The Poisoners’ Cabinet podcast toasts one million downloads
Offering a unique blend of historical true crime, comedy and expertly crafted cocktails, The Poisoners’ Cabinet podcast has achieved one million downloads.
Each episode sees hosts Nick Gordon and Sinead Hanna serve up twisted tales, intriguing criminals, and deliciously dark drinks!
Highlights from the recently launched series five include the mysterious and controversial death of the famed playwright Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan polymath John Dee, who dabbled in the occult and served as an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, the Zodiac Killer – one of America’s most infamous unsolved mysteries and how Queen Victoria faced numerous assassination attempts throughout her life.
Since its launch in 2020, the podcast has grown globally with over 1,090,855 downloads. The show is popular, particularly in the USA (45% of the audience) and the UK (30%), with dedicated fans across Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
Speaking on the series, host Sinead says: “As an independent podcast, we are blown away by the response the show has received and by our incredible fan base.
“We were fascinated by the lives of the so-called great poisoners – Guila Tofana, Mary Ann Cotton, Adelaide Bartlett, William Palmer, Dr Crippen – but also the laws and societal shifts around them.
“Why was poison so prevalent in the Victorian era and why were we literally putting it all over our houses?! It’s such a rich and varied piece of history that we never get tired of exploring.
“The show naturally expanded over the seasons to include all manner of strange crimes from across the centuries, from Romans and Tudors to a few modern day cases. And this format has brought us even more listeners from around the world.
“We’re fortunate that this niche slice of true crime found a massive and incredibly supportive community, and we look forward to tantalising them further in season five.”
Fellow host Nick adds: “Sinead and I met through theatre and bonded over our love of ‘lovely drinks’. The show started after we had a fair few daiquiris one evening and started Googling fun uses for arsenic around the home, and uncovered a treasure trove of little-know poisoning stories throughout history. something on why they started they podcast.
“While we have tremendous fun creating the episodes, we always wanted to put maximum effort into the research and format so people would get the best mix of weird history, true crime, and comedy.
“And the quality extends to the cocktails too! We include classic and new recipes from some of the best mixologists of all time, and the live taste testing shows just how right – and how wrong – dabbling in the drinks cabinet can go. We’ll probably never get over the Golden Cadillac incident though…(ep 29).
“It can be a big risk to put your friendship out on air for people to consume every week, so we knew we had to deliver great stories as well as great drinks to keep people hooked. Luckily our friendship has survived more than 200 very strong cocktails on the show!”
The Poisoners’ Cabinet is available on all major podcast platforms.