Episode 243: Mutiny on the Hermione

Half-Arsed History's first book, History's Strangest Deaths, is now available at all good bookstores, and probably some bad ones as well. You can buy a paper version, an ebook version, or an audiobook...

4 Aug 20254min

In this week's episode, get across the final chapter in the tale of the French Revolution: the broad political failure that was the French Directory, the collapse of which represented the end of the r...

3 Aug 20251h 5min

The sewing machine is a piece of technology that has had an outsized historical influence - not just on the textile industry, but on society, culture, and history as well.History's Strangest Deaths, t...

1 Aug 202527min

Quarter-Arsed History presents: a brief history of the guillotine, a device popularised during the French Revolution, responsible for the deaths of countless thousands during the Reign of Terror. Hist...

30 Jul 202524min

In this week's episode, get across the darkest and bloodiest chapter in French revolutionary history: the Reign of Terror, which saw tens of thousands of people killed by political violence.History's ...

27 Jul 202553min

The friction match and its subsequent developments helped to democratise fire - matches have made it possible for anyone, at any time, to make use of one of humanity's most important tools, fire. Hist...

25 Jul 202521min

Join me in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Maroochydore as I go through some of the stories from History's Strangest Deaths, and share juicy behind-the-scenes details about how the book was made. Don...

23 Jul 20256min

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the Man in the Iron Mask, a mysterious prisoner of the French king Louis XIV, who was imprisoned for 34 years without anyone ever learning his true identity. History's ...

23 Jul 202525min