No One Saw It Coming

A warship born from panic. A cannon that was never fired. A shipwreck that's been lost for over a century. And one man determined to find it. 
Dr James Hunter (Manager of Maritime Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the strange, true story of Spitfire. It was Australia's first defence vessel, built for a war that never came, and lost in a wreck that no one has found. 
Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

In 1766, a "man" named Jean boarded a French naval ship as a botanist's valet. But Jean was hiding a secret. For years, that secret sailed around the world with them, until one day it was revealed that Jean was actually a woman and was sailing illegally.
Dr Glynis Ridley (English Professor, University of Louisville, and Author, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret) tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) the story of Jeanne Baret; the first woman to circumnavigate the globe and her huge botanical legacy that history almost forgot. 
Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

A castle sits in the streets of American suburbia and from the outside it looks bizarre. But what’s on the inside is even weirder... 
A dog named Cerberus, a basement nightclub with poles and cages, and a room full of princess costumes. 
Jon Ronson (Author, The Castle) speaks to Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about what he found when he went looking for the man inside the castle, and what unravelled from there: a peep inside the manosphere and the men who are either lashing out, shutting down or building fantasy kingdoms of their own. 
So how did we get here, and did anyone see it coming? 
Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

From the mid-1800s, more than 62,000 Pacific Islanders were kidnapped, tricked or coerced into labour on Queensland's sugar and cotton plantations.
Ryan Butta (Author, Blackbirding) and Emelda Davis, whose grandfather was taken from Vanuatu as a boy, tell Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) how Australia avoided the word "slavery" by disguising the trade in euphemism.
 It was called 'blackbirding' and it came to an end thanks to what is arguably the most racist piece of Australian legislation.
Binge all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming now on ABC listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

A ransacked bakery. A wildly inflated bill. A demand so absurd it should have been laughed out of the room. Instead it triggered warships. 
In 1838, France used a pastry chef's grievance to justify a blockade, a siege, and an assault on Mexico. But was the baker's claim ever really the reason? Or just the excuse the French government had been waiting for? 
Food historian and author Seren Charrington-Hollins tells Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole) about how a bakery grievance and unpaid debts led to a war that history barely remembers by its real name. 
This is the fourth and final 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.
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Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au