A brand-new podcast from the Noiser network. Join domestic historian Ruth Goodman as she explores the remarkable, often epic, tales behind everyday objects. This taster episode is all about the fridge. In Ancient Persia, ingenious ice houses refrigerate food in one of the hottest deserts on earth. Bronze Age sites on Orkney reveal the secrets of early cold storage systems. A well-known sea captain becomes the face of a frozen food brand, with a little help from the Inuit of northern Canada. And cooling technology becomes a matter of life and death when US President James A. Garfield is shot… I ..read more

This is a taster episode from our sister show, Short History Of… If you enjoy it and want to hear more, follow Short History Of… wherever you get your podcasts. Standing over 29,000 feet above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on Planet Earth. To the Sherpa people of the Himalayas it is sacred. To foreign adventurers it’s the holy grail of climbing. But what did it take to reach the summit? What was sacrificed to plant a flag on top of the world? This is a Short History of the Conquest of Everest. Real Survival Stories will be back as normal, every week, after a short festive ..read more

It’s one of the all-time, epic survival stories. In 1971, Douglas Robertson is just a teenager when he and his family embark on the trip of a lifetime. Their aim is to sail around the globe. But when their small yacht is sunk in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, their dream of circumnavigation turns into a nightmare of self-preservation. The Robertsons must stick together and battle extraordinary adversity as a family. But will it be enough to see them through? You can see the Robertsons’ tiny dinghy at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, UK: nmmc.co.uk/ A Noiser production, written ..read more

This is a sneak preview of an amazing survival story brought to you by our friends over at Legends of the Old West. The Donner Party is one of the most infamous survival tales in American history. In 1846, the group of pioneers set out to cross the American West. But while the trip started badly, it ended even worse… That winter, 81 people found themselves trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Only 45 made it out. And the accounts of how they did it have reverberated down through the years. If you enjoy Episode 1 of this legendary true tale and want to hear more, follow ‘Legends of the Old W ..read more