Just Passing Through Podcast
Step into 'Just Passing Through,' the podcast that chronicles my Yorkshireman adventures navigating the maze of Japanese life. No guarantees of laughter, but we promise a healthy dose of raised eyebrows and bemused chuckles. In each episode, we'll explore the quirky intersections of cultures, from attempting to decipher the intricacies of local customs to introducing Japan to the wonders of a proper brew. It's a podcast where culture shock meets dry Yorkshire wit – a journey through the everyday absurdities that make life interesting. So, if you're up for a laid-back, eyebrow-raising, and occasionally head-scratching experience, hit that download button. 'Just Passing Through' – where each episode is a detour into the unpredictable and a reminder that life's little oddities are the spice of the journey." Enjoy,Darren.
Episodes
Episode 233
Birmingham, 1824. The air hums with the rhythm of the Industrial Revolution—iron, smoke, and ambition shaping a restless city. But amid the roar of machinery, one man dares to listen to a quieter calling. His name is John Cadbury, and his mission is not forged in metal or fire, but in compassion.
From a small shop on Bull Street, he sells tea, coffee, and a curious new delicacy—drinking chocolate. To many, i...
Episode 232
Before there was funk, before soul had a name, there was James Brown — the man who turned rhythm into revolution. From sweat-soaked stages in the Deep South to worldwide fame, Brown didn’t just perform music; he invented a whole new way to move sound. In this episode, we’ll take a quick journey through the rise of the Godfather of Soul — how his grit, gospel roots, and unstoppable groove reshaped ...
Eddie St. James ~ Fever Burn
Sometimes the world has a funny way of circling back.
A few weeks after episode 182 — our story of Samuel Sharpe, the man who freed Jamaica — I noticed something strange: a sudden spike in downloads all across the island.
That’s when I heard from Eddie St. James — a Jamaican-born soul singer with French roots, a voice aged in smoky bars, and a heart that still beats t...
Episode 231
Brighton, October 1984 — The Aftermath
The blast has faded, but its echo still hangs in the air.
Smoke drifts through the wreckage of the Grand Hotel — splintered glass, twisted steel, and the heavy silence of disbelief.
Yet by morning, the Conservative Party conference resumes. Voices return to the same hall now shadowed by loss, determination standing where fear had settled...
Episode 230
Brighton, October 1984.
A calm seaside city, glittering under streetlights and the low hum of the pier. The gulls cry over the Channel, taxis roll along the promenade, and the Grand Hotel stands proud — polished brass, white stone, and the smell of salt drifting through its doors.
Inside, the Conservative Party gathers. Politicians, reporters, and aides crowd the corridors, their voices br...
Episode 229
In the smoky glow of 1970s British television, one face stood out — sharp-eyed, restless, and always on the brink of outrage or brilliance. Leonard Rossiter wasn’t your typical leading man. He was wiry, precise, and gloriously unpredictable — the kind of performer who could turn irritation into art. From the chaotic charm of Rising Damp to the razor wit of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Ros...
Episode 228
Sir Christopher Wren is a name that instantly conjures images of soaring spires, intricate domes, and some of the most iconic buildings in London. Born in 1632, Wren was not just an architect—he was a polymath, equally at home with mathematics, astronomy, and anatomy. Yet it’s his work after the Great Fire of London in 1666 that cements his place in history. Tasked with rebuilding a city in ruins, Wren tran...
Episode 227
He painted saints and sinners with the same trembling hand — his own. Born in chaos, driven by passion, and hunted by his past, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio turned paint into confession. His art shocked Rome with its brutal honesty and divine beauty, forever changing how the world saw light, flesh, and faith. But behind every masterpiece stood a man at war with himself — violent, brilliant, a...
Episode 226
The air is thick with the scent of pine and steel.
A lone figure stands on the bank of a quiet river, the rising sun glinting off the blade at his side. His hair is wild, his kimono worn, his eyes fixed on the rippling water. Soon, he will fight a man who has spent his life preparing for this one moment. Musashi, though—he has no plan. Only instinct, chaos, and the certainty that he cannot lo...
Episode 225
A man sits hunched over a workbench. His fingers are raw, stained black with soot and resin. The air is thick with the acrid smell of burning rubber, sulfur biting at the back of his throat. It is the middle of the 19th century, and while the rest of America surges ahead with steam, steel, and expansion, Charles Goodyear is locked in a tiny workshop, chasing an obsession.
He has no money. His famil...
Episode 224
It is the spring of 1892 in Harlem, Georgia. The air is heavy with the scent of pine and the sharp sound of train whistles drifting across the small Southern town. In a modest home, a boy named Norvell Hardy — later known to the world as Oliver — is born into a family that knows both comfort and tragedy. His father, a respected Confederate veteran turned county treasurer, dies when Norvell is just...
Episode 223
Fog drifts over the East End of London. The narrow alleys echo with the clatter of horse hooves and the cries of market traders. But beneath the noise and bustle lies another world — one of ragged children huddled in doorways, barefoot, hungry, and forgotten. Into this desperate landscape walks a young man with a fiery vision. Trained in medicine, driven by faith, and stirred by compassion, he dar...
Episode 222
"On the far southwestern edge of Britain, where the Atlantic hurls itself against granite cliffs and the wind scours the land raw, lies a village small in size but vast in legend. Mousehole, a Cornish fishing port with roots older than memory, has known hardship, hunger, and the endless pull of the sea. But one winter’s night, as storms raged and bellies ached with want, a single fisherman da...
Episode 221
In a sun-scorched town outside Guadalajara, a skinny boy with freckled skin and bright red hair stood out like a flame in the crowd. The locals teased him, called him Canelo — cinnamon. But the name that began as a joke would soon echo through packed arenas, whispered with awe and respect.
This is the story of how a boy, marked from birth by difference, carved his way through hardship, fists blazi...
Episode 220
On the streets of Omaha, Nebraska, a boy learns to fight long before he ever steps into a boxing ring.
It’s not a game. It’s survival.
Every punch, every scar, every lesson in pain becomes a step toward something greater.
From narrow neighborhood gyms to the bright lights of world arenas, his journey is as much about resilience as it is about skill.
This is the story of how grit, discipl...
Episode 219
In the dark heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, resistance was more than an act of defiance—it was a gamble with certain death. Among those who dared to play this deadly game was a young Slovak soldier named Jozef Gabčík. Trained in Britain, parachuted into his homeland, and tasked with a mission few would ever return from, he carried with him both a Sten gun and an iron resolve. His target? One of the...
Episode 218
The 1960s. A decade of revolution. Music, fashion, youth culture—all exploding in colour and sound. Out of this whirlwind steps a boy from Manchester, slight in stature but larger than life, with charm enough to disarm the world. He isn’t meant to be here. His path was toward the racetrack, not the stage. Yet fate has other plans.
In a time when television brings idols into living rooms, when teenage dreams ...
Episode 217
His life begins in turbulence and ends in mystery. Orphaned before he can form a memory, carried from place to place, he grows in the shadow of loss. Genius fuels his pen, yet poverty dogs his steps. He loves deeply, yet death claims those closest to him. In taverns and lecture halls, on quiet streets and in crowded parlors, he moves like a man marked by fate. Through each hardship, he writes — st...
Episode 216
He was a giant of a man, both in size and in reputation. Peter Grant, the manager who turned Led Zeppelin into the biggest band on the planet, wasn’t cut from the same cloth as other music executives. Fiercely loyal, brutally protective, and unafraid of confrontation, he ripped up the old rules of the music business and wrote new ones that shifted power from the record labels to the artists. But b...
Episode 215
The war is raging across Europe. German U-boats stalk the Atlantic, threatening to cut Britain off from supplies. Hitler’s armies seem unstoppable. But in a quiet English country house, a small group of mathematicians, chess players, and linguists are working around the clock on something invisible—an enemy of numbers and codes.
At the centre of this effort is a quiet, awkward man. He’s brilliant, ...
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