In 1932 Australia sent soldiers with machine guns to stop 20,000 emus rampaging through wheat fields.  What followed was a national embarrassment and earned the emus a reputation as the victors of one of history's strangest wars. Dr Ruth Morgan tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the wild story of the Emu War: what happens when a country goes to war with a flightless bird but realises the true enemy is something much larger and more formidable...    This is the first episode in the special series This Stupid War. Listen to the full series in the No One Saw It Coming podcast feed on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.   Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Their faces are everywhere: on calendars, incense packets, and soap packaging. But how did the Hindu deities' faces go beyond temples and shrines?  In nineteenth-century India, Ravi Varma dared to paint the gods in a way no one had before. What followed was a cultural revolution that carried his vision into homes across India and around the world. Tarun Nagesh, Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery, tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of how one man gave Hindu gods their modern faces.    Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

You think you know Pompeii. A city wiped out. People frozen in time. A disaster that stopped time. But how much of that story is actually true? Ancient historian and writer Dr Jess Venner (The Lost Voices of Pompeii) sits down with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) to blow away centuries of misconceptions, bust myths surrounding one of history's most famous disasters, and bring to life the everyday people lost in the story of Pompeii and its final moments.    Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Marcus Garvey is known as a civil rights activist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement. But there’s a part of his story you may not know about.  Social historian Darrel Blake tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the lesser known chapter in Marcus Garvey’s life - about how he established a shipping company but ended up creating a symbol of black liberation and empowerment, but not before condemning his reputation, being called a fraud and sabotaging a black empire.  Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Imagine driving from Beijing, through the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, and across Russia into Europe. The roads are terrible, you don't have petrol stations and you have pack animals carrying supplies. Oh, and it's a race so step on it. In 1907 this was the challenge set by a French newspaper. A race around the world to prove the automobile was not some fad technology.  Kassia St Clair, cultural historian and author (The Race To The Future) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the wild story about a race around the world that put lives and technology on the line and got mostly forgotten about since.      Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

What do you get when you combine fashion, race and a world war?  From the jazz clubs and dance halls of the 1940s to an infamous city riot in Los Angeles, the zoot suit was made to draw attention. But sometimes, that wasn't such a good thing. Monica L. Miller (Chair and Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of the zoot suit; how it put a target on its wearer's back and how it's evolved to this day.    Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

A well-placed lie can bring down a whole government. Hard to believe, but in Prague in 1989 that’s exactly what happened. In amongst a heaving student protest, a body was carried away. That body became a flashpoint for Czechoslovakians to say enough is enough, and call for the end of the communist regime. But who was that dead person, really?  Richard Fidler (Host, Conversations, Author, The Golden Maze) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) an epic tale set in a magical city full of twists and turns where you'll have to sort truth from lies.      Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

She stands tall with her head tilted towards you. She’s wearing an incredible gown made of the most beautiful fabric. This is a society woman living in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.  But she will see things that will shock and disturb her. Her world will be turned upside down, and she’ll travel to the other side of the world to keep her family safe, only to be rejected by one of Australia's most important institutions. Cultural historian and curator Professor Tim Bonyhady (Author, Good Living Street) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the epic family tale behind this artwork that was smuggled out amid war and destruction, and came to reside in Sydney in an apartment full of treasures.   Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

In the late 1500s a man sails across the North Sea. He’s battered by wind and wave. The sea seems angry, almost furious at him. He thinks it must be more than just a bad storm. It must be supernatural.  This man is James VI, the King of Scotland and son of Queen Mary of Scots. The tempest instils in him a paranoia and hatred that sparks one of the earliest witch trials in British history.  Author Kate Forsyth (The Changeling) sits down with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) and tells him how the epic tale of the Scottish witch hunts began with a coerced queen’s signature that set into motion a reign of terror that continued for over a century and still reaches into our lives today.   Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Getting a letter these days is pretty special, especially when it’s from an 11-year-old listener. Ellie wrote us a letter asking about the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses, wondering if it really is about the plague.  Amelia Huw Morgan, Senior lecturer in illustration in Cardiff School of Art and Design, sits down with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) to explain the deeper story behind the nursery rhyme, how it came to be connected to the plague and the woman who made the nursery rhyme popular with children and families for generations.    Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch: Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]