This week we're donning our sterilised plastic gloves, three face masks and a full hazmat suit as we prepare to deal with the world's most peculiar, disturbing and deadly epidemics. We're joined by outstanding historian and curator of one of the most informative and sinister Twitter feeds around, Mike Stuchbery.

Together we talk about renaissance nuns pretending to be cats, Singaporean men who think their wangers have disappeared and why it’s never a good idea to throw a smallpox party. We also discover the unusual genesis of cooties (hi America listeners!), dabble in some medieval witchcraft and discover why Portuguese schoolchildren have taken the biscuit with excuses for taking days off school.

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

Holding patterns everyone! Ben and Barry are joined by no one but themselves in this special one-off episode.

Together they go back through the first five subjects they talked about 76 episodes ago - worst psychological treatment, superhero, Beatles song, console game and protest - and uncover the stories of some of the best examples of each. As ever, they end up covering the globe and the history books: from 9th century Persia to modern day Liberia, via weaponised cows and a lot of Beatles trivia.