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No One Saw It Coming

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No One Saw It Coming
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  • Leningrad: The siege, scientists, and the world's rarest seeds
    Try to stop famine, or save your own life? This was the impossible choice facing the Russian scientists behind the world's first seed bank during World War 2, when the Soviet city of Leningrad came under siege by the Nazis. Food was so scarce at the time that throughout the city people were forced to eat wallpaper, boiled leather, even their own pets, to stay alive. But this set of Russian botanists, with their vaults full of seeds and hidden garden of plants, refused to eat them even as they starved to death. Their sacrifice ultimately saved species of plants and crops that plant breeders have since relied on to feed the world.In this episode of No One Saw it Coming, podcast host Marc Fennell speaks to award-winning writer and games critic Simon Parkin about the decision that botanist Nikolai Vavilov and his team made, that would go on to change millions of lives and the food we eat today.If you’ve binged all the episodes of No One Saw It Coming, listen to Marc’s other award-winning history podcast Stuff The British Stole, on the ABC listen app (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 [email protected]
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  • Where freestyle swimming really comes from
    At the beginning of the 20th century a new swimming stroke started to capture the world's attention. It was known as the 'Aussie crawl'. But what if its origins weren't really Australian at all?Guests: Gary Osmond – Associate Professor, Sports History at the University of Queensland.Dorothy Wickham - Editor/Curator of Melanesian News Network. You can learn more about the Roviana Lagoon Festival HERE. Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]
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  • The Scholarship for World Domination
    Bob Hawke, Bill Clinton, Malcolm Turnbull – all were recipients of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. But if Cecil Rhodes had gotten his way, they would have been part of a much bigger plan, for world domination.  Guest: Dr Jonny Steinberg - Senior Lecturer, Political Science at Yale University 
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  • Naked Truth about X-Rays
    Before selfies, before CT scans, before social media filters and front-facing cameras… there was the x-ray. Discovered by accident in a 19th-century lab, it didn’t just revolutionise medicine, it ignited a cultural obsession with seeing inside ourselves and remains a powerful example of what can happen when knowledge is shared freely. Guest: Dr. Suzie Sheehy - Accelerator Physicist, Author, and Science Communicator. Author of The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed our World
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  • Absinthe was Framed for Murder
    The ‘Green Fairy’ was the party drink of the Belle Époque, featuring in artworks, poetry and literature. But then it was framed for a heinous crime... Guest: Evan Rail - food and drink writer; author of The Absinthe Forger. Get in touch:Got a story for us? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]
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About No One Saw It Coming

The bit players, the unexpected twists, the turning point you missed. Join Walkley award-winner Marc Fennell as he uncovers the incredible moments that changed the course of history. New episodes out Tuesday.
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No One Saw It Coming: Podcasts in Family

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    God Forbid
    Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy
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