This podcast returns on June 28th 2026. An experiment suggests most people would rather give themselves an electric shock than sit alone with boredom. Excavations reveal students were being punished with the monotony of writing lines thousands of years ago. The computer game millions of office workers have used to kill time was created by an intern.

Alongside these histories, this episode traces the origins of words such as monotony, ennui, onychophagy, ad nauseam, flâneur, meander and cliché.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQKfIXMiA8

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/60360466

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-noble-experiment-how-solitary-came-to-america/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20191027-the-word-that-encapsulates-frenchness

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guy-wrote-windows-solitaire-did-231250280.html

A Hollywood actress's workout helped drive sales of VCRs. A video rental chain laughed at the chance to buy a future streaming giant. Video replay transformed how NFL referees judged the game.

Alongside these histories, this episode traces the origins of words such as betamax, footage, record, kinescope, bootleg, blockbuster and leotard.

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https://www.wipo.int/en/web/wipo-magazine/articles/50-years-of-the-video-cassette-recorder-35495

https://janefonda.com/the-workout/

https://www.oed.com/discover/revision-bootleg

https://time.com/5776406/blockbuster-meaning/

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/netflix-marc-randolph-founder-blockbuster

https://operations.nfl.com/officiating/instant-replay/history-of-instant-replay

A queen travelled with her dead husband's corpse, reportedly opening the coffin along the journey to kiss his feet. The rejection of repeated marriage proposals may have helped shape some of a poet's best work. Studies suggest pheromones can influence how discerning people are when judging the attractiveness of others.

Alongside these histories, this episode traces the origins of words such as callipygian, panache, olfactophilia, limerence, pulchritude, uxorious and sillage.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3oCuFRk09w

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/sligo/lifestyle/yeats-and-gonne-a-love-story/40066934.html

https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/relationships-physical-attractiveness

This podcast returns on May 31st 2026. A rejected advance gives rise to a false accusation. Twins are born, each to a different father. A king kills his nephews and serves them at a feast. Greek mythology is full of controversial tales.

Alongside these mythological stories, this episode traces the origins of words such as oppugn, vitriol, infandous, cannibal, inveigh, lurid and obscene.

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https://www.greekmythology.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/dec/11/one-set-twins-two-fathers-how-common-is-superfecundation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHY1HxWadeo

Morphine was first drawn out of opium in 1806 and is named after a god of dreams. Egyptian remedies recorded ingredients that seem hard to take seriously, though some echo ideas later seen in aspirin and penicillin. A gunshot wound would go on to help a 19th century surgeon understand how the body digests food.

Alongside these histories, this episode traces the origins of words such as analgesic, febrifuge, hospital, accoucheur, PRN and clinic.

Transition sound by https://audionautix.com

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https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/41595/pg41595-images.html

https://www.geriwalton.com/bonesetters-joint-manipulators-and-musculoskeletal-fixers/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-19012179

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/21/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-dana-raphael.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772609624000261

https://becker.wustl.edu/news/william-beaumonts-momentous-and-unethical-experiments/

This podcast returns on May 10th 2026. A musician discovered Uranus, a Hollywood actress developed military technology, and a statesman invented bifocal glasses. Names such as Spencer, Marshall and Stewart trace their origins back to occupations. The son of Britain's first prime minister held a series of sinecures, roles that offered status and income for little or no work.

Alongside these histories, this episode traces the origins of words such as dilettante, empleomania, gaffer, thrasonical, lucubrate and ambition.

History Daily - https://www.historydaily.com

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https://www.historytoday.com/archive/horace-walpole-gothick-man-letters/1000

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/know-the-ropes.html

To burke is to kill by strangulation, a word taken from the name of a 19th century murderer. In Anglo-Saxon England, a killing could be settled with payment through the wergild, a sum paid by the offender to the victim's family. In France, a petty criminal would go on to become one of the first figures to resemble a modern detective.

Alongside these histories, this episode explores the origins of words such as assassin, scelerate, culprit, trucidate and lucre.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvrsydm#zhxbcmn

https://biomedical-sciences.ed.ac.uk/anatomy/anatomical-museum/collection/people/burke

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/eugene-francois-vidocq-and-the-birth-of-the-detective/

https://blog.oup.com/2015/08/word-etymology-culprit/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2006/04/11/local_heroes_doctor_william_palmer_feature.shtml

This episode investigates obscure words for conversations about bizarre histories, considering their origins and familiar words from the same root. Words explored include diluvial, nundination, expetible, tripudiate, mucilaginous, delitescent and redhibition.

Hear a collection of strange moments from the past, from a deadly latrine collapse in Erfurt to a speculative frenzy over tulips, a mysterious dancing outbreak, and a city flooded with molasses.

Sources:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/erfurt-latrine-disaster-what-happened/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20160419-tulip-mania-the-flowers-that-cost-more-than-houses

https://www.britannica.com/event/dancing-plague-of-1518

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/molasses-flood-physics-science/

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