When you think about it, the Karaoke machine is a simple invention. Basically two existing inventions, the tape deck and the microphone, were stuck together, add some lyrics on a screen and BOOM, you have Karaoke. 

Anyone could have thought of it. And indeed Karaoke machines were independently invented five times in a row between 1967 and 1972…

But the funny thing is that ALL FIVE times are in Japan.

Why was Japan so desperate to invent the Karaoke machine in the late sixties? Who was the first? And what was the first ever Karaoke song?

Matt Alt, the Author of Pure Invention, How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World is joining Patented today to tell the story of one of Japan’s most iconic inventions; Karaoke. 

Edited by Alex Carlon, Produced by Freddy Chick & Alex Carlon. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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Communicating with the dead has a long and winding history. The rise of seances and the showmanship of paranormal activity rose to prominence in the late 19th century. 

Spiritualism was entering a new wave, and communicating with the spirit world was now making itself physically evident through bodily manifestations of Mystics. Enter Ectoplasm. 

For some of us, our first introduction to Ectoplasm was seeing it on the big screen watching Bill Murray get slimed in Ghostbusters, or Regan excreting from the mouth in The Exorcists. However, Ectoplasm exists outside the silver Screen and Efram Sera-Shriar is joining us to discuss its rough and tumbling history.

If you’re a sceptic, spiritualist or some in-between, there’s no denying how fascinating the topic is. Join us for the weird, wonderful and out-right disturbing history of Ectoplasm, Seances and Spiritualism. 

Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick & Alex Carlon. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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Fish and Chips. About 382 million portions of the iconic national dish are consumed every year. That works out to around 6 servings per person, per year! 

But who invented it? 

Panikos Panayi, the Author of Fish and Chips: A History and will be serving up a steaming portion of deep-friend facts today.

Get ready to tuck into a delicious history of one of Britain’s most iconic dishes. 

Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Sophie Gee & Alex Carlon. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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They can survive in lava for half an hour and accelerations of 3,400 Gs. Their beacons can be detected 20,000 feet beneath the waves. Most shocking of all - they aren't actually black! (They're bright orange = the least common colour in nature.)

Today it's the invention of the iconic Black Box (or Flight Recorder). We'll meet David Warren, the Australian who invented them. We'll learn how they work and try to fathom the strange fascination they hold.

Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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What was the first cinema? When were the heydays of cinema-going and where are we now? How has the experience of going to the cinema changed?

Today’s show is about the rise and fall of cinema. Or should that be the rise and fall and rise again of the cinema.

Dallas's guest is Trevor Griffiths, historian at the University of Edinburgh who studied the history of cinemas and cinema-going in Scotland and beyond.

Edited by Siobhan Dale, Produced by Sophie Gee, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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How do we go from wolves to modern dogs? And where do Killer Beavers fit into the story?

Humans domesticated wolves long before any other animal (or even any plants). Yet what exactly happened is shrouded in mystery.

We cover ancient origins, the explosion of breeds in the Victorian era, and some very strange experiments in Soviet Russia.

Dallas’s guest today is Greger Larson, an evolutionary geneticist at Oxford University.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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"Eject! Eject!" Imagine hearing that and the next second flying out into the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, your life in the hands of a chair. Luckily it's a very special chair that has rockets, restraining harnesses, parachutes and more.

Today is the story of the invention of Ejector Seats and there's no one better to tell it than John Nichol, who had to eject while on duty in the first Gulf War. His new book "Eject! Eject!" is out now.

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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Every second McDonald’s sells 75 hamburgers. It serves 70 million customers each day (more than the population of the UK). All this began at a roadside stand manned by two brothers: Dick and Mac McDonald (no joke). Then along came Ray Kroc who turned the roadside business into a global brand.

To hear the origin story of McDonald’s Dallas is joined by Lisa Napoli, author of Ray & Joan : The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away

Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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Who invented the Kitchen? It might seem silly to ask that but there is in fact one kitchen that people point to as the mother-of-all-kitchens. It was built in 1926 in the middle of a German housing crisis, by an architect called Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. It became known simply as the "Frankfurt Kitchen".

Dallas is joined by S.E. Eisterer, a historian of architecture who has long been fascinated by Schütte-Lihotzky, her kitchens and her life.

For more on this check out:

“Die Frankfurter Küche,” (The Frankfurt Kitchen), 1926; shows the contrast of working in the “old” and in the new “Frankfurter Küche” (Frankfurt Kitchen)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41pyty0-lgs

“The Frankfurt Kitchen” by Rotifer;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbV5tUWhpGg

“Neues Bauen in Frankfurt am Main“ (New Building in Frankfurt), 1928, short documentary; gives a great overview of construction techniques and implementation at the time

https://www.filmportal.de/video/neues-bauen-in-frankfurt-am-main-1928

Edited by Tom Delargy, Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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The first ever Pride Flag was 30 ft high and 60 ft wide. A suitably epic beginning for a flag that has had a massive impact on the world.

Who design that first flag? Why? And is Judy Garland involved in all this?

Dallas is talking to Journalist Jake Hall, author of The Art of Drag.

Produced by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long

Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, James Holland, Mary Beard and more.

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