The Curious History Of The Home: Explore the Extraordinary In The Ordinary

In 2011, British author Bill Bryson published a surprise bestseller called, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.  Bill Bryson gave us a fascinating history of the modern home, taking us on a room-by-room tour through his own house and using each room to explore the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows, and every item of furniture.

Since March 2024, domestic historian Ruth Goodman has been attempting a similar feat, only in audio in a podcast called The Curious History of The Home. 

The podcast guides listeners through the surprising, often epic, stories behind everyday objects in your home. Double-glazed windows? We owe those to a French king’s odd fascination with oranges. The minty fresh toothpaste by your sink? Well, if you lived in Ancient Greece, you’d be washing your teeth with ground-up bones and oyster shells. And wallpaper? It seems innocent enough, but in the Victorian era it was downright deadly.

In the trailer, Goodman exclaims, "We'll explore the extraordinary in the ordinary!"

The 35 episodes that have been released have dealt with such "homey" topics as laundry, wallpaper, windows, bread, heating, the fridge, clocks, pests, and even dinner parties. The episodes average about 30 minutes with lush sound quality, carefully added background narrative music, and Goodman's resonant voice. 

While Goodman is a historian, she often begins her episodes with vivid descriptions of a historical period that sound more like the opening to a novel with its vivid portrayal of a civilization long gone.

My favorite episodes included ones on wallpaper (which could kill its inhabitants), windows (there was once a window tax), and heating, where young boys were sent up chimneys for cleaning despite the immediate and long-term dangers.

Ruth Ellen Goodman is a British freelance historian of the early modern period, specializing in offering advice to museums and heritage attractions.

She is a specialist in British social history and, after presenting the 2005 television series Tales from the Green Valley, went on to participate in several BBC historic farm series. She occasionally presents features for The One Show, and she co-presented Secrets of the Castle in 2014, and 24 Hours in the Past (2015). Since 2015, she has appeared on Inside the Factory, presenting usually two short features or ‘historic insets’ related to the main subject of the episode.

 Goodman was awarded an honorary degree in 2012 by Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, for her contributions to history education.

As a result of her social history research, she has stopped using detergents in her washing machine, never eats factory farmed food and sometimes cooks on an open wood fire. For a period of three months, she followed a Tudor body cleansing regime, and no-one complained or noticed a smell.

The Curious History of The Home is produced by Noiser, which is an independent history podcast network. The network has a subscription option called Noiser+. The network produces excellent history podcasts, from Short History to Titanic: Ship Of Dreams. I think there are several indie history podcasts -- Byte Sized Biographies by Philip Gibbons, and Why Wars Happened by Emily Ross -- that would be superb additions to their network, if Noiser would search out and support other indie podcasts. 

Goodman recorded her last episode in late 2024, and we couldn't find out if there is a second season coming. We hope so. Goodman is a fascinating historian with a gift for narrative excellence, and the show delivers on its promise to "discover the extraordinary history of the ordinary items."