Today In History with The Retrospectors

Benjamin Franklin’s legendary ‘kite experiment’ supposedly took place on 10th June, 1752, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the traditional account, the future Founding Father flew a kite fitted with a metal key into a storm cloud to prove that it contained electricity, leading to the creation of the lightning rod ⚡

Historians, however, point out there is no detailed contemporary record proving that events unfolded exactly as later retellings claimed, and, in fact, Franklin never explicitly stated in print that he had personally carried out the dramatic version of the experiment. Perhaps the iconic image survives partly because, like Newton’s falling apple, it captures a complicated scientific idea in a single memorable scene.

Regardless, lightning rods soon spread across Europe and North America, and the kite story is just one chapter in Franklin’s remarkably varied life. Alongside his scientific investigations, he worked as a printer, helped establish one of America’s first volunteer fire brigades, invented bifocal spectacles, and created the glass armonica, a bizarre musical instrument whose sound fascinated composers including Mozart and Beethoven. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover eighteenth century circus-style electricity sideshows; explain how Franklin helped popularise the "positive" and "negative" terms for electrical charge; and reveal why King George III’s preference for blunt lightning rods ignited a UK/US rod rivalry…

Further Reading:

• ‘Benjamin Franklin and the Kite Experiment’ (The Franklin Institute): https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/kite-key-experiment

• ‘Founding Father of Invention’ (The Washington Post, 2012): https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2012/03/21/founding-father-of-invention/

• ‘Did Lightning Strike Benjamin Franklin's Kite? | MythBusters’ (Discovery, 2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISRl3WEuU-s

#Discoveries #1700s #US #Science

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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Nero, the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, killed himself on 9th June AD 68. Having fled Rome to a suburban villa after being declared a ‘public enemy’ by the Senate, he stabbed himself through the throat. Probably.

Within months of his death, rumours began that Nero still lived and would return in glory to reclaim his empire. Instead, the historians of the era - albeit never averse to embellishment to make an artistic point - documented the horrors of his reign, including his forced marriage to a  slave boy and turning Christians into wax candles.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly look back on the more enlightened early days of Nero’s emperorship; consider his incestuous rise to the throne; and explain why his story, perhaps more than anything, is a warning about working with a frustrated actor… 

Content Warning: suicide, incest, torture, religious persecution.

Further Reading:

• ‘Emperor Nero: Facts, Life and Biography’ (History Extra, 2020): https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/emperor-nero-facts-biography-tyrant-crimes-accomplishments/

• ‘On this day in AD 68: The death of the tyrannical Emperor Nero’ (Telegraph, 2017): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/day-ad-68-death-tyrannical-emperor-nero/

• ‘The Downfall of Nero's Scandalous Reign’ (Smithsonian, 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJvQa_cnr5Q

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2024.
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‘Ghostbusters’ opened in US cinemas on 8th June, 1984, quickly becoming the highest-grossing comedy of all time. 

The brainchild of SNL’s Dan Aykroyd - whose great-grandfather was a 19th-century psychic investigator - the film was pitched and delivered within 13 months. Drawing inspiration from 1930s ghost comedies, the wisecracking ensemble comedy smashed the Hollywood wisdom that big-budget comedies don’t recoup their investment.

In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca survey some original alternative titles for the film; revisit Akroyd’s unworkable first draft (set in the future, with intergalactic travel); and reveal why the production necessitated building a whole effects studio from scratch…

Further Reading:

• 'Ghostbusters' director Ivan Reitman on the making of the 1984 comedy: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/ghostbusters-director-ivan-reitman-making-911408/

• Ghostbusters at 30: EW looks back at the making of a comedy classic | Longform - EW.com: https://microsites.ew.com/microsite/longform/ghostbusters/

• ‘Ghostbusters Trailer’ (Columbia Pictures, 1984): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDkhw5Wkas

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. 

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.
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When Lord Byron’s 17 year-old daughter, Ada Lovelace, attended a soirée at the home of academic Charles Babbage on 5th June, 1833, the pair hit it off immediately. He invited her to see his ‘Difference Engine’ - an early mechanical calculator - kicking off a correspondence that lasted throughout her life.

Their lively, intellectual correspondence, and Ada's deep understanding of mathematics and science, lead to her championing of Babbage’s ‘Analytical Engine’, a groundbreaking proto personal computer for which Ada even wrote an algorithm.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly debate whether Ada deserves her 21st century acclaim as the godmother of computer programming; expose her extramarital affairs and gambling habit; and consider whether Babbage himself even fully understood the applications for what he had invented…

Further Reading:

• ‘Charles Babbage’s Difference Engines and the Science Museum’ (Science Museum, 2023): https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/charles-babbages-difference-engines-and-science-museum

• ‘How Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage Invented the World’s First Computer: An Illustrated Adventure in Footnotes and Friendship’ (The Marginalian, 2015): https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/06/15/the-thrilling-adventures-of-lovelace-and-babbage-sydney-padua/

• ‘Ada Lovelace in “Victoria” (ITV, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOoCOUDdoeA

We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2024.
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‘The Annoying Thing’ is how the begenitaled amphibian animated by Erik Wernquist was first described; but by the time he released his first single ‘Axel F’ he was universally known as The Crazy Frog, and beat Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ to UK #1 on 4th June, 2005.

The tale of how this possibly could have happened is unique to the early days of the internet - a teenager messing about imitating motorbike noises emailed the sound to some friends, Wernquist stumbled across it and put it in his portfolio, and then it was adopted for sale by mobile ringtone company Jamster.

In this episode, Olly, Arion and Rebecca consider the value of Crazy Frog’s musical legacy, reveal that he’s not even a frog, and applaud the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for standing up to protest, and permitting us to witness his visible scrotum… 

Further Reading:

• Crazy Frog - Axel F (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE

• ‘Find out how the world’s most annoying noise came about’ - The Sun commemorates Crazy Frog’s 20th birthday (2017): https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2974489/crazy-frog-just-turned-20-relive-his-hellish-magic-here/

• Not So Crazy Frog (Documentary, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8vVz1KoU2s

There is SEVEN MINUTES of bonus material from our discussion about Crazy Frog. We had a lot to discuss. To hear it, visit Patreon.com/Retrospectors and support the show.

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. 

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2021.
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