Creepy staccato voices, playful jingles, and random numbers. Welcome to the weird and haunting world of number stations, shortwave radio made especially for your friendly neighbourhood spy. Delve into these cold war mysteries with us. Special shoutout and thank you to the Conet project, a series of recordings made of the stations made with painstak…

Unemployment, benefit cuts, the rise of facism, royal mishaps and lack of quality housing...No it's not present day Britain, but the era of the Great Depression, the 1930's. In a truly hodgepodge episode, we pick out some of the things around the decade that piqued our interest. So come and learn about how history truly seems to be repeat itself. S…

Bienvenue les amis and welcome to an episode all about one of the greatest catastrophes in France's history. The decimation and near extinction of its wine industry. All caused by a tiny visitor from the new world wreaking havoc. Makes a change form the usual...Come and learn how this crisis was averted and European wine was left forever changed. S…

Back in the 1930's three upper class blokes got together to start the first big social history project in Britain. The fruit of their work was Mass Observation, a project that gathered the real thoughts and opinions of ordinary working people on everything from the public to the very private... Hear the exciting story. Send us your messages or topi…

The first English colony in North America ended in a mystery that has entranced people for centuries. Colony leader John White left and returned three years later to find no trace of hundreds of people, including his own daughter. We trace the brief history of the colony's from it's early beginnings to its slightly mysterious end... Send us your me…

One of the most controversial social psychological experiments ever, Milgram's Obedience tests shocked the real world for its results, and the psychological world for his methods. Find out what they were, their impact and also who the people were behind them. Send us your messages or topic ideas.بقلم The Gallimaufry

Sex, politics, Russians, dodgy police. This story has it all. Tory sex scandals may not be an eyebrow raiser anymore, but here's where it all began. This is the affair that rocked the British political establishment and gave birth to the media lust for saucy stories. Find out all about this crazy cast of characters featuring a socialite osteopath, …

How about a nice cup of Rosy Lee, cha, builders or just a plain brew? Tea is one of the mos popular drinks in the world, the second as it stands, but how much do we know about where its from? How its made? Or even what the right amount of milk (if any) we should pop in it. Join us as a we take a brief tour from its origin to the modern day, that ta…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a silver beach ball with extensions. It's Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite, launched by the USSR on October 4th 1957 to the shocked, amazed and terrified world. Come here the story of how it was made possible, fuelled by a fierce intellectual rivalry between a charismatic ex-Nazi and a former enemy of the…

We tend to think of serial killers as a modern thing and indeed the term is very recent (in the grand scheme of things!) but what about before we knew the term? Were there serial killers roaming the streets of...well Rome? Was saucy Jack just copying some French nobles and claiming to be original? Join us as we look at some of the worlds "first" se…

Although they've been gone over 700 years, the Knights Templar fascinate and inspire many across the globe. We take a look at the real organisation, how they began, what they got up to and their grisly downfall. Sadly the real story is less mysterious and magical as popular legends suggest, but if you love prayer and horses, you're in for a treat! …

Where would the world be without the trusty post? The medium of many a crank, soppy poet and aggressive coupon chancers everywhere. We take a look at one of the longest running public mail systems, a national institution (quite literally), that enabled communications far and wide across Britain and beyond for half a century. It wasn't quite the wor…

Wotcha saveloy? Were going to get a bit Piccadilly today aren't as we delve into the wondrous world of cockney, the people and the slang, so hold on your Alan Wickers for the Harry Lime of your fork and knife. Translation: Cockney history fun. Send us your messages or topic ideas.بقلم The Gallimaufry

Life for women in the 19th century was hard, really hard. As a married woman you basically didn't exist, everything that was yours, was actually your husbands, even your kids. Then along came Caroline Norton, a strong minded, intelligent author who challenged the laws of her day after suffering at them first hand. Hear her story and how she helped …

Come discover the birth of Great Britain and learn about the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England, which the Scottish totally, honestly, wanted... and launched one of the biggest empires the world has ever seen. Send us your messages or topic ideas.بقلم The Gallimaufry

The wonderful succulent world of fruit awaits. We've been scoffing it for centuries, but how did the fruit we all come to know and admire from afar on our kitchen tables (or tv's in some cases...) get there in the first place. So prepare to go bananas and enjoy an appealing bunch of juicy facts. Send us your messages or topic ideas.…

When we think of great Prime Ministers, Lord North is probably close to the bottom of the list. A corpulent and charismatic figure, he led the British Government during the war of American Independence, a staggering defeat that finally knocked him out of office after 12 years in power (and after attempting to resign several times before he finally …

Ancient, pointy, symmetrically impressive, no this is not Keith Richards, but the Pyramids. Engineering marvels from one of the oldest and greatest nations to exist. Find out how, why and who built this majestic tombs in the episode, but honestly the short version is, if you want something built to last and built right, call an Ancient Egyptian. Se…

Is it "fantastic?" A truly 21st century invention, although actually, plastics go back centuries and most modern plastics were actually discovered in the 19th century...however it certainly embodies the sprit of capitalist consumerism. From our soda bottles, to our clothes, plastic is everywhere, and has made our society possible. Find out the fasc…

The story of Enron is one of greed, corruption, incompetence and toxicity, all the hallmarks of a successful American enterprise. One of the biggest financial scandals in business history kicked off the 21st century. Once described as "the smartest guys in the room", admittedly by themselves, the big brains at Enron did at least change the course o…

The Great War has ended, thousands of citizens from across the colonies have answered the call of the Empire, but now the dust has settled, the troops are home, they are no longer welcome. Despite also existing as communities for centuries in Britain, Black and Arab people found themselves the target of racial violence and were told to "go home", a…

Often called the Russian Lincoln, we take a look at the life of Alexander the 2nd of well...Russia. Thought of as too emotional and lazy by his peers, he certainly showed them! Known for emancipating the serfs and trying desperately to reform Russia against a rising tide of violent terrorism, Alexander ultimately fell to an assassin's bomb. In his …

War. War never changes, but the reasons do! And while it may sound strange anyway to start one over fancying another person's bit of land for yourself, there are even more absurd reasons! Gunning down pigs and dogs, non-vegan gun cartridges, overpriced bakeries... there are certainly some interesting stories here that go to show precisely why we ha…

Nowadays it's a given that the earth sits orbiting the sun, but not always! For centuries, in fact you could say not that long ago, we thought the earth was the centre of the universe. I mean why not? We're God's chosen or something right? So to make this a reality lots of people came up with complicated systems to explain it, that didn't really wo…

Ah the life of a spy. Fast cars, strange gadgets, glamorous women and....er corpses. Well one corpse to be precise. Hear the unbelievable and outrageous tale of Operation Mincemeat, the successful plan to disguise the Invasion of Sicily from Adolf and his gang, all using a phoney set of orders planted on a soldiers body. And it was basically lifted…

Bones, broomsticks, japes and jack o' lanterns, Halloween is a day packed with fright and fun, but where did it all come from? Is it just another phoney day ripe for corporations to profit off? Or does it in fact have a long, rich and mildly complicated history stretching back centuries in the British and Irish isles? No clues there...Anyway join u…

From voluminous tomes to last night's takeaway, the printing press was responsible for making the printed word accessible for everyone. It helped challenge ideas, spread knowledge and enable the fast production of everyones favourite dirty magazines. What's not to love? But where did it come from and who invented it? Was it the man from Mainz or pe…

Hold your noses this one's going to be a whopper as we delve into the murky depths of the Victorian Thames, which handily doubled as a mass sewer for all the city's waste. This all changed on one fatefully hot summer in 1858 when boiling faeces forced Parliament to act before their nostrils exploded. They passed a bill in just 18 days to build thou…

Years before a wall went up in Germany's capital, it took centre stage at the birth of the cold war. The city was in ruins, starving and subjected to the subjugation of its conquerors, but it was about to get a lot worse. In 1948, following political squabbles gone array, the Soviet blockade of Berlin began cutting off the city from the West. What …

The discovery of radio waves was a seismic event in scientific history, it opened a whole new range of communication possibilities....even if the many individuals across the world who researched and developed the concept couldn't actually see a use for their work. Thanks to their discoveries, you are able to happily turn on the radio every morning …

Political manoeuvring , experiments in eugenics, substance abuse...the third Olympiad of 1904 in St Louis really had it all. And we haven't even mentioned the bricklaying marathon runner getting a lift halfway through the race! Find out more about this bizarre and astounding event that forever etched itself onto the athletic history books, perhaps …

No this isn't the story about a delicious chocolate bar, this is the story of the most famous mutiny in British naval history. A tale of betrayal, madness, sexual slavery and murder. Who needs Netflix when you've got sailors? Send us your messages or topic ideas.بقلم The Gallimaufry

Coffee, Java, a cup of mud, the elixir of life....it has many names to many people. No matter where you are in the world, it's something we all enjoy to get us through the day. If there's one drink that can lay claim to being the worlds favourite, it's this one. Who would have thought a simple fruit found on the slopes of Ethiopian hills by a goat …

Ah, Christmas—the lights, the carols, the traumatising goat men. It's that time of year again so, in the spirit of giving, we have a special bonus episode of The Gallimaufry for you all. Join us as we discuss the origins of Christmas and discover how many of the old traditions are a lot more modern than you might think. From Pagans to Romans to Vic…

Did you know a polar bear used to call the tower of London home? Or that the Holy Roman Emperor loved a a good lion? From the playthings of the elite, sprung centres of learning and conservation that would come to be the modern zoos we know today...But hold your horses, cause there's an elephant in the room. Quite literally. Zoo's have a much darke…

When we think of pirates, a few things spring to mind. Blackbeard, Treasure Island, a bedraggled Johnny Depp. For centuries in Europe though, the image of a pirate was far more terrifying, because it came in the form of a Barbary Corsair from North Africa. Listen to Episode 2 to learn about their exploits that spanned centuries and the surprising f…

In our very first episode we explore the origins of the world's first successful national health service, The NHS. Still beloved and admired 70 years on, we take a look at what helped inspire it and who the people were that made it happen. Send us your messages or topic ideas.بقلم The Gallimaufry