This episode we talk about “The Telltale Head”, a Simpsons morality tale featuring bullying, stealing, terrible life advice and decapitation. For this history bit, we tell the story of the 1990 Nicaraguan election, the background of which contains revolution, counter revolution, hostage taking, dodgy CIA arms dealings, a highly successful literacy program and assassination with […]

This week on the show we discuss Call of the Simpsons, the one where Homer buys an RV and eventually gets mistaken for Bigfoot. The discussion ends up meandering into a rant about Mr Blobby, so look out for that! For the history we talk about the UK and Argentina restoring diplomatic relations, but really […]

This week Tom and Garreth talk about Tom’s favourite episode from Series 1 of the Simpsons, “Moaning Lisa”, an episode which deals with important topics such as video boxing and Lisa Simpson going through an existential crisis. It was first aired on the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison, so naturally the history bit […]

Join your hosts Tom and Garreth for another episode of Retrospecticus! On this show we talk about the episode “Bart the General” and discuss the opening of the first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union. Tom corrects himself on some Panamanian flagwrong from the previous episode, Garreth tells us about a conspiracy theory on the existence […]

In this episode of the show Garreth tackles the rather strange Simpsons episode “There’s No Disgrace Like Home”, the first to be penned by legendary Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. For the history, Tom tells the story of the roller coaster ride that was the life of Manuel Noriega, former military leader of […]

Things take a fairly dark turn this episode as we discuss Homer’s Odyssey, which begins with Homer Simpson tying a boulder around his waist and going to a river to commit suicide. Garreth tells us about the legend of John Henry, the steel-driving man. Tom lightens the mood with the story of Robert Tappan Morris, […]

It’s our first episode with a special guest! We take a look at the Simpsons episode “Bart the Genius”. Tom has a revelation about the “Staphylococci virus”, Garreth tells us about all things banana related, and we are joined by Simon Singh, author of “The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets” to talk about the maths […]

In the first proper episode of Retrospecticus, we take a look at “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, the first full episode of The Simpsons and the only one to be broadcast in the 1980’s. For the modern history, we tell the story of the Romanian Revolution that overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu. If you’d like to […]

SERIOUSLY! DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE SUPER CURIOUS! The other episodes are way better! WARNING! This was Tom and Garreth’s very first recording together. It was done over Skype and not face to face, so it’s very rough and ready and not very good. If you are just starting to listen to […]