O Brother When Art Thou History Podcast: Recent Episodes
Neil and David White
Brothers Neil and David White explore some of the quirky, fun and downright strange people, places and events from history
As a mob of mercenaries loots the Holy See, 42 Swiss Guardsmen, all that remains of the 500 who started in the fight, fortify themselves on the steps of the Vatican, to make one desperate last stand to fulfill their holy mission and defend the Pope at all costs.
160 years ago on May 12th 1862, in the midst of the American Civil War, a small Confederate boat, captained by a mysterious man in a straw hat, runs up the white flag and surrenders to the US Navy. Is it all too good to be true or could it be some true good news?
After gaining his personal freedom, a former slave faces an even greater challenge when a powerful empire threatens to take away the freedom of his entire country if he cannot find a way to win a complicated war and the game of politics.
After failing a very difficult exam, a young man in China falls into a fever dream. He soon realizes the meaning of his dream, that he is the younger brother of Jesus Christ, destined to create a heavenly kingdom on Earth. His gospel will soon change forever the course of Chinese history, and cause ripple effects around the world.
In 1506, a child is born pre-maturely to the Queen of Hungary. Miraculously, Louis II survives, and grows up to ascend to the throne at just 10 years old. By his teens however, the two empires on Hungary’s doorstep are looking to seize his kingdom, and it will take another miracle if the young king wants to hold onto his birthright.
In the late 1800s, a young man calling himself Lord Gordon Gordon arrives in New York City, and sets out to make his fortune. Claiming connections to wealthy Scottish railroad investors, he gets his hands on millions of dollars from a powerful American stock market speculator. But when politics come into play, things get complicated. Plus we have a new pop culture history quiz about Disney princesses!
No, not that kind of filibuster! In the mid-1800s journalist William Walker makes a habit of invading Latin American countries to try and make his fortune, a strategy known as a “filibustering”. But can this undoubtedly illegal enterprise pay off for the American adventurer?
In 1950 an obscure American Senator announces that he knows the names of 205 Soviet spies in the US State Department. Over the next five years, Senator Joe McCarthy would gain the fame he sought as he investigated “un-American activities” but at what cost?
In 89 BCE, 1-year-old Publius Ventidius Bassus is marched through the streets of Rome, a slave captured by the victorious Roman army. 31 years later, he is recruited into that same Roman army, and begins a precipitous rise to the very top of the Roman political order.
An oddball group of soldiers and rebels are assembled on a small island in the Adriatic Sea to bolster the brave Yugoslavian resistance in their fight against Axis Germany.
In 1899 France is divided by deep and bitter political fractures. At the centre of it all is an artillery officer accused of spying for the Germans, and a President accused of covering up exonerating evidence. When the President is found dead in his bed with a younger woman, the country heads to a trial that will have consequences for years to come.
Facing death for a minor transgression, two military officers in China in 209BCE decide they have no choice but to rebel. With the help of a fishy prophecy they lead their men in a hopeless war against the powerful Qin dynasty, but their decision will have effects that echo through the generations in China.
As World War One rages, a right-wing populist politician named Noel Pemberton Billing taps into the fears of Londoners with sensationalist stories about homosexual German spies. But when a dancer sues him for libel, it results in a trial full of crazy witnesses, outlandish rumours and petty personal sniping.
In 1812, it seems that the only way to prevent a war between Britain and the United States might be to assassinate Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. But when the British leader is gunned down in the Parliament, things don’t go as you’d expect.
Pulling off a heist takes perfect planning, exact execution and a little bit of luck. 350 years ago, Thomas Blood was hoping for all three as he attempted to pull off the most daring theft imaginable in King Charles II’s England, stealing the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London! But is Thomas just a small part of a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top?
Late in World War Two, the American Navy is engaged in a game of cat and mouse with the Japanese, each trying to lure the other into a deadly trap. When an American Task Force is drawn off target, the USS Johnston must survive long enough to avoid a complete disaster for the American forces.
In 1943 a small British artillery unit faces the full brunt of Rommel’s army of German tanks. If they fail, it could spell a disaster for the British Army in North Africa. A true story of courage and heroism in the face of overwhelming odds.
There’s celebration in the streets of England when it is announced that their enemy, General Napoleon Bonaparte, is dead. The only problem is that Napoleon is very much alive. But some people have made a fortune off the news of his death in the stock markets, and a crack team of investigators sets out to find them and prosecute them. The investigation will go to the very top and send shockwaves through the British military and political sphere.
When a sailor dies fighting the Portuguese, his wife vows revenge. Keumalahayati will not only get that revenge but her skill, courage and daring feats on the high seas will lift her country to new heights and earn her renown around the world.
In the middle of the night a mysterious hooded figure murders a powerful Roman politician. With his death, proposed political reforms come to a halt and the Republic is thrown into turmoil.
What happens when violence is used in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate democratic government? In 1930s Japan, violent insurrectionists were intent on change, adopting the slogan “dialogue is useless”. Their attacks, against both political leaders and some unusual targets, foretold the future of Japan and present lessons that are still relevant today.
After a divine revelation on the battlefield in the War of 1812, William Miller sets out to examine The Bible. His calculations, based off the Book of Daniel, pinpoint October 22, 1848 as Judgment Day. His prophecy sets off consequences big and small that reverberate to this very day, and make us think about beginnings, endings and the importance we attach to individual dates.
In 869, a poet arrives in Basra, part of the Abbasid Caliphate. Taking on the moniker “The African”, he leads the slaves in a revolt that threatens the world’s most powerful empire. Can this ambitious challenger upset the world order, or will the side with more money win out in the end?
Late in World War One, cavalry charges have become an outdated mode of fighting. Yet a group of Canadian soldiers find themselves in a desperate charge, straight into the teeth of German machine gun fire. On Remembrance Day, we remember a story of courage and sacrifice from Lieut. Gordon Flowerdew and the men under his command.
A special mini episode of O Brother When Art Thou! In 1948 Israel is in desperate need of warplanes for their war of independence. Czechoslovakia is in desperate need of money to rebuild their economy under a new Communist government in the wake of the Second World War. It seems like a perfect match, but they just need to find some planes to actually sell!
In Nova Scotia a convoluted legal dispute leads to a simple outcome, two bullets fired in a duel. Little do the combatants know that the fate of the entire country hangs in the balance.
In Connecticut in 1780 the sky suddenly goes pitch black in the middle of the day, leaving nothing visible until a blood red moon appears that night. The only logical explanation is that end of the world is nigh. And coming up with a better explanation will take over 200 more years.
A cryptic reference in the Canadian Parliament to a top-secret file sets off a worldwide investigation involving two high-ranking Canadian politicians and a German housewife. The scandalous allegations of sex, politics and KGB espionage make headlines around the world, but how much of it is true?
With foreign wars dragging on, growing economic inequality and leadership that’s seen as out-of-touch and willing to cheat to stay in power, the Roman Republic falls into a state of constitutional crises. Could the solution be less democracy? Or will the rise of a dictator spell disaster for the people? And what can the political machinations from nearly 2400 years ago teach us about the politics of the 21st century?
Our fiftieth episode special on our 2nd anniversary! We recap 50 lessons we’ve learned from 50 episodes of O Brother When Art Thou!
Our Pride Month 2020 special! In 1959, British MP Harford Montgomery Hyde loses his seat because he campaigned for gay rights. In an unexpected way, his job is a surprising victim of the Cold War. But it’s also foreshadows a remarkable change in societal views that’s about to come in the next decade.
In 1800, the Sierra Leone Company has a problem, the settlers they brought from Nova Scotia are rioting over rising food prices. Could the solution to their issues come from the same frigid Canadian province?
A black Canadian soldier returning from World War II can’t get a meal in his hometown because of racism at local restaurants. So he decides to do something about it. Changing the law is a big challenge, but fighting the system and changing minds is even bigger.
In 1883, some rogue French soldiers are occupying Hanoi. The Vietnamese can’t defeat them in the city, but they have a plan: lure the French into an ambush using schoolyard taunts. Will the French fall for the trap, and what will it mean for the history of Vietnam?
In a world where theatre is banned, putting on a play is a risky business! But from tough times, come great ideas. In Oliver Cromwell’s England, a criminal poet laureate without a nose is about to change the face of English theatre forever.
A young woman offers a soldier a flower, a symbolic representation of the choice he faces. Will he defend his post and trigger a bloodbath, or will he accept the carnation and join the revolution? The future of Portugal hangs in the balance.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, we have a story from the waning days of World War II. Three forces are descending on a German prisoner of war camp full of French VIPs and assorted European resistance fighters: an American company with 4 Sherman tanks, a large group of fanatical SS troops and, most unlikely of all, a group of former German soldiers turned Austrian freedom fighters. Their inevitable collision will create one of the strangest battles of the entire war, just days before it came to an end.
By the 1600s in the African kingdom of Ndongo, traditional power structures have been overturned by Portuguese slave merchants. The King, or Angola, is weak, forced to negotiate with the European colonizers, while ruthless warriors gain power from European allies. But a Queen emerges, and leads her people into a guerrilla war that will re-shape Africa for the next century.
On Valentine's Day in 1915, a lone Canadian soldier guards the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa from a reported fleet of UFOs. Could aliens be part of a German plot to attack Canada? What about an army of cowboys? For a German spy in the USA, no plot is too outlandish.
It’s 1872 and an epidemic is sweeping North America, causing wide spread economic and social hardship, even though the disease never directly killed a single human. What can we learn from the “epizootic” that devastated the continent nearly 150 years ago?
A Japanese surprise attack leaves the Russians in Manchuria under siege! To rescue them, a fleet must sail half way around the world,but from the very start things do not go well for the Russian rescuers. Can they dodge the Japanese and make it in time to save their countrymen?
Simon De Montfort, the most powerful man in England, has a political problem on his hands. But he also has a solution! Unbeknownst to him, his revolutionary plan will forever change the way the western world thinks about political power, and set the stage for the democracies to come.
On Christmas Eve 1941, as Santa is making his trip around the world, a small French fleet with about a hundred marines storm a remote island off the coast of Canada. The invasion, which might have gone unnoticed had they not been accompanied by a famous American war correspondent, would have major repercussions for relationships between the Allied countries and their war against Vichy France.
Communications errors between four British Generals cost hundreds of soldiers their lives on a far away battlefield, but when the country’s Poet Laureate pens a tribute to the doomed ‘Charge of the Light Brigade,’ it becomes a mistake that will echo through the ages. And it still has something to teach us something about patriotism, changing technology and the importance of communication.
Chariot race fans are the biggest sports fans in the Byzantine empire. But when a race between the blues and the greens ends in a dispute, it kicks off a riot that will grow to threaten the life of the Emperor himself
Admiral Yi Sun-sin defies the orders of his king, vowing to fight with his navy until his dying breath. But can the brilliant naval strategist find a way to stop the Japanese invasion despite being outnumbered by 133 warships to 13?
Niccolo Machiavelli literally writes the book on ruthless politics, but when a dead pope creates a problem for the political career of Duke Cesare Borgia, can Machiavellian politics save them, or will an even more ruthless politician rise up in the fractured world of Italian politics?
The roots of the world’s first stock market crash in 1720 go all the way back to an early morning duel in London 26 years earlier. This is a story of gambling, sword fighting, womanizing and economics that will set the stage for capitalism as we know it
Count Talleyrand is one of the most skilled diplomats in Europe. He’s also a corrupt fraudster who’s worked for whichever government happened to be in power at the time. Now his greatest challenge will come at a diplomatic table in Vienna, just as Napoleon faces off against the English at Waterloo. Will this be his greatest triumph or a defeat to match that of The Little Corporal?
50 years ago today on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon. It was an exciting moment at the end of a difficult decade, and one that brought together science, technology, politics, communications and human determination. This is the story of one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
There’s a grand legal drama playing out in England in 1772. Everyone wants to know, will the highest court in the land outlaw slavery? Plus we celebrate the Women’s World Cup with a history of soccer quiz!
75 years ago today, on June 6, 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history landed Allied troops on the coasts of Normandy. The massive undertaking, now known as D-Day, was a turning point in World War II. We look back at the planning, execution and outcome of Operation Overlord. Plus a special D-Day quiz!
A fur trader in 1660 Quebec discovers a fort burned to the ground just outside the city of Montreal. But were the inhabitants heroes who saved the city from an invading Iroquois army, or just collateral damage in a war between the Iroquois and the Huron tribes? Plus we play a game with historical figures Facebook status updates!
What was the most dangerous moment of World War Two? British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s answer might surprise you. This is the story of the British fleet in the Indian Ocean, how they were saved by a Canadian Prime Minister’s roommate, and why the whole story was later forgotten.
Rome is in crisis. Desperately the Emperor launches a war against an unlikely foe, the Desert Queen Zenobia, described as the most beautiful woman in the realm. Can the Emperor bring her unruly territory to heel with a little help from a long dead philosopher?
In the dead of night someone breaks the genitalia off of over 200 statutes in Athens. 16 years later, one of the world’s greatest philosophers is on trial for his life, the end of a complicated trail of political intrigue and military setbacks in Greece that all trace back to that fateful spree of vandalism.
On the night of March 24th, 1944, 77 men crawl through a long dark tunnel… escaping the clutches of a German prisoner of war camp. This is the true story of “The Great Escape”, the largest prisoner of war breakout of the Second World War.
Could a bunch of swimming soldiers be the key to a critical British assault in Burma? It may sound silly, but Lieutenant Bruce Wright thinks it may just be crazy enough to work.
A special Black History Month episode on how the legislature in Upper Canada (what’s now known as Ontario) came to be the first in the British Empire to ban slavery through legislation because of an abolitionist Lieutenant-Governor, an upstanding black veteran, a crafty Attorney General and a brave woman slave.
Jack Sheppard is the most notorious burglar in London while Jonathan Wild runs the city’s largest bounty hunting operation. The two should be enemies, but is there more going on than meets the eye?
In 1920, a treasonous monkey bites the King of Greece. That chance event will have vast repercussions, not just in Greece, but around the world.
A young king in the north. An interminable war. Old empires. New alliances. Rebellions. Twists. Palace Intrigue. A long, cold winter. But this is no fantasy series, this is the true story of the reign of King Carl XII of Sweden.
Two former enemies sit down to an awkward dinner. Their discussion gives us insight into the dramatic reason why Oliver Cromwell beheaded King Charles 1.
When Leo Major’s best friend is killed by a German sentry while the pair are sneaking into an occupied Dutch town, Leo decides to go on a rampage that’s straight out of a Hollywood story. Can one man liberate an entire town on his own?
In 1936, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King is surprised to discover one of the janitors in the Canadian Parliament has earned the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the British Empire. This is the incredible true story of Filip Konowal, a Ukrainian-Canadian hero who fought with extreme bravery in World War One.
What happens when the most advanced military technology of the day comes up against the best military defences of the day? Brazil and Paraguay are going to find out at the Siege of Humaitá.
In 1813 no one would suspect that crucial intelligence information might come from a woman tavern keeper. But Laura Secord's info for British Lt. James Fitzgibbon changes the course of the War of 1812 and Canadian History.
Major J.A. Ross realizes to his horror that the army has no idea where the soldiers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the front lines actually are. His discovery sets off a series of political machinations that will change the leadership of the Canadian Army for better and worse.
The Spartans have the most powerful and feared army in the known the world. When they turn their might towards crushing tiny Thebes, all that stands in their way is a philosophy student named Epaminondas. Can he re-invent warfare and save his city?
Frenchman Pierre De Brézé successfully sacks the English town of Sandwich. The only problem? There’s so many wars, rebellions and palace intrigues taking place in France, England and Scotland that nobody is quite sure which war is battle is a part of
Civil War rages in the French colony of Acadia. Can the Governor’s wife cross the sea, smuggle herself into the new world and save the besieged fort?
It’s the 1945 election in Ontario, but a rogue OPP officer is acting as a secret police force for the governing Conservatives. Will this conspiracy catch Russian spies or will it catch up with the Premier?
In England, a young African Princess becomes Queen Victoria's goddaughter. Meanwhile her tribespeople in Africa must fight for their lives against slave raiders led by Amazon warriors.
A group of Irish-American rebels are invading Canada. It’s a crazy plan but it might just be crazy enough to work, except for one little problem: they don’t know where the border is.
Can a completely blind general lead his underdog forces to victory against the Holy Roman Empire - and change the way warfare is fought forever?
American General James Wilkinson wants to get rich and he'll stop at nothing in his pursuit of wealth. But can a Spanish spy rise to the highest ranks of the US Army?
It’s the 12th of November 1838 and huddled in a boat bobbing on the St. Lawrence River, a little more than 150 American volunteers are waiting for their turn to invade Canada. Among them is a pirate king and con man who will become their leader at the Battle of the Windmill. Plus we play a game of “Are they American?”
Communist Party Leader Tim Buck nearly gets his head shot off in a Canadian prison. But his trial sets off a firestorm that will forever change Canadian politics. Plus we play a game of "Before or After" with American states.
Welcome to episode 1 of O Brother When Art Thou! At the end of his reign, Edward II of England ended up with a red hot poker in an uncomfortable spot, but how did he get there? We discover the lost battles, scorned Queens and devious plots that led to his downfall. Plus a Canada Day game of "On This Day."