Have you ever wondered why football is called the beautiful game, why male footballers are paid so much, and female footballers much less so?

As the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Championships are hosted in Switzerland we look at the rise and fall and rise again of the women's game.

Why was the First World War a golden age? What was the impact of the ban from the FA in 1921? And can England's Lionesses retain their 2022 trophy?

Today 2.3 million girls play football around the world - are you one of them?

Narrated by Georgia Vyvyan Script by Poppy Faure Walker Produced by Camilla Akers-Douglas Sound editing by Lou Sawdy Theme music by James Burrell Music Instagram @wonderpodcasts X @wonder_podcasts Facebook @wonderpodcasts Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

Why are naughty children so appealing as characters?

Do you have to be a nice person to write children's books?

Was Walt Disney a villain?

We ask Sam Leith, the author of 'The Haunted Wood, A History of Childhood Reading' these questions, and many more

Produced by Camilla Akers-Douglas and Henrietta McMicking

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

It is one of the most famous, and mysterious, stone circles in the world but who built it, and why?

Was it an ancient calendar? A place of worship, or pilgrimage? Or a burial ground? Or, as some people have even suggested, a landing pad for alien spaceships?

What remains of this 5,000-year-old monument – which sits within a sacred landscape on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England – offers us some extraordinary clues.

Narrated by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Script by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Produced by Henrietta McMicking

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

One hundred years before the computer was even invented, Ada wrote the first-ever computer program. She was also a brilliant mathematician and an aristocratic Victorian.

We tell the remarkable true story of a digital pioneer, who was also the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. Every time we play a computer game, or listen to a podcast, we are a part of her legacy.

Narrated by Henrietta McMicking

Script by Henrietta McMicking

Produced by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

Have you ever thought about the importance of wee? Urine, to give it its proper name, has flowed through human history.

The Romans used it to whiten their togas as well as their teeth. Children in the Middle Ages worked as piss collectors because it was such a valued product in the leather and wool industries. In times of war wee has come into its own. Stale pee was used in the manufacture of gun powder. In the absence of clean water, it was used to disinfect wounds. And soldiers in the First World War placed urine-socked socks over their mouths to protect themselves from chlorine gas (when there weren't enough gas masks to go round).

There is so much more to wee than the waste liquid we flush down the toilet each day.

Narrated by Laura Howarth

Script by Henrietta McMicking

Produced by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

Have you ever wondered why we love playing games – board games, card games, computer games, even playground games like It and Kick the Can?

Games let us experiment and take risks in a safe, fun way. Many games involve luck – like the throw of the dice, the draw of the cards – but they also involve maths. And, sometimes, using maths can help you win…

Narrated by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Script by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Produced by Henrietta McMicking

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

What would it be like to discover a whole city hiding in the cloud forest?

This podcast – for parents and their children – tells the thrilling story of the rediscovery of Machu Picchu, the Andean citadel built by the Incas in 1400.

For hundreds of years, it was covered in undergrowth and known only to local people in a small corner of Peru. Then the American adventurer, Hiram Bingham, found it in 1911. The extraordinary mountaintop city has now been designated one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Narrated by Jamie Chetwood

Script by Henrietta McMicking

Produced by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk

Are pirates daring adventurers of the high seas or simply ruthless thieves who plunder ships, attack innocent passengers and send shivers down the spines of ordinary sailors?

This podcast – for parents and their children – reminds us that pirates can be dastardly and daring in equal measure, brave yet fuse-burningly terrifying, and not nearly so jolly as one might like to think.

Narrated by Oliver Akers-Douglas

Script by Camilla Akers-Douglas

Produced by Henrietta McMicking

Sound editing by Lou Sawdy

Theme music by James Burrell Music

Instagram @wonderpodcasts

X @wonder_podcasts

Facebook @wonderpodcasts

TikTok @the.wonder.podcast

Email camilla@wonderaudio.co.uk or henrietta@wonderaudio.co.uk