In Georgian Era London, some of Britain’s most powerful men formed an exclusive dining club devoted almost entirely to eating enormous steaks, drinking heavily and celebrating the virtues of beef.

They took their society so seriously that they even appointed their own bishop and when the Prince of Wales told them that he’d like to join their club, they simply told him they had a strict 24 seat policy, and all 24 seats were already full.

This is the strange story of The Sublime Society of Beefsteaks.

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In the 1880s, Henry Friend claimed he had invented a secret electrical process that could revolutionise the sugar industry.

His demonstrations were convincing and at the time, investors were throwing money at him. But almost nobody was allowed to see how it worked.

So what exactly was going on inside his locked refinery?

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War often calls for quick thinking and unconventional tactics, but few battles have ever been won with… potatoes. But, during World War II, the USS O’Bannon, a U.S. Navy destroyer, found itself in a tense standoff with a Japanese submarine. With the enemy dangerously close, too near in fact for their deck guns to be effective, the crew resorted to a rather unexpected weapon. 

This is the incredible tale of how the USS O’Bannon used quick thinking, and a well-stocked pantry, to help sink a Japanese submarine.


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Website: wildhistoryofwar.com

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At it’s very core, war is essentially throwing everything you have at your enemy hoping that they break first, and at times that breaking point can be as much a psychological one as a physical one. 

Wars of attrition, as in the case of prolonged siege warfare, is all about seeing who can last the longest. 

And today's story is all about one of those siege warfare breaking points, and how an army was defeated by a woman who had nothing but her cunning, boldness and two loaves of bread.


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Website: wildhistoryofwar.com

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The entire experience of eating a fancy meal these days is no longer just about the food itself. For decades, chefs like Heston Blumenthal have been creating entire culinary experiences to delight all of your senses at once, pairing sounds, smells and textures along with the already delicious flavours of their food.

But while this trend has taken off again more recently, this is by no means a modern practice. In fact, as far back as the early 1600’s an innovative chef by the name of Robert May was creating similar sensory dining experiences all around Elizabethan England.

Today, we’ll discover just who this man was, and how he went about revolutionising banquets into what would come to be called his "Spectacle Feasts".

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-aaron-mahnkes-cabinet-of-c-29519194/episode/chefs-table-172173292/
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-fantastical-feasts-of-englands-first-celebrity-chef
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_May_(cook)

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It’s well into the northern european winter season at the end of 1939. Five hundred thousand Russian Soviet Soldiers are making a collective push northwards, swarming the countryside as they go. They are armed to the hilt with tanks, explosives, machine guns, grenades and a staggeringly overwhelming number of troops.

But there is one thing that they didn’t count on, one thing that threatened to derail their entire military offensive altogether. And that one thing, was the humble sausage.

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Thank you to my brand-new supporters:

• Josh Lovetere
• Zachary Hedden

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.history.com/news/the-bizarre-sausage-war-that-inspired-hitler
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varolampi_Pond
• https://www.finlandatwar.com/the-sausage-war-an-army-marches-on-its-stomach/
• https://sofrep.com/news/sausage-war-when-hunger-got-the-best-of-the-soviets/
• https://short-history.com/sausage-war-733d71767317
• https://pennytyrrellmcqueen.wixsite.com/togetherapart/single-post/2016/10/26/sausage-war

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For the majority of history they were considered the ultimate delicacy by European nobility who just couldn’t get enough of them. From snack to status symbol, the pineapple has graced many a King and Queens palace courts, while outside of them they took on a mythical quality akin to some sort of precious jewel.

Today, we’ll track the pineapples voyage across the seas and into the history books as it became synonymous with the very peak of royal de rigeour.

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Thank you to our brand-new supporter:

• Sarah Thompson

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.thedailymeal.com/1233796/in-the-1700s-pineapples-were-wildly-expensive-symbols-of-prosperity/
• https://www.britannica.com/plant/pineapple
• https://www.bimstore.co/resources/10-facts-about-pineapples
• https://www.tastesofhistory.co.uk/post/a-brief-history-of-foods-pineapple
• https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/04/25/the-strange-history-of-the-king-pine/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3-uKgiyE3Y
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple#:~:text=Precolonial%20cultivation,-The%20wild%20plant&text=By%20the%20late%201400s%2C%20cropped,it%20into%20India%20by%201550.

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For as long as so-called civilised societies have existed, equally uncivilised clubs and groups have sprung up within them, allowing their members to revel in all sorts of weird and wonderful excesses.

In previous episodes we have heard about secret food clubs with a goal of eating every type of animal on earth. Todays story may not be so different, although this clubs members were’nt so picky about reaching any particular goal other that just eating every type of food they could get their hands on.

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Thank you to our 2 brand-new supporters:

• Frank Morales 

• Philipp Surkov

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.insidehook.com/culture/revisiting-fat-mens-clubs
• https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/07/469571114/the-forgotten-history-of-fat-men-s-clubs
• https://www.sunjournal.com/2020/01/19/when-fat-mens-clubs-were-big/
• https://www.antikeychop.com/fatmensclub
• https://husheduphistory.com/post/141904668068/girth-and-mirth-the-rise-of-the-fat-mens-club
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/unusual-clubs-in-history

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Turn on the tv or radio, or scroll any news site online and you’ll no doubt be inundated with stories about crazy weather anomalies happening all around the globe.

Volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, earthquakes, tornadoes and so much more.

But none of us, thankfully, have ever lived through one of the strangest events in history when something a lot more dense than rain began falling from the skies onto some unsuspecting farmers in the small town of Olympia Springs, Kentucky. 

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/What-Was-the-Kentucky-Meat-Shower
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_meat_shower
  
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzkmgw/the-mystery-of-the-kentucky-meat-shower
  
• https://www.popsci.com/story/science/weirdest-thing-meat-shower-kodak-cow-sword-swallower/
  
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/running-ponies/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/
  
• https://www.wate.com/news/kentucky/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-147-years-passed-since-the-kentucky-shower-of-flesh/
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lluvia_de_peces
  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animals
  

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In our modern age we have lived through natural disasters and floods in various parts of the world, and no matter what, they are always tragic. But tragic floods are not always a cause of nature.

In episode 7, we discussed the great molasses flood that occurred in Boston and the ensuing devastation of that event. Well today, we’ll be taking a look at a similar, albeit less gloopy tidal wave of destruction that occurred 100 years before that.

And, as much as any of us may love a beer every now and then and dream of swimming in a pool of the bubbly liquid, this tragic event was unfortunately no laughing matter.

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood
  
• https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/
  
• https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/great-beer-flood-1814-what-happened/
  
• https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-london-beer-flood/
  
• https://www.history.com/news/london-beer-flood
  
• https://explorethearchive.com/london-beer-flood
  
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1814-beer-flood-killed-eight-people-180964256/
  

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