No One Saw It Coming

By ABC Australia

The bit players, the unexpected twists, the turning point you missed. Join Walkley award-winner Marc Fennell as he uncovers the incredible moments that changed the course of history. New episodes out Tuesday.

Episodes

History’s favourite sex toys
*CONTENT WARNING* This episode explores mature themes such as sex and masturbation.When the wooden object was unearthed, the archaeologists were stumped. What was this thing? It looked like a club and was found among bits of cloth so they thought it was a darning tool.But it was another kind of tool. One that would raise eyebrows and cause some people to blush.Sex historian Dr Kate Lister (Flick: The Story of Female Pleasure) charts the history of female pleasure with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole), unearthing sex toys from archaeological digs to nunneries.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
The houseplant that changed the British Empire
On the face of it, it’s just a box. It has wooden slats, a peaked roof and glass panels. But inside this box is something that will breathe, grow, and impact lives around the world, for better or worse. Dr Luke Keogh (author, The Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how a box designed to grow plants became a tool for imperial horticulture and rewrote the future of the British Empire. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
Stop blaming rats for the plague
If you were asked where the plague came from you’d probably say rats. Or fleas. And you’d say it swept across Europe killing up to half of the population.But where exactly did it start and how did it get to Europe in the first place?Medieval historian Dr Eleanor Janega sits down with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) and debunks the biggest myths about the black death and tells the real story behind one of the worst pandemics the world has ever seen.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
A teenager’s party created Hip-Hop
It started with two turntables and a microphone and became a worldwide movement. Today, Hip hop is one of the biggest music genres in the world - and it all started at a teenager’s back to school party in the Bronx.Jeff Chang (hip hop journalist and author) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how one girl’s party to raise money for new clothes led to a musical and cultural revolution.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
The vote that shocked the world
In the week before Christmas 1894, a man in the South Australian parliament rolls the dice.He makes a gamble that he thinks will pay off. It’s incredibly risky because if his gamble goes wrong, he gives half the population something he really doesn’t want to give them.Professor Clare Wright OAM (Historian and author of the best-selling Democracy Trilogy) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the remarkable story of how a double bluff by a conservative politician ended up empowering South Australian women and making world history. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
0 min
Beware gifts from Soviet spies
After the Second World War, relations between America, Britain and the Soviets were frosty and as the Cold War rivalry intensified, they were watching each other with intense side-eye. And it turns out, listening as well.Matt Bevan (If You’re Listening) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how a gift from the Soviets to the Americans was used as a trojan horse to listen in on conversations, and it was made by a man whose name is now famous but for a very different reason.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
0 min
The Met Gala began in a dead woman’s closet
The Met Gala’s 2026 theme is Costume Art. But rewind almost 100 years ago, and the fight was to get costumes to be called art at all. And if a handful of very determined women hadn’t pushed to change that, the Met Gala probably doesn’t exist.Dr. Elizabeth Lundén is a Kluge Research Fellow at the Library of Congress and she sits down with host Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) to unpack the sliding doors story behind the biggest night in fashion.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
The telegram that caught a killer
When he got on the train to London, he thought he got away with it. He thought he got away with murder. But little did he know that something was racing alongside the train, pulsing deep underground, that would change his life forever. Writer and cultural historian Kassia St Clair tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) how a horrific crime changed the way people living in the 1800s viewed the telegraph machine. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
Clogged sink doomed a space mission
It’s 1926 and two men are working in a lab trying to create antifreeze. Instead, they make a thick, black goo that stinks out the lab and blocks the sink. ABC Science reporter Fiona Pepper tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about how this black gunk would go on to be used in cars, rockets and spaceships. And ultimately, would be responsible for one of the deadliest space missions in history.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
Ancient Greek built a steam engine for dinner parties
Long before steam trains, before factories, before the Industrial Revolution, someone figured out how to turn steam into motion. And he did it almost two thousand years ago in Ancient Alexandria, and the device he built wasn’t meant to power anything. It was a toy. A party trick.Dr Tatiana Bur, Lecturer in Classics at the Australian National University, tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how one man’s spinning little gadget went on to power the modern world.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
She gave her son smallpox. Her bet paid off.
It was one of the deadliest diseases known to humankind. And just 50 years ago it was officially eradicated. But there’s someone missing from the story of smallpox.A woman whose work was mocked. Who was branded a bad mother. And who helped bring inoculation to the West.Author Jo Willett tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about how an 18th-century noblewoman ignited a moral panic, split the scientific establishment and helped spark a medical revolution.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
Cocaine wine: The Pope’s energy drink
If you looked at it, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid, but this red wine had something in it that today could land you in jail.It was drunk and endorsed by presidents, royalty and even popes and made its maker a millionaire. Dr Tim Madge tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of Vin Mariani, the cocaine-infused wine that was endorsed by royalty, presidents and popes and how it became the precursor to a product that millions of people around the world - including children - drink every day. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
A horse race and a murderer invented cinema
Before cinema, before Hollywood, before we even understood how to make pictures move, there was a man constantly reinventing himself. He was a bookseller, a photographer, an alleged fraud and eventually, a killer.But in between scandals and aliases, he conducted a strange experiment that would change the way we see the world. Marta Braun is a renowned expert in 19th century stop-motion photography, and she tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of Eadweard Muybridge and how his photographs of a horse race stopped time, helped the world understand motion, and created the moving image. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
Starving for freedom: The prison death that changed Ireland
As the Irish Revolution raged year after year, there was a space that the British didn’t expect to become places of revolution - prisons.Jailed rebels became martyrs and Britain’s grip on Ireland began to weaken, pushing a revolution to boiling point. Dr William Murphy, Professor in Modern Irish History at Dublin City University, tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of Irish independence and how food, pride and prison would reshape the future of Ireland and the British Empire.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
0 min
Let slaves dance: The secret of New Orleans jazz
When you put on a jazz record, what do you hear? Beyond the trumpet and the sax of course... Well etched into that vinyl and living in that music is a long story that dates back 300 years to a dusty public square where slaves would sing and dance.The history of jazz is a long and winding evolution that goes from Congo Square to New Orleans to a Chicago recording studio and beyond.Dr Matt Sakakeeny is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology from Tulane University. He sits down with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) to chart this fascinating history of a music genre that’s gone on to become a cultural force felt around the world. Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
She faked insanity. Then became a star.
She was put into an insane asylum at the age of 20. Ten days later she was a celebrity and two years later she had cemented a legacy that would last centuries. But Nellie Bly was not insane. She faked it all. But why?Brooke Kroeger, journalist and emeritus professor at NYU, tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about Nellie Bly’s career-defining investigation, how it inspired generations and made her a household name.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au
26 min
The mafia bar riot that sparked gay pride
28 June 1969 was a regular Saturday night at the Stonewall Inn. Until it wasn’t. “The bar lights blinked on and off. I'd never seen that happen before so I asked my friend what's going on, and my friend said, oh, just another raid. Well, it turned out not to be just the kind of raid that they were used to.”While Mark Segal had spent many nights at the unlicensed gay bar, none were like the one that started the Stonewall Riots. The veteran activist and journalist, one of the last living eyewitnesses to the Stonewall uprising, tells host Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) about what really happened that night and how it sparked the first Pride march and launched the gay rights movement not just in America but around the world.Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.auThis episode was first published in September 2025
26 min
The royal roots of French fries
‘Would you like fries with that?’ It’s a question you’ve likely been asked countless times. But what if the only reason French fries are so popular throughout the West today is because of a Queen who lost her head during the French Revolution? Dr Lauren Samuelsson is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Wollongong where she investigates the history of food, drink, popular culture and gender. She tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) how the history of the humble potato is really a history of empire; a story that can be traced through the jungles of the Americas, to a Prussian prison, through the fields of Ireland, and to a fateful dinner party where Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI were guests and turned the potato from a suspicious root vegetable into a fashion icon and culinary hit. Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.auThis episode was first published in April 2025.
26 min
Three words brought down the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 is one of the most famous events of modern history. And with it came a wave of momentous events - the reunification of East and West Germany, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War. But the way it came about is stranger than fiction. The images of people swarming the wall and chipping away at it all came down to a small slip at a routine press conference.Dr Katrin Schreiter is a Senior Lecturer in German and History at Kings College London and she has a deeply personal connection to this story. She tells Marc Fennell (Stuff the British Stole) that while powerful men have been credited with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the true heroes were everyday men and women. Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.auThis episode was first published in May 2025.
24 min
The art heist that made the Mona Lisa famous
It’s arguably the most famous painting in the world. But back in 1911, the Mona Lisa wasn’t an international icon. So what made the painting so famous it would attract millions of visitors to The Louvre every year? This is the unbelievable true story of an art heist - one of the 20th century's most audacious art thefts that would turn a masterpiece into a legend.Art historian Mary McGillivray tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about one of art history’s most sensational crimes and its patriotic perpetrator.Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au This episode was first published in April 2025.
26 min

No One Saw It Coming

Episodes

History’s favourite sex toys

The houseplant that changed the British Empire

Stop blaming rats for the plague

A teenager’s party created Hip-Hop

The vote that shocked the world

Beware gifts from Soviet spies

The Met Gala began in a dead woman’s closet

The telegram that caught a killer

Clogged sink doomed a space mission

Ancient Greek built a steam engine for dinner parties

She gave her son smallpox. Her bet paid off.

Cocaine wine: The Pope’s energy drink

A horse race and a murderer invented cinema

Starving for freedom: The prison death that changed Ireland

Let slaves dance: The secret of New Orleans jazz

She faked insanity. Then became a star.

The mafia bar riot that sparked gay pride

The royal roots of French fries

Three words brought down the Berlin Wall

The art heist that made the Mona Lisa famous

Conspiracy Cabal

Expanse

Episodes

History’s favourite sex toys

The houseplant that changed the British Empire

Stop blaming rats for the plague

A teenager’s party created Hip-Hop

The vote that shocked the world

Beware gifts from Soviet spies

The Met Gala began in a dead woman’s closet

The telegram that caught a killer

Clogged sink doomed a space mission

Ancient Greek built a steam engine for dinner parties

She gave her son smallpox. Her bet paid off.

Cocaine wine: The Pope’s energy drink

A horse race and a murderer invented cinema

Starving for freedom: The prison death that changed Ireland

Let slaves dance: The secret of New Orleans jazz

She faked insanity. Then became a star.

The mafia bar riot that sparked gay pride

The royal roots of French fries

Three words brought down the Berlin Wall

The art heist that made the Mona Lisa famous

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Conspiracy Cabal

Expanse