51 - The Waggle Dance, The Gherkin Headstone & a Trippy Bicycle Ride

51 - The Waggle Dance, The Gherkin Headstone & a Trippy Bicycle Ride

From What The Factual? / Facts The Way I Like It! by Gill Smith & Pete Moor

November 28, 2025 · 39 min · Season 3 · Episode 51

About this episode

Gill and Pete explore various historical facts including etymology, protests, and the discovery of LSD.

51 - The Waggle Dance, The Gherkin Headstone & a Trippy Bicycle Ride It's yet another Friday so Gill and Pete are back with more facts from around the world and all walks of life. This week, Gill takes us down etymology lane again and tells us where the phrase "tea caddy" comes from and why. She also shares the story of how a seemingly innocuous grave in the city of London became a Roman tomb with the Gherkin as a headstone. Finally she tells us the wonderful tale of how and why binge drinking is actually a noble British tradition. Although we are not condoning it... it's just in our history so maybe its fine? Pete has the story of the 1984 Dunnes Stores Strikers in which a group of Dublin shop workers took a stand and helped inspire the world to stand up to apartheid in South Africa. He also has the mind bending story of how LSD was accidentally discovered and developed and finally he tells us how Honeybees can pass on incredibly accurate GPS information through the medium of dance. We should also add that Amazon Alexa failed to help Pete find out that Domus (the latin) means house or residence, not "ruler"!  Right, we are off to responsibly enjoy some alcohol and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Gill Smith, Pete Moor

Topics covered

  • etymology
  • history
  • binge drinking
  • protests
  • LSD discovery
  • honeybee communication

Keywords

  • Waggle Dance
  • Gherkin Headstone
  • binge drinking
  • Dunnes Stores Strikers
  • LSD
  • honeybees
  • etymology
  • tea caddy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: LSD

Books & works: tea caddy, Gherkin

Places: London, South Africa, Dublin, Britain

More episodes of What The Factual? / Facts The Way I Like It!

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the What The Factual? / Facts The Way I Like It! podcast page.