Time Travels

Dr Hannah Telling of the Institute of Historical research loves rowdy gallus Dundonian women who get in the papers. She introduces Susan to the Victorian mill workers who worked hard, played hard and fought hard - don’t cross them! Dr Charlie Lynch of Glasgow University is back to tell us how the West was won - looking at cohabitation in Glasgow’s West End in the 1970s and Dr Eloise Grey of Aberdeen University takes us into the world of making families and breaking them up across cultures in the early 19th century and the story of Eliza Kewark, Theodore Forbes and their children.

Historian Kevin Dawson, associate professor of African Diaspora studies at the University of California, Merced introduces Susan Morrison to the hidden underwater world of the Africans who dived for Spanish silver - enslaved by pirates yet masters of their skilled and dangerous craft beneath the waves. Dr David Wilson of Strathclyde University tells how the Caribbean came to be hoaching with those pirates in the first place and what a Scot had to do with it. And get a taste of Dr Hannah Telling’s research on gallus and outspoken Dundonian women as Mrs Hackney holds forth.

Susan Morrison gets on the trail of border reiver Kinmont Willie and finds out from Fergal Leonard of Durham University how Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch Keeper of Liddesdale went about rescuing that famous bad lad in the times of King James and Queen Elizabeth. Dr Martha McGill of Warwick University is our ghost consultant - exploring how the Highland ghosts became fashionable and how beliefs about hauntings became so alluring for tourists. And there’s more expert advice from Dr David Wilson of Strathclyde University who has the honest truth about pirates and why you should never let them run the council.

Nuclear journalist, Julie McDowall introduces Susan to living on the eve of destruction with the local government plans made for World War 3 - where to put the bodies? How to evacuate the cities? Collapsible coffins complete with tassels... It would all have done us no good whatsoever if The Bomb had actually dropped but people felt they ought to at least try. On a less doom-laden note, trying to get to California was all the rage in 1849 when Scotland went mad for the Gold Rush. Devin Grier of Edinburgh University introduces Susan to the hazards of the journey and the many ways to lose your fortune, even if you did strike gold. Finally, was there a cow’s eye view of witchcraft? Dr Lizanne Henderson of Glasgow University has been researching why cows come into so many witchcraft accusations, and whether they might actually have been affected by some of the 17th century magical practices people tried on them.

Dr Valerie Wright of Glasgow University takes us into the world of the High Flats just over fifty years ago and what people thought of their new cities in the sky - it wasn't all doom and gloom, but then again there's getting a big 1960s pram up all those stairs when the lift wasn't working. Toddlers getting on your nerves? Needing a lie down after that - what would an 18th century doctor prescribe? Dr James Kennaway of Roehampton University introduces Susan to John Brown, one of the most irresponsible doctors of the Scottish Enlightenment - a one-man party who liked to hit the opium, booze and banqueting and recommended his patients did the same. Nowadays NHS Health Scotland would be trying to hunt him down and gag him before he gave out any more 'health advice'. It goes without saying - don't try this at home! Finally we're off to the historic Kirk of Calder with Ciaran Jones of Edinburgh University and our resident historian Dr Louise Yeoman. We're on the case of a demonic possession from the 1720s and there's a shocking twist in the tale.

The female is more deadly than the male. History enthusiast Susan Morrison interviews Dr Nadine Akkerman of Leiden University about her new book 'Invisible Agents. Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain' where we'll be finding out the fieldcraft used by women spies and hearing the story of one of the Scottish spies Ann Murray, Lady Halkett who pulled a Flora Macdonald-style rescue long before Flora was even thought of. Then there's the problem of naughty women and where you put them when your society isn't really geared up for jails, Dr Eric Graham tells Susan the horrid saga of a cargo of female convicts bound for Australia on the ill-fated ship commanded by Captain John Hunter of Ayr. Then finally, happiness is not having your leg cut off whether smoking or not smoking on the battlefield. Dr James Kennaway of the Surgery and Emotion Project explores smoking in 19th century battlefield surgery and the suprising things it tells us.

Was it a dog’s life in 17th century Scotland? Susan Morrison talks to historian of animal-human relationships, Laura Moffat of the University of Strathclyde about her pet subject. Find out what you were supposed to do if you were bitten by a mad dog back in the day (clue - it involves the worst smoothie in the world), and why James VI shouldn’t have let his wife Anne of Denmark out with his dogs. If dogs had it bad in the 17th century, people had it worse in the 1540s, during the harrowing wars of the ‘Rough Wooing’. Dr Amy Blakeway is back to tell us about women in the ‘Rough Wooing’ and sisters doing it for themselves - those nunneries needed defending. Looking at the more sinister side of Red Clydeside, Tomiwa Folorunso, who’s a regular contributor to BBC Scotland’s The Social talks to Dr Jacqueline Jenkinson of Stirling University about the Glasgow Port Riots of 1919 when their white compatriots turned on Black British sailors who had suffered alongside them during the war.

Rev Dr Nikki Macdonald on flyting and scolding before the Kirk Sessions - the Scottish church courts - including the amazing range of insults people used. Top up your vocabulary with 'lukenbrowit witch' (having a mono brow!) mensworn dog (perjured) and having the grandgore (syphillis). Early modern Scots could give modern day rappers a run for their money with their disses and burns. Jeni Park (Hub Project Manager at Unlocking Our Sound Heritage Project, National Library of Scotland) on their sound archive digitisation project

The shipwreck that could have taken the future of Jacobitism with it - Dr Eric Graham and Dr Mark Jardine explain how if the wreck of HMS Gloucester had gone that little bit differently. Scottish History would have changed out of all recognition. Louise Yeoman on the fate of Jimmy Gilligan a homeless old soldier from 19th century wars who lived in a cave at Caiplie near Cellardyke in the early 20th century which he’d kitted out with a door and a stove and a bed.

Burning questions of the day - racism, heresy and witchcraft. Pioneering pan-Africanist Dr James Africanus Beale Horton came to Edinburgh from Sierra Leone for his qualifications only to find the famous university town was a hot bed of a new kind of racism - Dr Henry Dee and Dr James Kennaway take us into that world. Moving back in time: you’ve heard of Henry VIII but how much do you know about the dramatic life and times of his rival James V of Scotland when both heretics and traitors burned? Dr Amy Blakeway of St Andrews University looks at the darker side of James’s brilliant Renaissance reign. James grandson, James VI, presided over burning people too - for witchcraft. We hear from Ashleigh Angus from Curtin University Australia on the Orkney rebels and the accused witches who were in their camp.

Susan Morrison explores the rich and sometimes murky depths of Scotland's past.

1968 - the summer of love, youth unrest in Paris, London, Chicago, Falkirk… wait, Falkirk? Well, it was hardly major rioting but the letters page of the local paper was ablaze about underage sex and drugs - something had to be done! Dr Charlie Lynch of Glasgow University tells us about Falkirk’s moral panic as the permissive society reached the Forth Valley. But we’ve a stranger darker story to tell from the 1880s - when a ruthless manipulative conman and abuser turned up in Dundee. Brother Alphonse was a fake monk. Yes, that was indeed a way to make a living. But he also had a ghastly secret. Dr Hannah Telling of the Institute of Historical research uncovers an uncannily modern can of worms.

The predacious great diving beetle of Fife - a beastie the world is not yet ready for (or at least Susan Morrison isn’t ready for it) - we’ll be exploring its role in pointing to the Kingdom’s history of general sogginess and water bodies with entomologist Dr Jack Maclachlan of the University of Maine who’s in pursuit of Fife’s lost lochs. Then to Sierra Leone to find out what a Scottish qualified doctor made of the idea of ‘human leopards’ with Dr Christine Whyte of Glasgow University. Finally to one of the most vibrant courts in Scottish history where Dr Amy Blakeway of St Andrews University introduces us to James V and his menagerie of pets - including the plus-size parrot and the naughty dogs.

From the 17th century to the 1970s, sex and the single girl has always caused anxieties. Trouble brewed in the 1970s when unmarried women started to ask for the pill. Oral historian, Kristin Hay of Strathclyde University has been interviewing folk to find out what it was like. She’s on [email protected] if you want to join her project on contraception use in Scotland. But it was always the case that the guardians of morality worried about what all the single ladies were up to - especially when there were large number of young free and (at least pretending to be) single soldiers in town for them to get involved with. Dr Mikki Brock of W&L University takes Susan to 1650s Ayr when Oliver Cromwell’s Army came to town.

It took more than chutzpah to open a contraceptive clinic in 1920s Aberdeen. Family planning pioneer, Fenella Paton had money, connections and courage. Dr Alison McCall shows us why the clinic was needed and how it made a difference. Dr Christine Whyte of Glasgow University takes us far out to sea where terrified children were rescued from enslavers, but what happened to them next? Humanitarian intervention can be a tricky subject. Statue smashing - a favourite intervention of the 16th century Scottish Reformers who also liked to burn artworks and chop them up - but what did people feel about that at the time, and what did the authorities mean to do about it? Dr Bess Rhodes of St Andrews University takes us to a pivotal moment for the Scottish Reformation.

Susan Morrison finds out from Dr Valerie Wright of Glasgow University about how the city sought to house its single working women after WW2 - and did it in style in Crathie Court nicknamed ‘The Spinster Flats’. Moving to Ayrshire, witchcraft historians Dr Lizanne Henderson of Glasgow and Laura Moffat of Strathclyde University introduce us to the strange 16th century case of Bessie Dunlop who allegedly made friends with a ghost and chatted to fairies, and then it’s off to Enlightenment Edinburgh with Dr Kevin Sienna of Trent University in Ontario for a bad case of the pox - how did they treat syphilis back then?

Dr Michelle Brock on repentance in the face of the plague in Ayr. When the Bubonic Plague bore down on the town in the 17th century, the inhabitants looked not so much to the doctors, but to the minister for a plan to stop it. He had one - every occupational group in the town should get together, work out what their sins were that had angered God, and publicly confess to turn God's wrath away. Amazingly, they were spared - but we wouldn't recommend this nowadays! Dr Katie Barclay and Dr Louise Yeoman on Adam Mackay’s murder of an old woman in Helmsdale in 1817. It's practically the eve of the Highland clearances in Sutherland, and Catherine Oag is killed while out begging. As her murderer confesses, it becomes obvious that he thinks she was a shape shifting witch. What was going on?

Dr Tawny Paul on credit in 18th century Edinburgh. How your credit depended on your moral character if you were a woman.

Dr Allan Kennedy on Gilderoy the Highland bandit and the truth behind Highland outlaws, not the handsome bare-chested warriors of the covers of romance novels but actually more like Begbie from 'Trainspotting' in a kilt. Ally Heather on Andy Coogan his grandad who was a POW in Japan working in a forced labour camp thirty miles from Nagasaki when the second atom bomb dropped and his experiences when he began his return home through the devastated city. Marenka Thompson Odlum is a PhD researcher on slavery connections to Glasgow's museum connections. She also led Black history walks around the city and was always struck by the David Livingstone statue panels - one of the few depictions of people of colour on public art in Glasgow. When you stop to look at them, they tell a story of everyday racism.

In winter when the nights were fair drawing in and the wind and rain howling outside, there was nothing Scots of yesteryear liked better than to gather round the fire with their pals and tell tales of devils and warlocks and ghosts and ghouls. We don't have a crackling fire for our spooky supernatural special, but we do have Susan Morrison's front room and a posse of historians on the couch to tell us tales of poltergeists, witches, devils and hellfire. Dr Martha McGill has stories about things that go bump in the night in Darkest Leith. Dr Mark Jardine has a tale from Galloway of Covenanting ministers, devils and a bold atheist beggar. Ciaran Jones of Edinburgh University tells us about the servant girl in Irvine who claimed to have raised the Devil and Dr Louise Yeoman revisits the ghastly tale of Major Thomas Weir 'the warlock' and his downfall.

Susan Morrison and Louise Welsh swap tales of Scotland's darker history in a spooky special, finding out who gets buried in a bog and getting up close and personal with an accused witch from the early 1700s - Lilias Adie. Susan heads to Dundee University to reconstruct Lilias’ face while Louise Welsh goes to visit what remains of a person who became a bog body, to look at the reality behind one of Scotland’s most famous Gothic novels The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.

cott Carballo of Stirling University on the pirates of the late 16th century Irish Sea. You might think Port Royal and the Carribean when you think pirates, but maybe you should think Kirkcudbright and Ailsa Craig. Macdonald pirates were roaming the north channel of the Irish Sea using 'Lord of the Rings' style beacon chains to alert them to a fight, meanwhile the south west of Scotland contained towns which doubled as pirate markets. Dr Amy Hayes on Queen Mary of Guelders and married life with James II of the fiery face. She was the 15th century queen who took charge of the government while being the beloved mother of five small children. Mary had to take charge, her husband had just been blown up by his own cannon. Dr Hannah Telling on the horrific sexualised murder of Mary Ann Hall in 1860 and how her husband Edwin Salt avoided execution through respectability and sexist victim-blaming. The victim was murdered in the cruellest possible fashion in a way reminiscent of the Delhi rape case yet she was still blamed for having 'provoked' Salt who escaped the gallows.

Dr Yvonne McFadden and Susan’s mum Peggy Morrison on the history of the kitchen and especially the post war Glasgow kitchen - as Peggy had in the 1950s. Cat Irving, Human Remains Conservator Surgeons’ Hall Museums on being a human remains conservator and the story of Charles Anderson a 19th century sailor with a badly broken leg who resisted amputation by putting a plug in it and draining it every day for years, even though the bone had ballooned.

Dr Rebecca Mason - 17th century Glasgow women and their rights, legal presence and activity in the courts and why Glasgow used to regularly banish single women - kicking them out the city if they hadn't a husband or master.

Susan Morrison chats to Dr Nicky Small of the Perthshire duo Plaidsong who combines being a Jacobite historian with singing Jacobite songs. You’ve probably heard of songs like Land o the Leal, Will Ye No Come Back Again, Wi' a hundred pipers an' a', but you maybe don’t know the name Carolina Lady Nairne. Nicky sings her songs and tells her story. Then it’s off to the 17th century and the time of the witchhunts - Ciaran Jones of Edinburgh University opens up the strange Fife witch case where a husband accused his own wife and begged her to confess to being a witch. Moving into the later 19th century, Ashley Dee of the Open University introduces Susan to ‘refined cruelty’ the Victorian equivalent of domestic abuse by coercive control and the horrifying stories behind it.

Alistair Heather, Scots writer and presenter of BBC documentary The Rebel Tongue on Charlie Leslie, the Jacobite Minstrel who travelled the North East selling and singing Jacobite ballads;

Dr Nikki Macdonald - false tongue you lied - the unique way to make up for your slander in 17th century Scotland and how an accusation of slander could stop you being tried as a witch.

Dr Hannah Telling on the use of 'Queen’s evidence' in a tragic rape case in Cupar in Fife 1853 - the victim was found dead in the river - police originally thought it was accidental drowning or suicide but then an anonymous letter blew the case wide open and showed it was rape - we crack the identity of the concerned citizen behind the letter, who turns out to be an incomer from Norfolk who wanted to see justice done.

If you like a cracking story and know that history is as much about the present as the past, then this is the podcast for you. Comedian Susan Morrison and producer/historian Louise Yeoman zip through the centuries exploring the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people.

With the help of a team of ‘history detectives’, they tune into cutting edge research and look at familiar things again. There are glorious fascinating human stories - sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes horrifying and chilling, or moving or thought provoking. It’s a big multifaceted grab bag of Scotland and Scots. From medieval queens to Susan’s mum; from Jacobite minstrels to sailors who fell off the rigging; from accused witches to Far East POWS.

Every episode is a chance to travel in time and discover a selection of stories from across the centuries. Episode 0 provides a taster.