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The Runners Up Club

The Runners Up Club

Written by: Ray Agostinelli
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About this listen

 Short-form episodes about history's "losers", air quotes essential, by Ray Agostinelli. Wild and fun stories about people & products, brands & businesses, ideas & inventions that failed to ascend to the dominant position in their fields - business, science, politics, the arts - sometimes deservedly so, many times not. What Hydrox is to the Oreo, Gabriel Metsu to Vermeer, Eulace Peacock to Jesse Owens, Iliodor to Rasputin; and very many more besides - diminished, obscured, forgotten. Stories that are by turns instructive, humorous, enraging, illuminating, cautionary, and addictive.Copyright 2025 Ray Agostinelli Science World
Episodes
  • Introduction to The Runners Up Club

    Introduction to The Runners Up Club
    Sep 29 2024

    A short intro to The Runners Up Club podcast, a series about second- and third-bests, from near misses to no chancers. It's an idiosyncratic series produced by, one hopes, people who are not idiots.

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    4 mins
  • Eulace Peacock: Hamstrung Champion

    Eulace Peacock: Hamstrung Champion
    Sep 29 2024

    Jesse Owens’ greatest rival might have claimed a share of the sprinter’s four gold medals and a place beside him in history exposing the idiocy of Hitler’s Aryan racism… but for a common muscle pull.
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    12 mins
  • Gabriel Metsu: The Forgotten Dutch Master

    Gabriel Metsu: The Forgotten Dutch Master
    Sep 29 2024

    Few artists create a style so distinct that it is recognizable to an untrained eye. Johannes Vermeer is one. Meet the now-obscure artist who Vermeer displaced from the pantheon of Dutch Masters.
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    11 mins
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