Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors
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Today In History with The Retrospectors Podcast
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Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Ten minute daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history, with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll: The Retrospectors. It's history, but not as you know it! New eps Mon-Wed; reruns Thurs/Fri; Sunday exclusives at Patreon.com/Retrospectors and for Apple Subscribers.

  1. 4 HR AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    EXTRA: What Murakami Did Next

    In this bonus two minutes, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly investigate what Masanori Murakami went on to do after becoming America’s first Japanese baseball player…

    2 min

  2. 4 HR AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Why Japan Loves Baseball

    How come baseball, that most American of games, is even more popular in Japan than in its home country? It’s a story with roots into the nineteenth century, as Arion, Olly and Rebecca discover while they investigate the events of September 1st, 1964, when the San Francisco Giants introduced their newest player, Masanori Murakami, during a game against the New York Mets: the first Japanese player in Major League Baseball. His remarkable composure earned him a standing ovation at Shea Stadium. What made this even more impressive was the fact that Murakami had only signed his contract a few hours before - after the Giants found a Japanese translator to ensure he understood what he was agreeing to. In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, The Retrospectors explain how Murakami’s journey to the Major Leagues was almost accidental; discover how an American educator caught a wave of openness in Japan to establish baseball as a martial sport; and reveal why ‘Banzai’ Babe Ruth felt personally betrayed by Pearl Harbor… Further Reading: • ‘How MLB's First Japanese Player Made it to Big Leagues’ (HISTORY, 2021): https://www.history.com/news/masanori-murakami-first-japanese-major-league-baseball-player • ‘Opinion | Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan” by Robert K. Fitts’ (The Washington Post, 2012): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/banzai-babe-ruth-baseball-espionage-and-assassination-during-the-1934-tour-of-japan-by-robert-k-fitts/2012/06/08/gJQAqxTZOV_story.html • ‘Japanese Baseball is Awesome and You Need to Know More About it’ (Stark Raving Sports, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA4f9uKqsFI Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it. The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: Ollie Peart Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

    10 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    The Moscow-Washington Hotline

    Rerun: After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets and Americans agreed to install a ‘hot line’ between their Presidents. On 30th August, 1963, a 10,000 mile transatlantic Washington-Moscow cable went live from the Pentagon to Red Square. In the public imagination (in part thanks to Kubrik’s ‘Dr Strangelove’), it remains a red telephone - but it is, in fact, a pair of beige teletype machines that each required ten staff to operate. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why, prior to this, diplomacy was often being skipped altogether in favour of inflammatory radio broadcasts; consider what the messages the two nations send each other can tell us about their cultural differences; and marvel at just how much geopolitics hinges on whether two particular world leaders like each other…  Further Reading: • 'Hot line' between Washington and Moscow to be opened’ (The Guardian, 1963): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/hot-line-between-washington-and-moscow-1963-archive • ‘There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House’ (Smithsonian Magazine, 2013): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-such-a-thing-as-a-red-phone-in-the-white-house-1129598/?no-ist • ‘History Of The Moscow-Washington ‘Red Phone’’ (NBC News, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR5Z8jYRyFo Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday…  … But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    How Netflix Began

    When Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph registered the website that would become Netflix on 29th August, 1997, they named it ‘Kibble’ after a previous idea they had for a dogfood company. But their new concept - mailing DVDs out in the post - would become one of the big success stories of the dotcom era. To test the model, they sent a Patsy Cline CD through the mail; within a year, they had 30 employees and a growing library of nearly 1,000 DVDs.  Their first day saw them ship 137 DVDs, crashing their servers from unexpected demand. Despite the challenges, by 2005, they were mailing out a million DVDs a day, making Netflix a significant player in the DVD rental market - and positioning them perfectly to revolutionise the industry all over again with online streaming. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why Blockbuster (the then-giant in movie rentals) turned down the opportunity to buy up Netflix for just $50 million; consider Hastings’ apocryphal origin story; and reveal how the founders created not one, but two game-changing TV companies…  Further Reading: • ‘Netflix: Did one late video really bring down Blockbuster empire?  (News.com.au, 2020): https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/true-story-behind-netflixs-rise-and-the-downfall-of-blockbuster/news-story/407f8f2305d2800125b3cc9329c48bc4 • ‘Netflix's 20th Anniversary Is Nice, But It Doesn't Matter’ (WIRED, 2017): https://www.wired.com/story/netflix-20th-anniversary/ • ‘Netflix ad’ (Netflix, 1998): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akWxRqObbEM Love the show? Support us!  Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY…  … Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content.  Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  5. 4 DAYS AGO

    The Dizzy Leap From Brooklyn Bridge

    Larry Donovan made headlines by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge on 28th August, 1886: a daring feat that earned him the name of the ‘Champion Jumper of the World’ and a reputation for daredevil jumps that ultimately led to his early death. Donovan, who worked for the Police Gazette, an early men's magazine filled with sensational stories, prepared for the jump via a mix of practicality and showmanship, deploying weighted shoes to maintain his posture during the fall and padded leggings for protection, but also a black derby hat for style.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover the 1880s meme for jumping off bridges; consider why Donovan never attracted the devoted following in Britain he had managed to achieve in America; and reveal how a drunken bet brought the story of this early viral star to a tragic end…  CONTENT WARNING: reference to suicide, death by jumping Further Reading: • ‘Larry Donovan, 1880s Bridge Jumper, Lived Too Soon’ (Atlas Obscura, 2017): https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/larry-donovan-bridge-jumper • ’Steve Brodie and the Brooklyn Bridge’ (ThoughtCo, 2017): https://www.thoughtco.com/steve-brodie-and-the-brooklyn-bridge-1773925 • ‘The Infamous Eiffel Tower Death Jump of 1912’ (Content Warning: Death) (Bailey James, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUYPrKKM5M Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    14 min

  6. 4 DAYS AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    EXTRA: Lessons From Larry Donovan

    The tragedy of Larry Donovan’s foolish career is, at least, a lesson from history, as Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider in this week’s bonus bit, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon. Thanks for supporting our show!

    3 min

  7. 5 DAYS AGO

    Krakatoa!

    The awesome, brutal power of the Krakatoa eruption, which had the explosive force of a 200-megatonne bomb, killed more than 36,000 people and cooled the entire Earth by an average of 0.6°C. Curiously, Krakatoa is not the most powerful volcanic eruption in history, but it is perhaps the most famous because it became one of the first global catastrophes, due in large part to the newly installed worldwide telegraphic network that allowed newspapers to broadcast news of the eruption all over the globe. In this episode, The Retrospectors discuss how Krakatoa’s eruption may have inspired Edvard Munch’s The Scream; reveal why, instead of fleeing, locals held festivals when the volcano began to smoke; and explain why, if you are ever find yourself captaining a large ship during a tsunami, you may want to consider sailing towards the wave rather than away from it… Further Reading: ‘Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded’ (Penguin, 2004): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Krakatoa/Qmz4HFv-IeoC?hl=en&gbpv=0 ‘Krakatoa is still active, and we are not ready for the tsunamis another eruption would generate’ (The Conversation, 2020): https://theconversation.com/krakatoa-is-still-active-and-we-are-not-ready-for-the-tsunamis-another-eruption-would-generate-147250 ‘Krakatoa: The Volcanic Eruption That Shook The World’ (Our World, 2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrFm3HtL8_M Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it. The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: Ollie Peart Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    12 min

  8. 24 AUG • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Beavers on the Moon

    The ‘Great Moon Hoax’ was published by the New York Sun on 25th August, 1835, claiming over six instalments that renowned English astronomer John Herschel had spotted bat-men, unicorns, and bipedal beavers on the lunar surface. Despite the absurdity of the claims, the tale was so wild and well-written that many readers bought into it. The mastermind behind the hoax, Richard Adam Locke, later tried to justify his actions by claiming it was a satire meant to expose the ridiculousness of some contemporary scientific theories. In this week’s Sunday’s episode, exclusively for our 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Sun used the horrors of slavery to account for its deception; consider how the story spread all the way to Italy; and reveal why Edgar Allen Poe was particularly unimpressed by the gag… Further Reading: • ‘The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time’ (Smithsonian, 2015): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/great-moon-hoax-was-simply-sign-its-time-180955761/ • ’Belief, Legend, and the Great Moon Hoax | Folklife Today’ (Library of Congress, 2014): https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/the-great-moon-hoax/ • ’The Great Moon Hoax’ (The Folklorist, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azlz163nN-A Thanks so much for supporting the show! We massively appreciate it. The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Edit producer: Ollie Peart Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.

    11 min
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Best Daily Podcast (British Podcast Awards 2023 nominee). Ten minute daily episodes bringing you curious moments from this day in history, with Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina and Arion McNicoll: The Retrospectors. It's history, but not as you know it! New eps Mon-Wed; reruns Thurs/Fri; Sunday exclusives at Patreon.com/Retrospectors and for Apple Subscribers.

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