Half-Arsed History

The microwave oven came about due to a very lucky accident involving an electrical engineer and chocolate bar, and today is found in billions of homes worldwide.

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the Petrov Affair, when two Soviet spies caused a major political upheaval by defecting to Australia in the 1950s.

In this week's episode, hear the story of the Dismissal: the 1975 Australian Constitutional Crisis, when Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was turfed out by the governor-general.

The ballpoint pen may not have ushered in a technological revolution as so many other inventions in this series did, but it nonetheless played a significant role in making everyday writing simple, cheap, and relatively smudge-free.

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the story of Robert Curthose, who managed to cause all sorts of headaches for his two kingly brothers, despite being older than both of them.

In this week's episode, apropos of nothing, meet three historical younger-born princes who nothing but a royal pain in the arse for their older brothers.

Penicillin was a miraculous, marvellous discovery that revolutionised modern medicine and saved millions upon millions of lives, ushering in the age of antibiotics, where a little scratch doesn't result in amputation or death. 

Quarter-Arsed History presents: the story of the Venus de Milo, the most famous ancient statue in the world, and perhaps second-most famous artwork in the Louvre. 

In this week's episode, learn about the Louvre's most infamous heist: the time that the Mona Lisa itself was stolen by an Italian carpenter named Vincenzo Peruggia.