Vikings were on mushrooms. Booze may have cost us Gallipoli. The Nazis loved meth, and the Stone Age was more like the ‘stoned age’.

We tend to see the past as a dull, sober place – as a time of stiff collars and straight-laced conformity, when people’s bodies were as pure as their minds. We need to think again.

It turns out that many of the great events in history wouldn’t have happened if someone hadn’t got smashed. From presidents and prime ministers, soldiers and scientists, to explorers, writers, musos and more, many of mankind’s great movers and shakers might have been better off having a quiet lie-down. And there’s no one better placed to shine a light on their secrets than the ever-witty – and occasionally coherent – Eamon Evans.

Substance by substance and binge by binge, Tanked is your guide to all the trashy little moments that have helped change the course of our world.