Today In History with The Retrospectors

Julius Caesar intervened to put his lover and ally Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne on 27th March, 47 BC - cementing their position as the world’s premier Power Couple. But Cleo's ascent to power was not just a power play. Rather, it was a desperate bid for survival - as she had been ousted from the throne by her brother's advisors, and feared assassination.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider whether Cleopatra really did woo Caesar by emerging from a ‘carpet’; explain why Ptolemy's attempt to win Caesar's favour was desperately misguided; and probe into the family issues that perhaps inevitably arise when women are made to marry their younger brothers… Further Reading: • ‘Egypt's last pharaoh was the 'love child' of Caesar and Cleopatra’ (National Geographic, 2020): https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2020/10/egypts-last-pharaoh-was-the-love-child-of-caesar-and-cleopatra • ‘Cleopatra, Julius Caesar And Mark Antony: Her Love Affairs Explored’ (HistoryExtra, 2023): https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-egypt/cleopatra-love-affairs-julius-caesar-mark-antony/ • ’Ancient Empires: Cleopatra Evolves Into an Ruthless Monarch’ (HISTORY, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFKwn7YAg0 We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult in San Diego County was discovered on 26th March, 1997. The tragedy came to light after a former member alerted authorities, having received a farewell videotape recorded by the group.  Leader Marshall Applewhite had preached that a spacecraft travelling in the wake of the Comet Hale–Bopp would carry their souls to a higher level of existence. In preparation, they dressed uniformly and consumed a lethal mixture of phenobarbital and alcohol in a carefully planned sequence over several days. That belief system had developed over decades. Applewhite, who had a religious upbringing, met Bonnie Lou Nettles in the early 1970s. Together they formed a spiritual partnership, combining elements of Christianity with ideas drawn from science fiction and New Age thought. They came to believe that they were divinely appointed messengers, tasked with guiding followers to what they described as the “Next Level”. Over time, they attracted a small but committed group, many of whom severed ties with their families and gave up personal possessions in order to join the movement. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how the group’s gospel evolved, particularly after Nettles died of cancer in 1985; explore how the cult always used technology to recruit a larger following; and explain why Nike withdrew their Decades shoes from sale in response…  CONTENT WARNING: mass suicide, mental illness. Further Reading: • ‘THE CULT THAT LEFT AS IT LIVED’ (The Washington Post, 1997): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/03/30/the-cult-that-left-as-it-lived/1e9baadb-f465-4a7a-8026-0ab7e4822139/ • Heaven’s Gate: https://heavensgate.com • ‘Do's Final Exit’ (Heaven’s Gate, 1997): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdGXDQ_8bSA #90s #Religion #Scandal #Space 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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Each Lady Day, the Hampshire village of Tichborne hands out bags of flour to the  locals - a tradition that began on 25th March, 1150 after Lady Marbella Tichborne, on her death-bed, suggested distributing a ‘Tichborne Dole’ to the needy.  It’s far from the only quaint charity event still going strong in England. In the Kentish village of Biddenden each Easter Monday, locals indulge in ‘Biddenden cakes’, bearing the effigy of the Biddenden Maids - conjoined twins who also left behind an annual dole for the deserving poor. And in Hallaton, Leicestershire, villagers still participate in a chaotic rugby-like game, but with more ale and definitely more hare pies. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider what such kooky festivities tell us about mediaeval attitudes to women and the poor; recall what happened when ‘vagabonds’ dared to take advantage of these handouts; and stumble upon a new book proposal for Danny Wallace…  Further Reading: • ‘The Tichborne Dole’ (Historic UK, 2015): https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Tichborne-Dole/ • ‘The Strange Story of the Biddenden Maids’ (A London Inheritance, 2021): https://alondoninheritance.com/cycling-around-britain/the-strange-story-of-the-biddenden-maids/ • ‘Custom of charity of Tichbourne dole - bags of flour given to local people’ (British Pathé, 1928): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jV30X294hA 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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first international women’s sports event, The Women’s Olympiad, kicked off in Monte Carlo on 24th March, 1921. A hundred athletes from five nations competed in track and field events, defying the male-dominated Olympic movement that excluded women from all sports except tennis, golf, sailing and croquet. Created by campaigner Alice Milliat, the event showcased the skills of pioneering athletes Mary Lines, Violette Morris and Lucie Bréard - but was primarily intended to put pressure on the ‘proper’ Olympics to finally admit women into all sports - something not fully achieved for another forty years. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how rumours of ‘fainting’ women put the feminists’ cause back by decades; consider whether the IOC’s concerns regarding ‘ladylike’ pursuits were straightforward sexism; and reveal how a Paris2024 tribute to Milliat’s victory was usurped by corporate sponsorship… Further Reading: ‘Throwback Thursday: How a French Feminist Staged Her Own Games and Forced the Olympics to Include Women’ (Vice, 2016): https://www.vice.com/en/article/xybw9k/throwback-thursday-how-a-french-feminist-staged-her-own-games-and-forced-the-olympics-to-include-women ‘Women and the Olympic Dream - The Continuing Struggle for Equality, 1896-2021 - By Maria Kaj’ (McFarland, 2022): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Women_and_the_Olympic_Dream/MBx9EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=alice+milliat&pg=PA39&printsec=frontcover ‘Women's Olympic Games at Monte Carlo’ (Topical Budget, 1923): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq1BV2pcXd0 #Sport #Sexism #France 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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ was released on 23rd March, 1999 - launching the singer to worldwide superstardom, and kickstarting a Latino pop boom that propelled J-Lo, Shakira, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias and Santana into the charts. But he wasn’t an overnight success. He had already conquered the Latin music world, starred on General Hospital, and even nabbed the official 1998 FIFA World Cup song, giving him global exposure and setting the stage for his crossover moment. And his big break wasn’t just luck—it was part of a carefully crafted plan to bring Latin music to the mainstream. With Livin’ La Vida Loca, Martin and his team applied the high-energy, stadium-filling formula of rock anthems like Livin’ on a Prayer to Latin sounds. When Martin first heard the demo, he immediately insisted on reworking his album to include it. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly track Martin’s showbiz career back to pre-puberty; consider the song’s dubious lyrics, in which the subject of his affections drugs and robs him; and ask why the ‘rain’ in the song’s iconic music video is actually dirty fire hydrant water… Further Reading: • ‘Livin' La Vida Loca’ (Library of Congress, 2022): https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Livin-La-Vida-Loca_Torres.pdf • ‘Culture Re-View: How Ricky Martin's 'Livin' La Vida Loca' changed pop music’ (Euronews, 2023): https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/03/23/culture-re-view-how-livin-la-vida-loca-changed-pop-music • ‘Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca (Official Video)’ (Columbia Records, 1999): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p47fEXGabaY 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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. #Music #Latino #90s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They unpack medieval explanations for the plague, from planetary alignments to aerial spirits and folk cures. The conversation covers scientific causes like Yersinia pestis, flea and rat transmission, and shipborne spread. They explore persecution, Papal intervention, and migratory shifts. A surprising thread traces possible origins back to Mongolia and wartime contagion tactics.

A quirky look at Blaise Pascal's 1662 horse-drawn public carriage experiment and how it operated like a proto-bus with fixed routes and schedules. They reveal who authorities banned from riding and how social mixing played out onboard. The discussion traces design, capacity and why the idea fizzled before cities and commuting made buses viable.

A lively look at the invention of Tenji tactile pavement and how raised blocks transformed street and station safety for visually impaired people. They trace the 1967 origins, the inventor’s backstory, and early design struggles. The conversation covers how railways and laws sped adoption, retrofit challenges, global spread, and imaginative future ideas like embedding QR-style codes into sidewalks.

The first ever St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, as many people might expect, but in Spanish Florida, on March 17, 1601. It wasn’t until about 100 years later that the world famous parades got going in Boston and New York City. Historian J. Michael Francis made the discovery of this unexpectedly early celebration of Ireland’s patron saint while investigating the Spanish imperial history of the Floridian city of St. Augustine.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why for around 50 years up until the 1970s all pubs in Ireland were closed on St. Patrick’s Day; discuss what gunpowder had to do with the first St. Patrick’s Day parade; and reveal where corned beef and cabbage really come from…   Further Reading: • ‘Where the first St. Patrick's Day parade REALLY took place’ (Daily Mail, 2018): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5511205/First-St-Paddys-parade-took-place-FLORIDA-century-NYs.html  • ‘First St. Patrick’s Day parade’ (History.com, 2010): https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-st-patricks-day-parade  • ‘A Brief History of St. Patrick's Day’ (ABC News, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40BlVzjxu-I  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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2023. #1600s #US #Strange Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over 200 people were burned at the stake on 16th March, 1244, throwing themselves on to the pyre in their refusal to accept the Catholic church. These ‘Cathars’ reportedly followed a radical dualist belief system, seeing the material world as the creation of an evil force, with salvation lying in renouncing earthly pleasures. After years of persecution, on this day they found themselves trapped in Montségur Castle, perched atop a dramatic limestone peak. But many historians now believe the Cathars, as a distinct heretical movement, never actually existed. The term “Cathar” wasn’t even used at the time. Instead, the Church may have lumped various groups together under the label of heresy, as an excuse for persecution and territorial control. Much like the "War on Terror" centuries later, branding a broad, nebulous enemy gave the authorities free rein to wage war against anyone they considered a threat… In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly visit “Cathar Country,”; consider if putting women in positions of power put the Cathars under threat; and discover the chilling words of commander Arnold Amalric, who told his soldiers to kill everyone, because “God will know His own”... Further Reading: • ‘Your Guide To The Cathars And The Albigensian Crusade’ (BBC History Magazine, 2017): https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/who-were-cathars-what-was-catharism-what-religion-albesignian-crusade/ • ‘Consolation for the Cathars’ (The Irish Times, 2002): https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consolation-for-the-cathars-1.1127552 • ‘Cathar Massacre Unveiled - Medieval Dead - S02 EP06’ (Banijay History, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbKZwjIDGIA 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 ❤️ The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill. Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. #Medieval #France #Catholic #War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices