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No Such Thing As A Forbidden Panettone

November 27, 2025·57 min·5 clips

Did a master baker's panettone, made with laxative manna, secretly take out three different popes?

This episode of No Such Thing As A Fish features the return of regular guest and QI researcher Anne Miller, alongside hosts Dan Schreiber, Andrew Hunter Murray, and James Harkin. Anne shares that her new book series, "Monster Diaries," which retells classical myths from the monster's perspective, is available for pre-order. Anne's fact reveals that traditional panettone must be hung upside down to cool for up to eight hours to prevent the dome from collapsing. Master baker Nicola Fiasconaro, who has baked for three popes, uses a yeast starter that has been fed every four hours since 1922. The panettone world championship, won by a Taiwanese team in 2025, deducts points if any team member fails to wear the required uniform, including a hat. Saint Blaise, the patron saint of choking and wool combers, is linked to panettone through a tradition of eating a saved, toasted piece on his feast day to ward off sore throats. A sixth-century remedy for a choking person involved commanding the obstruction to "come out bone if you are a bone." James Harkin explains that the giant walking keyboard from the film *Big* is based on real musical staircases in Indian temples, like the Aravatesvara Temple in Tamil Nadu. These temple steps produce notes from the Carnatic musical scale, similar to the "Scaramouche" section of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." The film's piano was invented by Remo Saraceni, a former NASA engineer who also created a stethoscope stereo system that plays music synchronized to a dancer's heartbeat. Dan Schreiber's fact states that three months after Alex Honnold's historic free solo climb of El Capitan in 2017, his mother Dierdre became the oldest woman to climb it at age 66. Dierdre Honnold learned to climb at 60 and later broke her own record by climbing El Capitan again at 70 with a foot injury. Alex Honnold prepared for his climb by meticulously memorizing every handhold and reportedly has a less reactive amygdala, which may affect his fear response. The episode's tone is conversational, humorous, and filled with tangents, as the hosts blend historical deep dives with personal anecdotes and cultural references. Listeners who enjoy quirky historical details, food science, and adventurous human stories will appreciate this episode. Those seeking a tightly focused, single-topic narrative might find the diversions less engaging.

As heard by us

Anne Miller's return turns monster-book chatter and body-swap trivia into easy, playful chaos.

Anne Miller's return gives this Fish episode its centre of gravity. The welcome back feels easy and unforced, and the chat around Monster Diaries and body-swap jokes keeps finding new angles without losing its shape.

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Why you'd press play

A comeback guest, a monster book, and a body-swap rabbit hole, all in one go.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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