PODCAST · comedy
PastMaster: Reshaping History
by PastMaster
If you were sent back in time, could you survive and thrive— or would you be burnt at the stake for being a witch? Welcome to PastMaster, the show that turns history into an interactive adventure game. Each episode, hosts Ryan and Tan are joined by a special guest comedian who is sent back in time with nothing but their modern knowledge and the shirt on their back. Under the guidance of a benevolent robot Game Master, they navigate to a different era each episode and find out if they’ve got what it takes to reshape the past. Will it be historically accurate? Will any of it make sense? Will they master the past? Tune in to find out.
Episodes
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Undercover Agent at The Battle of Hastings [REPLAY]
The Battle of Hastings turns 960 this week. On 14 October 1066, one afternoon on a Sussex hillside ended Anglo-Saxon England, kicked off the Norman Conquest and handed the crown to William the Conqueror. To mark the anniversary, we're revisiting our Season 4 episode where Keon went back to stop…
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Death Wish at King Arthur's Dad's Party ft. Nick Horseman
London, around 470 CE. Uther Pendragon, future father of King Arthur, is holding a war feast in the smoking ruin of a Roman basilica, and he keeps sending his cup down the table to the Duke of Cornwall's wife. The Duke has noticed. Nick Horseman is back for another Death Wish Speed Run, and this...
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Napoleon and The Cheese Priest of Corsica ft. Bennet Kavanagh
Ajaccio, Corsica, August 1790. Napoleon Bonaparte is twenty-one, broke, borrowing money from his mother, and home on suspiciously long leave while the island argues at knifepoint about whether it is French. Comedian Bennet Kavanagh arrives by boat as Pierre, a chevalier travelling with a mule, a...
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Back to the Past-Future: The 1926 Chicago Do-over ft. Nick Horseman
Chicago, 1926. Prohibition is on, 500 barrels of bootleg liquor are changing hands in the dark, and Al Capone is waiting on the delivery. Nick Horseman has stood in this yard before: three years ago it was his first PastMaster mission, and it ended with a cordial mob boss and none of the Scorsese...
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Side Quest: Death Wish Speed run ft Caroline McEvoy
Comedian Caroline McEvoy returns to the PastMaster hot seat to tackle our first Side Quest of the year. It's the return of Death Wish Speedrun! How quickly and stylishly can you get yourself killed in the past? Caroline picked the Tudor era. GameMaster is on its stricter setting, with punishments...
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Wall Street, where greed is good, ft. Nikola McMurtrie
It’s 1985 and Wall Street is teeming with greed and corporate excess. Enter today’s guest Nikola McMurtrie, who is on a mission to climb the greasy pole while dodging sleaze, corruption and toxic masculine competitiveness. Armed with magic (in her own head at least), a *perfect* New Yoik accent…
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Rasputin's Delicious Cyanide Cakes, ft Daniel McKeon
St. Petersburg, December 1916. Grigori Rasputin has the ear of the Tsarina, the loathing of half the aristocracy, and roughly a fortnight left to live. Comedian Daniel McKeon drops into the middle of it under the gamertag PoisonNecker56, to find out what a circle of well-born gentlemen intend to…
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Teeth of the Revolution ft. Ruby Carr
Paris, October 1789. The Bastille has fallen, the king and queen are under guard at the Tuileries, and bread prices are on every tongue. Into this powder keg steps comedian Ruby Carr, with one mission: get a Parisian dentist's revolutionary porcelain dentures in front of the Académie des Sciences...
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Make America Great – The "true" story of the founding of the USA, ft Liam Heffernan
As The United States of America celebrates 250 years, we've sent our operative undercover to meet the Founding Fathers and make a few key changes... Philadelphia, October 1774. The First Continental Congress is wrapping up its final sessions inside the Pennsylvania State House, and 56 of the most...
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Step aside Pokémon, it's Tulip Mania Time! ft Sallyann Fellowes
Haarlem, the Dutch Republic, February 1637. Tulip Mania is at fever pitch, and comedian Sallyann Fellowes has been handed a single Semper Augustus bulb worth more than an Amsterdam townhouse. The job: sell it at auction for at least 5,000 guilders before sundown, pocket a fat cut, and get out...
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Founding a Welsh Heaven in South America, ft. Sunil Patel
Patagonia, 1865. A boat called the Mimosa has dumped 153 Welsh settlers onto a treeless, waterless stretch of Argentine scrubland, sold to them as a lush green paradise where the Welsh language might finally escape the English. Comedian Sunil Patel, back in the time-travel studio, has been…
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The Singing Grave Diggers of The Black Death, ft The McPherson Twins
Bristol, 1348. The Black Death is two days from sealing the city, bodies are being carted through the mud, and a desperate merchant needs a sealed letter carried to London before the gates close. Patrick and Hugo McPherson, sketch comedy duo Pear, have three days, a horse, two silver coins, and…
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Crashing the Greatest Party in History: PastMaster 3rd Birthday Special
Florence, 1480. The Palazzo Medici is blazing against the February dark, 500 guests in silk and masks are drinking like nothing bad happened two years ago in the Duomo, and Lorenzo de Medici's gold mask can't quite hide the limp. To celebrate three years of PastMaster, Ryan and Tan have dragged...
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A Vegetarian with Bad Knees vs. Vlad the Impaler, ft. Rohan Sharma
Wallachia, 1456. Vlad III has just retaken his throne, impaling stakes line the city's edge, and a scribe named Constantin has hidden the only written record of Vlad's chaotic first reign in a monastery outside Targoviste. Comedian Rohan Sharma has two days to find the Chronicle before armed men...
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cricket: Qin Dynasty China ft. Caroline McEvoy
Qin Dynasty China, 212 BCE. Climbing into the time travel machine otherwise known as the Hen & Hound, award-winning comedian Caroline McEvoy steps foot in Qin Dynasty China. She’s been set a mission to solve the case of the falsely accused road builder. She is armed with only a lucky cricket…
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How to conquer Greenland ft. Ashley Haden
Greenland, 986 CE. Erik the Red has just established the first Norse settlement at Brattahlid, and comedian Ashley Haden has been living among the colonists for three months. The problem? A prominent farmer named Thorvald has accused him of stealing two sheep he never touched, and a public…
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Hot Dog Hijinks at the Great Library of Alexandria, ft. Lexx Education podcast
Alexandria, 48 BCE. Caesar's forces are closing in, fires are spreading through the harbour, and the greatest collection of knowledge the ancient world has ever assembled is about to go up in smoke. Laura Lexx and Ron from the Lexx Education podcast have been sent back to save it. They run an...
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Accidental Mayan Blood Sacrifice ft. Bilal Zafar
Tikal, 741 CE. One of the most powerful Maya city-states at the height of the Late Classic period. Towering pyramids, elaborate blood rituals, and a head priest who has the king's ear and absolutely no interest in hearing about an upcoming solar eclipse from some random time traveller. Comedian...
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A few sherbets for the Silk Road ft. Esther Manito
Samarkand, 750 CE. The Islamic Golden Age is in full swing, the Silk Road is the most lucrative trade network on Earth, and comedian Esther Manito has just been dropped into the middle of it with a mission to trek a caravan of silk from Samarkand to Baghdad. Easy enough — if you ignore the...
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What next for PastMaster... ?
Can the past be mastered? Is AI still cool? And where exactly has Keon gone? Season 4 was a big one — we pitted ChatGPT against Claude in a two-player electricity showdown, launched Death Wish Speed Runs (the game where you try to die as quickly and stylishly as possible in history), went live on...
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"Modern Knowledge / Medieval Consequences" — TRAILER
If you were sent back in time, could you survive and thrive -- or would you be burnt at the stake for being a witch? Season 5 of PastMaster is here. New comedians. New eras. New ways to catastrophically misread historical situations. Same ruthless AI Game Master. The past will be mastered. Era:...
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The Santa Claude Intervention: PastMaster Christmas Special
The North Pole has gone very, very wrong. Father Christmas has swapped his "Ho Ho Ho" for a whiskey bottle and a whip, the elves are screaming, and the factory is belching black smoke into the Arctic sky. Merry Christmas from PastMaster. Laura, Elsie, and Meg from the Thots TV podcast return for…
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Nuns of Death: The Beastmaster Cometh (Part 3)
Northumbria, 687 CE. The nuns have survived Ryan's naked Jesus act and Nick's witchcraft-and-Christina-Aguilera gambit. Now it's Tan's turn. His character name is Wee Willy Winky, the Beast Master. That's the energy we're working with. The Death Wish Speed Run finale: Ryan tried blasphemy, Nick...
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Nuns of Death: Death Wish Speedrun. Burn the witch! (Part 2)
Northumbria, 687 CE. The nunnery that refused to kill Ryan is about to meet its next challenger. Nick has a plan. A sexy, dirty, witchy plan. Nick's opening move: introduce himself as Emily. The nuns take one look at his jaw, his build, and his beard, and are not convinced. So Nick pivots. He...
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Nuns of Death: Death Wish Speedrun in a 7th Century Nunnery (Part 1)
Northumbria, 687 CE. A 7th-century Anglo-Saxon nunnery. Prayer, scholarship, deep Christian patience. The last place in history you'd expect someone to get murdered quickly. Which is exactly why we chose it. Death Wish Speed Run is back, the game where you try to die as quickly and stylishly as...
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MC Wicked Drops the Beat at Woodstock (ft. Nick Horseman)
Woodstock, 1969. Four hundred thousand flower children, Jimi Hendrix finishing his legendary set, and one man backstage who literally cannot stop beatboxing. Tan has been sent back to Max Yasgur's farm as MC Wicked, a hip-hop pioneer arriving roughly a decade too early, with a mission to get on…
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Persia McPersia goes to Persia: PastMaster Live at the Cheerful Earful
The Colosseum, 80 CE. Fifty thousand Romans screaming for blood, Emperor Titus presiding from his box, and two time travellers with ten minutes to get rich, get notorious, and not die. Recorded live at the Bedford in Balham for the Cheerful Earful comedy podcast festival, this is PastMaster with…
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The Man who Destroyed Civilisation While Trying to Share a Bowl of Frosties with Charlie Simpson.
Neo-Singapore, 2999. A vertical city-state stretching from the ocean floor to the stratosphere. Humanity's entire pre-digital cultural heritage is stored in a quantum archive, and a virus is about to wipe it all. Comedy producer Al Clayton has 72 hours to save the future. His first priority? 3D...
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Flogging Miracle Tea at the Great Exhibition in 1851 (ft. Chris Reading)
The Great Exhibition, Hyde Park, 1851. Six million visitors. The Crystal Palace. The pinnacle of Victorian innovation. And Chris Reading has just rolled up in a quack-mobile to sell miracle tea bags to the most sceptical audience in the British Empire. Chris's mission: acquire serious power in...
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Mr Blobby tries to Save the Titanic
Friend of the show Ian Walker joins Tan to pit four AI large language models against each other and see which makes the best Game Master. The setting? It couldn’t be grander or have higher stakes: on board the Titanic on its doomed maiden voyage to the US in 1912. Can Ian avert disaster and…
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Michael Jackson at The Battle of Hee Hee Hastings
The Battle of Hastings, 1066. The day that ended Anglo-Saxon England, crowned William the Conqueror, and changed the English language forever. Now Keon's been sent back to stop it — armed with a red leather jacket, a single sparkling glove, and an unstoppable urge to moonwalk. As the mysterious...
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The Greased up Apprentice: Quantum Leap Gone Wrong
Medieval England, date unknown. You wake up on cold stone. Your hands aren't your hands. Someone is shouting for Thomas, and there's a strong implication that Thomas needs to sharpen an axe. Welcome to PastMaster's Quantum Leap episode, where Ryan doesn't get to choose who he is, where he is, or...
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Cthulhu Calling: The Greatest Conspiracy in History, ft. The Apocalypse Players (Part 2)
What started as a missing persons case in 1920s Arkham has gone catastrophically sideways. Ezra Whitmarsh is alive but changed. Forbidden books are burning. Alien technology is doing things to mortal flesh that mortal flesh was not designed for. And T.G. Fells has one obsession that overrides...
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Cthulhu Calling: The Arkham Investigation, ft The Apocalypse Players (Part 1)
Arkham, Massachusetts, 1926. Businessman Ezra Whitmarsh has vanished from a locked study. The air smells of ozone. His business partner is sweating through his suit. And someone called "the Syndicate" is already following you from the train station. This is Lovecraft country, and PastMaster has...
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Red Dead Sensation: Stopping a War in the Wild West (with the Power of Music)
Dakota Territory, 1875. The Black Hills gold rush is ripping the West apart, the Sioux are losing their sacred lands, and a full-scale war is brewing between miners and the native population. Nick Horseman has arrived in Deadwood as Thorne Jackson-Reynolds, a refined English gentleman with a…
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Death Wish Down Under: The "Aussie Rules" Speed Run
Port Jackson, 1788. Britain's brand-new penal colony at the edge of the known world. The convicts are starving, the guards are brutal, and Australia's wildlife is doing what Australia's wildlife does best — trying to kill everyone. Ryan, Tan, and returning guest Nick Horseman have not come here…
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The Medieval African Billionaire Space Program: Mansa Musa and the Golden Rocket
Timbuktu, 1330 CE. The Mali Empire at the height of its power. Gold dust literally fills the air. And sitting at the centre of it all is Mansa Musa — the richest human being who has ever lived, with a net worth of roughly $700 billion in today's money. Elon Musk is small fry by comparison. Ryan's...
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Battle Magic: Cocaine Diplomacy in 55 BCE
Gaul, 55 BCE. Julius Caesar's legions are marching north. A small Gallic village of thatched roundhouses stands in their way. And Tan has just arrived as "Risky Dave" — a cockney wide boy inspired by Asterix and Obelix, but with one critical substitution. Instead of magic potion, he's brought...
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Matthew Crosby and the Satanic Cult
Victorian London, 1873. A string of ritual murders is forming a pentagram across the city map. Comedian and writer Matthew Crosby has stepped out of his bathtub time machine and into a proper murder mystery. His cover identity? French detective "Inspector Pompidou." His qualifications? Absolutely...
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Upgrading The Trojan Horse: The Trojan Diplodocus
Troy, 1200 BCE. The siege has dragged on for a decade. The Greeks are bored. The Trojans are smug. And "Tanchilles" and "Keonkeles" have just arrived with modern minds, Bronze Age materials, and a burning question: what if the Trojan Horse wasn't a horse at all? Keon has never heard of the Trojan...
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The Haunting of Henry VIII (ft Fetch the Smelling Salts)
Hampton Court Palace, 1522. Henry VIII is still married to Catherine of Aragon, but Anne Boleyn has just returned from France and is about to catch the king's wandering eye. Kim and Alice from the Fetch the Smelling Salts podcast have been sent back to save his wives — armed with a…
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Ancient MesoPOOtamia: A Death Wish Speed Run (ft Nick Horseman)
Ur, Mesopotamia, 2100 BCE. The cradle of civilisation. The birthplace of writing, agriculture, and organised religion. Nick Horseman has been sent here as "Barry Smith" with one goal: cause as much mayhem as possible and die in the most spectacular fashion he can manage. Welcome to the Death Wish...
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Danny Dyer calls The Void a Slag: The Big Bang, and The Garden of Eden meet the East End
Before the Big Bang. Before atoms. Before the laws of physics even bothered to show up. The Thots TV team are back, this time with DeepSeek as Game Master, and they've been sent to the most impossible location in PastMaster history: The Void. Their character? A "heat-resistant" Danny Dyer. Their...
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ChatGPT vs Claude: The Battle of AC/DC
New York City, 1890. The War of the Currents is raging — and PastMaster is about to make it significantly worse. In this two-player showdown, Keon channels Nikola Tesla with ChatGPT as his Game Master, while Tan embodies Thomas Edison powered by Claude. Two players. Two AIs. One question: who...
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Claudanum-Dreams. A Gothic Literature Revolution (ft. Thots TV)
Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816. The Year Without a Summer. Lord Byron is brooding by the fire, Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin are whispering in a corner, and the air is thick with opium smoke. In three days, this house party will inspire Frankenstein, The Vampyre, and some of the darkest poetry…
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Claude of the Rings
Middle Earth. No date. No rules. And Keon has never seen Lord of the Rings. PastMaster breaks out of the historical timeline for a trip to Tolkien's fantasy realm, and Game Master Claude flatly refuses to play along. "PastMaster is specifically designed for exploring real human history," it...
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One Giant Mess for Mankind: Hitching a Ride on Apollo 11 (ft. Chris Dillon)
Cape Canaveral, 1969. One small step for man. One giant mess for Chris Dillon. Back for his second PastMaster mission, Chris has a plan: impersonate Buzz Aldrin and steal his spot on Apollo 11. His cover identity? "Buzz Cauldron" — because it sounds like a wizard's name. His disguise strategy?...
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The Social Network Stealer: Founding Facebook First (ft. Chris Dillon)
Harvard University, 2003. A lanky guy in a grey hoodie is skulking the corridors of Kirkland House with plans to build something called TheFacebook. Chris Dillon has been sent back to beat him to it. His cover identity is "Thomas Jefferson," at a 21st-century Ivy League university. His...
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Sense and Shootability (ft. Micky Overman)
Regency London, 1815. The ton is in full swing, reputations are made and destroyed over a single dance, and comedian Micky Overman has just materialised in the middle of it as the mysterious "Lady Hemming-Trout." Allegedly Dutch nobility, armed with concealed jewels and a matchmaking mission she...
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The Ghost of Christmas PastMaster
London, 1843. Charles Dickens is writing A Christmas Carol at 48 Doughty Street, and the PastMaster crew have been summoned by three Christmas spirits to atone for their previous sins against the timeline. Ryan, Tan, and Keon stand accused of "temporal meddling in previous adventures" — guilty as...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
If you were sent back in time, could you survive and thrive— or would you be burnt at the stake for being a witch?
Welcome to PastMaster, the show that turns history into an interactive adventure game. Each episode, hosts Ryan and Tan are joined by a special guest comedian who is sent back in time with nothing but their modern knowledge and the shirt on their back.
Under the guidance of a benevolent robot Game Master, they navigate to a different era each episode and find out if they’ve got what it takes to reshape the past.
Will it be historically accurate? Will any of it make sense? Will they master the past?
Tune in to find out.
HOSTED BY
PastMaster
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does PastMaster: Reshaping History have?
PastMaster: Reshaping History currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is PastMaster: Reshaping History about?
If you were sent back in time, could you survive and thrive— or would you be burnt at the stake for being a witch? Welcome to PastMaster, the show that turns history into an interactive adventure game. Each episode, hosts Ryan and Tan are joined by a special guest comedian who is sent back in time...
How often does PastMaster: Reshaping History release new episodes?
PastMaster: Reshaping History has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to PastMaster: Reshaping History?
You can listen to PastMaster: Reshaping History on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts PastMaster: Reshaping History?
PastMaster: Reshaping History is created and hosted by PastMaster.
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