We Didn't Start the Fire (podcast)

Last updated

We Didn't Start the Fire
We Didn't Start The Fire Cover.jpg
Presentation
Hosted by Katie Puckrik
Tom Fordyce
GenreHistory, pop culture
Publication
Original releaseJanuary 25, 2021 
June 19, 2023 [1]
Related
Website crowdnetwork.co.uk/podcasts/we-didnt-start-the-fire/

We Didn't Start the Fire is a modern history podcast that ran from January 2021 to June 2023. [1] It is hosted by Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce and produced by Crowd Network. [2]

Contents

Premise

The podcasts takes topics from the pop song "We Didn't Start the Fire", released by Billy Joel in 1989. The song lists, via a series of fast-paced lyrics, brief references to 118 significant political, cultural, scientific, and sporting events between 1949, the year of Joel's birth, and 1989, in a mainly chronological order. The podcast looks at these in turn with expert guests, with topics including the politics of Harry S. Truman, space exploration, rock'n'roll [3] and also including American, Korean and Cuba-Soviet Union relations at the height of The Cold War. [4]

Reception

Miranda Sawyer in The Guardian reviewed a "funny, informative discussion.. genuinely interesting and fun" and described it as her "new favourite show". [5] Sawyer later noted that "Puckrik and Fordyce are funny, but also excellent interviewers and this show, which incorporates war, philosophy, celebrity and political machinations, is far better than you would ever imagine." [6] Sawyer later put the podcast in her top 10 of the year for 2021. [7]

Billy Joel himself heard the show and appears as a special guest on an episode first broadcast on October 25, 2021. [8] [9]

Episodes

EpisodeSubjectGuestNotes
1 Harry Truman Eleanor Clift
2 Doris Day Tamar Jeffers-McDonald
3 Red China Yangwen ZhengThe Cultural Revolution was a sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until Mao Zedong's death in 1976
4 Johnnie Ray Cathi Unsworth
5 South Pacific Cara RodwayA musical composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein
6 Walter Winchell Chris Shoop-Worrall
7 Joe DiMaggio Josh Chetwynd
8 Joe McCarthy Josh Hollands
9 Richard Nixon Rivers GambrellPart 1 of 3 episodes on Nixon
10 Studebaker Greg DiffenAutomobile manufacturer
11TelevisionDick Fiddy"The Babysitter"
12 North Korea Sojin Lim
13 South Korea Mary Lynn Bracht
14 Marilyn Monroe Shar DawsTie-in with sister podcast Death of a Film Star
15 Rosenbergs Josh HollandsConvicted of being Soviet spies
16 H-bomb Margaret MacMillan The first full-scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952
17 Sugar Ray Steve Bunce Sugar Ray Robinson was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965
18 Panmunjom Colin Thackery The location where the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement that paused the Korean War was signed
19 Brando Jonathan Ross Influential actor and activist Marlon Brando
20 The King and I Cara Rodway1951 musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, made into film in 1956
21 The Catcher in the Rye Caroline O'DonaghueNovel by J.D. Salinger
22 Eisenhower Rivers Gambrell
23 Vaccine Gareth MillwardThe first effective polio vaccine was developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk and a team at the University of Pittsburgh
24 England's got a new Queen Margaret MacMillanElizabeth II was crowned in June 1953
25 Marciano Steve BunceRocky Marciano was an American professional boxer who held the World Heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956
26 Liberace Jo Kendall
27 Santayana GoodbyeMatthew FlammGeorge Santayana was a philosopher, poet, essayist and novelist
28 Joseph Stalin Alex Halberstadt
29 Malenkov Natalya ChernyshovaGeorgy Malenkov briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union
30 Nasser Tarek OsmanGamal Abdel Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952, and was Egyptian president from 1954 to 1970
31 Prokofiev Alexander KarpeyevRussian composer, pianist and conductor
32 Rockefeller Angie Maxwell
33 Campanella Josh ChetwyndRoy Campanella (1921–1993), a former catcher and a member of the baseball Hall of Fame
34 Communist Bloc Eric HalseyWith focus on life in communist Bulgaria
35 Roy Cohn Matt Tyrnauer Involved in the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954
36 Juan Perón Natalia Milanesio
37 Toscanini Harvey Sachs Italian composer Arturo Toscanini (1967–1957)
38 Dacron Cara RodwayPolyethylene terephthalate, a polyester referred to by the brand names Terylene in the UK, Lavsan in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and Dacron in the US.
39 Dien Bien Phu falls Dan Snow The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought between March 13 and May 7, 1954.
40 Billy Joel Billy Joel
41"Rock Around the Clock" Peter Doggett 1954 hit record for Bill Haley & His Comets on Decca Records
42 Einstein David Bodanis Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) theoretical physicist
43 James Dean Jake Lambert
44 Brooklyn's got a winning team Josh Chetwynd 1955 Baseball World Series winners the Brooklyn Dodgers
45 Davy Crockett Dr Amy Davis
46 Peter Pan Sarah Wolf
47 and 48 Elvis Presley Sally Hoedel
49 Disneyland Dr Amy Davis
50 Bardot Caroline O'DonaghueBrigitte Bardot, French actress born 1934
51 Budapest Eric HalseyHungarian Revolution of 1956
52 Alabama Chris WilsonBus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, protesting racial segregation
53 Khrushchev Dr. Natalya ChernyshovaNikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1953 to 1964
54 Princess Grace Kate Williams Grace Kelly (1929–1982) American actress.
55 Peyton Place Dr Cara RodwayNovel and TV series
56 Trouble in the Suez Tarek Osman
57 Little Rock Ryan Davis
58 Pasternak Ani Kokobobo
59 Mickey Mantle Josh Chetwynd
60 Kerouac
61 Sputnik Dan Kendall
62 Zhou Enlai Yangwen Zheng
63 Belgians in the Congo David Van Reybrouck and Reine NkambioteThis episode was recorded live at the DS podcast festival in Ostend and was republished on August 29, 2022 to maintain the lyric's order in the song.
64 Bridge on the River Kwai Helen O'Hara
65 Lebanon Chloé Kattar
66 Charles de Gaulle Dr Arthur Asseraf
67 California baseball Josh Chetwynd
68 Starkweather Homicide David Wilson
69 Children of Thalidomide Mikey Argy and C. Jean Grover
70 Buddy Holly Christopher Smith
71 Ben-Hur Helen O'Hara
72 Space monkey Dr Stuart Clark
73 Mafia Jeff Nadu
74 Hula Hoops Amy Hill
75 Castro Dr Stephen Wilkinson
76 Edsel is a no-go Kit Chapman
77 U-2 Francis Gary Powers, Jr.
78 Syngman Rhee Owen Miller
79 Payola Richard Carlin
80 Kennedy Fredrik Logevall
81 Chubby Checker Jack McCarthy
82 Psycho Cara Rodway
83 Hemingway Dr Linda Patterson Miller
84 Eichmann Part ISteven Luckert
85Eichmann Part IIRuth Barnett MBE
86 Stranger in a Strange Land Cara Rodway
87 Dylan Kerry Shale
88 Berlin Jane Peterson and Wolfgang MüllerSubjects of the short documentary Against the Wall
89 Bay of Pigs Invasion Dr Stephen Wilkinson
90 Lawrence of Arabia Helen O'Hara
91 and 92 British Beatlemania Mark Lewisohn Counted as the 88th episode
93 Ole Miss Charles K. Ross
94 John Glenn Dr Kevin Fong
95 Liston beats Patterson Declan Taylor
96 Pope Paul James Felak
97 Malcolm X Dr Peniel Joseph
98 British politician sex Kate Lister
99 JFK blown away none
100 Birth control Dr Catherine Roach
101 Ho Chi Minh none
102 Richard Nixon back again David Greenberg
103 Moonshot Kit ChapmanCounted as 100th episode
104 Woodstock Bob Spitz
105 Watergate Kurt Andersen
106 Punk rock Michael Hann
107 Begin Henry Abramson
108 Reagan none
109 Palestine Dr Rashid Khalidi
110 Terror on the airline Brendan Koerner
111 Ayatollahs in Iran Ramita Navai
112 Russians in Afghanistan David Loyn
113 Wheel of Fortune Adam Nedeff
114 Sally Ride Sue Macy
115 Heavy metal suicide Michael Hann
116 Foreign debt Iwan Morgan
117 Homeless vets Stephen Eide
118 AIDS Deborah Gold
119 Crack Ruben Castaneda
120 Bernie Goetz none
121 Hypodermics on the shore Ruth Stringer
122 China's under martial law Jeff Wasserstrom
123 Rock'n'roller Cola Wars noneSeries finale

[10] [11] [1]

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References

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