History Podcast / WeDidntStartTheFire

* ShoutOut: A fair chunk of the episode on Malenkov involves talking about ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin''. In a similar vein, the Juan Perón episode has a lengthy digression about ''Music/{{Evita}}'', including Katie's anecdote about how she met Creator/{{Madonna}} at a party after the film's London premiere.

* ShoutOut: A fair chunk of the episode on Malenkov involves talking about ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin''. In a similar vein, the Juan Perón episode has a lengthy digression about ''Film/{{Evita}}''.

* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: Discussed in the [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/JuanDomingoPeron Juan Perón]] episode, as Perón was the Argentine leader who allowed several prominent Nazis to take refuge there in the late 1940s.

* UrbanLegends: Occasionally discussed. For example, in the Juan Perón episode, Katie brings up some stories about what happened to [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/EvaPeron Eva Perón's]] body after her death; the reaction of the expert (a university lecturer who is not just a specialist in Argentinian political history, but actually from Argentina) suggests that those stories are an example of this.

* UrbanLegends: Occasionally discussed. For example, in the Juan Perón episode, Katie brings up some stories about what happened to Eva Perón's body after her death; the reaction of the expert (a university lecturer who is not just a specialist in Argentinian political history, but actually from Argentina) suggests that those stories are an example of this.

* ArgentinaIsNaziLand: Discussed in the Juan Peron episode, as Peron was the Argentine leader who allowed several prominent Nazis to take refuge there in the late 1940s.

* FirstNameBasis: Many of the subjects, and Billy Joel himself, get referred to by their first names.

* UrbanLegends: Occasionally discussed. For example, in the Juan Peron episode, Katie brings up some stories about what happened to Eva Peron's body after her death; the reaction of the expert (a university lecturer who is not just a specialist in Argentinian political history, but actually from Argentina) suggests that those stories are an example of this.

* BaseballEpisode: Several, given that the song had quite a few references to baseball (Joe [=DiMaggio=], "Brooklyn's got a winning team", etc).

* BerserkButton: Katie ''really'' hates UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Who crops up more often than you might think.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe; the Doris Day episode includes a discussion of this in relation to ''Film/TheGraduate'' and ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'', both of which could have starred Doris Day. It gets ''really'' dark when Tamar Jeffers-[=McDonald=] (that episode's SpecialGuest) reveals a RealLife example of this to a clearly surprised Katie and Tom -- Doris Day's son, music producer Terry Melcher, was reckoned to have been the intended victim of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his followers (Manson having auditioned for Melcher, who rejected him), and had actually lived in the house on Cielo Drive prior to Creator/RomanPolanski and Creator/SharonTate.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe; the Doris Day episode includes a discussion of this in relation to ''Film/TheGraduate'' and ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'', both of which could have starred Doris Day. It gets ''really'' dark when Tamar Jeffers-[=McDonald=] (that episode's SpecialGuest) reveals a RealLife example of this to a clearly surprised Katie and Tom -- Doris Day's son, music producer Terry Melcher, was reckoned to have been the intended victim of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson and his followers (Manson having auditioned for Melcher, who rejected him).

* RecurringCharacter: Some of the SpecialGuests appear more than once.
** Josh Hollands, a lecturer in US history at University College London, is in the UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy episode and returns for the Rosenbergs one.
** History professor Margaret [=MacMillan=] is the expert called in for the H-bomb and "[[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII England's got a new Queen]]".

* SpecialGuest: One per episode, usually -- and very much justified given the diverse specialist subject knowledge required to examine each subject that was mentioned in the song. The first episode, which was about UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, featured American political journalist Eleanor Clift. The second, about Creator/DorisDay, featured Tamar Jeffers-[=McDonald=], Professor in Film History at the University of Brighton.
* SmallReferencePools: Tom reveals that he first heard of Creator/DorisDay (the subject of the second episode) due to her being mentioned by name in a Music/{{WHAM}} song ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" [[note]] "You take the grey skies out of my way, You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day" [[/note]]). He later reveals that he first heard of Johnnie Ray (the subject of the fourth episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/DexysMidnightRunners song ("Come On Eileen" [[note]] "Poor old Johnnie Ray, Sounded sad upon the radio, Broke a million hearts in mono" [[/note]]). And (later still) that he first heard of Joe [=DiMaggio=] (the subject of the seventh episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel song ("Mrs. Robinson" [[note]] "Where have you gone, Joe [=DiMaggio=]? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Woo woo woo" [[/note]]).

* VindicatedByHistory: In-universe; discussed in the first episode with regards to Harry Truman who was unpopular when he was President but has since undergone this.

* AlliterativeName: Discussed during the Creator/MarilynMonroe episode, given that the lady originally known as Norma Jeane Mortenson used her mother's maiden name (Monroe) but wanted to use her actual first names, but was persuaded to go with Marilyn due to this trope.

* ConnectedAllAlong: Everything, in some way or another, is linked. For example, on the night she died, Creator/MarilynMonroe (who was briefly married to Joe [=DiMaggio=] and was good friends with Creator/MarlonBrando) spoke to [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]]'s brother-in-law on the phone. And Creator/DorisDay was once in a movie with UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan.

* ConnectedAllAlong: Everything, in some way or another, is linked.

* JumpCut: Discussed, as the song (and therefore the podcast) jumps from subject to subject.

''We Didn't Start the Fire'' is a modern history [[{{Podcast}} podcast]] produced by Crowd Network that ran for 123 weekly episodes between January 2021 and June 2023. Presented by American broadcaster Katie Puckrik and British sportswriter Tom Fordyce (formerly of ''Podcast/ThatPeterCrouchPodcast''), its premise is that it takes an episode to explain each of the people, places and events mentioned in Music/BillyJoel's 1989 hit "We Didn't Start the Fire" (hence the name). In order.

* BerserkButton: Katie ''really'' hates UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump. Who crops up more than you might think.
* TheCameo: By the fourth episode, they'd got Billy Joel himself to record an introduction.

* SmallReferencePools: Tom reveals that he first heard of Creator/DorisDay (the subject of the second episode) due to her being mentioned by name in a Music/{{WHAM}} song ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" [[note]] "You take the grey skies out of my way, You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day" [[/note]]). He later reveals that he first heard of Johnnie Ray (the subject of the fourth episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/DexysMidnightRunners song ("Come On Eileen" [[note]] Poor old Johnnie Ray, Sounded sad upon the radio, Broke a million hearts in mono" [[/note]]). And (later still) that he first heard of Joe [=DiMaggio=] (the subject of the seventh episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel song ("Mrs. Robinson" [[note]] "Where have you gone, Joe [=DiMaggio=]? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Woo woo woo" [[/note]]).

* SmallReferencePools: Tom reveals that he first heard of Creator/DorisDay (the subject of the second episode) due to her being mentioned by name in a Music/{{WHAM}} song ("Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" [[note]] "You take the grey skies out of my way, You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day" [[/note]]). He later reveals that he first heard of Johnnie Ray (the subject of the fourth episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/DexysMidnightRunners song ("Come On Eileen" [[note]] Poor old Johnnie Ray, Sounded sad upon the radio, Broke a million hearts in mono" [[/note]]). And that he first heard of Joe [=DiMaggio=] (the subject of the seventh episode) due to him being mentioned by name in a Music/SimonAndGarfunkel song ("Mrs. Robinson" [[note]] "Where have you gone, Joe [=DiMaggio=]? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Woo woo woo" [[/note]]).