T minus 20
The year is 2004... Your polyphonic ringtone habit is sending you broke. George W Bush is sworn in for a second term. And in spite of everything going on, the most controversial thing is a wardrobe malfunction at the superbowl? T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
Episodes
Buckle up, buttercup: this week 20 years ago was a wild ride - equal parts horrifying, hilarious and of course nostalgic.
The heavy:
- The Abu Ghraib prison scandal explodes, sending shockwaves around the world. We'll unpack the details and the fallout, but be warned, it's not a pretty picture.
- Dick Cheney and George W. Bush take a turn in the hot seat, testifying before the 9/11 Commission. Did they reveal anyth...
This week twenty years ago delivered a mix of jaw-dropping headlines and eyebrow-raising moments that'll make you say, "Wait, did that really happen?"
First up, the heart-wrenching tale of Pat Tillman, the NFL star turned soldier whose story reads like a Hollywood script. From sacking quarterbacks to dodging bullets, Tillman's journey took a tragic turn when he was killed by friendly fire in
Afghani...
The headline is a bit misleading but British PM Tony Blair did visit the US this week 20 years ago where he held a joint press conference with the US President Geroge W Bush to talk all things Coalition of the Willing and give an update on the War in Iraq. Surprisingly Bush managed to forget a few key dates when questioned.
In sport West Indian Cricket batting legend Brian Lara broke the record for the highest individual s...
We’re pretty sure our research this week has us on a watch list somewhere as we look into ammonium nitrate and why this highly explosive chemical needed to be banned way back in 2004. The fun doesn’t stop there either as we take the best parts from Condaleeza Rice when she testifies for over three hours at the 9/11 commission hearings. As promised you can find all the deets here: https://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing9.htm...
It’s a week of good news for the people in Ireland, whether they like it or not, as they breathe the fresh air that comes with banning smoking in pubs and clubs. Although some may argue that it was a rather anti-social initiative, the people who didn’t have to breathe the passive smoke found it much easier to hold a conversation.
Not so good news for military contractors in Fallujah however when a mission to guard a cateri...
Ok so it’s an obscure title that we’ve used to put two unrelated occurrences together this week.
The first being the deliberate sinking of the HMS Scylla of the coast of Britain and the second, Usher releasing his album confessions. Where the single ‘Burn’ basically gave him an excuse to rip his shirt off.
In sport France defeated England to win the Six Nations Rugby Tournament.
We also had an album relea...
The news this week is positively and literally astronomical, with scientists announcing the discovery of 90377 Sedna, a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt. We break down the selection criteria for a planet vs a dwarf planet and find out why Pluto was downgraded.
Terror in Taiwan this week in 2004 with Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot the day before the country's presidential election. Conspiracy theories exist ...
Great news in Iraq as their interim constitution is signed and Colin Powell gushes over the content. So much so he gave it five stars on Good Reads!
Sadly there was an horrific terror attack in Madrid, Spain this time 20 years ago when simultan...
Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ” makes its debut this time 20 years ago and the overwhelming response was that people were overwhelmed!
And that is just one story in what was a massive week!
The United Nations came clean saying they could not find any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. UN weapon inspector David Kay simply said “We were almost all wrong”, which sent the media into a frenzy.
In what is one of many unexpected moves, Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted the afternoon programmes on the telly to inform his countrymen that he had just sacked the entire Russian Parliament mere weeks after he was elected for a second term as President!
In Australia Qantas launched it's budget airline, Jetstar with fares from Sydney to Melbourne as low as 60 bucks! Who cares about legroom and checked bag...
This week in the news residents the Sydney suburb of Redfern clashed with police over the death of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey. TJ was allegedly clipped by a police car while being pursued on his bicycle. He hit the gutter and fell. His injuries were fatal and the local Indigenous community erupted with grief and outrage. We look at the incident and the media coverage from the time, and wonder if anything has really changed since...
In response to a very conservative State of The Union address, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome gives the directive to issue same sex marriage licenses. This would be seen by many as the spark that lit a fire under conservatives right across the nation. Poor old Gavin just wanted to do the right thing by his constituents.
Out in space the largest diamond ever discovered was spotted by the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for As...
It's the biggest story of 2004 so far, the moment when the world was seemingly more shocked by Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's nipple at the Superbowl Halftime Show than anything a little old war in the middle east could deliver. We take a look at it from all sides 20 years later.
Meanwhile over at Harvard University as student by the name of Mark Zuckerberg took his first step to world domination whe...
It really is a mixed bag this week, Spirit's twin probe Opportunity touches down on Mars and instantly goes to work proving that there was once water on the red planet.
In Taiwan a massive explosion rips through the city centre of Tainan, but it's not what you think. A dead whale being transported through the city becomes so bloated with rotten gas in the heat that it bursts, leaving everyone in the vicinity cov...
It's a sad and shocking start to the week this week with the death of cricket legend David Hookes as the result of an altercation with a bouncer at a nightclub.
In scientific news NASA lost contact with the Spirit rover as it's flash memory subsystem overloaded. Thanksfully they were able to try turning it off an on again to get things working.
In tech Nintendo announce the release of the DS console in...
It's the wedding of the year already, Britney Spears goes on a bender in Vegas, get's married and divorced all in the same weekend! It really is the perfect start to 2004!
Over in the Middle East construction begins on the world's tallest building, The Burj Khalifa. While it still remains a spectacular feat of engineering it has one terrible flaw that has to do with poop.
While we're on the s...
It's our final week of best bits before we kick off a new season. We're going through the archives and pulling out the best bits from the past year including:
- 50 Cent and Lil' Kim's collaboration on 'Magic Stick' - the song that changed the game in strip clubs around the world.
- US Forces kill Saddam Hussein's sons - former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s sons, Qusay and Uday Hussein, are killed...
We're going through the archives and pulling out the best bits from the past year including:
- The No War protest on the Sydney Opera House - while the perpetrators were maligned by the media and community at the time, these days they display all sorts of stuff on the sails of one of Australia's most recognisable landmarks.
- The conspiracy against JC Chasez from NSYNC - and why Justin Timberlake became the golden goose f...
We're going through the archives and pulling out the best bits from the past year including:
- The Antwerp Diamond heist - dubbed the "heist of the century", it was the largest ever diamond heist and one of the largest robberies in history.
- 50 Cent releases "In Da Club" - the single produced by Dr Dre that put everyone else in the hip-hop community on notice, especially Irv Gotti and Ja Rule.
- The...
It's a 2003 extravaganza for our last episode before summer programming kicks in.
The best and worst in Google search, the Time person of the year, billboard, iTunes and the ARIA charts, movies, television and even books!
Brace yourself!
Hang with us on socials to chat more noughties nostalgia - Facebook (@tminus20) or Instagram (tminus20podcast). You can also contact us there if you want to be a part of th...
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