''We Didn't Start the Fire'' is a modern history podcast started in 2021. It is hosted by

Katie Puckrik Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and '' The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and ...

and

Tom Fordyce Tom Fordyce is a former BBC Sport journalist. He wrote text commentaries on cricket and tennis, also writing features on various other sports and blogging from a number of different events. Fordyce attended Westminster School, where he was a pref ...

and produced by Crowd Network.

Premise

The podcasts takes topics from the pop song "

We Didn't Start the Fire "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written and published by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album '' Storm Front'' on October 17, 1989. A list song, i ...

", released by

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

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 and also including American, Korean and Cuba-Soviet Union relations at the height of The Cold War.

Reception

Miranda Sawyer Miranda Caroline Sawyer (born January 1967) is an English author, journalist and broadcaster. Education and early life Sawyer was born in Bristol and grew up in Wilmslow, Cheshire with her brother Toby, who is an actor. Sawyer was educated at ...

in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' reviewed a "funny, informative discussion.. genuinely interesting and fun" and described it as her "new favourite show". 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." Sawyer later put the podcast in her top 10 of the year for 2021. Billy Joel himself heard the show and appears as a special guest on an episode first broadcast on 25 October, 2021.

Episodes

References

{{reflist History podcasts Audio podcasts 2021 podcast debuts