Half-Arsed History

In this week's episode, hear about some of the longest wars that were never actually fought - four different conflicts where war was declared before being ignored or just plain forgotten about, in som...

11 Maj 202550min

The printing press is one of or perhaps the most important invention in human history, inspiring revolutions across science, religion, society, culture, and politics by making information more accessi...

9 Maj 202526min

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the Cadaver Synod, the time a dead pope was dug up out of the ground and put on trial as a corpse. The Most Interesting People You've Never Heard Of, the second Half-Ar...

7 Maj 202518min

In this week's episode, hear about five of the most ridiculous stories to emerge from the history of papal conclaves - from foul-mouthed brawling, to papier-mache crowns, to the time there were four p...

4 Maj 202557min

Clocks are everywhere - we are more or less always surrounded by timekeeping devices of all different kinds, but it was the mechanical clock, specifically, that ushered in an era of accurate, reliable...

2 Maj 202531min

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the Defenestrations of Prague, an account of the multiple time that angry Bohemian Protestants have hurled Catholics out of windows as acts of political protest. The Mo...

30 Apr 202520min

In this week's episode, learn all about the papal conclave: what preceded it, its origins, its centuries of history, and all that we know about how it elects popes today, in the 21st century. The Most...

27 Apr 20251h 6min

Eyeglasses, as a very important invention, have evolved from an expensive and somewhat unreliable piece of specialist equipment to something that half the world's population makes daily use of. The Mo...

25 Apr 202521min