Histories of the Unexpected explores the past in ways that you never dreamt possible. Surely there’s nothing unexpected about the past? About History? Aha, well Histories of the Unexpected adopts a new approach to exploring our past. Gone is the traditional linear plotting of battles, monarchs and political movements. Histories of the Unexpected argues that everything has a history. Presented by Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell.
Histories of the Unexpected explores the past in ways that you never dreamt possible. Surely there’s nothing unexpected about the past? About History? Aha, well Histories of the Unexpected adopts a new approach to exploring our past. Gone is the traditional linear plotting of battles, monarchs and political movements. Histories of the Unexpected argues that everything has a history. Presented by Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell.
Histories of the Unexpected explores the past in ways that you never dreamt possible. Surely there’s nothing unexpected about the past? About History? Aha, well Histories of the Unexpected adopts a new approach to exploring our past. Gone is the traditional linear plotting of battles, monarchs and political movements. Histories of the Unexpected argues that everything has a history. Presented by Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell.
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook
Producer - Dan Morelle
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 19 2017
40mins
Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell whisk you through the mysterious crannies in the unexpected history of pockets! For more exclusive interviews and documentaries, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV - a new kind of history channel.
Producer: Natt Tapley
Audio: Pete Dennis
Theme tune: Dan Morelle
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyApr 07 2018
28mins
Dr Sam Willis & Professor James Daybell explore the unexpected history of bells. For more exclusive history documentaries & interviews, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV.
Producer: Natt Tapley
Audio: Pete Dennis
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJun 17 2018
34mins
James and Sam explore the UNEXPECTED history of the Vikings. Who knew that the Vikings are all about graffiti, break-ins, criminal profiling, colour, teeth, keys, birds, nicknames, saunas, silk, mischief, staffs and goading!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyMay 06 2019
37mins
Sam and James discuss the unexpected history of the Nazis. They're all about, motherhood, shame, medals, public speaking, architecture and cars....who knew?
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 27 2019
33mins
James and Sam explain how you can think about the history of humans...it's all about behaviour, art, hands, animals, hats...you'll never think about yourself in the same way ever again...GUARANTEED.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacySep 03 2019
35mins
Mar 07 2017
27mins
Dr Sam Willis & Professor James Daybell explore the unexpected history of Christmas in the first of this two part series. For more exclusive history documentaries & interviews, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV.
Producer: Natt Tapley
Audio: Peter Curry
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyDec 21 2018
25mins
Dr Sam Willis & Professor James Daybell explore the unexpected history of accidents. For more exclusive history interviews and documentaries, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV.
Producer: Natt Tapley
Audio: Pete Dennis
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 16 2018
28mins
Sam Willis and James Daybell tackle the UNEXPECTED history of FABRIC! It's all about museums, (especially the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Vasa Museum) LGBTQ+, flags, handkerchiefs in WW2, silk, the Vikings, trade, subversion, heirlooms, communication, politics...a whole world of fabulous history.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 13 2019
29mins
Apr 04 2017
18mins
Sam and James discuss all of the unexpected aspects of WWII, which is all about rubble, carrots, blood, pockets, suicide, gates, Zen Buddhism, furniture, cancer, Mozart, King Arthur, cows, mothers, puppets, handkerchiefs, and much, much more! It's not just all about the Nazis, Churchill and the Battle of Britain...
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyMay 13 2019
34mins
Dr Sam Willis & Professor James Daybell discover the unexpected history of nonsense! For more exclusive history interviews and documentaries, subscribe to HistoryHit.TV.
Producer: Natt Tapley
Audio: Pete Dennis
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyMar 18 2018
37mins
James and Sam explain how you can think about the history of spies...it's all about honey, codes, eggs and invisibility!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 03 2019
42mins
Jan 24 2017
30mins
James and Sam explain why the Reformation - that schism in the Christian church in the sixteenth century that transformed the landscape of Europe - is actually all about fire, windows, bones and kissing!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 08 2019
34mins
Apr 25 2017
29mins
In this episode Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell talk about the unexpected history pirates, which is all about authors, cross-dressing, ferocious women, childhood memory, beards and empire.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJun 27 2019
38mins
In this episode, James interviews Miss Walsingham herself, Nadine Akkerman from Leiden University on her new book about seventeenth-century female spies, 'Invisible Agents'!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 07 2019
44mins
Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis
Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell
Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod
HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook
Producer - Dan Morelle For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy
Jul 12 2017
31mins
Sam Willis and James Daybell take on the UNEXPECTED history of CLOTHING! It's all about social control, death, recycling and mending, nationalism, Venice, knights and maidens, the Crown Jewels, ostriches, Thomas Wolsey, and the rediscovery of a long lost dress that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth I of England!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyDec 04 2019
47mins
Sam Willis and James Daybell are inspired by the new film Judy and Punch to explore the fascinating history of puppets! They're all about noses, propaganda, domestic violence, totalitarian rule, mischief, squeaking, industrialisation and disease. Who knew?!!!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyNov 18 2019
42mins
Inspired by Bonfire Night, Sam Willis and James Daybell explore the unexpected history of fire. It's all about communicating with fire, propaganda, speeches, hunting, exploring, Captain Cook, arrows, burning barrels, heresy, greed, Zoroastrianism, the rise of Islam, eternal flames, paisley, Dante's Inferno, treachery and Julius Caesar!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyNov 13 2019
35mins
Inspired by Halloween and Bonfire Night, Sam and James discuss the unexpected history of blood and bones: it's all about prehistoric axes, mass graves, Viking armies, Tudor surgery, bear baiting, blood sports, how much it costs to make a human being, Ottomans, Italy, and eating human bone powder. So that's cannibalism too...
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyNov 06 2019
47mins
Sam and James explore the UNEXPECTED history of the Spanish Armada. It's all about collapsed expectation, flags, spies (as always), threat, fire, people not doing the right jobs, seasickness and lies.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 21 2019
32mins
Sam Willis and James Daybell tackle the UNEXPECTED history of FABRIC! It's all about museums, (especially the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Vasa Museum) LGBTQ+, flags, handkerchiefs in WW2, silk, the Vikings, trade, subversion, heirlooms, communication, politics...a whole world of fabulous history.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 13 2019
29mins
In this episode, James interviews Miss Walsingham herself, Nadine Akkerman from Leiden University on her new book about seventeenth-century female spies, 'Invisible Agents'!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 07 2019
44mins
James and Sam explain how you can think about the history of spies...it's all about honey, codes, eggs and invisibility!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyOct 03 2019
42mins
Sam spends a happy hour talking to the scientist Adam Rutherford about humans! The history of humans is all about - masks, ties, make-up, sea-otters, penguins, and whales playing the violin.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacySep 27 2019
32mins
James and Sam explain how you can think about the history of humans...it's all about behaviour, art, hands, animals, hats...you'll never think about yourself in the same way ever again...GUARANTEED.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacySep 03 2019
35mins
James and Sam take time out before their show at Dartington Hall to explore its UNEXPECTED history: It's all about the history of wild swimming, accidents, hiding, subversion and the Knights Templar!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyAug 25 2019
17mins
Sam and James explore the extraordinary history of executions! It's all about judgement and seagulls - and obviously pirates and highwaymen, And cannibals. And fattening. And the law. And wheels and entrails. And encouragement. And speeches. And smiles, propaganda, entertainment and...the self. And poor old Lady Jane Grey.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyAug 21 2019
35mins
Sam and James take time out from preparing their live show at Beaminster to visit the local museum and discuss their latest discoveries. Beaminster? Well it's all about pronunciation, community, witches, punishment and, of course...deer.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyAug 11 2019
17mins
Sam and James continue their Unexpected History of Cricket with an interview of Vic Marks, England and Somerset spin bowler, author, journalist and legend of the BBC Test Match Special commentary team. It's all about cowmen, photos, memory, language and entertainers....
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyAug 05 2019
36mins
Sam and James discuss the unexpected history of the Nazis. They're all about, motherhood, shame, medals, public speaking, architecture and cars....who knew?
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 27 2019
33mins
Sam and James discuss the unexpected history of cricket! It's all about empire, sexism, national perceptions of history, slavery, violence and hurricanes...
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 17 2019
37mins
James and Sam explain why the Reformation - that schism in the Christian church in the sixteenth century that transformed the landscape of Europe - is actually all about fire, windows, bones and kissing!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 08 2019
34mins
James and I chat before our show at the Cambridge History Festival at the beautiful Wimpole Hall just outside of Cambridge. It's a beautiful country house built in the 1640s and it's all about...symmetry, ruins, yellow, windows, sitting down and standing up!
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJul 02 2019
15mins
In this episode Dr Sam Willis and Professor James Daybell talk about the unexpected history pirates, which is all about authors, cross-dressing, ferocious women, childhood memory, beards and empire.
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJun 27 2019
38mins
James and Sam launch their first Green Room podcast! Unexpected historical thoughts as they travel around the country's theatres and arts centres with their Histories of the Unexpected show...this one's about shopping lists and the history of lost fame...
For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacyJun 19 2019
14mins