What We Did Before | A History of Everyday Life

Before Radar: How The Hearing of "Aircraft Listeners" Saved Lives

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:08:21 +0100

💬 Long before radar, armies relied on people with enormous metal trumpets strapped to their heads to listen for approaching aircraft. Aircraft listeners had the bizarre but vital job of detecting the sound of enemy planes, working in exposed positions and often in difficult conditions to give early warning of an incoming attack.

⚡Before radar transformed air defence, these acoustic listening devices were used to track aircraft by sound. Operators would work together to determine the apparent direction and elevation of an aircraft, while another operator could plot their observations and use pre-calculated flight curves, speed and altitude corrections to work out where the aircraft was and where it was heading. But as radar developed, these strange listening stations became obsolete almost overnight - a fascinating example of how a vital job can disappear when technology changes, and a lesson that rings true for many of us in the modern world.

In this episode, we discuss how aircraft listeners operated, and how this early aerial-warfare defence mechanism saved countless lives - at the sacrifice of the aircraft listeners own safety and health - only to be made redundant and almost forgotten to history within a few short years.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Sources:

Тревожные ночи Москвы. Автор – Н. Грановский. Москва. 1941 г. By Mos.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=186335796

Soldiers operating an acoustic airplane locator during World War 2, Trelleborg, Sweden, 1940. By Carl Gunnar Rosborn - My father, I´m now the only owner., Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7568060

Three acoustic early warning devices 2360m east of Jack's Court By Teseum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94396566

Before Prisons: Local Justice & the World's Smallest Prison

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:40:30 +0100

💬 Herm island might just be home to the world’s smallest prison. And yet it’s not the world record holder - that title belongs to a very close neighbour. So why doesn’t Herm prison hold the record - and what was such a tiny jail used for?

⚡Herm is an island in the English Channel with a population of just 65, but it has lived many different lives over the years. Take a trip to the beautiful shores of Herm to see its tiny prison up close and learn about its history with Guernsey tour guide Korinne Le Page.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

Book a Tour with Korinne Le Page: https://guernseytourguide.co.uk/

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credit:

St Tugual's Chapel op Herm: Gebruiker:Henkgron https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Before Sewers: How Toshers Had One of Victorian Britain's Most Disgusting Jobs

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:33:34 +0100

💬 Toshers had one of the most disgusting jobs of Victorian Britain. Searching the sewers of 19th century London, people would sieve through human sewage looking for discarded treasures. It’s a job that made them a lot of money - but came with many hazards.

⚡Before the sewage system we know today, Victorian London was a very smelly city. With the population expanding fast thanks to the industrial revolution, London became the biggest city in the world, home to more than 2 million people. But the sewer system couldn’t keep up.

The Toshers took advantage of this growth of people - and all the valuables they lost underneath the city - and ended up quite well off among the working class.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Cotton Left Britain: Inside Bancroft Mill Where The Weaving Looms Still Run

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:06:08 +0100

💬 This is the deafening noise that powered Britain's Industrial Revolution. At its peak, thousands of men and women spent their days surrounded by the relentless clatter of weaving looms - a workplace so loud that many workers gradually lost their hearing.

⚡ Yet despite the dangers, becoming a weaver was a skilled and sought-after job. Britain's cotton industry transformed Lancashire into the workshop of the world, with entire communities built around the mills. But what was daily life really like inside them?

In this episode I visit Bancroft Mill, one of the last surviving steam-powered weaving sheds, where the looms still run today. Secretary of the museum Ian McKay explains what it was like to be a cotton weaver, why so many people chose the profession, and what happened when Britain's once-mighty cotton industry began to disappear.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ What a weaving shed really sounded like

➡ Why many weavers gradually lost their hearing

➡ How James Nutter opened this mill having come from nothing

➡ How Lancashire became the heart of the world's cotton industry

➡ Why Britain's cotton mills eventually fell silent

➡ What life was really like for the people who powered the Industrial Revolution

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Cushioned Shoes: The 1970s Style That Changed Footwear Forever

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Shoes got a massive makeover 50 years ago, thanks to a boom in interest for running. A style that first emerged in the 1970s quickly became the dominant one - cushioned soles, elevated heels, narrow toes. And it’s the style we still see today. But why?

⚡ Humans spent hundreds of thousands of years barefoot - and when we did make shoes, they were made of plant fibres or thin animal hides. We’ve cycled through many variations over the years, but today’s shoes are very different - maximising comfort and protection.

Steven Sashen is the founder of barefoot shoe brand Xero. He explains how today’s shoe style was first adopted, how marketing made it spread - and why one the original designers described it as the biggest mistake he made in his career.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How Nike’s first waffle shoe started the shift

➡ Why the science driving the change was problematic

➡ The strange Medieval trend of wearing mega pointy “poulaines”

➡ Why barefoot runners today don’t experience life like our ancestors

➡ How barefoot shoes emerged and what they’re doing differently

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credits:

(Fort Rock sandals) Ian Poellet, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Weapons: Unearthing Ancient Wooden Tools and Spears | Dr Annemieke Milks

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:53:36 +0100

💬 Archaeologists have found evidence of the oldest wooden handheld tools used by humans. Discovered in Greece, these ancient tools are around 430,000 years old.

⚡Dr Annemieke Milks is a palaeolithic archaeologist and part of the team which identified the objects. They were recovered from Marathousa, a Middle Pleistocene site which may have been inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis - one of our distant ancestors.

In this episode we find out about this incredible discovery - and discuss Annemieke’s wider research looking into the ancient wooden hunting weapons used by humans in the deep past.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ What these wooden hand-tools would’ve been used for

➡ How this wood has been preserved for so long

➡ The prehistoric wooden spears discovered at Schöningen in Germany

➡ What shifts in weapon design tell us about the cognitive abilities of ancient humans

➡ The emerging field of children’s archaeology

Read the paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2515479123

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Annual-ring-analysis-a-Taphonomic-transverse-break-surface-from-where-micro-cuts-were_fig5_372470761

Image Credits:

Before Instagram: Why Rich People Built Fake Ruins

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 There’s a ruined archway sitting among the trees of my local park - but what grand building did it once belong to? A castle? A church? A grand manor house?

In this episode I take a trip to Worden Park in Leyland. Rich in history, this park was once the estate of James Nowell Farington, who set about a major programme of improvements when he inherited it in 1837.

⚡ Join me on a trip to visit an archway with a very strange backstory, a Victorian-era ice house decorated with ancient ornaments, and a stone that landed in the park during the last Ice Age.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credits:

Paul Brooker / Ralph Allens Castle

Sham Castle, Bathampton by Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Sham Castle, Bathampton Down by Elliott Simpson, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

buzzard525, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Artur Kozioł, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

St. Andrew's Church by philandju, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Colin Smith / Inside Broome Park Ice House

The Bleach Packer: Your Questions Answered

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

You had lots of questions about the Victorian job of the "Bleach Packer". So I invited Judith Wilde from Catalyst museum back for a Q&A.Together we dig deeper into the fascinating history of this gruelling job, that helped build the chemical industry.🎧 Judith answers questions like: Stay tuned to learn about:➡ Why didn't their eyes burn?➡ Did the muzzle actually work?➡ Why were some of them drinking ten pints a day?➡ Did this really continue into the 1950s?➡ What is the area of Widnes like today?Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before Visit Catalyst Museum: https://www.catalyst.org.uk/ About the podcast:What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.About your hosts:Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.Connect with Ollie:Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before Tax Havens: How Islands Have Reinvented Themselves For Millenia | Jason Monaghan

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Many islands all over the world are known for their finance industries - and especially for being “tax havens”. But this is just the latest ways islands have reinvented themselves over thousands of years.

As far back as the Stone Age, islands have served as stepping stones, trading hubs, military outposts and gateways between nations.

⚡ In this episode we use the island of Guernsey as a case study, showcasing just how varied - and incredible - its history has been. And guiding us is archaeologist and author Jason Monaghan.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why islands became some of the most important trading hubs in the ancient world

➡ How Roman traders, Viking raiders and medieval merchants shaped island life

➡ Why Guernsey spent centuries caught between England and France

➡ How islands repeatedly reinvented themselves through trade, shipbuilding, quarrying, tourism and finance

➡ Why many modern islands ended up becoming financial centres and offshore jurisdictions

Check out Jason’s books on Guernsey:

Story of Guernsey; Glint of Light on Broken Glass; Occupation to Liberation; A Brush With Life; Roman Guernsey

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

The Bleach Packer: One of the Worst Jobs of Victorian Britain | WWDB Highlights

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

Bleach packers had one of the worst jobs of the 19th century.At Catalyst Museum in Widnes, discover the history of these workers, why they wore muzzles, and how they helped build the chemical industry.

This is a highlight from a longer episode filmed at Catalyst. Scroll down in your feed if you'd like to learn more.About the podcast:What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.About your host:Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.Connect with Ollie:Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

The Terracotta Army & The Loch Ness Monster | A History Daily Special

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 One March 29th 1974, a Chinese farmer was working the field as he always did - when suddenly his shovel struck something hard. Little did he know he had just stumbled upon one of the most important archaeological finds in history.

⚡In this special episode we share two fantastic episodes from our friends over at History Daily. If you love them - subscribe to History Daily here: https://podfollow.com/history-daily

The first is the discovery of China’s Terracotta Army - which turned a small Chinese village into a tourist hotspot. The second takes us to the Scottish Highlands and the first photograph ever taken of the Loch Ness Monster.

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why villagers were suspicious about extracting pieces of the Terracotta army

➡ Why the Terracotta Warriors were first made, over 2000 years ago

➡ How discovering the army felt more like a curse to the farm who found it

➡ How the legend of the Loch Ness monster first caught mainstream attention

➡ The human story behind the famous “Surgeon’s photograph” of Nessie

➡ The role the Daily Mail played in stoking the flames of the legend

About History Daily:

History Daily does history, daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. A co-production from award-winning podcasters Airship and Noiser.

About What We Did Before:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou
Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before Tools: How Neanderthals Used Rhino Teeth, Vulture Bones and Deer Antlers

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Neanderthals have been shown to use many incredible tools - but none quite as surprising as this. After studying rhinoceros teeth from a cave chock full of them - researchers managed to figure out why they were covered in strange markings.

⚡Alicia Sanz-Royo and her team of archaeologists examined the teeth that had remained a mystery for many years. By recreating ancient Neanderthal activities, they managed to reproduce the same markings - showing these rhino teeth were probably used as tools!

In this episode we find out how they managed to finally figure out this mystery, how Neanderthals managed to hunt rhinos, and why they chose to use rhino teeth at all. We also delve into two other amazing animal tools used by Neanderthals - vulture bones and deer antlers.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

Read the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248426000230

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The ancient mystery hidden in dozens of rhino teeth

➡ Whether Neanderthals hunted or scavenged rhinoceroses

➡ The surprising reason rhino teeth made great tools

➡ How deer antlers helped shape Stone Age technology

➡ The bizarre vulture-bone tools that changed our view of Neanderthals

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credit:

Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Social Media: How Cleopatra Turned Herself Into a Living God | Natasha Solomons

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Much of the myth of Cleopatra was crafted by her during her lifetime. An intentional process to shape how the citizens of Egypt - and the world - saw her. But without social media, how did great rulers of the ancient world fashion their own brand?

Cleopatra was unusually good at shaping her own image - and the brand she built has endured for over 2,000 years. But who was the woman behind the myth?

⚡ That’s the Cleopatra Natasha Solomons explores in her new book, where she reimagines the life of this ancient queen.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why Natasha wanted to detangle Cleopatra’s story from the men in her life

➡ How Cleopatra understood sex as power - and leant into the story of politics

➡ Why she chose to make her nose look big on coins

➡ How she dressed as Isis to portray the image of her as a goddess

➡ What Alexandria and its Great Library might have felt like in ancient times

➡ What it takes to fictionalise and reimagine parts of such a famous story

Buy Natasha’s book: https://amzn.eu/d/02eG3udG

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before We Were The Last Human Species: When We Lived With Neanderthals

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 For a big portion of human history, we shared the planet with other human species. What was that world like to be part of? How often did we interact with prehistoric humans - and would we have recognised the differences between them and us?

⚡ Michael Marshall is a science writer and expert voice on ancient human species. In this episode he paints a picture of this ancient world, where Neanderthals, Hobbits and Denisovans and other early humans walked alongside us.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The many species of the Homo genus that have existed - and those who lived with us

➡ Whether any other hominins attempted to reshape the landscape - and conquer it

➡ What the likes of Homo erectus and Homo naledi got up to in their spare time

➡ Just how similar looking Neanderthals were to modern humans

➡ The LRJ people - a group of Homo sapiens that tried to push into Europe and failed

➡ The types of tools, art and rituals other hominins demonstrated

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credits:

Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et alii, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cicero Moraes, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Chemicals: 'Bleach Packers' and the Birth of the Chemical Industry

Mon, 25 May 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 The birth of the chemical industry - one which has reshaped the course of human history - happened in a small town in England. In the 19th century, Widnes was transformed into a major centre of the chemical industry.

This era saw the rise of the bleach packers - workers who shovelled toxic chemicals to earn a living, wearing bandages to protect themselves from burns and muzzles to avoid passing out.

⚡Catalyst is the UK’s only museum dedicated to the chemical industry. And in this episode Judith Wilde, Heritage Manager at the museum, introduces us to the museum’s extensive archive of historical artefacts.

Now, more than 30 years since it was curated, Catalyst is getting a complete makeover - so this is a last chance to see the museum before it changes for good.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The ancient origins of humanity’s obsession with chemicals

➡ Why Widnes was chosen to house these chemical factories

➡ What life would’ve been like in such a heavily polluted industrial town

➡ The bleach packers - and why it was one of the worst jobs of the 19th century

➡ How soap first emerged - to clean floors, not bodies

➡ The rise of anaesthetics and antibiotics

Visit Catalyst Museum: https://www.catalyst.org.uk/

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Brain Science: When We Thought With Our Hearts | Matthew Cobb

Mon, 18 May 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 For thousands of years, humans believed the heart controlled the body - your thoughts, your emotions…everything. The brain was just a radiator - something to discard when preparing the dead.

But why did our ancestors think this for so long? Were there no tell-tale signs? It’s only in the last few hundred years that the brain has received the attention it deserves. And even once it did, we believed a lot of strange things about how it works.

⚡In this episode Matthew Cobb, author of The Idea of the Brain, explains why throughout history we believed the heart was the seat of thought and emotion. And he explores the many bizarre and surprising ways we’ve tried to grapple with how our brain actually works.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://amzn.eu/d/049Th1r2

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why Ancient Egyptians literally threw away the brain during mummification

➡ The clues present in the heart that led ancient people to believe it was in control

➡ How skull size and the nonsense practise of “phrenology” became mainstream

➡ The gruesome story of Phineas Gage - and what he taught us about the brain

➡ Why ancient brain experiments gave us one of the most famous novels ever written

➡ How our modern understanding of the brain as “like a computer” is just as strange

Grab Matthew’s book here:

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credit: SimplisticReps, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Raffaele pagani, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Before Burial: When Bronze Age Homes Were FULL of Human Bones

Mon, 11 May 2026 09:30:21 +0100

💬 When Barry Molloy’s team started digging up an ancient Bronze Age settlement - they never expected to uncover quite so many human bones. And they weren’t found in one place - they were everywhere.

Archaeologists uncovered over 100 fortified Late Bronze Age sites, and their findings tell us something unusual about the way we dealt with the dead throughout history. At this time in history - there really was no single way people would bury their dead. Sometimes bodies would be pulled apart, and a loved one’s bones would be brought into the home.

⚡In this episode we find out why ancient people collected the bones of their dead, what they might have been doing with them and whether these practices helped them deal with the grief of loss better.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00934690.2026.2641968#abstract

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How Barry found bones everywhere in a Bronze Age megafort in Europe

➡ The many ways the dead were treated in history - from inhumation to excarnation

➡ Why some skulls seem to have been placed on pikes around borders to the site

➡ How the bones of family members may have been chewed by pets

➡ Why collecting bones could be about respecting and disrespecting the dead

➡ How Bronze Age people would collect the bones of ancient heroes

Read Barry’s paper here:

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Credits:

Interfase, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jan Kameníček, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Britain’s Forgotten Deportees: Families Sent to Nazi Camps

Mon, 04 May 2026 01:00:00 +0100

⚡ In 1942, during the height of World War 2, Hitler ordered the deportation of more than a thousand islanders from Guernsey. In retaliation against the Allied Forces, innocent men, women and children were forced to leave their island homes - set on a path to Biberach internment camp.

💡 Jill Chubb was just 3 years old when she set sail, but her memories are vivid and clear. And in this special podcast series, her grandson, former BBC Guernsey presenter Ollie Guillou, charts her story - joined by three other deportees and two prominent historians.

With special thanks to:

Jill Chubb, Chair of the Guernsey Deportees Association

Ralph Godwin, Deportee

Janet de Santos, Deportee

Jill Oliver, Deportee

Alan Chubb, Secretary of the Guernsey Deportees Association

Dr Gilly Carr, University of Cambridge

Matthew Lucas, War Historian

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Photo by Enrapture Captivating Media on Unsplash

David.Monniaux, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-223-0042-13 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

Emdx, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Andrew Milligan sumo, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

User:Staberinde, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987-1210-502 / Hoffmann, Heinrich / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-218-0504-36 / Dieck / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1971-042-08 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

FOTO:FORTEPAN / Konok Tamás id, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2018, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

EC-JRC (ECHO), CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Andrew Milligan sumo, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2018, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

Bundesarchiv, Bild 101II-MW-5152-14A / Järisch / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

Stadtbiberach, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rigmor Dahl Delphin, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Christian Michelides, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Neanderthals Went Extinct: We Shaped Our Culture Together

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 A new study is rewriting our understanding of Neanderthals and human evolution. It seems ancient Homo sapiens didn't just coexist with them - but they shared ideas, cultures and inventions.

⚡ In this episode we challenge long held beliefs about human origins - exploring what the world was like before we were the last species of human left. A time when Neanderthals and Denisovans lived among us.

We highlight one particular finding in Tinshemet Cave in Israel, where shared burial practices, stone tools and signs of symbolic behaviour have been found. Did early humans interact way more than we first realised?

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ What our shared Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA tells us

➡ Surprising findings about how we interbred with Neanderthals

➡ How Neanderthals buried their dead

➡ The real reason the Neanderthals died out

➡ New hints that Neanderthals could speak

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image credits: Neanderthal-Museum, Mettmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fährtenleser, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fu et al. (2025), CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Agriculture: Was It Humanity’s Biggest Mistake?

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Did agriculture make life as a human worse? Many historians widely agree the answer is yes! Despite giving us an abundance of food and an ability to spread globally, there are many reasons it may have been a catastrophe for our species.

⚡ In this episode we explore 6 key arguements that outline exactly why agriculture may have created a world that has made inidividual lives more difficult. From creating vast social and economic inequalities, to increasing the spread of diseases - we examine some of the biggest arguments in favour of this idea.

We also highlight a multitude of very important caveats. The question is, were early human hunter-gatherers really better off than we are in the modern age? Or are we just romanticising the past?

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How grain enabled the large-scale hoarding of wealth that led to vast inequality

➡ Why hunter-gatherers may have worked LESS than we do now

➡ How early human mental health (and sleep quality) was probably better

➡ How settled living has allowed diseases to spread more rapidly

➡ What the climate might have looked like without agriculture taking hold

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Borders: How Migration Made Us Human

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Before borders, passports and immigration systems - early humans moved freely around the world. Throughout history our yearning to migrate and explore the planet shaped our very evolution as a species and built civilisation as we know it.

⚡So what was it really like for our early ancestors, first crossing continents into unknown landscapes? What made them take the risk of venturing beyond the horizon?

In this episode migration historian Markus Reisle explores a time before borders - which was much more recent than you might think - and how movement is what made our species so dominant.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How many borders we know today were only drawn in the last 100 years

➡ How migrants were really accepted into communities in ancient times

➡ What it might have been like for early humans, first stepping foot into alien landscapes

➡ How migration - and movement - is locked up in our very DNA

➡ Why migrants built great cathedrals and made the expansion of civilisations possible

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Money: When Humans Paid With Knives and Giant Stones

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:14:16 +0100

💰 Money is one of those things that feels like it's always existed - like gravity, or disappointing weather on a bank holiday. But for most of human history, there were no coins, no notes, and no bank accounts. So how did people actually buy things? Or did they even buy things at all?

⚡ From giant stone discs that nobody moved, to cocoa beans you could eat (or counterfeit with dirt), to handwritten scraps of paper worth a year's wages - the history of money is really the history of trust. And humans have trusted some very strange things.

💰 In this episode, we trace the weird and wonderful journey from barter to Bitcoin, and ask whether our modern money is actually the strangest version yet.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now: https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why barter was far more annoying than your school textbook made it sound

➡ The Pacific island where a stone at the bottom of the ocean still counted as money

➡ How the Aztecs used chocolate as currency - and how people counterfeited it

➡ Ancient Chinese coins shaped like tiny knives

➡ The handwritten IOUs that launched the Bank of England - and the hundreds executed for forging them

➡ How burning old wooden money accidentally destroyed the Palace of Westminster

➡ Why the ridges on your coins exist because of medieval scammersAbout the podcast:What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.About your hosts:Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.Connect with Ollie:Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image credits:

Knife Money image by PENG Yanan, 2006: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yan_State_Coins.jpg

50 Euro Bill Watermark image by Amin, 2018: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:50_Euro_bill_watermark.jpg

Cowry Money image by Bin im Garten, 2011: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cowry_money#/media/File:Cowry_money_Monetaria_annulus_1.JPG

Before Modern Board Games: What Did Humans Play 6,000 Years Ago? | Walter Crist

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0100

💬 Before the likes of Monopoly and Chess, our ancient ancestors played many, unique board games. It’s a pastime that has endured for 9,000 years - maybe longer!

⚡ And the rules to one mysterious ancient game have just been cracked - using artificial intelligence. Walter Crist is an expert in the archaeology and history of board games, and recently used AI to uncover the rules of a 2,000 year-old game from the late Roman Empire.

In this episode he tells us all about this incredible discovery, while exploring the full history of our ancient obsession with board games. What games have we played through the ages - and why is it such a human thing to do?

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How a 6,000 year-old gaming set was found buried in a tomb in Egypt

➡ The cultural and religious importance of games through history

➡ The earliest gaming pieces people used - and why dice are so ancient

➡ What games like Senet or Hounds and Jackals are like to play in the modern age

➡ Exactly how Walter used AI to crack the mystery of this ancient Roman game

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image Attributions:

Senet & 20 Twenty Squares board - Rogers Fund, 1916, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Senet game board - Enoch Leung, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Organisations: From Stone Age Tribes to a Fragmented World | Peter Garrett

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Our Stone Age ancestors lived for hundreds of thousands of years without organisations. Just small tribes of 20-40 people. But now organisations run every part of our world, from the clothes we wear to the water we drink.

⚡ So have we lost something by allowing faceless organisations to take over? Peter Garrett, author of A New Kind of Dialogue, argues organisations have created a fragmented experience of life, shifting what it means to be human.

In this episode we examine daily life as a Stone Age person, organised through families, tribes, kinship and trust. And we compare it with the modern day - the “age of organisations” - where artificial entities make all the decisions, and life has grown more complex than ever.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How Peter’s first-hand experience growing up in the African bush has shaped his views

➡ How daily life might have looked for a Stone Age person

➡ Why organisations have even reshaped our relationship with time itself

➡ Peter’s theory of “fragmentation” - and what systems are robbing from us

➡ Why organisations cause more problems than they solve

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Phones Pt 2: The Surprising Ways Humans Sent Messages

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 The humble landline telephone might seem obsolete in a post-smartphone world, but if we think smartphones reshaped the world - imagine a time without any instant communication with the world around you.

This was the reality for most of human history - telephones were only invented in 1876, after all - so how did the world become so reliant on this ability in just a few generations? And what was life like before then?

⚡ There were many ways that we broke traditional barriers to communication in history - some surprisingly genius, like the long-distance, non-electric towers that allowed messages to travel hundreds of kilometers over France in minutes, and even carrier pigeons!

So in this episode we take a look at the birth of this society-defining technology, and step backwards through humanity's communications timeline, from the iterative improvement and adoption of telephones, all the way back to pre-historic long distance communication methods like shell horns - and how some of these methods could’ve caused more trouble than they were worth!

💬 Part 2 of a 2-part phone special - check out our previous episode on What We Did Before Smartphones for part 1!

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The birth of the telephone - and how modern language itself was shaped by it

➡ Fascinating technological breakthroughs that allowed all of this to even be possible

➡ How there were non-electronic methods for 15 minute messages between cities

➡ How military and warfare drove innovation in pre-telephone communication

➡ How espionage and sabotage in these unsecure methods had fatal impacts on history

➡ The way ancient humans communicated complex messages using simple tools

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image attribution (Aztec death whistle): Jennysnest, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sound attribution: Aztec Death Whistle by Guy_Personface -- https://freesound.org/s/832472/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Before Phones: The Last Generation Before Smartphones

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 The first mobile phone went on sale in 1983, weighing nearly a kilo and costing the equivalent of $12,000 today. Just four decades later, smartphones have reshaped the world - and many of us can’t imagine life without them.

⚡ Yet in 2026 something strange is happening. People are buying landline phones again, switching to dumb phones, deleting apps like WhatsApp and TikTok, and trying to reclaim a way of life that’s still within living memory.

So in this episode we take a nostalgic journey through the early days of mobile phones, explore what life was like before smartphones, and ask whether some of the limitations of past technology might actually have been a good thing.

💬 Part 1 of a 2-part phone special.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The massive size of the world’s first mobile phone - and its terrible battery life

➡ Why “text speech” became a thing - and why there was a 160 character limit

➡ How ringtone sales briefly became a multi-billion dollar industry

➡ The challenges of landline telephones and no caller ID

➡ The surprising role car phones played in the history of mobiles

➡ The mental and physical impacts of smartphones - and why we can’t live without them

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Image credit: Avicente05, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before Showers: The History of Getting Clean

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 How clean were humans before showers existed? Were our ancestors just as obsessed as we are about daily cleaning rituals?

⚡ While our modern take on hygiene is pretty new - showers have only been widespread for about 60 years - our ancestors were not as dirty as you might think. In this episode we find out what we did before showers, and how our ancestors chose to keep themselves clean through the ages.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How accurate Poldark’s view of 1700s cleanliness is

➡ Why taking a bath before plumbing was an absolute mission

➡ Why changing clothes was a big part of getting clean

➡ The impact of 1900s soap ads blasting us with anti-BO propaganda

➡ How the “Great Stink of London” paved the way for the plumbing of today

➡ How humans were creating soaps 5000 years ago

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before⁠

Trailer: Welcome to the Podcast

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 21:18:59 +0000

💬 This is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life - and how we survived before the modern world.

⚡ From life before fridges and shoes, to a time before Christmas and Valentine's Day. This is the history show for anyone curious about how we got here - and why.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now: https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before Music: Cave Rituals and Ancient Instruments | Steve Pretty

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:18:33 +0000

💬 What did we do before music? And what about before we could listen to music as entertainment whenever and wherever we wanted? It sounds impossible - rhythm and melody feel so fundamental to being human - but music hasn’t always sounded like symphonies, pop songs or even folk tunes. And the recorded music era we're in now has been incredibly short - in the grand scheme of human history. We may even be entering a new era, with AI-generated music becoming VERY real. So where, and why, did it begin?

In this episode, musician Steve Pretty joins us to explore the deep history of music - from prehistoric conch shells and bone flutes, to how location and environment mattered just as much as the music itself - and how that is still the case for us today. Steve is the leader of the Hackney Colliery Band and the creator of Shellelectronica, a project where he plays conch, triton and frog shells through modern electronic effects, channelling some of humanity's oldest sonic experiences for today’s listeners.

⚡ Together, we journey back to a time before Spotify, records, concert halls, and notation - even before instruments as we know them - to ask: why did humans start making music in the first place? And what lessons from the past can we apply to today?

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The earliest evidence of music in human history

➡ How the fundamental experience of music may have changed

➡ The role of music in ritual and communication

➡ Why shells, bones and simple materials became our first instruments

➡ How recorded music and capitalism has changed music

➡ Whether music is a cultural invention - or something biologically wired into us

This episode is an exploration of music’s origins - combining archaeology, anthropology and creative experimentation to imagine how sound shaped early human life - and how music might change going forward.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:⁠

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: ⁠www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

⁠LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou⁠

Email: ⁠hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before the Obesity Epidemic: How Fat Has Been Viewed Through History

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 A historian’s look at how fat, body size, and health have been understood across different periods of history.

We’ve long thought overweight bodies were seen, historically, as a sign of power, authority and wealth. And that’s true - to an extent. But the reality is much more complex. It turns out our modern way of understanding body size started being shaped thousands of years ago.

⚡ In this episode we’re joined by Chris Forth, author of Fat: A Cultural History of the Stuff of Life. Together, we explore the way overweight bodies have been viewed throughout antiquity.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Whether the pre-modern time really was a “time before fat”

➡ How the size of an authority figure could be viewed very differently, depending on context

➡ How shaming of fat bodies may serve as a proxy for other forms of prejudice

➡ Why humans struggle with the simple fact of having a body - at all

➡ How our view of fat is linked not just to our bodies, but to the fats we consume too

➡ How GLP-1 weight-loss jabs are set to change the way we view weight forever

Check out Chris’ book: https://amzn.eu/d/0cdQrUuY

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Valentine’s Day: The Festival of Lupercalia

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Before we had Valentine’s Day, we had a much stranger way of showing love for one another in February. The ancient festival of Lupercalia involved fertility rites, goat sacrifices, public nudity and priests whipping women…

⚡In this episode we explore why the ancient Romans chose to mark the 15th February this way each year - and how Valentine’s Day eventually took over. We also discuss the complicated story of St. Valentine, who may actually be three different people.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How the story of Lupercalia honours the origin story of Rome’s founding

➡ Why St. Valentine may have had nothing to do with love or romance at all

➡ Why spanking and laughter was meant to ward off evil and bad luck

➡ How chocolate giving became so tightly linked to Valentine’s Day

➡ The origin of the heart symbol - and why it looks nothing like an anatomical heart

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Chocolate: From Ritual Drink to Global Obsession | Spencer Hyman

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Before chocolate was turned into a sugary snack, it was a drink of great renown - used in ceremonies and rituals. This frothy elixir was favoured for its power to grant strength and sexual stamina. The cocoa bean itself was even used as an ancient form of currency. So how did modern people end up changing it so dramatically?

From its use by Aztec Emperor Montezuma, to the truth behind chocolate’s role in ritual sacrifice, we chart the history of the world’s favourite snack. Learn why it was eventually turned into bars - and who came up with the idea. And discover how we actually make chocolate today - and why it keeps us so addicted.

⚡ In this episode we’re joined by Spencer Hyman, co-founder of Cocoa Runners - a company that sells craft chocolate made by growers around the world.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://cocoarunners.com/chocopedia-category/history-and-culture/

🎧 Stay tuned to learn:

➡ The true origins of chocolate - and why the Aztecs didn’t get to it first

➡ How our enduring love of alcohol led to the discovery of chocolate

➡ The earliest archaeological evidence of chocolate use

➡ How Joseph Fry invented the chocolate bar - and why that changed everything

➡ Why we can’t stop scoffing modern chocolate

➡ How craft chocolate brings back the ancient experience of chocolate

Check out Cocoa Runners' Chocopedia:

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou
Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before Fridges: How Humans Learned to Control the Cold | Nicola Twilley

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Before we all had fridges in our home, cold was a luxury. Just 100 years ago, food spoilage was a constant threat - animals were walked alive to slaughter, and the ice-trade was a booming global industry. But once humans learned how to control the cold, we reshaped the world.

For thousands of years our ancient ancestors relied on nature to preserve food. Today, seasonal eating is largely a thing of the past - we can access food on demand, from anywhere on Earth. Mankind’s control of the cold has become the bedrock of modern civilisation.

⚡ In this episode we’re joined by Nicola Twilley, podcaster and author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How humans were preserving mammoth meat as far back as 12,000 BCE

➡ How humanity’s “artificial cryosphere” is larger than Mount Everest

➡ How “The Ice King” Frederic Tudor made the cold addictive

➡ Why the ice trade led to criminal attacks and literal “snow heists”

➡ Why, for much of history, meat had to walk itself to slaughter

➡ Why fridges were first feared - from explosions, to toxic gases and food safety issues

Check out Nicola’s book Frostbite: https://www.nicolatwilley.com/frostbite/
And hear her podcast Gastropod: https://podfollow.com/gastropod

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Matt Pyle is a lead software developer and tech enthusiast with a keen interest in media, and a love for interesting conversation and learning.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Bigfoot and Nessie: Earth's Forgotten Monsters

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:33:13 +0000

💬 Before we had myths like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, our ancestors believed all sorts of strange creatures roamed the Earth. The difference is, they believed these strange species of half-humans and monsters were real.

⚡In this episode we explore the ancient legends of four different cryptids that were once said to roam the distant corners of the unmapped world. Including the Blemmyes, the Cynocephali, the Aspidochelone and the Catoblepas. Discover the origin of each of these strange creatures and why our ancestors thought them to be real.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ Why the “Headless” Blemmyes featured on Medieval maps

➡ Why the Blemmyes were thought to be a tribe of peoples, rather than monsters

➡ How the Cynocephali - “dog-headed people” - spoke in a language of barks

➡ How the Aspidochelone would trick the unprepared in the open ocean

➡ Why the Catoblepas is said to have been able to kill just by looking at you

➡ And the likely cautionary tales that sparked the origin stories of these creatures

📕 Chapters:

(00:00) Intro

(01:17) The Blemmyes

(11:25) The Cynocephali

(23:52) The Aspidochelone

(30:14) The Catoblepas

(36:04) Conclusion

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Inner Thought: Has Consciousness Changed Through History? | Brian McVeigh

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Would you believe there was a time before humans had consciousness? It’s almost impossible to imagine, but there is one theory that proposes this very thing. Brian McVeigh explores the theory of the 'bicameral mind', an incredibly provocative idea about the evolution of modern human consciousness.

Today we speak to ourselves inside our own heads - and we understand that voice is ours. But for our ancestors, this theory suggests their minds were instead filled with the voices of Gods, the ancestors and hallucinations. This is the basis of Julian Jaynes’ idea, which McVeigh has built on.⚡ In this episode we explore exactly what it means for humans to live without consciousness and why we might have developed the minds and inner thoughts that we know today.

This is an exploration of just one theory of consciousness. It’s a descriptive framework about how inner experience and belief systems may have functioned in different periods - not a claim about whether religious beliefs are true or false.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ What was going on in the minds of our ancestors, before self reflection

➡ Why religion may have been so common in pre-modern societies

➡ The importance of language and writing in the emergence of consciousness

➡ The downsides of modern consciousness, like anxiety and depression

➡ How technology may be changing consciousness

➡ How humans may one day develop artificial consciousness

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Before Cars: The Dangers of Travel Told in Three Stories

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 10:12:06 +0000

💬 Before we had cars, travel was unforgiving, exhausting and dangerous. Journeys we tune out now were once hard graft, plagued with setbacks, illness, robberies - and sometimes death. So what was travel really like for the people who came before us?

⚡ In this episode we follow three journeys of those who travelled pre-car. Firstly Ibn Battuta, one of the most extensive travelers of all time. Secondly Celia Fiennes, who travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom several times. And finally we tackle travel through the eyes of the working poor in Victorian times, for whom travel was essential for survival.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How one man’s pilgrimage turned into a 30-year fight to keep moving

➡ Why bad roads, bad weather, and bad luck could end a journey instantly

➡ Why the threat of bandits, illness and even execution were normal travel concerns

➡ Why inns mattered so much on a long, arduous journey

➡ Why railways didn’t end dangerous travel for the Victorian poor

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou
Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Before Surnames: When Names Were Brutally Honest

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 01:00:00 +0000

💬 Before surnames existed, people survived with just one name. Surprisingly, some places in the world still haven’t adopted formal surnames at all. So what led to the spread of the last name? And why were the predecessors of surnames so often insulting?

⚡ In this episode we explore what we did before surnames, how they started out simply as descriptions of a person - and why the modern meaning of a surname is shifting.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ How humans relied on simple “eke-names” for a long time

➡ The four main types of surname that exist

➡ How some people were literally called “Blackinthemouth”, “the Druncard” or “Badneighbor”

➡ The man with 2,253 unique words to his name

➡ How the rise of surnames is deeply tied to power, money and control

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou

Attributions:

Domesday book image: Mark Cartwright - CC BY 4.0

Before Christmas: The Figures That Ruled the Dark Winter

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

💬 Before we had Christmas, how did we mark this time of year? Ancient humans were celebrating the winter solstice thousands of years ago. But for them it was about surviving the harsh conditions of an unforgiving season. So how did we get from then to now?

⚡ In this episode we explore the many iterations of Christmas that came before it, from Saturnalia to Yule - and the ancient ceremonies held at megalithic monuments like Stone Henge.

Don't miss an episode - subscribe now:

https://podfollow.com/what-we-did-before

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The many predecessors of Father Christmas

➡ The frightening figures of festive folklore - like the Krampus

➡ Why winter solstice celebrations were important for ancient people

➡ How Christmas was once rowdy - and how the Victorian’s cleaned it up

➡ How one poem changed Christmas forever

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast where we chart the history of modern inventions, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your host:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou