Episodes
When it comes to Olympic controversies, Winter or Summer, none matches the weirdness of the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding saga.
Days out from the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships, Nancy Kerrigan had just finished training at the Cobo Arena in Detroit when a man approached and hit her with a metal object just above her knee.
Almost immediately, the FBI would identify four men as behind the attack, all linked to Kerrigan’s main rival, Tonya Harding.
Titus and Mick look back on the...
Published 08/07/24
Mick and Titus discuss a man who tried to sneak 100 snakes past customs in his trousers, treadmill workouts for dogs and how elephants use names for each other.
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Published 08/06/24
As the Olympics continue. we visit the ill-fated voyage of the 1932 Brazillian Olympic team.
In 1932, with the world going through the Great Depression, Brazil had no money to send its Olympic team to Los Angeles.
Then a government official had an idea—load a ship with 50,000 bags of coffee, and have the Olympic team sell the cargo to fund the entire trip.
Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at a strange trip which included pretending the ship was a warship, and civil war breaking out.
If...
Published 08/06/24
With the United States on board, the Berlin Olympics commenced, and first, there was the Opening Ceremony. A ceremony so grandiose that every single Olympics since has copied what the Nazis did.
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Published 08/04/24
Mick and Titus discover a dog who inadvertently exposed some infidelity, enjoy the antics of a drunk monkey and wonder what flying ants do to seagulls. It's get them drunk. There's a theme.
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Published 07/30/24
With Paris now underway, we look back at the worst event the Olympics have ever held.
The 1904 Olympics in St Louis, Missouri, were a disaster in every way possible. Held over six months alongside the World’s Fair, it had a human zoo and a ‘savage Olympics’ pitting various indigenous groups against each other.
But the marathon would be the biggest mess; competitors were refused water, runners were chased off course by dogs, there was cheating, several near deaths, and the first recorded...
Published 07/29/24
Less than a year out from the 1936 Olympics it appeared likely the United States and many other countries would not attend.
Hitler was furious, would the Americans humiliate him on the world stage? Or would the International Olympic Committee and the American Olympic Association find a way to turn a blind eye to what was happening in Germany?
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Published 07/28/24
Can a shark and a stingray fall in love? Mick and Titus set out to answer this age-old question. Mick brings new evidence about Bigfoot, and Titus argues it might not be an accurate story.
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Published 07/24/24
Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, we look at the first time Paris held an Olympics.
The 1900 Paris Olympics were a disaster of planning and execution, to the point many athletes never even knew they’d participated in an Olympics.
So poorly organised were the games that the discus field was too narrow and throws went into the crowd, while the long jumpers turned up to discover they had to dig their own pit.
As well as standard Olympic fare, there was cannon shooting, hot air ballooning,...
Published 07/23/24
In 1931, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Berlin the 1936 Olympics, a sign Germany was returning to normal international relations after World War One.
Yet Adolf Hitler's rise to power presented the IOC with more than a few problems, one being that Hitler hated the Olympics, and another was many countries wanted to boycott the games.
Titus and Mick look at how Hitler came to embrace the Olympics, and how international opposition to them crumbled.
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Published 07/21/24
With just a few days to go, we look back at the history of doping in the Tour De France.
From the first Tour De France, riders were putting all kinds of things in their bodies, caffeine, strychnine, cocaine and alcohol.
Drugs were so much part of the sport that the 1930 rulebook, given to all riders, reminded them that drugs would not be provided by the organisers.
Titus O’Reily and Mick Molloy look at the use of doping in the Tour De France from 1903 until the Festina Affair in 1998, the...
Published 07/17/24
In this episode, a man bites a snake, crocodiles start saving dogs and DNA testing is being used to catch people who don't clean up after their dog.
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Published 07/16/24
With LeTour entering its final week, we revisit one of our first episodes, looking at the early years of the Tour De France.
The early years of the Tour De France were a hot mess, with a spiked bottle of lemonade, itching powder put in cyclists’ shorts, riders taking rides in cars and trains, attempted murder and pitched battles between cyclists and spectators.
Beginning in 1903 as a marketing exercise to boost the circulation of the newspaper L’Auto, the first was won by Maurice-François...
Published 07/15/24
In the final episode on the beginnings of NASCAR, Bill France seizes control of the new organisation but a new challenge immediately presents itself.
Again, he relies on the bootleggers and moonshiners, and finds a new hero in a bootlegger by the name of Junior Johnson.
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Published 07/14/24
Mick begins by critiquing the very logo he approved before the guys move on to pressing animal matters, such as people harassing bisons and then regretting it.
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Published 07/09/24
With NASCAR formed, Bill France set out to crush the competition, but he needed stars to bring the crowds.
Enter a family from Fort Payne, Alabama, 'The Sock Capitol of the World', the Flocks.
Dubbed the 'Mad Flocks', Bob, Fonty, Tim and their sister Ethel Flock, became huge attractions throughout the South through their charisma and risky driving.
Tim even started racing with a rhesus monkey—named “Jocko Flocko”, just to add to the entertainment.
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Published 07/07/24
Mick provides an update on a fat bear champion, cows are now being toilet trained, and otters start attacking children.
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Published 07/02/24
After the war, Atlanta would launch a campaign against the moonshine drivers, opening the pathway for Bill France to create a new organisation, The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing or NASCAR.
As its first president, they appointed the man who created the Cannonball Run, the event that inspired the films.
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Published 06/30/24
Titus informs Mick that birds are actually dinosaurs, a woman feeds a monkey spicy Cheetos and Mick argues the pelican should be bird of the year.
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Published 06/25/24
As Atlanta took control of the stock car racing scene, it would seem Bill France's dream of Daytona being the centre of the sport was lost.
But a tragedy and the outbreak of the Second World War would see the sport shaken up again, and pave the way for the emergence of NASCAR.
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Published 06/23/24
Mick returns from Columbia and shares his experiences with the animals there including an emotional support animal biting his colleague.
Titus has a live show in Melbourne on 21 June. You can get tickets here.
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Published 06/18/24
Running illegal moonshine created great drivers and cars, and stock car racing started to gain some traction as a sport.
So much so that the community of Daytona Beach would host their first-ever stock car race. Soon a driver named Bill France would be organising regular races there.
It wouldn't be long though until Atlanta challenged Daytona as the centre of the stock car racing world, producing drivers, and bootleggers such as Lloyd “Lighting Seay and "Reckless Roy" Hall.
Titus has a...
Published 06/16/24
Mick and Titus celebrate a mass cow escape, a brawl at a dog show and shenanigans at greyhound racing.
Titus has a live show in Melbourne on 21 June. You can get tickets here.
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Published 06/11/24
There have been times when NASCAR has not wanted people to know their early history.
That’s because the people who built NASCAR, drove the cars, built the cars and financed it, were deeply involved in one illegal industry. Moonshine.
To avoid law enforcement and tax collectors, moonshiner makers employed bootleggers, young men who could outrun those trying to stop them.
Soon, a thought occurred, what if we get these great drivers to race against each other?
Titus has a live show in...
Published 06/09/24
Mick and Titus discuss their favourite river systems, and marvel at the fact Octopuses punch fish for no reason.
Titus has live shows in Melbourne on 7 and 21 June. You can get tickets here.
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Published 06/04/24