PODCAST · history
What Came Before
by Andrew Scott
What Came Before is a podcast dedicated to detailing the events, people, and periods that have shaped our world. Contact: [email protected] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689 <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noref
Episodes
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The Madhouse and the Race - Nellie Bly (1887-1890)
In September 1887, a young reporter calling herself Nellie Brown pretended to be insane and got herself committed to the women's asylum on Blackwell's Island in New York. What she found there made her famous. Two years later she set out to beat Phileas Fogg's fictional record around the world…
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The Crossing of the Rubicon (49 BC)
The late Roman Republic had survived reform, faction, and civil bloodshed, but Caesar's march across the Rubicon pushed it past the point of no return. Contact: [email protected] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast Apple Podcasts:...
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The Berlin Tunnel (1954)
In 1954, the CIA and MI6 dug a tunnel from West Berlin into the Soviet sector to tap military phone lines. It was one of the most audacious intelligence operations of the Cold War. There was just one problem - the KGB knew about it before the first shovel broke ground. Contact:...
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The Cato Street Conspiracy (1820)
In February 1820, a group of desperate radicals plotted to murder the entire British Cabinet at a private dinner, behead two ministers, and spark a revolution in the streets of London. This is the story of the Cato Street Conspiracy - the men behind it, the government spy among them, and the last...
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The Gunpowder Plot (1605)
In November 1605, a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby attempted to blow up Parliament and King James I. This is the story of the Gunpowder Plot - how it was planned, how it was betrayed, and how it ended. Contact: [email protected] YouTube:...
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The Suez Crisis (1956)
In the summer of 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, seizing control of one of the world's most strategically vital waterways from its Anglo-French owners. What followed was a secret conspiracy, a coordinated invasion, and one of the defining humiliations of…
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The Siege of Malta Part 2 - The Grand Harbour (1565)
After the fall of Fort St. Elmo, the full weight of the Ottoman army turns on the twin peninsulas of Birgu and Senglea. Through months of relentless bombardment, underground mining, and massive infantry assaults, Grand Master La Valette and a dwindling garrison of Knights and Maltese civilians...
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The Siege of Malta Part 1 - The Corsairs and the Cross (1565)
In the summer of 1565, the Ottoman Empire dispatched an armada of nearly 200 ships and 40,000 men to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Their target was the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order operating as state-sponsored corsairs. In Part 1 of our two-part series on the Great Siege of...
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The 47 Ronin Part 2 - The Snowy Night (1701-1702)
In the aftermath of Lord Asano's forced seppuku and the total confiscation of the Ako domain, over 300 samurai are abruptly cast out as masterless ronin. But behind their peaceful surrender to the Tokugawa shogunate, a dedicated core of retainers has secretly sworn a blood oath of vengeance. In...
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The 47 Ronin Part 1 - The Insult and the Blade (1701)
In the spring of 1701, a feudal lord named Asano Naganori was assigned to host imperial envoys at Edo Castle - one of the most important ceremonial duties in Tokugawa Japan. His instructor in court protocol was a senior official named Kira Yoshinaka. What followed was weeks of public humiliation...
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The Life of Winston Churchill Part 3 - The War Premiership and The Final Phase (1940-1965)
Churchill becomes Prime Minister as France falls and Britain stands alone. From the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain to the forging of the Grand Alliance with Roosevelt and Stalin, we follow Churchill through the pivotal moments of the Second World War, and his life following the…
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The Life of Winston Churchill Part 2 - Rise, Fall, and The Gathering Storm (1901-1939)
From the green benches of Parliament to the mud of the trenches, this episode tracks Winston Churchill's turbulent path through the early 20th century. His meteoric rise as a Liberal reformer, the disaster of Gallipoli that nearly ended his career, and his decade-long political exile. We examine...
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The Life of Winston Churchill Part 1 - The Making of a Hero (1874-1900)
Born into privilege but dismissed by his father as a failure, young Winston Churchill set out to prove the world wrong. From self-education in India to the last great cavalry charge at Omdurman and a thrilling escape from a Boer POW camp, this episode charts how a "social wastrel" forged his own...
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The Siege of Vienna (1683)
In the summer of 1683, the fate of Europe hung in the balance on the banks of the Danube. A massive Ottoman army led by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa laid siege to Vienna, intent on capturing the "Golden Apple" of the West. In this episode, we follow the desperate struggle of the city's defenders...
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The Tiananmen Square Protests - China (1989)
In the spring of 1989, a spontaneous wave of grief for a fallen leader transformed into a massive movement that paralyzed the Chinese capital. For seven weeks, millions of students and workers occupied Tiananmen Square, erecting the "Goddess of Democracy" and challenging the Communist Party to…
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The Cultural Revolution - China (1966-1976)
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a decade-long campaign to purify the Communist Party that plunged China into total anarchy. This episode traces the descent into chaos, from the mobilization of the Red Guards and the violent destruction of the "Four Olds" to...
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The Great Leap Forward - China (1958-1962)
In 1958, the People's Republic of China embarked on one of the most radical social experiments in human history: the Great Leap Forward. Aiming to surpass the industrial output of the West in just fifteen years, Mao Zedong mobilized the nation to replace capital with sheer willpower. This episode...
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The Russian Revolution Part 7: The House of Special Purpose (July 1918)
In the finale of the series, we enter the "House of Special Purpose" - the ominous code name for the villa where the Romanov dynasty met its end. As the White Army closed in on Ekaterinburg in the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks made a cold calculation: the Tsar could not be allowed to live as a...
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The Russian Revolution Part 6: Red October (October 1917)
The most consequential revolution of the 20th century did not happened with a change of the guard. In this episode, we dismantle the myth of the "storming" of the Winter Palace to reveal the reality of the Bolshevik seizure of power: a methodical, invisible coup d'etat masterminded by Leon…
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The Russian Revolution Part 5: The Summer of Chaos (May-August 1917)
By the summer of 1917, the optimism of the February Revolution had dissolved into violence. Alexander Kerensky, the "Persuader-in-Chief," attempted to save the crumbling nation with a suicidal military offensive that destroyed the last remnants of the army's morale. The resulting power vacuum...
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The Russian Revolution Part 4: Lenin's Ultimate Gamble (April 1917)
In the spring of 1917, the German General Staff decided to deploy a new kind of weapon against the Russian army: a revolutionary exile named Vladimir Lenin. In this episode, we follow the journey of the "plague bacillus", Vladimir Lenin, as he travels from a cramped apartment in Zurich to the…
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The Russian Revolution Part 3: Five Days in February (February 1917)
In the bitter winter of 1917, the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty ended with a bread riot. What began as a march by female textile workers demanding food spiraled into a revolution when the Tsar's ultimate enforcers, the Cossacks, refused to charge the crowd. We follow the chaotic escalation...
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The Russian Revolution Part 2: The War to End an Empire (1914-1916)
When World War I began, the Allies believed the "Russian Steamroller" - an army of millions - would crush Germany by Christmas. Instead, the Imperial Army marched into a catastrophe that would break the back of the regime. In this episode, we move from the palaces of Petrograd to the frozen...
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The Russian Revolution Part 1: The Hangman's Noose and the Holy Devil (1906-1916)
After the chaos of the 1905 Revolution, the Romanov dynasty had one final decade to save itself from extinction. In this episode, we explore the strange twilight of the Russian Empire, a period dominated by two men who could not have been more different: Pyotr Stolypin, the ruthless Prime…
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The Hunt for the Bismarck
In May 1941, the balance of the war at sea shifted on a knife-edge. The German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship in Europe, slipped into the North Atlantic with orders to sever the convoy lifelines sustaining the United Kingdom. What followed was one of the most intense naval...
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The Norman Conquest: Three Kings and a Throne
In January 1066, the death of King Edward the Confessor triggered a succession crisis that would change the course of English history. Three men laid claim to the English throne: Harold Godwinson, the powerful English Earl; William, the bastard Duke of Normandy; and Harald Hardrada, the last…
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The Scientist on the Throne - Frederick II
He travelled with a zoo of elephants and giraffes, spoke six languages, and was excommunicated four times. To the Pope, Frederick II was the Antichrist; to his admirers, he was the Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the World). This episode dives into the wild life of the 13th-century Emperor who…
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The Golden Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa
In 1324, Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire, embarked on a journey that would redefine wealth and power in the medieval world. We explore the logistical marvel of the trek, the diplomatic standoff in Cairo that crashed the Egyptian economy, and the enduring architectural legacy that...
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The Unlikely Emperor - Claudius
On a January day in forty-one AD, the Roman Empire's future was hiding behind a curtain. When soldiers found Claudius trembling after Caligula's murder, they made him emperor - not because he was capable, but because they thought they could control him. They were wrong. This episode follows the…
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The Day the Tsar Lost His People - Bloody Sunday (1905)
On Sunday, January 22nd, 1905, tens of thousands of unarmed workers marched through St. Petersburg to deliver a petition to their emperor, Tsar Nicholas II. Led by the charismatic priest Father Georgy Gapon, they carried religious icons and portraits of the Tsar, whom they called their "Little...
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The Battle of Midway
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the US Navy was on the brink of collapse, and the victorious Japanese fleet planned a final, decisive blow. At a tiny atoll named Midway, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto prepared an intricate trap to annihilate America's last aircraft carriers. What he didn't know was that...
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The Peasants' Revolt of 1381
In the summer of 1381, an army of tens of thousands of commoners - farmers, blacksmiths, and villagers - marched on London with a revolutionary list of demands. This was the Peasants' Revolt, one of the most terrifying, violent, and significant popular uprisings in English history. Contact:...
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The Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, the most potent symbol of the Cold War, crumbled overnight. This episode tells the incredible true story of how a series of miscalculations, growing protests, and one fumbled sentence at a routine press conference accidentally triggered the fall of the Wall....
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The "Unkillable Soldier" - Adrian Carton de Wiart
He was shot in the face, head, stomach, leg, and hip. He survived multiple plane crashes, tore off his own fingers when a doctor hesitated, and escaped a POW camp in World War Two while in his sixties. This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, the man Winston Churchill called a "model of...
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The Rise and Fall of Agrippina
This episode charts the rise of Agrippina the Younger from political exile to the heights of power as she schemed to place her son, the infamous Nero, upon the imperial throne. But her ultimate triumph became her undoing. Contact: [email protected] YouTube:...
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The Great Schism - The Tale of Two Popes
In the 14th century a disputed papal election sparked a spiritual civil war. European kingdoms were forced to take sides, powerful dynasties backed their chosen pontiff, and the two Popes busied themselves excommunicating each other and their followers. Contact: [email protected]...
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The Double Agent Who Fooled Hitler
Juan Pujol Garcia was a Spanish chicken farmer who became the most important double agent of the Second World War. Initially rejected by British intelligence, he conceived an audacious plan: become a fake Nazi spy to get their attention. Eventually recruited by the British and codenamed "Garbo,"...
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The Cuban Missile Crisis
In October 1962, the world stood on the precipice of nuclear annihilation for thirteen agonizing days. When U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba, a high-stakes political thriller unfolded in real-time. Contact: [email protected] YouTube:...
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The Storming of the Bastille
July 14th, 1789. In a city simmering with hunger, fear, and revolutionary fervor, the eyes of Paris turn to a single, ominous structure: the Bastille. It was the ultimate symbol of royal tyranny, a place where the king could make his enemies disappear without a trial. Its fall would become the...
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The Wars of the Roses
For three decades in the 15th century, England was ripped apart by a dynastic civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. The red rose of Lancaster, the ruling house, was pitted against the white rose of York, its ambitious challenger. What began as a political struggle over the weak and…
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The Carrington Event of 1859
This episode tells the story of the great solar storm of 1859, from the amateur astronomer who first saw the flare to the global chaos that followed. We then explore how a similar event today could cripple power grids, destroy satellites, and plunge our planet into a prolonged blackout. Discover...
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The Year of the Four Emperors
In the year 69AD, the Roman Empire was torn apart by a devastating civil war. Following the death of Emperor Nero, a power vacuum emerged, leading to the rapid and violent rise and fall of four different emperors: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and the eventual victor, Vespasian. This episode explores...
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The Printing Press
This episode explores the single invention that dragged the world out of the age of scribes and into the modern era: the printing press. We begin not in Germany, but centuries earlier in China and Korea, uncovering the remarkable but often overlooked history of woodblock printing and the world's...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
What Came Before is a podcast dedicated to detailing the events, people, and periods that have shaped our world.
Contact: [email protected]
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689
<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noref
HOSTED BY
Andrew Scott
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does What Came Before have?
What Came Before currently has 43 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is What Came Before about?
What Came Before is a podcast dedicated to detailing the events, people, and periods that have shaped our world. Contact: [email protected] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689
How often does What Came Before release new episodes?
What Came Before has 43 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to What Came Before?
You can listen to What Came Before 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 What Came Before?
What Came Before is created and hosted by Andrew Scott.
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