Blast From The Past

The Scooby Doo cartoon madness started in 1969 and since then Velma, Daphne, Fred and Shaggy have been influencing pop culture and the gothic thriller genre. What, also, was the unique world view the series was promoting?

Pirate Queen Ching Shih ruled the China seas in the 1800s, bending the British, Portuguese and Chinese rulers to her will. Who knew?

Siddhartha Gautama was born where Nepal now is around 500 BCE. More than 2000 years later, are there many people who've really had more impact on the way we are, think and live than him? Have a warming, meditative, relaxing etc etc etc start to BFTP's second season - we are so excited to be BACK!

Adventurer, trailblazer and record-breaking pilot, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but disappeared in her attempt to cross the globe in 1937. Join Billy and Anna's romp through the conspiracy theories that have popped up about her disappearance (some less convincing), and think about her impact on the world of aviation. Also she had excellent freckles. But: has it gone too far? Has her legacy overshadowed other fantastic women in history?

Victorian man JRR Tolkein became known as the father of high fantasy because of the epic world he created in Middle Earth. For BFTP's 20th episode, Billy and Anna chat a lot about hobbits, a lot about Harry Potter, a lot about the moral corruptibility of humans, and Billy can't help but get his nerd on.

Billy and I are so happy to be back together in the same room this week, and for this episode we're getting SUSPICIOUS. Who knew the Illuminati was an actual group, formed in Bavaria in the late 1700s? Join Anna and Billy to trace their journey through to the 21st century, where we chat about the Illuminati conspiracy theory in its modern format.

Walking talking human encyclopedia Tom is back and this week we're chatting about the longest-serving First Lady of the USA and driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the ripple effects she set in force that we still see today.

David Bowie's a complete legend! Gender bender, glam rock pioneer and rejecter of the boring - music and pop culture buff Dan H joins us again to ask how drastically different 2020 music and our wider society would be without him.

Princess Diana's brutal death in a Parisian tunnel in 1997 whilst being chased by the Pap decidedly changed the perception of privacy in the UK media. But is her impact on the royal family itself still having ripples today? Our wonderful guest Izzy joins us in the lockdown series once again.

Izzy forges through lockdown-induced tech issues to join us in discussing the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose travels at the turn of the 16th century opened up the Americas to rampant colonisation. How has this essential genocide of the lives and cultures that existed there already moulded the Americas today - and can we say Columbus is responsible for capitalism?!

A special episode on possibly the most overlooked of all BFTP's historical figures so far, General Franco, who led Spain through 36 years of oppression. Billy and Anna are joined by Hispanic superfan Izzy, to ask where Basque, Gallician and Catalan culture would be today without him, and how his regime of violence and oppression still moulds Spain's daily politics today.

Daniel joins us once again for a chit chat about Elizabeth I - feminist or meninist? Virgin queen or saucy fiend? And might we have had different plays on our GCSE syllabus than Romeo and Juliet, if Elizabeth hadn't existed..?

Today Izzy joins us to find out about one of history's hidden figures: the NASA mathematician whose calculations (by hand!) saw the US win the space race in 1969. Where would we be without her crucial contribution to space exploration in the 20th century?

How and why did American artist Andy Warhol blast 20th century norms out of the window to make art a reflection of our banal everyday? Was he the reason art became a money-making business from the 80s onwards? And is he the reason we're obsessed with documenting our lives on Youtube and Instagram?! Join Anna and Billy with their excellent guest Tom for your first ever BFTP from Covid quarantine.

Billy and Dan are back! And this week we're talking about the music of Tupac, the conflicts that defined his life and work, and his eye-opening poetry which mapped the realities of African-Americans in the 70s/80s and 90s.

An extremely topical conversation between pseudo-intellectuals Anna, Tom and Daniel (Rees) about the way Said's concept of Orientalism made us in the West reconsider how we view and talk about Eastern Asia and the Middle East. Is there such a thing as a positive stereotype...? Also: Said's contributions to the musical world.

Anna and her two fantastic guests Tom and Izzy learn together about Wangari Maathai, an astonishing woman from Kenya whose passions and feats crossed politics, feminism, and environmentalism.

Tom, Billy and Anna talk about the dictatorial reign of Chairman Mao, from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to his death in 1976. We cover a lot - China's industry, Tibetan Buddhism, Taiwan, whether Jesus was a cult figure... More importantly though, Billy introduces us to the future of Brakeism, The Billy Brake School of Thought.

Izzy joins us again to talk about a fascinating person this week - drag queen, AIDS and queer activist Marsha P Johnson. How did her persona and activism influence those around her, and into the modern day? Would she have been forced to fight the same fight in 2020 as in the 60s and 70s?

Dan joins us again for a fascinating chat about Ali the person and Ali the boxer - and how the two converged to make a formidable figure who still impacts political activism today.

Weirdly knowledgable Tom joins us again for our Luther episode. What really was he fighting for?Might the German language have developed differently without him? And can he really be linked to the Pilgrims who escaped to America - or are we getting carried away with ourselves..?!

Billy, Anna and Dan argue about the impact that Maggie had - on British culture, governments to come, the North, and our relationship with America vs. the EU.

Billy and Anna invite Spanish and Central American megafan Izzy into the studio to talk about the patchwork of influence that Frida Kahlo had on the world.Would Mexican national identity look different today without her? Has she really strengthened the position of various other oppressed groups? And what about her influence on art?

For the first ever episode Billy, Anna and Tom chat all things Beatley. What really was their impact on music to come? What did they do for class relations in the North? And don't get me started on their album artwork..