The Retrospectors (2025)

18/07/2025

Arion is back from Oz for a Summer holiday - so this week we took the opportunity to leave our microphones at home, and meet up in actual REAL LIFE.

(This photoset was taken at the beginning of the day; suffice to say we were worse-for-wear by sundown and had a DELIGHTFUL time thanks to you lovely listeners effectively paying for our lunch and drinks.)

Fun history fact of the day: we had fish and chips in a coaching inn which has existed on the present site since 1688 and was mentioned in The Spectator in August 1712.

04/12/2024

⏰ Can Arion summarise the early history of LIFE ON EARTH ... in just one minute?! 🦕

19/06/2024

Today is one of those very rare days that we tear back the page of our On This Day calendar from Waterstones to reveal... we have chosen the same event from history!

30/04/2024

🎉 Our 3RD BIRTHDAY is rapidly approaching - and, to celebrate, we're going to make a video Q&A! So...
❓WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK Arion, Rebecca, Olly and Producer Matt?
🔊Reply to this post and we'll add your question to the list!👇

04/02/2024

On this day: Exclusively for 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴supporters on Apple Podcasts and Patreon - Arion, Rebecca and Olly celebrate a significant day in gaming history: the debut of ‘The Sims’ on February 4th, 2000.

Will Wright (‘Sim City’) developed an initial concept which revolved around architecture - but soon the Sims themselves proved to be the most captivating aspect of the gameplay. Unlike other avatars, The Sims lived full lives with jobs, hobbies, relationships, and even their own language, Simlish.

Despite initial scepticism from publisher EA (due to the game’s perceived mundanity and lack of interest to boys) The Sims sold 8 million copies, and millions more in Extension Packs; and, beyond its success, was praised for its humour, soundtrack, and commitment to self-expression.

In this episode, The Retrospectors reveal how same-sex relationships have always been part of the Sims appeal; explain how the game’s sequels pulled off the ultimate in-game meta twist; and uncover how its predecessor Sim City evolved from conventional game design…

02/02/2024

On this day: Long before Bill Murray turned up, Gobbler's K**b, Punxsutawney hosted its first ever Groundhog Day on 2nd February, 1887 - as a day for huntsmen to eat the local rodent.

Over time, the delightful, yet absurd, theory emerged that a groundhog sighting its shadow could predict six more weeks of winter, or herald an early spring. The concept traces its origins to ancient superstitions around Candlemas Day, brought to Pennsylvania by German settlers. But sadly the stats don’t back up the belief!

In the latest episode of The Retrospectors, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how a cheeky newspaper editor first introduced this fun fake news into print; consider the role that booze has always played in this quaint merriment; and reveal just what Punxsutawney Phil gets up to for the rest of the year…

01/02/2024

Today in history: In 1846 Theophile Gautier’s account of ‘green jam’ cannabis consumption at the drug-addled dinner parties of the ‘Club des Hachichins’ - alongside literary figures Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac - was first published in R***e des Deux Mondes.

The Club, founded by psychiatrist Dr Jacques Joseph Moreau to establish the psychedelic effects of eating copious amounts of ma*****na, met in Arab fancy dress; its members mashing their drugs up with with cinnamon cloves, nutmeg, pistachio, sugar, orange juice - and an aphrodisiac derived from Spanish Fly.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Napoleon inadvertently triggered the French trend for w**d that endures to this day; consider the influence of Thomas de Quincey’s ‘Confessions of an English O***m Eater’ on this select group of Romantic literati; and review Charles Baudelaire’s claim that he was merely a spectator and DID NOT INHALE…

31/01/2024

On this day: These Are My Children premiered on NBC in 1949; the world's first televised soap opera. It lasted only four weeks on air, was broadcast live, and had a tiny budget, but influenced the production of the genre for decades.

As dramas primarily created by and for women, soap operas typically attracted sniffy reviews from male critics, yet proved enormously popular with their initial audience of 1950s housewives. Creator Irna Phillips’ own backstory mirrored the dramatic storylines she wrote, and many of the situations she introduced into her productions - illegitimate children, amnesiac medical patients - were TV firsts.

In the latest episode of The Retrospectors, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the genre’s clunky transition from radio to TV; explain the difficulties in obtaining quality soap actors; and reveal how Phillips not only pioneered soaps, but also pre-empted the Marvel Cinematic Universe…

30/01/2024

On this day: Revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell was executed in 1661 - despite having been dead for more than two years. His body was exhumed from its tomb in Westminster Abbey on the instruction of King Charles II, who sought retribution for those involved in the trial and ex*****on of his father, Charles I.

Along with other Regicides, Cromwell’s co**se was disinterred and subjected to public abuse. On the anniversary of Charles I’s beheading, Cromwell’s head was mounted on a spike and stuck on the roof of Westminster Hall - where it remained for thirty years.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly track the illustrious history of Cromwell’s head from that date forth; consider whether the crowd in attendance at the ‘ex*****on’ really hated their former Lord Protector as much as their jeering suggests; and explain how the intervention of a future Prime Minister prevented Cromwell’s relic being put on public display as recently as the 19th Century…

29/01/2024

Today in history George W. Bush gave his controversial State of the Union address in 2002 - it saw the introduction of the phrase ‘the Axis of Evil’.

Speechwriter David Frum had initially grouped Iraq, Iran and North Korea together as an ‘Axis of Hatred’ - but Bush himself chose to replace the word ‘hatred’ with ‘evil’, a choice viewed by most Americans as striking the right tone, but many international commentators as a stepping-stone to indiscriminately invading Iraq.

In this episode Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Bush’s pivot to ‘evil’ opened up numerous sticky diplomatic questions for his administration; reveal which countries Republican hawk John Bolton felt were the next-most-evil nations; and explain how Frum took inspiration from FDR’s reaction to Pearl Harbour…

25/01/2024

Walking down the aisle to Wagner’s ‘Here Comes The Bride’ and departing to Mendelssohn’s ‘The Wedding March’ remains a popular choice at wedding ceremonies - a precedent established by the Princess Royal Victoria and Prince Frederick of Prussia, who married at St James’s Palace on 25th January, 1858.
Unfortunately for Mendelssohn, he’d been dead eleven years by the time his tune became a viral hit - but he treasured his patronage by Victoria and Albert, once describing Buckingham Palace as “the only really nice, comfortable house in England.”
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how ‘The Wedding March’ had its origins not in Church, but Paganism; reveal how Frederick and Victoria’s union influenced American troops in the Second World War; and, with grim inevitability, give yet another airing to Arion’s execrable Queen Victoria impression. Brace yourself…

24/01/2024

California Gold Rush was ignited by James Marshall’s discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill on January 24th, 1848. The news led to a lawless and chaotic surge of wannabe prospectors heading to the State, enduring perilous journeys to do so.

Over 300,000 people arrived in just seven years, transforming a region previously inhabited by just 8,000 white settlers. But not everybody struck it rich, and, despite owning the land the gold was found on, the discovery dashed John Sutter’s dreams of establishing a water mill bearing his name.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explore how ‘the 49ers’ laid the template for California rushes yet to come, in the form of Hollywood and Silicon Valley; reveal how Levi Strauss used the gold rush to grow his burgeoning fashion business; and ask how, exactly, normal people knew how to verify the gold they’d found in a river, in the days before YouTube…

The Retrospectors