident in a 19th-century lab, it went on to become a craze. Displayed as a sideshow attraction, people would x-ray their hands, their bags, their feet, even cuddling their loved one! 

Suzie Sheehy is an Accelerator Physicist by day and on the side, she writes books like The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed our World. She explains to Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) how the invention of the x-ray revolutionised medicine, changed the way we think about ourselves and remains a powerful example of what can happen when knowledge is shared freely. 

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

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Have you ever tried absinthe - that fluorescent green spirit that people used to set on fire in the 90’s?  It’s had a pretty bad reputation over the years. In fact, it was illegal in a lot of countries for almost a century! 

But back in France during the period known as the Belle Époque, it was the drink associated with great artists and writers like Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh and Edgar Degas. Happy Hour was even known as ‘the Green Hour’. 

So what happened? Well according to food and beverage writer Evan Rail, everything changed because of a murder. A murder that absinthe was blamed for…

Join podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) as he unearths the odd facts surrounding this intriguing true crime mystery.

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These days chemotherapy or ‘chemo’ is a common treatment for cancer. But did you know that part of the reason it exists today is because of a terrible accident that happened in Italy during World War 2?

The Bari bombing was known as the ‘Little Pearl Harbour’ and it saw hundreds of American and British soldiers killed by mustard gas that was being secretly transported to Europe inside an American ship. Despite Winston Churchill’s attempts to cover up what happened, one doctor was determined to find the truth.

Journalist Jennet Conant dives deep into the historical records, including records on her own family, and tells host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) how one doctor’s shocking discovery contributed to the development of one of the world’s leading cancer drugs. 

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After the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, the United States was on edge. So when it seemed like spies for the Nazis and Mussolini were operating along the harbour in New York, the government decided that something had to be done. So they turned to an unlikely wartime ally: the Italian Mafia. 

As Podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) discovers, the clandestine coalition did help change the outcome of World War 2, but labour and crime historian Matt Black questions who really wins when the US government forms secret deals with mobsters and murderers. 

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The fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November, 1989, is one of the most famous events of modern history. Not only did it lead to the reunification of East and West Germany, it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the formation of the global political and economic landscape that we know today. 

But did you know that this momentous event started with a small slip up during a routine press conference? 

Dr Katrin Schreiter is a Senior Lecturer in German and History at Kings College London and she has a deeply personal connection to this story. She tells podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) that while powerful men have been credited with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the true heroes were everyday men and women. 

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In schools, universities and colleges around the world, a story gets told about a man named Phineas Gage. He was an American railroad foreman, until one day when an iron rod shot through his head and nearly killed him. After that, he was never the same. In fact, he was something of a monster, a man with limited inhibitions or impulse control, a social outcast.

It’s a story that has shaped neuroscience and our understanding of the brain. But what if it’s only partially true? 

Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he's a New York Times best-selling author of books like The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons: The History of The Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery. He tells host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) how his research has uncovered that the story of Phineas Gage is far more nuanced, and far more surprising, than you might expect. 

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‘Would you like fries with that?’ It’s the question you’re likely to be asked at McDonalds, Burger King, KFC or Chick-fil-A, no matter where in the world you visit. But what if the only reason French fries are so popular throughout the West today is because of a Queen who lost her head during the French Revolution? 

Dr Lauren Samuelsson is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Wollongong where she investigates the history of food, drink, popular culture and gender. She reveals how the history of the humble potato is really a history of empire; a story that can be traced through the jungles of the Americas, to a Prussian prison, through the fields of Ireland, and to a fateful dinner party where Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI were guests. 

Podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) discovers how these French royals’ love of the potato took it from a suspicious root to a fashion icon, and the world never looked back. 

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Submarine warfare was considered ‘ungentlemanly’ in terms of the rules of engagement of war until relatively recently… or so we thought! Dr James Hunter hunts shipwrecks for a living, as part of his job as Curator of Naval Heritage and Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum. This job has allowed him to research a question that could change how we view some historic battles. Were submarines invented and used as a secret weapon by the Confederates during the American Civil War? 

Podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) follows his curiosity to unearth the odd facts surrounding this intriguing mystery.

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These days people line up for hours to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. But at one stage there were so few people wanting to see this Renaissance painting that she was remarkably easy to steal from the Louvre Museum in Paris. In fact, for a while following the theft, no one even noticed she was gone... 

Tiktoker and Art Historian Mary McGillivray tells podcast host Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole, Mastermind) the story of art history’s most sensational crime and its patriotic perpetrator. It turns out he might have been motivated by something even more powerful than money: national pride.

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The bit players, the unexpected twists, the turning point you missed. Join Walkley award-winner Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) as he uncovers the incredible moments that changed the course of history.