No One Saw It Coming

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 noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

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 noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

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 noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

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 noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au

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 noonesawitcoming@abc.net.au