T minus 20
The year is 2006.
We head to the hills and learn reality is scripted.
Your Sony cyber-shot uploads 462 blurry regrets.
A Facebook poke makes everything 'complicated'.
And Twitter's like, "Cool story. You've got 140 characters... Go!".
T minus 20, rewind to this week in history 20 years ago with Joe and Mel.
Episodes
252 episodes
The week Google became a verb
Rewind to 11–17 June 2006, when Google officially became a verb, Nelly Furtado completed her glow-up from folk-pop darling to dancefloor queen and Pixar convinced an entire generation that a talking race car could have emotional depth.
When Nelly Furtado got promiscuous
Rewind to 4–10 June 2006…💃 New era, who dis? Nelly Furtado drops Loose and flips her entire brand overnight. Gone is the floaty ‘I’m Like a Bird’ era, in comes full Timbaland-produced main pop girl energy. It’s...
The Hills: the era of scripted reality begins
Rewind to 28 May – 3 June 2006 and suddenly everyone wants to move to LA, start an online business and dramatically stare out a window while Natasha Bedingfield plays in the background.👠 Reality TV gets a glow-up Th...
Charmed signs off and nothing feels resolved
Rewind to 21–27 May 2006 — where chaos, culture and a whole lot of feelings collided.🔮 The power of three… finally logs offCharmed ends after eight seasons of spell-casting, sisterhood and “how is that house still st...
Firecrotch – the line got crossed and no one blinked
Rewind to 14 – 20 May 2006: it’s science breakthroughs, shiny new tech and tabloid culture at its absolute messiest.🧬 The human blueprint… unlocked (kind of) Scientists publish the final human chromosome and suddenly th...
Before it was great: the PS3’s awkward debut
Rewind to 7 – 13 May 2006 — and it’s giving high-speed chaos, awkward tech flexes and absolute main character energy.🚌 When public transport goes rogue A former Dublin Bus driver hijacks a double-decker and turns peak h...
Natasha Bedingfield goes global with unwritten, fresh start vibes
Rewind to 30 April to 6 May 2006 — where billionaires are buying feelings in Cubist form, governments are controlling the weather (casual) and your main character moment has a full soundtrack.🎨 $95 million for a vibe Pi...
Beaconsfield mine rescue - the week Australia couldn’t look away
Rewind to 23 April – 29 April 2006 — and Australia’s glued to a rescue, metalheads are doing emotional homework, Coachella quietly changes music history and horror gets… deeply unsettling.⛏️ Trapped, televised, unforgettable
SOS! Rihanna’s taking over
Rewind to 16 April to 22 April 2006 — and the internet is arguing about journalism, Rihanna’s quietly becoming a global takeover, parody movies are still printing money and celebrity scandals are… very 2006.💅 Rihanna drops SOS<...
Bad Day was everywhere and Crazy suddenly disappeared
Rewind to 9 April to 15 April 2006 — and somehow one of the biggest songs of the year is about having a terrible day, another song is so popular it gets pulled from the charts and the hip hop world is hit with a loss that still echoes to...
So NoTORIous: Did Tori Spelling accidentally create influencer culture?
Rewind to 2 – 8 April 2006 — when reality TV got self-aware, club tracks got questionable and the weather channel was basically a thriller series 🌪️🎭 Tori Spelling breaks the fourth wall (and her own reputation) Before ...
From Girls Gone Wild to Stupid Girls: unpacking noughties sisterhood
Rewind to 26 March - 1 April 2006 — where Hollywood dreams, chaotic girlhood and peak mid-2000s culture collide in one very unfiltered episode.🎤 From Girls Gone Wild to finding your voice with Courtney Kocak We sit down...
The week Hannah Montana arrived and the internet learned to Tweet
Rewind to 19 March 2006 – 25 March 2006 and the world serves up cyclones, the birth of Twitter, Disney Channel domination and reality TV chaos.🎤 Hannah Montana arrives and Disney creates a superstar Disney Channel premi...
Bird flu panic: rewinding to the H5N1 scare of 2006
Rewind to 12 – 18 March 2006 🦠 Bird flu panic enters the chat The H5N1 avian influenza outbreak has governments quietly sweating. By early 2006 more than 150 people worldwide have died, the fatality rate sits aroun...
Sean Paul and the week nobody knew the lyrics
Rewind to 5 – 11 March 2006 and the world is juggling human rights debates, dancehall domination and the Pope casually flexing a 2GB iPod Nano.💃 Sean Paul breaks the language barrier Temperature hits the charts and nobo...
Ne-Yo’s So Sick takes over 2006
Rewind to 26 February – 4 Mar 2006💔 Ne-Yo owns every breakup In My Own Words drops and suddenly So Sick is playing in bedrooms, buses and badly lit school dances everywhere. Smooth vocals, emotional honesty and ringtone...
iTunes hits 1 billion downloads and your CD tower is suddenly obsolete
🎧 iTunes hits one billion downloads Apple celebrates its billionth song purchase, officially crowning digital downloads king. The lucky buyer scores iPods, an iMac and bragging rights while white earbuds dominate buses everywhere.&nb...
James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful = 2006 sad-boy anthem
Rewind to 12 – 18 Feb 2006💔 James Blunt makes everyone emotional “You’re Beautiful” becomes unavoidable worldwide, fuelling bus-window daydreams and breakup playlists everywhere. Turns out it’s actually about awkward ob...
When Dick Cheney shot a guy and Britney became public enemy #1
Rewind to 5 Feb 2006 to 11 Feb 2006🦆 Dick Cheney shoots a guy The Vice President accidentally shoots a man during a quail hunt and the White House somehow lets a local newspaper break the story first. No immediate apolo...
2006 State of the Union: when terrorism, oil and marriage dominated politics
Rewind to 29 Jan 2006 to 4 Feb 2006🇺🇸 State of the Union goes full time capsule George W. Bush lays out a world obsessed with terrorism, addicted to oil, anxious about immigration and still debating same-sex marriage as...
High School Musical debuts and accidentally launches a generation of theatre kids
Rewind to 22 Jan 2006 to 28 Jan 2006🎤 High school musical rewires your personality Disney drops a made-for-TV movie and accidentally creates a global tween religion. Zac Efron becomes your entire emotional support syste...
Summer programming: best bits of 2005 vol 5
🧻 Wikitorial wipeout. The LA Times tried letting the public edit their editorials. What they got instead? Porn, profanity and chaos in 36 hours. A short-lived democracy, quickly replaced by Ctrl+Alt+Nope.🦇 Batman begins again. ...
Summer programming: best bits of 2005 vol 4
🐶 Who’s a cloned boy? Snuppy the Afghan hound becomes the world’s first cloned dog, born after 1,000 embryos, 123 surrogates and more ethical debates than a philosophy major on Red Bull.🎤 Mariah's not-so-comeback. The...
Summer programming: best bits of 2005 vol 3
🧃 Belle Gibson enters Mel’s comments sectionIn one of the most unexpectedly cursed timeline moments of the year, Mel gets fact-checked by Belle Gibson — yes, that Belle Gibson — after she jumps into Mel’s Instagram...
Summer programming: best bits of 2005 vol 2
📹 A dating fail that created YouTubeBefore it hosted cat videos, K-pop fancams and the entire cultural output of Gen Z, YouTube began as… a dating site. In 2005 its founders uploaded a “hot or not but for love” concept that failed...