What We Did Before | A History of Everyday Life
Before modern inventions and conveniences, humans had ingenious ways of solving problems. So how exactly did humans survive before fridges, without clothes or before surnames were invented? Find out the answers to these questions and more, right here. Hosted by Ollie Guillou.
Episodes
💬 What did Medieval people actually find funny? Very little record of Medieval comedy remains, but thanks to one 15th century priest we now have a rare glimpse into the life of a Minstrel and the types of jokes they would’ve told.
⚡ In this episode we hear from Dr James Wade, professor in English at Girton College at Cambridge and expert on the Middle Ages. His work has involved deciphering a manuscript writte...
💬 The East End Matchwomen produced one of Victorian Britain’s most important everyday products - but the job could be deadly.
In Victorian London, the East End was seen as the slums. High society looked down on the people who inhabited this part of the city - so the horrors that faced East End workers comes as no surprise.
⚡ In this episode we hear from Labour historian Dr Louise Raw, author of Striking a Light...
💬 Firefighting hasn’t always meant red engines and professional crews. For centuries, fighting fires was much more chaotic. Even by the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain still had more than a thousand separate local authority fire brigades.
⚡In this episode, curator of Fireground Museum in Rochdale, Bob Bonner, takes us on a tour through the history of firefighting, explaining how it evolved into the s...
💬 Before World of Warcraft, RuneScape or even the internet as we know it, there was MUD - the world’s first multiplayer virtual world. Created in 1978 by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw, it would help lay the foundations for an entirely new generation of gaming.
Early online games were very different from the enormous commercial worlds we know today. There were no battle passes, cash shops or daily login rewar...
💬 Visit the site of a brutal moment in Guernsey history. At Tower Hill Steps three women faced religious persecution - and were burned alive at the stake.
One of the women, Perotine Massey, was pregnant and gave birth in the flames. What happened next was horrific. This dark chapter of Guernsey’s history shows the grim realities of past religious conflicts.
⚡With Guernsey tour guide Korinne Le Page, we discuss ...
💬 At this ancient monolithic burial chamber, witches were said to convene with the devil to conduct The Black Mass. This imposing Dolmen came up time and time again in the brutal witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries.
⚡ This was a time when witchcraft was truely a force to be feared. But why did we believe so strongly that our neighbours were placing curses on us? And why were people burned for a crime that di...
💬 Long before radar, armies relied on people with enormous metal trumpets strapped to their heads to listen for approaching aircraft. Aircraft listeners had the bizarre but vital job of detecting the sound of enemy planes, working in exposed positions and often in difficult conditions to give early warning of an incoming attack.
⚡Before radar transformed air defence, these acoustic listening devices were used to tra...
💬 Herm island might just be home to the world’s smallest prison. And yet it’s not the world record holder - that title belongs to a very close neighbour. So why doesn’t Herm prison hold the record - and what was such a tiny jail used for?
⚡Herm is an island in the English Channel with a population of just 65, but it has lived many different lives over the years. Take a trip to the beautiful s...
💬 Toshers had one of the most disgusting jobs of Victorian Britain. Searching the sewers of 19th century London, people would sieve through human sewage looking for discarded treasures. It’s a job that made them a lot of money - but came with many hazards.
⚡Before the sewage system we know today, Victorian London was a very smelly city. With the population expanding fast thanks to the industrial revolution, Lo...
💬 This is the deafening noise that powered Britain's Industrial Revolution. At its peak, thousands of men and women spent their days surrounded by the relentless clatter of weaving looms - a workplace so loud that many workers gradually lost their hearing.
⚡ Yet despite the dangers, becoming a weaver was a skilled and sought-after job. Britain's cotton industry transformed Lancashire into the workshop of the world, ...
💬 Shoes got a massive makeover 50 years ago, thanks to a boom in interest for running. A style that first emerged in the 1970s quickly became the dominant one - cushioned soles, elevated heels, narrow toes. And it’s the style we still see today. But why?
⚡ Humans spent hundreds of thousands of years barefoot - and when we did make shoes, they were made of plant fibres or thin animal hides. We’ve cy...
💬 Archaeologists have found evidence of the oldest wooden handheld tools used by humans. Discovered in Greece, these ancient tools are around 430,000 years old.
⚡Dr Annemieke Milks is a palaeolithic archaeologist and part of the team which identified the objects. They were recovered from Marathousa, a Middle Pleistocene site which may have been inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis - one of our distant ancestors.
In this...
💬 There’s a ruined archway sitting among the trees of my local park - but what grand building did it once belong to? A castle? A church? A grand manor house?
In this episode I take a trip to Worden Park in Leyland. Rich in history, this park was once the estate of James Nowell Farington, who set about a major programme of improvements when he inherited it in 1837.
⚡ Join me on a trip to visit an archway with a ...
You had lots of questions about the Victorian job of the "Bleach Packer". So I invited Judith Wilde from Catalyst museum back for a Q&A.
Together we dig deeper into the fascinating history of this gruelling job, that helped build the chemical industry.
🎧 Judith answers questions like:
➡ Why didn't their eyes burn?
➡ Did the muzzle actually work?
➡ Why were some of them drinking ten pints a day?
➡ Did this really cont...
💬 Many islands all over the world are known for their finance industries - and especially for being “tax havens”. But this is just the latest ways islands have reinvented themselves over thousands of years.
As far back as the Stone Age, islands have served as stepping stones, trading hubs, military outposts and gateways between nations.
⚡ In this episode we use the island of Guernsey as a case...
Bleach packers had one of the worst jobs of the 19th century.At Catalyst Museum in Widnes, discover the history of these workers, why they wore muzzles, and how they helped build the chemical industry.
This is a highlight from a longer episode filmed at Catalyst. Scroll down in your feed if you'd like to learn more.
About the podcast:
What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from...
💬 One March 29th 1974, a Chinese farmer was working the field as he always did - when suddenly his shovel struck something hard. Little did he know he had just stumbled upon one of the most important archaeological finds in history.
⚡In this special episode we share two fantastic episodes from our friends over at History Daily. If you love them - subscribe to History Daily here: https://podfollow.com/history-dai...
💬 Neanderthals have been shown to use many incredible tools - but none quite as surprising as this. After studying rhinoceros teeth from a cave chock full of them - researchers managed to figure out why they were covered in strange markings.
⚡Alicia Sanz-Royo and her team of archaeologists examined the teeth that had remained a mystery for many years. By recreating ancient Neanderthal activities, they managed to rep...
💬 Much of the myth of Cleopatra was crafted by her during her lifetime. An intentional process to shape how the citizens of Egypt - and the world - saw her. But without social media, how did great rulers of the ancient world fashion their own brand?
Cleopatra was unusually good at shaping her own image - and the brand she built has endured for over 2,000 years. But who was the woman behind the myth?
⚡ That’s th...
💬 For a big portion of human history, we shared the planet with other human species. What was that world like to be part of? How often did we interact with prehistoric humans - and would we have recognised the differences between them and us?
⚡ Michael Marshall is a science writer and expert voice on ancient human species. In this episode he paints a picture of this ancient world, where Neanderthals, Hobbits and Den...
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