Seemingly Unrelated Podcast

Why does every major communication breakthrough attract ghost stories? In our annual Spooktacular episode, we connect dots between:

The transatlantic telegraph engineer who tried to contact spirits through his cables (1860s)

The Polaroid cult in Flushing, Queens worshipping instant ghost photos

Project December and AI "thanabots" resurrecting the pandemic's dead

With guests Michael Johnstone (Walky Talkie Brewing) and sports journalist Janet Eagleson, host Dr. Andrew Johnstone argues that hauntings aren't superstition — they're what happens when technology makes death feel immediate.

🎧 Full episode: patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated
🍎 Premium Apple Podcasts subscrib...

What if your favourite team mascot has roots in tragedy, racism, and a whole lot of anxiety?

In this episode of Seemingly Unrelated, I'm joined by co-host Alicia Britt (www.aliciabrittpuppetry.co.uk) and returning guest Dr. Rianna Walcott (www.riannawalcott.com) as we pull back the curtain on the surprisingly murky history of sports mascots. We're talking expert analysis delivered with the irreverence and curiosity our listeners expect—and yes, there's plenty of laughter amidst the darkness.

We trace the origins of collegiate athletics through the late 19th-century United States, unpacking how "Muscular Christianity" be...

A crossover with Dr. Chris Haswell on World Englishes, colonial legacies, and who owns the English language.

🔗 Find Lost in Citations at https://www.lostincitations.com/

What makes someone a "native" English speaker? According to Dr. Chris Haswell of Kyushu University and co-host of Lost in Citations, the answer is: nothing; the distinction doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

In this crossover episode, Andrew sits down with Chris to unpack the field of World Englishes. They cover why a person from Rotherham and a person from New Orleans might be mutually unintelligible despite sharing a "...

In this season finale, Andrew, Alicia, and Naomi sit down to unpack everything Season 3 taught them—and where they stumbled along the way. From questioning whether school uniforms are sexist (spoiler: the Facebook comments section was wild) to admitting mistakes about Abrahamic faiths and gender assumptions, this is a rare podcast moment where the hosts reflect on their own blind spots.

What did they actually learn about gender as a socially constructed concept? Why do binaries feel comfortable but fail us? And how does an Anglo-American lens limit even the most well-intentioned analysis of other cultures' gender no...

In this groundbreaking sixth episode, we dismantle the rigid binaries that society tries to force onto human biology including the undeniable reality of intersex existence, proving once and for all that genitals are not determinants of sex or gender.

Dr. Andrew Johnstone and Alicia Britt examine the historical beginnings of separating sports by gender. This episode traces the fragility of men playing golf in the Victorian period, the emergence of Muscular Christianity and the impact that funding and perception have on athletic ability. Guests include journalist Janet Eagleson and Dr. Isaac Hoff from the University of Glasgow.

Perilous windmills ahead as we dive in to the hot button issue of the moment whether women's sports are a biological necessity or just a social norm we've created in the last 100 or so years.

...

Dr. Andrew Johnstone and Alicia Britt examine men's emotions and emotional suppression through cultural and historical lenses. This episode traces how norms of masculinity shape emotional expression, highlights key research and historical examples, and offers practical takeaways for recognizing and changing emotional habits.

From the theological origins of motherhood we now have to look into the philosophical roots of manliness to address the elephant in the room: men have a problem.

To offer a helping hand while set on default mode is co-host Alicia Britt and our guest interviews with drag barbarian Oedipussy Rex and...

No. Neither is Gaia.

Episode 3 and we are bringing the question of social construct out of the school yard and into the deepest recesses of human mythology. Every accepts that 'Mother Nature' is the nurturing yet furious embodiment of our planet but has that always been the case?

We'll get to the origins of nature's femininity with Alicia Britt and featuring special guest interview with Jan Kohn aka Producer Naomi's mum! Together we'll answer the questions:

Was it a man that created existence or five dragons having a good time? What is the...

Straighten that tie, lower that hemline, and cover your shoulders listeners because this week we're being very strict about what is proper attire and we even asked Queen Elizabeth I to weigh in.

Join Andrew and Alicia alongside our special guest Dr. Christia Spears Brown for this medieval adventure through the dangerous dynamics of uniforms and dress codes including questions like:

Are school uniforms just for poor people? How long does it take for gender roles to settle into a child's mind? What Emo song best represents the lament of having to wear the same...

That's right dedicated Patreon subscribers for this month's bonus episode we are going back in time to the Podcast Squared archives to take a look at how the conversation around gender has evolved in the last 13 years. This seems fitting for our bonus ep that overlaps with season 3 and the conversation around gender.

Is it cringe inducing for me, Andrew, to listen to this? You bet. I really really hate it. BUT that's just the level of embarrassment I am willing to experience in exchange for your hard earned money.

This episode is a panel...

Welcome back to Seemingly Unrelated the podcast that makes you wonder if World War II is responsible for you having a food processor (kind of, yeah)

This season we are tackling the topic of 'social constructs' because it seems like a lot of people have heard the phrase but maybe aren't too familiar with why it matters at all. To find out we will plumb the depths of gender traits, stereotypes, and common conceptions to get to the heart of why all our conversations about gender are the way they are.

To help breath life...

If you've ever wondered what 'social construct' means and what mini-golfing Barbie dolls eating fish tacos has to do with gender, this is the season for you.

We are rapidly approaching the launch of season 3 for Seemingly Unrelated so it's time we give you a little preview to tantalise the senses.

New episodes start June 23rd and they come out weekly after that. But if you subscribe to the premium tiers on Patreon you can get the whole season in your feed ready to binge on day 1 plus exclusive access to bonus episodes and full...

Or was it invented in Paris to fight a rat infestation? Or was it accidentally made in India when they ran out of tonic to serve with gin?

This month on the bonus episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are travelling all around the world to find out exactly who invented that sweet, bubbly, bev popular at all the Japanese vending machines but not with people who have arthritis.

Joining this month is our resident beverage expert and owner of Walkie Talky Brewing it is Michael Johnstone and the co-host of the upcoming 3rd season of...

What if Nessie helped discover the influenza virus? Or if Bigfoot was a willing test subject on the futile quest to cure the common cold? It's a shame that mythical creatures can't really help us cure diseases...or can they?

On this month's bonus Seemingly Unrelated, guest presenter Phil W. Bayles will take us to the moon and back on the quest to find one cryptid that may have already saved your life...

Bibliography:

Branch, M.P. (2022). On the Trail of the Jackalope. Simon and Schuster.

‌Mythology.net. (2017). Jackalope...

Welcome to the season finale of Seemingly Unrelated! We've managed 46 episodes so far and we'll be returning in March with season 3 (bonus eps continually monthly patreon.com/seeminglyunrelated )

To cap it off this festive season we'll be traveling to Japan where holidays like Christmas should seem to be unrelated already, but it gets even weirder. Why is there a Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa Suit every December? What decidely un-Christian like business has its busiest day of the year on Dec 25th? More importantly: Who is Randy Bass and what has he got to do with...

When you look at the back of the box of your favorite ready-to-eat meal, where does the list of macromolecules and daily requirements on the nutrition label come from? That's what we are going to find out this week on Seemingly Unrelated as we explore the unusually recent history of the nutrition label by asking: What did we do before we added these things in 1994? Why don't vitamins and minerals show up on every nutrition label? What role did World War II play in getting the governments of the world to take action on minimal nutrition? And why do...

!!ALERT ALERT!! GO TO THE KICKSTARTER FOR WHITE CAT ENTERTAINMENT RIGHT NOW THE FUND ENDS FRI 14 NOV !!ALERT ALERT!!

The gorilla enclosure seconds the motion to sanction the cave bats for their hoarding of fresh fruit resources. More like the Zoo-nited Nations amirite? I'll stop.

On this episode we are diving into the other controversial history behind zoos as explore the ways in which zoos and zoo animals have been used in international diplomacy. Was the first ever zoo made up of trophies from conquest or a contemplative garden to debate the animalistic...

It's the Seemingly Unrelated Spoooooktacular! We've got a terrifying and spinetingling episode for you this week as we look deep into the history of Witch iconography: the point hat, the broom, the black cat, not the nose though...the nose thing is just exactly what you think it is.

Our guide through this spectre of deeply problematic horrors is in fact Michael Johnstone from Walkie Talky Brewing who has to take the reigns because of a Halloween curse placed on Andrew in 1987 that prevents him from leading on main feed spooky episodes.

Michael is better...

We're talking about the very real and physical place that is Hollywood, CA on this episode of Seemingly Unrelated. Why are the hills around Los Angeles filled with the rich and famous while the valleys are home to much more socio-economic diversity? Did film studios set up shop in Hollywood because of the weather? Has the 9th circuit court of appeals been holding back patent law for 150 years? Were the seeds of the Great Recession sown in the Great Depression itself?

We dig into these questions with our special guest co-host Phil W. Bayles!

Plus...

At the time of this episode's release we are in the middle of a 10 day period of reflection and piety for the Jewish people. The window between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the 'High Holidays' to many. So, we at Seemingly Unrelated want to take this confluence of events where the High Holidays overlap with an extra 3rd episode of the show inside of a calendar month to put the spotlight on these holidays.

What are the High Holidays about? Why are they celebrated so much in the home and not at the temple...

If it's 2 am in Denver Colorado and you've been out partying all night, where will you go to fill up on some fast food to tide you over? Well, if it's 1858 the answer is: oyster bars. This week on Seemingly Unrelated we are cracking open the shell that hides the secret history of the oyster asking big questions like: How dangerous were oyster beds to early European colonists? Why does anyone know about Altoona, PA? HOW much did the US government spend on the transcontinental railroad?! What putrid Youtube rabbit hole has our guest fallen down recently? And of...

Up front this is just about which Europeans landed on the Americas first and set up shop. The actual answer beyond that is no one and there are many peoples and histories that populate both continents for millenia before any Europeans managed to cross the Atlantic (or vice-versa?).

Either way, we are digging into the major competing narratives about which White guys traveled where to get at the heart of the question: Who cares? Along the way we'll talk about: Was the inventor of baking powder the most annoying person in Massachusetts? Should all Italian-American stereotypes really...

How could the Three Little Pigs have stopped the most powerful military of the 1st century BCE? That's what we set out to explore on this episode of Seemingly Unrelated where we dive into the history of steel making, story telling, and how they connect the Battle of Carrhae with learning to code in Python.

Our guest co-host this week is puppeteer extoridanaire Alicia Britt!

We'll be asking the big questions this week like: How do you court an armorer? What is so common about the 'Common Era?' Which real time strategy game unit...

This week on Seemingly Unrelated pod we are getting into the villain's origin story behind the most USA of all snack cakes: Twinkies. Love them, or fear them, the twinkie looms large in the US imagination and in the vision of the US from around the world. It represents all things the USA loves: soft golden hydrogenated fats and corn syrup that is pure and white at its core.

We're joined this week to help explore the depths of snack cake depravity by the owner of Walkie Talky Brewing in Leith, Scotland and long time food industry...

Protect yourself from invasion get a breeding pair of hamsters, today! This week on Seemingly Unrelated we are deep diving into the history of the cutest widdle guys you have witnessed do unspeakable acts for unknown reasons to find out why exactly did we start keeping these rodents as pets?

Our special guest this episode is Dr. Rianna Walcott Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab.

To get to the origin of the pet hamster we have to answer some questions that r...

There are so many chicken little's these days decrying the downfall of man at the hands of Large Language Models. There are also, a lot of grifters taking advantage of that panic to line their wallets or just feel alive if only for a moment. Which is why we are here to fight that misinformation and identify the Seemingly Unrelated truths behind the myths and fears around artificial intelligence.

Joining us this week is a guest host for the first time. They are a researcher into health's role in homelessness prevention as well as a veteran front...

The 'House of Mouse' is a very litigious one which is why we are super wary about this week's episode of Seemingly Unrelated. We're taking a look at the very origins of both Disney the company and intellectual property rights on a journey to find out if Mickey himself might have had an impact on the cost of some prescription drugs. Along the way we'll take a journey by sea to solve the mystery of calculating longitude, laugh and cry alongside the tragically short life of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and ask the question: what does Sonny Bono have...

Must...resist...urge...to do hyper specific...group...choreography...!!

On today's episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are the biaswreckers here to say you're not delulu, K-pop is having an all time comeback around the world. But are the Big 3 just the visual for a deeper and more sinister subunit bent on world domination? To find out we're going to have to take a tour back to the first K-pop idols from the 1960s and ask: What style of music is K-pop anyway? Did Tony Blair inspire the K-wave? Is PSY mocking, or celebrating the Gangnam neighborhood? And...

Given its association with Homer Simpson, the donut (or doughnut?or do-nut?) is perhaps one of the great icons of American culture filling our minds with corner shops and diners serving piping hot black coffee and delicious fried circles of sweet dough.

The donut however, is not just a calorie dense delivery service that keeps you functional on the go, it is also a hero...

On today's episode of Seemingly Unrelated we unpack an iconic pink box of goodness by exploring the impact the humble donut has had on the United States and beyond. Why...

We're back from hiatus and for season 2 we are starting things off with our first ever theme month! This month, every episode is about that most basic of needs and builder of cultures: food.

To get things started we have to ask a basic question: What is authentic parmesan cheese? The answer to that question is going to surprise you but it's only the beginning as we chart the unexpected waters of European national food history from disappointment of the continental breakfast to the bloody defense of Budapest against the Ottomans we are back in top form.<...

Did you know that Hitler has an IMDB page? It's true and also really weird! Join us this week as we explore the long tail of Hitler's impact on the silver screen. What was Hitler's favorite movie? How did his interest in one actress help create the first Schindler type who saved dozens of Jews from execution? How distant is Hitler really from those of us watching everyday blockbuster movies now?

This is our season 1 finale y'all! Thanks so much for listening to the first season of this experiment and we look forward to bringing more unusual...

On this very special seasonal episode we are digging into the unrelated tales that make up the internet as we know it. We'll be answering questions no one has ever asked while sober such as:

What is the internet anyway? How does it work? Does it have to work this way or are there alternatives? What is, and always has been, the most popular thing on all the different forms of the internet regardless of time, place, language, or really any factors?

That's right we'll be globetrotting all episode long to hunt out the secret...

In 1992, a Baptist pastor sought to distill his marriage counseling advice into five, easy concepts that couples could use to build happier relationships. In 1996, a call to end dependence on cash welfare and 'Get America Back to Work' resulted in sweeping reforms and a new state based block grant system for welfare in the US. By 2009 somehow, some way, the state of Oklahoma managed to put these two together...

On this episode of Seemingly Unrelated we are performing an act of service to let you, the audience, know that we really love you by deep diving into...

The hot button issue for Gen Z (according to media run by not Gen Z) is the impact of photo filters on body image and mental health. This sudden surge in access to easy to manipulate tech has launched a thousand think pieces about FOMO, impossible fitness standards, and a host of ills directly connected to too much social media and too much envy for outrageous lifestyles.

Is this trend particularly new? What is the underlying mechanism that pushes people to slavishly follow the latest filtered trend? More importantly why did the guy who came up with...

Is there a secret, dark history lurking behind those friendly lucky cat statues that welcome you into your favorite Chinese take out place?

This week on Seemingly Unrelated we dive into the Maneki-neko, aka Beckoning Cat, aka Lucky Cat, which has become a symbol of pan-Asian businesses around the world. All in pursuit of answering the question: why is this guy so popular?

We'll explore the potential heroic legend of the Maneki-neko, it's brief stint as a symbol of the Yoshiwara pleasure district in Tokyo, a journey through an oft ignored mass migration of servants...

Sometimes, things that are so completely different and range wildly in their impact have a single, slender, fascinating thread that binds them together. Pulling on that thread, not just merely remarking upon it, but finding out what it means and how it matters is exactly what we do on this podcast.

Today's episode finds the tie that binds three disparate elements: The CIA's attempt to win the Cold War through culture with the Congress for Cultural Freedom. The assassination of Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan. As well as, the 2nd place runner up in the pre-1983 video...

 There's been a buzz in the news lately about immigration causing all sorts of issues around the world. This isn't the first time that proposals to ban entire groups have been championed, and that has caused some serious problems in the past. This week on Seemingly Unrelated, find out how Spelling Bees helped bring an end to the disastrous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and proved that diversity is a strength, not a problem needing to be solved. 

Anna P. Kambhampaty, “How Indian Americans Came to Love the Spelling Bee,” The New York Times, July 3, 2021, sec. Styl...

Does January 1 make any sense as New Year's Day? Why not March 21 or even the first day after Labor Day just like school used to be. It turns out there is a very convoluted story to answer that question and it might be connected to how successful you are in keeping your resolutions this year.

Dickson, Joanne. ‘Where Did the New Year’s Resolution Come from? Well, We’ve Been Making Them for 4,000 Years’. The Conversation, 1 January 2023. http://theconversation.com/where-did-the-new-years-resolution-come-from-well-weve-been-making-them-for-4-000-years-196661.

Dickson, Joanne M., Nicholas J. Moberly, David Preece, Alyson Dodd, an...

Subscribe to Seemingly Unrelated on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotfiy or go to seeminglyunrelatedpod.com to subscribe however you like.

Find us on Patreon where we have a bonus episode about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for just $2. https://www.patreon.com/c/seeminglyunrelated/ 

Happy Holidays from Seemingly Unrelated! We're here just ahead of Santa Claus himself to look into the rise and fall of that seemingly most festive food of all, chestnuts. 

Are chestnuts roasting on an open fire actually a holiday tradition? Who in God's name is St. Martin and...

Look up in the sky it's...well nothing because this week we're talking about some low hanging fruit. Is it possible that the so called 'bullet train' of Japan was designed with owls and kingfisher birds in mind? Or, is this yet another example of a story that makes the rounds on podcasts and social media that is based entirely on myth?

Come join us this week on Seemingly Unrelated as Andrew does a deep dive into the truth behind the Shinkansen's connection to wildlife and Jason makes some inappropriate jokes about tunnels.