PODCAST · history
The Skeptical Historian
by Juliana Byers
Join historian Juliana Byers to take a deep dive into some of the most famous events from Australia and around the world, and answer that all important question: did that REALLY happen? New episodes released monthly.
Episodes
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Before Apple Cider Vinegar: Cures, Cons and Quacks in Colonial Australia
At the time of recording, the most watched drama on Netflix in Australia was "Apple Cider Vinegar" which was inspired by the story of fraudster Belle Gibson, who built an empire pretending to have cured herself of cancer. But Gibson was not the first (nor will she be the last) to profit from...
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The Death Fleet
The horror of the Second Fleet is one of Australia's most shameful untold stories. Just two years after the First Fleet landed with barely any European causalities, six more ships arrived full of dead and dying convicts. But what had gone so wrong? This month, Juliana examines how perverse...
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Bad Cops: The Shooting of Detective Brophy
On 22 May 1936, Victoria's most famous detective John O'Connell Brophy, was shot four times in Royal Park, while sitting in an idling car with three civilians. After a bungled cover-up, a Royal Commission was established to sort fact from fiction, but there's still some gaping holes ninety years...
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Victoria's Burning: Black Thursday, 1851
On February 6 1851, the most extensive bushfire in Victoria’s history roared through the unprepared colony. At least twelve people, one million sheep, thousands of cattle and countless native animals died in the blaze, and over a quarter of the colony was burnt. But how did such a devastating…
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Australia's Deadliest Picnic
On New Year's Day 1915, Gool Mohamed and "Mullah" Abdullah, two local cameleers from Broken Hill, New South Wales, opened fire on a train full of people setting off to enjoy a picnic in nearby Silverton. The men were shot dead later in the day by police. But what caused them to open fire? Was it...
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The Tragedy of Henry Wise
Captain Henry Wise, 40th Regiment, is the most famous of the soldiers who stormed the Eureka Stockade in 1854. His death rocked Ballarat to its core and, even today, debate rages about his character, his actions at the stockade, and who it was that fired the fatal shot. Join Juliana in the season...
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A Short History of the Age of Consent
In 1885, the British parliament passed laws which made it illegal to rape a minor child, i.e. anyone under the age of sixteen. This came after more than a decade of campaigning by reformers and pushback from politicians. These 1885 laws were the first time the age of consent laws in Britain and…
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Skeptical Short: The Tale of Two Johns
We're talked about Melbourne after the gold rush... but what happened before the shiny metal was found, and what were the dreams of the early Europeans when they arrived on the Yarra River? In this special short episode, Juliana considers the two warring Johns who famously claimed to have founded...
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The Impossible Japanese Invasion
On the 8th of December 1941, Australia declared war on Japan. Just over two months later, Japanese planes appeared over Darwin and rained hell on our northernmost city. But was it a prelude to an invasion, or something else? Inspired by a recent conference paper, Juliana takes a break from Eureka...
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Back in Time: Australia's Favourite War Criminal
Back in Time: After twelve months of campaigning, the Adelaide city council recently announced that they WILL NOT be adding the name of infamous war criminal Harry Morant to the Boer War memorial in Adelaide. This is a good decision, but who was Morant and why was he such a controversial figure?...
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200 Yanks vs. 800 Poms: The American Eurkea Story
Out on the road near Ballarat, a party of 200 armed Americans lay in wait for a column of British infantry making haste to the restless goldfield. What would have happened if they'd crossed paths? The American contribution to Eureka has been buried, forgotten and (in some cases) deliberately...
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Back In Time: Five Final Minutes
Juliana's away this fortnight, but listen in as she goes back in time and revisits an early episode from Season 1 of "The Skeptical Historian." 'Five Final Minutes' examines the mysterious crash of Trans Australian Airlines Flight 538, and the surprising safety legacy that followed. *** On the…
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Eureka: The Military Perspective
In the 170 years or so since Eureka, there have been two perspectives which have commanded attention: those of the stockaders, and that of the Victorian Government. The military, who played a major role in the event, have been side-lined from the historical re-telling. In this episode, Juliana...
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"To the Colonists!" - A Letter from a Liar? : Part II
In April 1855, while in hiding from the law after the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor, the rebel Commander-in-Chief, wrote an open letter that has since become the Holy Gospel of Eureka. It is one of the most quoted and referenced documents regarding this event, and is indispensable to...
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"To the Colonists!" - A Letter from a Liar?: Part I
In April 1855, while in hiding from the law after the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor, the rebel Commander-in-Chief, wrote an open letter that has since become the Holy Gospel of Eureka. It is one of the most quoted and referenced documents regarding this event, and is indispensable to...
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Burning Down the House
On the 17th of October 1854, just six weeks before the famous Battle of the Eureka Stockade, a mob of furious diggers surrounded the opulent Eureka Hotel in Ballarat and burned it to the ground. The publican had recently got away with murder and the burning of the Eureka has been presented ever...
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Dictation-ship: Morals, Marriage & Italian
Just one year after trying to keep activist Egon Kisch out, the Australian government set their sights on excluding Mabel Freer, a British Indian woman who was coming to Australia to get married. She was white, she was a minor aristocrat, she was the very person Australia was trying to encourage…
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Dictation-ship: Communism & Scottish Gaelic
In 1934, Czechoslovakian activist Egon Kisch, an anti-war, anti-fascist campaigner who had escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany was invited to speak at an anti-fascist rally in Australia. He was stopped at the border by Australian immigration officials and prohibited from entering the country.…
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BONUS: Time to Stick the 26th?
Australia Day. Invasion Day. An arbitrary date in January everyone likes to argue about. Whatever the 26th of January is for you, there's no other day in the Australian calendar that sparks so much passionate debate and fierce hatred, but what what is it about this day that gets people so hot…
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The 40th Regiment & The Crisis of 1851
In 1851, the colony of Victoria was hovering on the verge of complete collapse as gold fever swept the inhabitants. Unable to cope, facing record high levels of inflation and with a famine threatening the colony, Governor La Trobe wrote in desperation to London to ask for a military force to...
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Nightmare on New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve in Sydney, 1908, things got so out of hands that the council came close to banning the celebration forever! Join Juliana in the very first episode of 2024 to discover what happened, why everything went wrong that year and the lasting legacy that began with a a gang of larrikins...
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The Umbrella Man: JFK's Assassination Sixty Year On
SEASON FINAL! Sixty years ago, 35th President of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy, better known as JFK, was murdered in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald: a violent political extremist. But, despite multiple, investigations coming to the same conclusion, conspiracy theories about JFK's...
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Bad Cops: Blamey, Badge 80 & The Police Strike of 1923
What do you get when you cross low wages with tumbledown barracks, overwork, corporate spies and the Melbourne Cup Carnival? You get the Victoria Police Strike of 1923! Following the first and only police strike in Australian history, Former Army Chief of Staff Thomas Blamey was appointed as…
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Ned Kelly: The Story of Australia's Most Infamous Outlaw - Part II
Part 2 of 2. Edward "Ned" Kelly is perhaps one of the best konwn as most controversial figures in Australian history. Join me for Part II of his story, where we examine Ned's claim that the murder of three policeman at Stringybark Creek was nothing more than self-defense, and put to the test the...
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Ned Kelly: The Story of Australia's Most Infamous Outlaw - Part I
Part 1 of 2. Edward "Ned" Kelly is perhaps one of the best known and most controversial figures in Australian history. Join me in this first two-part episode of the Skeptical Historian for a deep dive into Kelly's story, and examine the facts, the myths and the people who were involved. Listeners...
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An a-MACE-ing Mystery
In 1891, Melbourne was in the midst of an economic depression, a land crash, a maritime strike and a locust plague. To add insult to injury, the sewers caught fire and (much to the horror of the political establishment) women chose this time to start demanding the vote.In the midst of all these...
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Beating Back Black Death
In 1900, bubonic plague, the Black Death, arrived in Sydney and within a year, it had found its way to Melbourne, Fremantle, Adelaide and Far North Queensland. So how come our brush with this most infamous and deadly disease doesn't get more pages in the history books? Juliana takes a deep dive...
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Who Doesn't Love A Ghost Story?
In 1888, in front of a sold-out audience at the Princess Theatre, British-Italian Opera Singer Frederick Baker suffered a massive heart attack as he descended into "hell" through a trapdoor on the stage. Despite the desperate attempts by doctors to save him, he was declared dead forty minutes...
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Easy As A(lien) B(ig) C(ats)
When Europeans arrived in Australia more than 200 years ago, they brought with them horses, cattle, pigs, goats, deer, dogs... and big cats! Ever since, people have claimed to see these animals lurking in the bush, and strange tales abound of livestock killed and cached in trees, while huge...
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Lizzie Borden, A Good Woman
In Fall River, Massachusetts, on a hot August day in 1892, Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were murdered, struck multiple times in the head with a hatchet. The only person home at the time of the attacks was Andrew's daughter Lizzie, who was later charged with two counts of murder. Juliana looks...
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Australia's Deadly Love Affair
In 1788, when the First Fleet landed in New South Wales, it not only brought convicts, soldiers and administrators to Australia, but horses. Now, more than 200 years later, the feral horse population is on the rise and causing havoc in Australia's national parks. Join Juliana as she examines one…
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Trailer: The Skeptical Historian
History isn't all about worshipping a bunch of dead guys. In fact, most of the history you think you know didn't happen! I'm Juliana Byers, I'm historical researcher and former teacher and on my podcast The Skeptical Historian, we take a deep dive and dissect the mystery that is history. Every...
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Breaker Morant: Australia's Favourite War Criminal
In February 1902, Harry "The Breaker" Morant was executed by firing squad in South Africa, after being found guilty of the murder of twelve Boers, nine of them prisoners of war. That should have been the end of him, but 120 years later we're still debating whether this man was a war criminal, or…
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BONUS: Songs for Children?
Have a look at some of the dark stories behind your favourite nursery rhymes in this special, bonus episode.
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Clap Your Hands If You Believe
Dedicated to my sister. Have you ever wondered where the myth of the unicorn came from? In honour of International Fairy Day, I explore the history, mystery and myth surrounding one of the best loved fairytale creatures on earth.
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Five Final Minutes
On the 10th of June 1960, Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 was attempting to land at MacKay airport in Queensland, Australia. Within the space of five minutes, the plane had lost radio contact and disappeared. Five hours later, the wreckage was found floating off the Queensland coast and the...
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Unearthing Eureka, 1854
The Battle of the Eureka Stockade is one of the most famous events of Australian history. The gold miners, furious over their constant mistreatment by the authorities, erected a stockade at a place known as Eureka... only to be violently routed within days. Join Juliana as she picks apart this...
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Gold Fever: Ballarat, Bendigo and Beyond
In 1854, Italian gold miner Raffaelo Carboni declared that the Australian gold fields were "a refuge for all the oppressed people's of the earth". Out there, sifting through dirt and rock, or ankle deep in filthy water at the bottom of a shaft, it didn't matter who you were, where you'd come…
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Bonus: "I died in hell - they called it Passchendaele"
Every year since 1916, Australia and New Zealand have commemorated ANZAC Day on the 25th of April. This date recalls out landing on the infamous Gallipoli Peninsula and the beginning of an eight month struggle that ended in a desperate evacuation. When the date was chosen, the Australia New…
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What Happened to Harold Holt?
On 17 December 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt swam out into the rough seas of Cheviot Beach and never returned. Despite a massive search, his body was never recovered and it wasn't until forty years later that the corner returned a verdict of death by drowning. Harold Holt's...
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Burke & Wills: Heroes or Fools
In this first, full length episode of The Skeptical Historian, Juliana takes a deep dive into the legendary Burke and Wills Expedition to uncover some disturbing truths about these supposably heroic explorers. The Victorian Exploring Expedition left Victoria in August 1860, headed up by Robert...
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Bonus: The Eureka Stockade in Ten Minutes
In this very first teaser episode, Juliana takes a look at some of the myths around one of the most famous events in nineteenth century Australian history: The Battle of the Eureka Stockade. History will tell you this was a fight between valiant Australian diggers and bad British soldiers, but…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Skeptical Historian have?
The Skeptical Historian currently has 42 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Skeptical Historian about?
Join historian Juliana Byers to take a deep dive into some of the most famous events from Australia and around the world, and answer that all important question: did that REALLY happen? New episodes released monthly.
How often does The Skeptical Historian release new episodes?
The Skeptical Historian has 42 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Skeptical Historian?
You can listen to The Skeptical Historian 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 The Skeptical Historian?
The Skeptical Historian is created and hosted by Juliana Byers.
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