Claim OwnershipWe Didn't Start the Fire: The History Podcast
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This brand new pop culture history podcast is nothing like anything you've heard before, and it's everything you need to understand the modern world. Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce, an American pop culture buff and a British music lover, have taken the smash-hit song by Billy Joel and turned it into a podcast. Billy lists 120 people, places, and things in 'We Didn't Start The Fire', and Katie and Tom will do an episode on every single one to create the most fascinating, random and original history of the post-war world. Over the next two and a half years, we're going to learn about politics, rock 'n' roll, sport, space, television, the Cold War, guided along the way by historians, eyewitnesses, and mega-fans. Billy started it. We're going to finish it. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @spreadthatfire, email us at fire@crowdnetwork.co.uk, and go to spreadthatfire.com to buy merch.
136 Episodes
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Do you love We Didn't Start The Fire? Then you'll love this new podcast.
Perfect for question-askers and curious minds, welcome to SystemShift! Have a listen, and if you love it, hit one of the links below to see and hear more. Enjoy!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvqNLnE8js
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My guests are three very special ladies whom have all appeared on the show before, but this time, all three have memoirs out. Debbie Gendler was the first to appear on SATB (121: New York Stories) and her story as the 1st US fan (as far as I’m concerned) was initially laid out there. But now HER memoir has been published, I Saw Them Standing There: Adventures of an Original Fan During Beatlemania and Beyond.
Debbie joins returning guests Carol Tyler (146: Fab 4 Mania) and Sibbie O’Sullivan (273: My Private Lennon) as they react to each other’s books. What ensued though was something bigger than what we anticipated, as the notion of collating their stories and those of other 1st-generation fans into something bigger and grander took shape.
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Please enjoy this bonus episode from the History Shorts podcast!
Who has not heard at least one of Elvis Presley’s songs or knows exactly who they are looking at when they see his image? But did you know that the details surrounding the king of rock and roll’s untimely death are just as big of a part of pop culture as his life and music?
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Please enjoy this bonus episode from The French History Podcast!
Is it better to be a hero or great? What is the difference? What makes someone a hero or great in France? Pierre talks all about that and how to get into the Panthéon.
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Please enjoy this bonus episode which is the series premier of Countdown to Dallas, a new show from Evergreen Podcasts. In this episode we recap the basic events surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. We’ll discuss the formation of the famous Warren Commission, its findings — and highlight the one thing about its report that's often overlooked.
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The time has finally come... we’ve made it to the end of the song. This episode description is being written on a tearstained laptop as we speak. But we PROMISE we’re going out with a very fizzy bang. The cola wars was a tense battle between soda giants Coca Cola and Pepsi, as they tried to be crowned the hippest, Americanest, tastiest cola. But it’s also the epitoment of American capitalism and the power of brands. So who won the war? What the hell was New Coke? And who wins in the battle of Madonna v George Michael? Plus there’s a cola taste test and a whole lotta reminiscing. Thanks for joining us listeners, we hope you enjoy ❤️🔥
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1It’s the penultimate episode, and Billy’s taken us back to China to talk about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and the massacre that followed. In classic To this day, discussion of the events are strictly censored in China but in this episode we’ll explore it all. What happened to the protestors? Do we know who Tank Man was? What role did rock n roll play? And what’s the state of resistance and counter-culture in today’s China? We’re talking all that and more with modern China expert, Jeff Wasserstrom.
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When you head to the beach, you expect to find some leftover sandcastles and nasty sunburns - not a tide of used syringes. But that’s what was found on the coast of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in 1987-88. It destroyed tourism and caused drastic changes in local waste disposal. It’s a horrifying thing to think about, but what we didn’t realise is how often this still happens. Medical waste disposal is a huge issue for anti-pollution campaigners, so to learn more about it all, we’re talking to Ruth Stringer, International Society and Policy Coordinator of Health Care Without Harm.
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Ordinary guy turned vigilante icon, Bernie Goetz shook a crime-riddled New York City in 1984, after he shot 4 black teenagers on the subway. It created a rift within public opinion, and forced difficult conversations about race, self-defence, and gun rights. But when does self-defence go too far? How do we know Goetz truly felt threatened by teenagers he suspected would mug him? And was he properly punished? This week, we also explore the current case of Jordan Neely, a homeless black man who was recently killed on the subway after being placed in a deadly chokehold. It draws eery similarities to the Goetz case, so what does this say about the current state of America? Has anything changed since Goetz?
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Ruben Castaneda is a born storyteller and he's got an extraordinary story to tell. Ruben was The Washington Post's crime reporter in the early 90s when crack addiction was spreading across America, destroying livelihoods and ravaging communities. But what nobody knew is that at the same time as reporting on the crisis, Ruben was addicted to crack himself. WARNING: this episode contains explicit descriptions of drug use and addiction.
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In the 1980s, the world was gripped by a virus that was killing people in their thousands; savaging communities and creating a climate of fear, blame and ignorance. That virus was HIV, and here to sift the facts from the fiction and explain how the AIDS crisis transformed everything from sexuality to healthcare is Deborah Gold, CEO of the National AIDS Trust. One of our partners for today’s episode is Target Pilates. If you’d like to try out target pilates, head to targetpilates.online/fire to get 3 months for only £12.
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Homelessness has always been present in America: you've probably seen it in movies and TV, from jovial Charlie Chaplin comedies, to traumatised Forrest Gump. But how did we go from the aimless vagabond to nationwide crisis? Why did Americans suddenly start to care after Vietnam? And is there anyway to tackle homelessness? We're chatting all this and more with the Manhattan Institute's Stephen Eide.
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We’ve hit the 80s and Reagan’s low tax and defence spending have contributed to the America’s worst foreign debt in history. It turns out the US has consistently been in debt, so why does this time matter? Well, because they’re borrowing heavily from the Japanese, and have turned from creditors to creditees. It leads to the deindustrialisation of the Midwest, the rise of Sony and the Walkman, and even Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewsinky… But why did kids like Billy care? What does it mean for America’s political future? Can America ever be debt-free? Does that even matter? Iwan Morgan has even returned to talk us through it all! He’s sort of like a walking Economics for Dummies, which is perfect for a pair of economic dummies like us….
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!sretratseriF kcab emocleW... What's that funny sentence? A secret hidden message of course! Because this week we're getting into the weeds of heavy metal and Satanic Panic. Were Judas Priest hiding secret messages in their songs? Was music threatening the very fabric of the modern world? And where did the moral panic go? It's a complicated, tragic, and often absurd story, so music journalist and metal-head Michael Hann is back to talk us through it all!
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RIDE SALLY RIDE! We can’t believe it’s true, but Sally Ride is the birth name of the woman who’d later to become the First American woman to orbit space. Talk about nominative determinism! And what an extraordinary woman she was: from tennis player mentored by THE Billy Jean King, to lifelong advocate for women in STEM, her impact can’t be understated. But why were people so averse to woman-astronauts? Why did she hide her sexuality for so long? And ohhhh god WHY did engineers try to give her so many tampons for a 6 day flight?!? It’s time to chat about the incredible Sally Ride, with author Sue Macy.
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It's the game that's spun its way into the hearts of millions: today we're taking a wild ride through the history of the ICONIC game show, Wheel of Fortune. But how did a billionaire's childhood memories of hangman, turn into a cultural phenomenon? What are things actually like behind the scenes? Who turned up drunk for an audition? And how did David Letterman nearly end up hosting it? Today we're joined by Wheel superfan and gameshow historian, Adam Needeff to chat all about Wheel of Fortune, why we love gameshows, and his own experiences working on the show!
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In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to support the rise of communism in the country, beginning a series of constant conflict that Afghanistan still faces today. It’s also had huge impacts on our geopolitical climate today - to fight Russian communism, the US backed and funded rebels, who’d later become the Taliban, who rose to power, and continue to rule today, after the civil war which followers Russia’s eventual retreat. But how did one invasion lead to such huge consequences? How does the Taliban continue to rule today? What does it tell us about the war in Ukraine? And what does Afghanistan’s future look like? Today, we’re joined by an esteemed guest - foreign correspondent, Afghanistan expert, and the only journalist who was with the Taliban when they took Kabul in 1996, David Loyn.
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In 1979, Iran’s pro-Western Shah was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini, ushering in the Iranian Revolution and Iran’s shift to an Islamic Republic. But the hope many people thought Khomeini represented, quickly soured as his zeal led to increasing amounts of oppression. And despite it all, this revolution still holds strong today, only recently starting to face real threats to its stability. So how has it lasted so long? What do the women’s rights protests mean for Iran’s future? And what was it really like to live through the revolution? This week, we’re joined by award-winning British-Iranian journalist, documentary producer and author, Ramita Navai, to talk through the history and her personal experiences with the Iranian Revolution.
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Listeners, strap yourselves in. The late 20th century was an era of glamorous air travel, where you could saunter right through to the plane and buy your ticket in your seat (alongside your martini). But, alongside the glamour was a slew of sky-jackings, with hundreds of hijackings taking place across the world. But who were behind these? why were they so prevalent? How did it impact the public? And WHY did some hijackers bring a baby on board, and force the hostages to knit for them? This week, we’re chatting ‘Terror on the Airline’ with author, Brendan Koerner.
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Why Billy chose to encapsulate this behemoth of a topic in a single lyric, we'll never know. But this week, we're talking Palestine and all it experienced in the 20th century. Wars, protests, land grabs, displacement: the atrocities of this era are still being felt, and carried out, today. It's not something we were ever taught much about, but luckily we're joined by the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, Rashid Khalidi, to discuss this hugely important topic.
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Sorry to be pedantic, and I know that there is a lot of research that goes into these (and its easy to make a slip up) but as a history podcast you really should know VE Day was 1945, not 1944 @17.00 mins). At least pick this up in the edit.
Great episode (as always) and underscores the fact that Enoch Powell was a complete c*** :-(
My father who was 12 at the time, and his family fled to Austria in 56, then immigrated to Australia. Thank you for this episode as it gave me context for my father's stories. Oh ,and chicken paprikash is a delicious dish, and for dessert have some palacsintas, yum.
Disneyland was on my to do list when I went to America, as I suppose it is on many peoples but memorable moment at Disneyland was micky mouse fipping goofy the bird, unfortunately I was unable to catch the moment on camera. That was the most magical moment I had there.
why can't we play male Korean or nasser episodes? I've been loving the pod, getting into it and love Rom & Katie's delivery. be great to hear those two episodes as feel like I'm missing Billie's journey.
LIstening to the vaccine episode now about polio. I have discovered, after logging into the NHS app, that I had three vaccinations for polio, pertussis and diphtheria by the time I was five months old in 1968.