Stuff You Missed in History Class
By HowStuffWorks.com
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Description
Join Holly and Tracy as they bring you the greatest and strangest Stuff You Missed In History Class in this podcast by HowStuffWorks.com.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1 |
CleanThe Cod Wars | A fishing territory dispute between Iceland and the U.K. started off with a cordial tone, but escalated into a serious conflict. | 10/3/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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2 |
CleanSLCC Live! Robber's Roost, Outlaw Hideout | Robber's Roost was a safe haven for outlaws, including Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. Learn about Robber's Roost from Stuff You Missed in History Class. | 9/28/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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3 |
CleanThe New Orleans 1900 Race Riot | In July 1900, an interaction between New Orleans police and two black men set off a chain of horrific events. | 9/26/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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4 |
CleanSLCC Live! How Historical Fiction Gets Made | Tracy and Holly with authors Bryan Young, E.B. Wheeler and Brian McClellan at SLCC about how they weave historical inspiration into their work. | 9/21/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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5 |
CleanMary Alice Nelson, aka Molly Spotted Elk | Molly was born on Indian Island, Maine, and she turned to dance to help her family make ends meet. But because audiences and companies in the U.S. pushed her toward stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, she eventually took her dancing to France. | 9/19/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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6 |
CleanLive at the DMA: Pierre de Coubertin and the Modern Olympics | Coubertin's vision to unite the world through sport launched the modern Olympic Games. But those first few times out, things weren't always smooth. | 9/14/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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7 |
CleanJohn Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry | John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, set out to create an armed revolution of emancipated slaves. Instead, it became a tipping point leading to the U.S. Civil War. | 9/12/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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8 |
CleanThe Montgolfier Brothers and Their Balloons | As man was looking to the skies and yearning to fly, two inventive brothers came up with an idea to set humans aloft. | 9/7/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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9 |
CleanThe London Match Girls Strike of 1888 | The London Match Girls Strike of 1888 was an important labor rights event, when factory workers protested hazardous and unfair working conditions. | 9/5/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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10 |
CleanPreliminary Emancipation Proclamation with John B. King | Secretary of Education Dr. John B. King Jr. discusses the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. | 8/31/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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11 |
CleanThomas Day’s Quest for the Perfect Wife | Thomas Day decided that the only way to have a perfect wife was to create one. So he adopted two orphans and attempted to train them. | 8/29/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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12 |
CleanThe Boy Jones, After Buckingham | Even though Edward Jones served two prison sentences for his intrusions into Buckingham palace, it seems that the authorities were willing to do almost anything to keep him away from London. | 8/24/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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13 |
CleanThe Boy Jones, Queen Victoria's Persistent Intruder | Not long after young Victoria became queen, a young man got into Buckingham Palace, wandered around, and attempted to steal several items. It was merely the first of many visits to the palace he would make. | 8/22/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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14 |
CleanAnglo-Cherokee War | During the French and Indian War, a clash between Cherokee tribes and the British -- who had been allies -- slowly escalated on the southern end of the larger conflict. | 8/17/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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15 |
CleanAnne Bonny & Mary Read | Famed lady pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read are often requested as a topic by listeners. but telling their story requires navigating some rather suspect historical accounts. | 8/15/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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16 |
CleanYosemite and James Hutchings, Pt. 2 | Because he saw himself as Yosemite's ambassador, Hutchings was surprised when the state of California told him his land claim was invalid. He fought the state for many years, and though he ultimately lost the battle, it didn't sever his ties to Yosemite. | 8/10/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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17 |
CleanYosemite and James Hutchings, Pt. 1 | Once Yosemite had been seen by white men, it became the focus of a great deal of attention, both for its natural wonders and for the potential money to be made there. James Hutchings spent the majority of his life writing and speaking about Yosemite. | 8/8/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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18 |
CleanBracero Program | For parts of the 20th century, the U.S. and Mexico had agreements in place allowing, and even encouraging, Mexican nationals to enter the U.S. to perform agricultural work and other labor in the American Southwest. | 8/3/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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19 |
CleanButter v. Margarine | Industries and governments had a really weird preoccupation with protecting people from margarine way before it was made with the hydrogenated oils that led to its unhealthy reputation in more recent years. There's even bootlegging involved. | 8/1/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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20 |
CleanIsaac Merrit Singer | While his name is most strongly associated with the sewing machine, Isaac Singer's life is a tale far beyond the story of mechanized stitching. A philanderer and cut throat businessman, Singer managed to accrue huge sums of wealth in his later life. | 7/27/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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21 |
CleanDesmond T. Doss | Doss was the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor, though he's not the only one. Two other men, Thomas W. Bennett and Joseph G. LaPointe, Jr. also showed tremendous valor and received the same award, though posthumously. | 7/25/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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22 |
CleanU.S. Contraband Camps | When three escaped slaves showed up at a Union position during the U.S. Civil War, the decision of how to handle the situation fell to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler. His actions led to a situation for which the government was simply not prepared. | 7/20/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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23 |
CleanUnearthed! in July! | We're halfway through the year, and we have SO MANY unearthed items already! So, after polling listeners, we're adding a mid-year edition of our Unearthed! series. | 7/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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24 |
CleanAviatrix Lilian Bland | Miss Bland was a jockey, a sports photographer, a journalist, a car dealer and a pioneer farmer. She also built Ireland's first powered airplane, entirely by hand, and successfully piloted it. | 7/13/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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25 |
CleanMary Ann Shadd Cary | She was a black Canadian-American who became the first woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper. She advocated against slavery, for better lives for free black people, and for women’s rights. | 7/11/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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26 |
CleanThe Late Victorian Manure Crisis | In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many cities were facing the same problem: so much horse manure, they couldn't keep up with it. It created unhygienic conditions, and very real problems. | 7/6/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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27 |
CleanThe Jacobite Rising of 1745 | Portrayals of this piece of Scottish and English history are often simultaneously romanticized and oversimplified. It's a great deal more complicated than any one event, and is instead the result of many contributing factors. | 7/4/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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28 |
CleanThe Discovery of 'Planet' Ceres | For a long time, astronomers believed that there must have been a planet lurking in the gap between Mars and Jupiter. What they found was Ceres, and this object's story is one of scientific cattiness and our ever-evolving understanding of space. | 6/29/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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29 |
CleanThe Achaemenid Empire | The Achaemenid Empire was founded by Cyrus II in the 6th century BCE, and it became an empire unlike any the world had seen up to that point. | 6/27/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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30 |
CleanBayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement (Part 2) | Because of his previous ties to the Communist Party, his race, and his sexual orientation, the McCarthy era was extremely dangerous for Rustin. This was one of many reasons why his activism focused on other countries in the 1950s. | 6/22/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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31 |
CleanBayard Rustin, 'Angelic Troublemaker' (Part 1) | Bayard Rustin was an openly gay black man born in 1912. He spent his life working tirelessly for equal rights, peace, democracy, and economic equality, including being one of the primary planners of the 1963 March on Washington. | 6/20/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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32 |
CleanHarriet Tubman, Union Spy (Part 2) | There was a whole lot more to Harriet Tubman’s life and work than her time as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. During the United States Civil War, she worked as a Union spy, eventually earning the nickname "General." | 6/15/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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33 |
CleanHarriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad (Part 1) | Most people are familiar with her involvement with the Underground Railroad, but Harriet Tubman was also a spy for the Union during the Civil War, among many other things. Untangling the truth from the myth is the trickiest part of her story. | 6/13/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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34 |
CleanRaymond Bessone, Mister Teasie-Weasie | British hair guru Raymond Bessone became the first celebrity hair stylist by leveraging the post-war desire for glamor and his own innate skill at marketing. His larger-than-life persona and skill with shears made his coiffures the pinnacle of style. | 6/8/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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35 |
CleanSaint Gertrude of Nivelles | She's sometimes called the patron saint of cats, and the story of Gertrude's religious devotion starts when she was just a young child. Her family's history is important, because they formed the roots of the Carolingian dynasty. | 6/6/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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36 |
CleanThe Eruption at Heimaey | In 1973, after a series of earthquakes, a fissure was opened up on the eastern side of the Icelandic island of Heimaey. As the eruption developed over time, it became more dangerous, and a variety of measures were undertaken to stop the flow of lava. | 6/1/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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37 |
CleanThe Women of Bauhaus | While the Bauhaus school is well known, and its original manifesto proclaimed an environment of equality, most of the women who went to the school were ushered into specific courses, rather than given their choice of studies. | 5/30/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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38 |
CleanApril Calahan on France's Fashionable Resistance | Fashion historian April Calahan joined Holly for a talk about the surprising ways that women of France protested German occupation during WWII. | 5/25/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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39 |
CleanTarrare, a Case of Polyphagia | Insatiable hunger completely dominated every aspect of this French man in the 18th century. His life took a series of twists and turns, but his condition was never truly diagnosed or cured. | 5/23/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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40 |
CleanElisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun | No starving artist, Vigée Le Brun was the first woman to ever become a court painter in France when she was commissioned to paint Marie Antoinette. She painted royalty and nobility throughout Europe, even as her personal life had its ups and downs. | 5/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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41 |
CleanSix Impossible Episodes: Possible Apocrypha | We get a lot of requests for topics that are very interesting, but for which there's very little information. In some cases, those people or events may have never existed. Here's a collection of six such tales. | 5/16/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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42 |
CleanHercules Mulligan, Spy on the Inside Pt. 2 | After years of protesting and resisting British rule in New York, Mulligan passed important information on to George Washington, possibly saving his life. How did that one-time act of happenstance blossomed into a career as a full-time spy? | 5/11/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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43 |
CleanHercules Mulligan, Spy on the Inside Pt. 1 | -- | 5/9/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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44 |
CleanWomen in the USPS | Women have been part of mail delivery in the U.S. since colonial times, but it took centuries for women postal workers to become commonplace. Even through times when certain USPS jobs were off limits to them, women were still vital to the postal service. | 5/4/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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45 |
CleanLive From FanX: Nazis, the Occult and Indiana Jones | It’s fairly common knowledge that the Nazis were prolific looters and that there was occult interest among the officers of the organization. How weird did things actually get, and how close are the Indiana Jones movies to what really happened? | 5/2/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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46 |
CleanLive From FanX: Salt Lake City's Place in Film History | You may not know that Salt Lake City has been home to some key moments in film history. Guest host Bryan Young joins Holly to talk about everything from Charlie Chaplin to recent movies. | 4/27/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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47 |
CleanA Brief History of the 'White Wedding' | "Have you ever wondered why so many of today's weddings feature white dresses, tiered cakes and registries for silver and dishes? Queen Victoria (and the rest of her era) get a lot of the credit. " | 4/25/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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48 |
CleanThe Easter Rising of 1916 | The Easter Rising is considered to be one of the most pivotal events in modern Irish history, and it was a precursor to a number of other events that have happened since then, both within and outside of Ireland. | 4/20/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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49 |
CleanA History of Pizza Live at C2E2 | Pizza-like foods go way, way back in history, long before we associated the delicious dish with Italy. How did pizza's pedigree develop, and how did it get to its second home in the U.S.? | 4/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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50 |
CleanOliver Haugh, Serial Killer Pt. 2 | After his parents' home burned down under mysterious circumstances, Oliver Haugh was put on trial for murder. Haugh did little to help his own case, and hoped to be found insane so he could serve a shorter time in an asylum. | 4/13/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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51 |
CleanOliver Haugh, Serial Killer Pt. 1 | In his early career Dr. Haugh claimed to be working on the next step in human evolution. But he was really a man enslaved by his addiction to cocaine and morphine. | 4/11/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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52 |
CleanThe Shared Sign Language of Martha's Vineyard | -- | 4/6/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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53 |
CleanInterview: Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso | Writer Kali Nicole Gross joins Tracy to discuss a murder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1887. The details of the investigation and trial offer insight into the culture of the the post-Reconstruction era, particularly in regards to race. | 4/4/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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54 |
CleanZheng He and the Treasure Ships | Zheng He led expeditionary voyages from China in the 15th century. While there are many tall tales about his accomplishments, his actual life was pretty spectacular without them. | 3/30/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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55 |
CleanThe Tupac Amaru Rebellion | The Tupac Amaru rebellion was a conflict between Spain and its colonies in South America which took place from 1780 to 1783. | 3/28/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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56 |
CleanWASP of WWII with Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck, Part 2 | The duties of the women of the WASP evolved over time, and some of them were quite dangerous. And once the program ended, there were -- and still are -- controversies over whether the women involved should be recognized as military veterans. | 3/23/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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57 |
CleanWASP of WWII with Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck, Part 1 | The Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII was formed to see if women could fly military aircraft, and potentially free up male noncombat pilots to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Our expert guest reveals that there's so much more to the story, though. | 3/21/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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58 |
CleanKnitting's Early History | Because of its functionality in providing needed clothing for humans, knitting has been around for a long time. Exactly how long isn’t entirely clear, but we do know a good bit about how knitting has traveled with us humans through time. | 3/16/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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59 |
CleanDenmark's Early Royalty and the Jelling Stones | The beginning of Denmark's monarchy more than a thousand years ago is linked to two large rune stones at Jelling. Is it possible that the stones were part of an effort on Harald Blåtand's part to revise the history of his parents, Gorm and Thyre? | 3/14/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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60 |
CleanThe Crescent Hotel and Norman Baker | Eureka Springs, Arkansas is home to a beautiful Victorian hotel with a long and winding history. A colorful part of that history involves a man who claimed that doctors couldn't be trusted, and that he had the cure for cancer. | 3/9/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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61 |
CleanHildegard von Bingen | Hildegard was a Christian mystic of medieval Europe who was way, way ahead of her time. If she had lived a few hundred years later, and been male, people probably would have called her a renaissance man. | 3/7/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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62 |
CleanLeprosy and the Ko'olau Rebellion | When Hansen’s disease, was introduced to Hawaii, businessmen, especially from the U.S., were having an increasing influence on the Hawaiian government. That influence directly affected how Hawaii handled the disease. | 3/2/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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63 |
CleanThe Great Vowel Shift, or A Brief History of English | Language is alive. It shifts and changes; pronunciations and spellings morph throughout time. English is no exception. | 2/29/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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64 |
CleanChina and Japan After the Doolittle Raid | After the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, the punishment that Japanese forces doled out in China for their part in helping the U.S. was brutal and devastating. From terror occupations to biological warfare, many of China's towns were systematically destroyed. | 2/24/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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65 |
CleanThe Crayola Crayon Story | It's now a childhood classic, but the modern Crayola crayon has roots in the same company where carbon black was made for car tires at the turn of the 20th century. But people were creating art with colored implements before Binney and Smith made theirs. | 2/22/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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66 |
CleanRobert Smalls: From Contraband to Congress | After his daring and impressive escape from slavery, Smalls was considered to be contraband, which was a term used for formerly enslaved people who joined the Union. But this was just the beginning of an impressive career as a free man. | 2/17/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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67 |
CleanThe Incredible Escape of Robert Smalls | Robert Smalls was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina in 1839. He escaped from enslavement during the U.S. Civil War, in a particularly dramatic fashion. | 2/15/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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68 |
CleanJimmy Doolittle and the Doolittle Raid | The Doolittle Raid was an attack on Japan launched by the U.S. in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. But the leader of the mission was a legend long before his daring efforts in WWII. | 2/10/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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69 |
CleanA Brief History of the Pietà | While Michelangelo's sculpture of Mary holding the deceased body of Christ is the most famous depiction of that moment in art, that scene has been the focus of many works. And once, the famous version took a trip across the ocean. | 2/8/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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70 |
CleanThe Vanport Flood | On May 30, 1948, a flood destroyed Vanport, Oregon. What really makes the story more than a historical footnote is how it tied in to the racial makeup of both Portland and Oregon at the time. | 2/3/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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71 |
CleanThe Bawdy House Riots of 1668 | In early modern London, there was a tradition of sorts where apprentices would amass on holidays and physically destroy brothels. One of the largest such riot took place during Easter week in 1668, and it was a complicated event. | 2/1/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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72 |
CleanQueen Victoria: The Lady Hastings Scandal | Queen Victoria reigned for more than six decades, but her early years as ruler were peppered with a number of disastrous missteps. By participating in a horrible rumor campaign about her mother’s lady-in-waiting, she ended up damaging her own reputation | 1/27/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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73 |
CleanThe Honey War | the Honey War wasn't really about honey. It was a dispute over state lines. There are some bee trees in the mix, as well as some truly sub-par surveying work. It’s a story full of silliness, pride, and bureaucracy. | 1/25/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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74 |
CleanCourrières Mine Disaster of 1906 | One of the worst mining tragedies in history, the explosion that sent fire through the Courrières mine tunnels claimed more than a thousand lives. It also created awareness of dangerous issues in mines that hadn't received much focus up to that point. | 1/20/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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75 |
CleanThe Schoolhouse Blizzard | In 1888, a blizzard so sudden and severe hit the American Midwest and claimed the lives of hundreds, some of whom died just outside the safety of shelter. Weather prediction of the fast-moving storm simply didn't reach people in time to prepare them. | 1/18/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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76 |
CleanDame Nellie Melba, Part 2 | The second part of our episode on the Australian diva focuses on her career in the early 1900s, her charity work and her belief that singers had to work -- and work hard -- to be constantly perfecting their technique. | 1/13/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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77 |
CleanDame Nellie Melba, Part 1 | Born Helen Porter Mitchell in Melbourne, Australia in 1861, Nellie Melba would rise to fame as a singer. Her life was everything you'd expect from a diva: foods named for her, command performances and a scandalous royal affair. | 1/11/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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78 |
CleanAuthor Interview: Fashion History With April Calahan | April has two books out about fashion history, one featuring historical fashion plates, and another on the pochoir technique used to create fashion illustrations in the early 20th century. | 1/6/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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79 |
CleanUnearthed in 2015, Part 2 | More of the 2015 news items of historical significance! The second part of this topic includes firearms, letters, blackboards, sculpture and of course, mass graves and exhumations. | 1/4/2016 | Free | View in iTunes |
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80 |
CleanUnearthed in 2015, Part 1 | As has become an annual tradition on the show, we’re capping off 2015 slash starting 2016 with a roundup of things that have been unearthed, either figuratively or literally, over the year. | 12/30/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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81 |
CleanThe Whiskey Rebellion | Resistance to excise taxes levied against U.S. whiskey distilleries in the 1790s led to violence and rebellion. Tensions finally came to a head on Christmas day in 1794. | 12/28/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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82 |
CleanThe Krampus and Friends Holiday Special, Part 2 | In addition to the characters we talked about on our last episode, there are even more colorful holiday traditions that may be a bit surprising to people who didn't grow up with them. That includes the ogress of Iceland and the Catalan pooping log. | 12/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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83 |
CleanThe Krampus and Friends Holiday Special, Part 1 | Krampus has become really popular in recent years, but there are many holiday characters from various cultures around the world that all have fascinating histories. For example, Italy's La Befana and the Netherlands version of St. Nick, Sinterklaas. | 12/21/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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84 |
CleanThe Disappearance of the Sodder Children | The Sodder family's West Virginia home caught fire on Christmas Eve, 1945. Five of the children were never seen again, though their bodies weren’t recovered from the rubble. | 12/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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85 |
CleanOur Most-requested Episodes (We Already Have) | We often get episode requests, but because there are so many episodes in the back catalog, some of the most common requests have already been covered. So in today’s podcast we’re going to hit the highlights on the episodes people ask for again and aga | 12/14/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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86 |
CleanKatharine Dexter McCormick: The Money Behind the Pill | -- | 12/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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87 |
CleanThe Road to the Declaration of Sentiments | Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott met in London in 1840 and bonded instantly over a shared anger at injustices against women. Their friendship led to the creation the Women's Rights Convention in 1848, and the signing of a pivotal document. | 12/7/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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88 |
CleanA Brief History of Diving Technology | Humans have always longed to explore underwater, but the need to breathe air has been an obstacle. From as far back as the 4th century B.C.E., clever inventors have been designing technology to give us face time with the creatures of the sea. | 12/2/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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89 |
CleanThe Gallipoli Campaign | One of the most infamous aspects of World War I was its long, brutal stalemate along the enormous system of trenches known as the Western Front. The powers involved all expected the war to be over quickly, but it reached an impasse almost immediately. | 11/30/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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90 |
CleanSophia Duleep Singh, Part 2: Suffragette Princess | Sophia Duleep Singh's education was focused on turning her into a proper lady, in line with her status as a princess. But she also became deeply involved in the Women's Social and Political Union, a radical arm of the women's suffrage movement in Britain. | 11/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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91 |
CleanSophia Duleep Singh, Part 1: Princess In Exile | A princess of the Sikh empire, Sophia Duleep Singh grew up in Great Britain, and was Queen Victoria's god daughter. But her childhood was not exactly a charmed one, and her family, caught between two worlds, experienced great upheaval and tragedy. | 11/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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92 |
CleanSt. Clair's Defeat, or the Battle of a Thousand Slain | In 1791, a confederation of Native American tribes destroyed about half of the American army. The catalyst for that conflict was a lengthy period in which unfair treaties, biased against native peoples, were all too common. | 11/18/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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93 |
Clean'Durable' Mike Malloy | In 1932, a speakeasy owner and several friends planned to commit a murder to cash in fraudulent insurance policies. But carrying out their plot was much more difficult than they anticipated. | 11/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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94 |
CleanNY Super Week LIVE: Assassination History Pt. 2 | Part two of our live show is the Q&A portion of the evening. Our audience asked such amazing and insightful questions that it resulted in some great discussion about assassinations. | 11/11/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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95 |
CleanNY Super Week LIVE: Assassination History Pt. 1 | In October, we went to New York Super Week for our first live show! Joining us was author Bryan Young, who wrote a book about presidential assassinations (and attempts) ... for children. It's just as delightful as you think it is. | 11/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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96 |
CleanThe Life and Times of Sir Isaac Newton | You may know the apple/gravity story, but Isaac Newton's life was so much more than that. Not only did he contribute huge concepts to physics, mathematics and astronomy, he also busted counterfeiters. | 11/4/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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97 |
CleanThe Harlem Hellfighters and Henry Johnson | In WWI, a black U.S. Army unit became one of the most decorated of the war. When these soldiers returned home, they were greeted as heroes, but were still targets of segregation, discrimination and oppression. | 11/2/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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98 |
CleanGilles Garnier, the Werewolf of Dole | Sixteenth-century France had a serious case of werewolf panic. Did Garnier really transform into lupine form and attack and eat humans? Or were the gruesome deaths of several children merely the work of wild animals? | 10/28/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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99 |
CleanA Brief History of Moonshine | People have fermented foods to make alcohol for much of human history. For this episode, when we refer to “moonshine,” we’re talking specifically about illegal liquor North America. | 10/26/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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100 |
CleanHistory Mysteries Double Feature | Two troubling tales from the 1920s share the stage in this episode. First, newlyweds that vanished on what would have been a historic boating trip. Second, a family murdered by someone who may have been hiding in their house for weeks or months. | 10/21/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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101 |
CleanAuthor Interview: Jason Surrell and The Haunted Mansion | To celebrate the Halloween season with a little Disney flair, Holly chatted with the author of "The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic" about the beloved theme park attraction and balancing history and innovation. | 10/19/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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102 |
CleanLinda Hazzard and Starvation Heights | Hazzard had no medical training but called herself a doctor. Her patients often signed over all their money to her, gave her their jewelry, and made her their legal guardian, even as she starved them to death in a “sanitarium” in rural Washington. | 10/14/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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103 |
CleanSir Christopher Lee | -- | 10/12/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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104 |
CleanA Brief History of Redlining, Part 2 | Part two of this discussion of redlining explores the language that assessors used when making color-coded maps of neighborhoods in segregated cities. These maps were used to determine whether mortgage lending in those neighborhoods was desirable | 10/7/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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105 |
CleanA Brief History of Redlining, Part 1 | Redlining is a word used to describe a lot of different patterns of economic discrimination. But during the Great Depression, real estate-related discrimination included systemized grading of neighborhoods based on the races that lived there. | 10/5/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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106 |
CleanA Historically Inspired Gentleman's Wardrobe | Jason Merrill of Blackbird Finery joins Holly in the studio to talk about adopting the styles and accessories of yesteryear into modern wardrobes. | 9/30/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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107 |
CleanMacario Garcia | Macario Garcia was a Mexican-born soldier who served in the U.S. military in WWII, earning a Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart. But after his homecoming as a hero, he was involved in an incident which launched a debate about racial discrimination. | 9/28/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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108 |
CleanThe Oregon Trail: An Interview With Rinker Buck | Author Rinker Buck's new book details the trip he and his brother Nick made along the Oregon Trail. Holly chatted with Buck about his journey, his writing and his love of history. | 9/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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109 |
CleanLisztomania | Franz Liszt was a pianist, a composer and a conductor, and basically the first rock star who drove fans into fits of swooning and screaming. Some fans even stole the detritus of his life (unfinished coffee, broken piano strings) to carry with them. | 9/21/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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110 |
CleanSix More Impossible Episodes | These are six (more) subjects frequently requested by listeners, but that aren't really workable as stand-alone episodes for one reason or another. From Sybil Ludington to Elizabeth Bathory, you'll get a little about each of these six popular topics. | 9/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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111 |
CleanThe Black Hole of Calcutta | In 1756, after a skirmish between the British East India Company and the nawab of Bengal, dozens of captives were put into a holding cell intended for only a few people overnight. Most of them didn't make it out alive. | 9/14/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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112 |
CleanAsia and the 'New World': An Interview with Dennis Carr | It's easy to think of globalization as a new invention, but it really has its roots in the 16th century. Museum of Fine Arts Boston curator Dennis Carr talks to us about Asian influences on art in the colonial Americas thanks to this global trade. | 9/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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113 |
CleanEmmy Noether, Mathematics Trailblazer | In the early 20th century in Germany, Emmy Noether pursued a career in mathematics, despite many obstacles in her path. She became one of the most respected members of her field, and developed mathematical theory that's still important today. | 9/7/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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114 |
CleanThe Unsinkable Violet Jessop | We love to talk about shipwrecks, but Violet Jessop was a shipwreck survivor -- several times over. She traveled the world aboard some of the most famous ocean liners of all time. | 9/2/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Battle of Guilford Courthouse | In fall of 1778, British forces shifted their efforts in the American Revolutionary War to the southern states. Major General Nathaniel Greene and his troops went up against Charles Cornwallis in a battle that was won on a technicality. | 8/31/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Franco-Mexican Pastry War | When a French pastry chef complained to King Louis-Phillippe that his shop in Mexico was destroyed in a riot, it catalyzed a conflict between the two nations. But the military action of the Pastry War was really about a trade agreements and unpaid debts. | 8/26/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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117 |
CleanGood Humor v. Popsicle | There was a time when Popsicle and Good Humor couldn’t stop suing one another about frozen treats on sticks. Many legal battles were fought over milk fat, the shapes of the desserts and the definition of the word "sherbet." | 8/24/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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118 |
CleanJoe Carstairs, Part 2 | As Carstair's speedboat racing career faltered, the heiress traveled the world and found other diversions, until she decided to purchase an island in the Bahamas. Then she turned Whale Cay into a kingdom of her own design. | 8/19/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanJoe Carstairs, Part 1 | Marion Carstairs, who preferred the name Joe, was an early 20th-century heiress who bucked traditional gender roles and for a time, hid her wealth from even her closest friends. She also became a very successful speadboat racer. | 8/17/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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120 |
CleanThe Billion Dollar Spy with Author David E. Hoffman | During the Cold War, the CIA and KGB were in a constant game of cat and mouse to steal each other's secrets. David E. Hoffman talks with us about the work of one incredibly important spy, who is the subject of his latest book. | 8/12/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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121 |
CleanThe Vanishing of the U.S.S. Cyclops | In 1918, a U.S. Navy collier vanished without a trace after leaving Barbados. The ultimate fate of the Cyclops remains a mystery almost 100 years later, but there are certainly plenty of theories about what happened. | 8/10/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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122 |
CleanThe Amazons of Dahomey | The kingdom of Dahomey may have had the world’s first full-time, all-female combat fighting force. How did these women rise to become some of history’s fiercest warriors, and what happened to them? | 8/5/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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123 |
CleanThe Phaistos Disk of Minoan Crete | Like other artifacts that defy deciphering, this clay disk, found on Crete in the early 1900s, has puzzled researchers and stirred up controversy for decades. Is it a religious incantation, a calendar, a spell? Or is it all a pictogram hoax? | 8/3/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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124 |
CleanMary Ann Cotton | In the mid-1800s, Mary Ann Cotton is believed to have poisoned as many as 21 people with arsenic, many of them her own children. She left a trail of bodies behind her everywhere she went, but it was her cavalier remarks that finally drew suspicion. | 7/29/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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125 |
CleanCalamity Jane | Calamity Jane is one of those historical figures whose reputation has in many ways eclipsed the real story. But she was, without a doubt, a unique character who in many ways lived outside the social norms of her time. | 7/27/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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126 |
CleanDahomey and the Royal Palaces of Abomey | The Royal Palaces of Abomey are a series of earthen palaces in what is now Benin. The complex is culturally and historically important to West Africa, but the source of much of the wealth that built those palaces was the Atlantic slave trade. | 7/22/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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127 |
CleanDiogenes of Sinope | Diogenes of Sinope lived was the father of the Cynicism school of philosophy. He was also an incredibly eccentric figure who spoke out against pretense, and he used humor to convey his ideals. | 7/20/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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128 |
CleanA Condensed History of Rhodesia | In the 1888, Cecil Rhodes and John Smith Moffat duped the king of the Ndebele people into a treaty which led to the expansion of British territory in Africa. From then until the late 1900s, Rhodesia was governed by a white minority. | 7/15/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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129 |
CleanA Brief History of Peanut Butter | Peanut butter got its name in the 18th century, but it's been around in some form for hundreds and hundreds of years. The more modern history of the spread features changes to the recipe and even a little litigation with the FDA. | 7/13/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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130 |
CleanChild Migrant Program | In the 19th and 20th centuries, 150,000 child migrants were sent from Britain to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Rhodesia. Many of these children ended up in far worse conditions than they left behind. | 7/8/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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131 |
CleanDr. Virginia Apgar | When babies are born, one of the tools doctors use to measure whether they’re thriving on their own is the Apgar score. Dr. Virginia Apgar broke new ground in the fields of obstetrics and anesthesiology in the middle of the 20th century. | 7/6/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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132 |
CleanA Brief History of Harmonicas | The deceptively simple harmonica has roots as far back as ancient China, though it really came into its own in Europe in the 1800s. | 7/1/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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133 |
CleanOlive Oatman | In 1851, Olive Oatman's family was attacked while traveling near the Gila River in Arizona. Olive was taken by her attackers, and lived for five years with Native Americans before being ransomed by the U.S. government. | 6/29/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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134 |
CleanArchaeology Interview: Harvard Indian College | Holly chats with archaeologists Patricia Capone and Diana Loren about Harvard’s Indian College, the school’s importance to Colonial history and the ongoing archaeology of Harvard Yard. | 6/24/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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135 |
CleanHenry Gerber and Chicago's Society for Human Rights | In the 1920s, the Society for Human Rights was founded in Chicago with the intent to decriminalize homosexuality. The society's founder was inspired by Germany's homosexual emancipation movement. | 6/22/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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136 |
CleanThe Compton's Cafeteria Riot | In 1966, a restaurant in San Francisco's Tenderloin district was the site of a violent incident in LGBT history. After the riot, a grassroots effort grew to improve relationships between police and Tenderloin's transgender commnity. | 6/17/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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137 |
CleanHokusai | Hokusai lived during a time when there was not a lot of contact between Japan and the West. But even so, he drew some influence form Western art, and Western art was greatly influenced by his own work. | 6/15/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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138 |
CleanNate DiMeo's Memory Palace | Tracy and Holly talk with fellow podcaster Nate DiMeo of The Memory Palace about his research and writing process. You'll also get to listen to two of Nate's episodes along the way! | 6/10/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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139 |
CleanCharles IX of France | Much like many of the other mad royals that have been discussed on the podcast through the years, Charles IX of France was prone to fits of rage so intense that people at court feared for their lives. | 6/8/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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140 |
CleanThe American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 2 | Once the effort to import hippos to the U.S. got the backing of a politician, two men with wild and intertwined histories, Frederick Russel Burnham and Fritz Duquesne, were brought on board to serve as experts and advocates. | 6/3/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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141 |
CleanThe American Hippo Ranch Plan, Part 1 | In 1910, the U.S. had a meat shortage and a water hyacinth overgrowth problem. The obvious solution to the double dilemma: Import hippos from Africa. | 6/1/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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142 |
CleanAn Interview With Dr. Elizabeth P. Archibald: Ask the Past | Dr. Elizabeth P. Archibald of Ask the Past has delved deep into old manuscripts to find pertinent and impertinent advice from the past. In this interview, she discusses the history of how-tos and her new book. | 5/27/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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143 |
CleanA Brief History of Time Capsules | People feel very strongly about time capsules, even though the contents are often a little underwhelming. What actually qualifies as a time capsule, and what are some of the most notable ones? | 5/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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144 |
CleanFrankie Manning and the Lindy Hop, Part 2 | Once Manning became a professional dancer and choreographer, his work took him all over the world. After WWII derailed his swing dancing, he had a hard time returning to a world where musical tastes had changed. | 5/20/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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145 |
CleanFrankie Manning and the Lindy Hop, Part 1 | Frankie Manning grew up loving dance, learning and practicing in ballrooms and private parties in New York. His innovations in creating new moves for the Lindy hop led him from dancing as a hobby to a career as a performer. | 5/18/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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146 |
CleanThe Wright Brothers: An Interview With David McCullough | David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, talks about his research and discoveries about the Wright brothers, their extreme determination, their family, and the many, many people who played parts in their great success as innovators. | 5/13/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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147 |
CleanThe St. Kitts Slave Revolt of 1834 | Until the 1830s, the dominant industry on St. Kitts was sugar, and the majority of the people living there were enslaved Africans who kept that industry going. When the act that was supposed to free them fell short of doing so, the slaves rebelled. | 5/11/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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148 |
CleanThe Siege of Béxar | -- | 5/6/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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149 |
CleanAlice Roosevelt | The eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt was a firebrand who never shied away from the public eye. She was nicknamed “the Second Washington Monument” because of her social power, which she parlayed into political influence. | 5/4/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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150 |
CleanTwo Other Alcotts: Bronson and May | Louisa was not the only notable Alcott. Her father, Bronson Alcott, made a name for himself as a philosopher and a teacher. And her youngest sister, May Alcott, was an artist, who was really growing in prominence when she died at a sadly early age. | 4/29/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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151 |
CleanLouisa May Alcott | Once you examine Louisa May Alcott's life story, the inspirations for her writing become clear. Her parents were idealists who struggled to make ends meet, but above all, they prioritized their family. | 4/27/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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152 |
CleanThe Sutherland Sisters | In the late 1800s, seven sisters with musical talent and incredibly long hair made waves in the circus and on the stage. They made millions as performers and haircare product moguls, but their personal lives were plagued with eccentricity. | 4/22/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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153 |
CleanThe Sham Battle and the Cochecho Massacre | It was half performance for the British troops, and half actual sham, and it led to an attack on Dover by the Pennacook tribe in 1689. | 4/20/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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154 |
CleanS.A. Andrée and the 1897 North Pole Balloon Mission | Andrée hoped to succeed in reaching the North Pole where others had failed by doing it by air. With a seemingly endless positivity, he and two other men hoped to earn bragging rights for Sweden by reaching the pole. | 4/15/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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155 |
CleanThe Lady Who Turned to Soap | Saponification is the process of turning to soap, and in certain conditions, cadavers do it. The Soap Lady is one of the most famous cases of an adipocere-covered corpse, but there are many like her. | 4/13/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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156 |
CleanImmigration History: Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Part 2 | The second half of our interview with Dr. Annie Polland from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum focuses on specific figures in the building's history and ongoing research and expansion projects. | 4/8/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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157 |
CleanImmigration History: Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Part 1 | The U.S. is, at its heart, a nation of immigrants. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum works to preserve the history of many famillies who left their home countries to start lives in New York. | 4/6/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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158 |
CleanThe Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 2 | As the New York Sun's series of astonishing moon discoveries concluded, most people recognized that it was a hoax. But what made people buy into the tall tale in the first place? | 4/1/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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159 |
CleanThe Great Moon Hoax of 1835, Part 1 | In August 1835, the New York Sun ran a series about some utterly mind-blowing discoveries made by Sir John Herschel about the lunar surface. The serial had everything: moon poppies, goat-like unicorns, lunar beavers and even bat people. | 3/30/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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160 |
CleanP.A.R.C., Mills and Special Education | Until 1975, children with disabilities in the U.S. weren’t guaranteed the right to a public education. The ruling in Brown v. Board sparked a series of cases related to children who had been segregated or restricted from schools based on disabilities. | 3/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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161 |
CleanThe History of Carousels | Carousels are part of childhood, but they were originally billed as an entertainment for adults and children alike. And even further back than that, it's believed that they were used to train horsemen. | 3/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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162 |
CleanDr. Vera Peters | Dr. Peters helped revolutionize the treatment of both breast cancer and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But, at the time, her work was largely dismissed. | 3/18/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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163 |
CleanKing Djoser and Egypt's First Pyramid | The pyramids at Giza are iconic Egyptian landmarks, but they weren't the first to appear. Djoser and his vizier Imhotep are credited with starting the pyramid trend. | 3/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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164 |
CleanHartford Circus Fire | In 1944, one of the most disastrous fires in U.S. history broke out during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance. Dozens of lives were lost and hundreds of people were injured as the largest big top in the country was consumed by flames. | 3/11/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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165 |
CleanThe Night Witches | The Night Witches were an all-female bombing regiment in the Soviet Air Force. Flying biplanes meant for dusting crops and training new recruits, they dropped 23,000 tons of bombs on German forces in WWII. | 3/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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166 |
CleanArtemisia Gentileschi | She's often called the greatest female painter of the Baroque period, though there were only a few to compare her to. Her work is extraordinary, and reflects the influences of her father Orazio Gentileschi and Caravaggio. | 3/4/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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167 |
CleanCodex Gigas | This massive medieval manuscript, nicknamed “The Devil’s Bible,” contains multiple lengthy entries, a few shorter pieces, and several illustrations. Written by a single scribe, the Codex Gigas is often sensationalized in stories about its creation. | 3/2/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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168 |
CleanThe Aftermath of Brown v. Board | Though the Brown v. Board ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, it didn't suddenly solve the segregation problem and end racism in the United States. | 2/25/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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169 |
CleanThe Road to Brown v. Board | It would be next to impossible to have ever had a class on American history or the American Civil Rights Movement and not heard about Brown v. Board. But the case is much more complicated than just one child in one segregated school system. | 2/23/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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170 |
CleanLeo Bakeland, The Father of Plastics | Dr. Leo Baekeland, the inventor of the first synthetic plastic, was a wealthy man at a young age thanks to his innovation in photograph developing. But it was his work with phenol and formaldehyde that would help usher in the age of plastics. | 2/18/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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171 |
CleanPlessy v. Ferguson | The ruling in this infamous Supreme Court case stated that segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities were equal. But most people are more familiar with the name of the case than with the actual events that transpired around it. | 2/16/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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172 |
CleanThe History of Narcolepsy, Part 2 | Once several cases of narcolepsy were documented in the late 1880s, study of the condition became more common. But it was well into the 20th century before sleep scientists really began to unlock some of the secrets of narcolepsy. | 2/11/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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173 |
CleanThe History of Narcolepsy, Part 1 | People were experiencing sleep disorders long before they were studied to the degree they are now. The first European account of narcolepsy appeared in the 1600s, but it would be well into the 19th century before the condition was researched. | 2/9/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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174 |
CleanSix Impossible Episodes | A handful of our most-requested podcast topics that don't have enough solid research for a whole show: Stagecoach Mary, Edward Mordrake, Robert the Haunted Doll, the London Beer Flood, the Lost Army of Cambyses and La Maupin all get time in the spotlight. | 2/4/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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175 |
CleanThe Catalpa and the Fremantle Six | An international jailbreak! In the 1860s, a crew from the United States mounted a mission to Western Australia to rescue imprisoned members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood who had been imprisoned by Great Britain. | 2/2/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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176 |
CleanThe Ghost Army | During WWII, the U.S. Army formed a top-secret military unit with one goal: Use artistic and theatrical skills to confuse the enemy. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops turned their creativity into incredible strategic trickery. | 1/28/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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177 |
CleanThe Glamorous Strongwoman | From an early age, Katie Sandwina wowed crowds, first as a wrestling act and then exclusively as professional strongwoman. During a time when women's suffrage was a hot button issue, she cultivated an image of a perfectly feminine powerhouse. | 1/26/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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178 |
CleanAntoni Gaudi, Part 2 | "Once Gaudi's work was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair, his career took off. Through his connections to industrialist Eusebi Güell and architect Joan Martorell, Gaudi was given opportunities to work on impressive projects that are now his legacy | 1/21/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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179 |
CleanAntoni Gaudi, Part 1 | You probably know Gaudi’s work, even if you don’t recognize his name. His distinctive architecture is featured throughout Barcelona. But his life started humbly, as the son of a Reus coppersmith. | 1/19/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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180 |
CleanThe Dark Legacy of Sea Monkeys | Despite all the fun cartoons on the packaging featuring tiny humanoid sea creatures having wacky fun and wearing clothes, Sea Monkeys are just brine shrimp. But the story of Sea Monkeys and their inventor is actually pretty surprising -- and quite dark. | 1/14/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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181 |
CleanYear Without a Summer | In 1816, a volcano eruption in Sumbawa, Indonesia, along with several other factors, created an unusual -- and catastrophic -- series of weather events. | 1/12/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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182 |
CleanUnearthed in 2014! Part 2 | More of the 2014 history news roundup! This time out: We’ve got several assorted things that didn’t really fit any other category, followed by medical unearthings, food and drinks, literature and letters, and, everyone’s favorite category, EXHUMATIO | 1/7/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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183 |
CleanUnearthed in 2014! Part 1 | It’s time to look at some of the stuff that was literally or figuratively dug up in 2014. This episode includes: connections to past episodes, some extreme serendipity, shipwrecks, a couple of Holocaust-related unearthings, and lots of Oldest Things Eve | 1/5/2015 | Free | View in iTunes |
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184 |
CleanUnearthed! Stonehenge | When news about new findings at the Stonehenge site broke late in 2014, it seemed like time to update the original Stonhenge episode. But then it turned out, there wasn't an existing episode about this famous ruin. | 12/31/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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185 |
CleanUnearthed! Franklin's Lost Expedition | On September 1, 2014, a team of searchers discovered artifacts from the Franklin Expedition. Over the course of seven dives, additional artifacts from the Erebus were recovered. | 12/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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186 |
CleanEggnog Riot | In 1826, liquor was forbidden at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Cadets smuggled alcohol into the barracks anyway, and a defiant Christmas party turned into a riot when two officers attempted to break up the festivities. | 12/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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187 |
CleanChristmas Tree Ship | It’s a Christmas episode, a shipwreck and a ghost story rolled into one! It’s the story of the the Rouse Simmons, which sank in Lake Michigan while hauling a load of Christmas trees to Chicago. | 12/22/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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188 |
CleanNome Serum Run | In 1925, a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska put a community in grave danger -- without the proper supplies to fight the disease. A daring sled-dog relay was mounted to deliver needed medicine to small community and their only doctor. | 12/17/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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189 |
CleanThe Great Hedge | For most of India’s recorded history, salt has been both abundant and subject to taxation. This continued to be the case after the British East India Company’s arrival in India, and eventually led to the cultivation of a hedge to prevent salt smugglin | 12/15/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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190 |
CleanThe Lost Roman Legion | The story of the Ninth Legion is a favorite among history fans who love a good mystery. But is there really any mystery here, or is the story of their fate more mundane? | 12/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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191 |
CleanThe Iroquois Theater Fire | In 1903, Chicago’s newly-opened Iroquois Theater burned, killing at least 600 people. The horrible, incredibly tragic incident was the result of multiple code violations and wrongdoings. | 12/8/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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192 |
CleanHenry Hudson, Part 2 | This episode picks up in the middle of Hudson's thrid voyage, as the Half Moon is making its way down North America's east coast. As Hudson doggedly pursues the idea of a northern sea route from Europe to Asia, he makes a number of poor decisions. | 12/3/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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193 |
CleanHenry Hudson, Part 1 | Henry Hudson's voyages have all the makings of a juicy episode: maritime exploration, horrible treatment of indigenous peoples, treacherous waters, treacherous shipmen, a mercenary switch in loyalties to countries, mutiny -- even a mermaid sighting. | 12/1/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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194 |
CleanThe Sinking of the S-5 | 1920, the S-5 left the Boston Navy Yard on its first mission, with a crew of 36 officers and enlisted men. While performing a crash dive as part of a performance evaluation, the crew found themselves on a sinking vessel. | 11/26/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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195 |
CleanThe Verreaux Brothers | Jules Verreaux and his two brothers collected an impressive array of flora and fauna specimens from around the world for placement with museums and collectors. They also did some really unsavory things that had long-term ramifications. | 11/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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196 |
CleanThe Vanishing of Sister Aimee | Aimee Semple McPherson was an extraordinary figure in the early 20th-century religious landscape. As an evangelist, she rose to incredible popularity in the 1920s … and then vanished. | 11/19/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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197 |
CleanPoverty Point | Poverty Point is a collection of earthwork mounds and ridges situated next to Bayou Maçon in Louisiana. It has features that make it unique among Native American sites, and there are still many questions surrounding its purpose and construction. | 11/17/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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198 |
CleanThe House of Worth and the Birth of Haute Couture | Before Charles Worth, the idea of ready made clothes for purchase didn't really exist. Neither did the idea of a design house that showed seasonal collections. This one man's vision invented the fashion industry as we know it today. | 11/12/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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199 |
CleanThe Expulsion of the Jews From Spain | In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue … and Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella, queen of Castile expelled the Jews from Spain. The reasoning for this move hasn't even been entirely clear. | 11/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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200 |
CleanWalter Reed | Reed did truly groundbreaking work into the causes and prevention of yellow fever, building on a foundation of other doctors and researchers. His work impacted public health and the American military’s ability to work in tropical locations. | 11/5/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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201 |
CleanMaria Tallchief | This Native American dancer was the first grand ballerina of the United States. Through her partnership with famed choreographer George Balanchine, she helped shape ballet in America and served as an inspiration for artists from all backgrounds. | 11/3/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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202 |
CleanThe History of Halloween Candy | Candy and Halloween go hand-in-hand, but when did candy become the standard for trick-or-treating, and who invented the holiday's most famous sweet treats like candy corn? | 10/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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203 |
CleanVillisca Ax Murders | In 1912, a small Iowa town was the scene of a chilling and brutal crime. Eight people were murdered in their beds by an assailant who has never been identified. | 10/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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204 |
CleanBeast of Gevaudan | Attacks on women and children of Gevaudan in the 1760s sparked a huge effort to hunt and kill the mystery beast behind them. While efforts to track the animal struggled, France was gripped in terror. | 10/22/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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205 |
CleanChristina of Sweden | -- | 10/20/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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206 |
CleanBela Lugosi, Part 2 | While his name instantly conjures an image of the dashing, sophisticated vampire that helped spark an entire horror film genre, Lugosi really lost more than he gained from playing the role. | 10/15/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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207 |
CleanBela Lugosi, Part 1 | While he’s mostly associated with the role of Dracula, Bela Lugosi's early life was significantly affected by WWI, the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the transition from silent film to talkies. | 10/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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208 |
CleanSylvia Rivera | Transgender activist Sylvia Rivera is often compared to Rosa Parks. She became famous, in part, for participating in the Stonewall Riots, and she spent her life campaigning bravely, stridently and vocally for the rights of gay and transgender people. | 10/8/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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209 |
CleanThe Dyatlov Pass Incident | In 1959, nine students ventured into the Ural mountains for a ski hiking trip, and never returned. While much speculation has swirled for more than half a century, no one knows for certain what caused them to abandon their camp to die in the cold. | 10/6/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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210 |
CleanEthan Allen, Part 2 | Allen's later years were marred by some unwise political alliances he made in his effort to gain independence for Vermont. After his political work cooled, he turned instead to writing, though he wasn't a hugely popular author. | 10/1/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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211 |
CleanEthan Allen, Part 1 | Ethan Allen was a huge personality, a founder of Vermont, and an important figure in the Revolutionary War. His story also includes some fascinating side-notes, and some missteps which may account for his hazy spot in historical lore. | 9/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Culinary History of Spam | This famous Hormel Foods product was invented in the 1930s to make use of a surplus of shoulder meat from pigs. Not only was it an instant hit in the U.S., it also played a huge role in WWII and shaped the cuisines of many Pacific Island nations. | 9/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Lady Juliana | Great Britain didn't only send criminals to Australia as punishment; they also wanted to colonize the continent. But to do that, they had to send women in addition to men. This plan involved some unsettling facts, and had some unexpected consequences. | 9/22/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanChina's Cultural Revolution: Rewriting a Nation | In 1969, the tone and direction of the Cultural Revolution shifted dramatically. For the next seven years, until Mao Zedong's death, he tried to remake the government, and the country, after his own vision. | 9/17/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanChina's Cultural Revolution: Red Guard and Purges | Mao’s plan to once again put China on the path to modernization was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966. The first phase was a very aggressive, radical series of purges and arrests that went from 1966 to 1968. | 9/15/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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216 |
CleanFritz Zwicky, The Father of Dark Matter | Fritz Zwicky is often described as a genius, but also as a caustic figure. His insights into astrophysics are downright baffling, but his prickly interactions with peers were problematic to his career and his place in history. | 9/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Great Famine | In the wake of the Great Leap Forward, issues with supply and demand, variables of weather and labor and a series of poor decisions resulted in a devastating famine. For three years, China struggled, far removed from the utopia Mao had envisioned. | 9/8/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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218 |
CleanDazzle Camouflage | British Royal Navy lieutenant and artist Norman Wilkinson is usually credited with the idea of disruptive camouflage. But, another man, naturalist John Graham Kerr, claimed that he had the idea three years earlier. | 9/3/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Great Leap Forward | In the mid-20th century, Chairman Mao Zedong launched an ambitious plan to revolutionize Chinese agriculture and industry, build up the economy and turn China into a communist utopia. | 9/1/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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220 |
CleanHetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street | She was the wealthiest woman in the U.S., skilled when it came to amassing wealth. But her eccentric behavior and miserly ways led to bad press and a less-than-flaterring nickname. | 8/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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221 |
CleanThe Heathen School | The Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut was founded with the plan that it would draw young men from world cultures, educate them, convert them to Christianity, and then send them back to their native lands to spread their newfound religion. | 8/25/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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222 |
CleanAndrews' Raid, or: The Great Locomotive Chase Pt. 2 | As the second part of the story picks up, James Andrews and 22 men have commandeered a northbound train in Big Shanty, Georgia. Its conductor, William Fuller, has begun chasing them on foot with two other men in a valiant effort to thwart their plot. | 8/20/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanAndrews' Raid, or: The Great Locomotive Chase Pt. 1 | -- | 8/18/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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224 |
CleanThe Discovery of Longitude | -- | 8/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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225 |
CleanThe La Scala Opera House | The Teatro alla Scala is one of the most renowned opera houses in the world, and is Italy’s crown jewel of the arts. Even if you have only a passing knowledge of opera, odds are, you know a name connected to the history of this legendary cultural hub. | 8/11/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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226 |
CleanVictor Lustig: Con Man Extraordinaire | He's most famous for selling an iconic structure he didn't own, but Robert Miller, known better by his alias Count Victor Lustig, led a life of spectacular cons, daring escapes, smooth talking and counterfeiting. | 8/6/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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227 |
CleanA Brief History of Colors | Pigments and dyes have come from all manner of animals, vegetables and minerals. From ochre to cochineal red to the rarest of purples, color has been an important part of human life for centuries. | 8/4/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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228 |
CleanThe Klondike Big Inch Land Promotion | In the mid-20th century, one ad company had a wacky plan to actually dole out land deeds as part of a cereal promotion. How did they manage it? And was the land worth anything? | 7/30/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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229 |
CleanThe Tulsa Race Riot and Black Wall Street | “Black Wall Street” was a nickname for Greenwood, a vibrant suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was destroyed in a race riot in 1921. And while Greenwood’s destruction was definitely the product of racial tensions, the event was much more one-sided. | 7/28/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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230 |
CleanBattle of Blair Mountain | In 1921, coal miners fed up with unfair labor practices and exploitation took up arms against their employers. The resulting conflict lasted five days and has been called the biggest armed uprising on U.S. soil since the Civil War. | 7/23/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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231 |
CleanLes Filles du Roi | While the building of a population in a new colony seems like a tricky endeavor, France’s King Louis XIV launched a scheme to do just that by shipping eligible ladies to New France in the 1600s. How did this play out? | 7/21/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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232 |
CleanThe Doctors' Riot of 1788 | In the late 1700s, medical colleges needed cadavers for educational dissection, but there were no legal means for obtaining them. This led to some unorthodox dealings in the acquiring of bodies, and brought New York to a fever pitch in 1788. | 7/16/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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233 |
CleanCosmetics From Ancient Egypt to the Modern World | Makeup has a rich and lengthy history that spans the globe and crosses cultures. From 10,000 B.C.E. to the 20th century, people have been using cosmetics to enhance their looks -- sometimes with unintended side effects. | 7/14/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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234 |
CleanThe Battle of Mons and the Angels That Followed | The Battle of Mons was one of World War I’s earliest battles. In the months after the battle, stories spread that a supernatural presence had covered the British army, preventing it from being destroyed. | 7/9/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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235 |
CleanSuleiman the Magnificent and the Siege of Vienna | The Ottoman Empire’s Suleiman the Magnificent was a head of state, a poet, a reformer of the military and a goldsmith. His reign had a significant impact on the law, literature and art of the Ottoman Empire. | 7/7/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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236 |
CleanThe Great London Smog | London is no stranger to smog, which is why when the Great London Smog descended in December of 1952, nobody quite realized anything unusual was going on. At its largest, it extended 30 kilometers around London, and it killed thousands of people. | 7/2/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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237 |
CleanCaroline Herschel: Astronomy's Cinderella | Herschel managed to break the barrier of women in scientific fields far earlier than you might suspect, in part because of her association with her brother, and in equal measure due to her steadfast dedication to her work. | 6/30/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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238 |
CleanThe Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence | The Asante-British war of 1900 capped about 100 years of war between Great Britain and the Asante Empire, which occupied part of what is now Ghana. | 6/25/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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239 |
CleanBattle of Poitiers | On Sept. 19, 1356, one of the decisive battles of the Hundred Years War took place in France. It was the first major battle after almost a decade of relative quiet, and it stacked a small English army against a French military three times its size. | 6/23/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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240 |
CleanEdna St. Vincent Millay, Part 2 | Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and was one of the Guggenheim Foundation’s judges for its poetry fellowships. And she managed to make a great deal of money as a poet in the middle of the Great Depression. | 6/18/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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241 |
CleanEdna St. Vincent Millay, Part 1 | Known as Vincent to family and friends, Edna St. Vincent Millay grew up poor, caring for the household and her sisters while her mother worked. From an early age, she showed incredible talent and sowed the seeds of a life of passion and impressive poetry. | 6/16/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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242 |
CleanThe S.S. Sultana | Because the Sultana sank the day after John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed for the murder of Abraham Lincoln, it didn't make headline news. But it's considered the biggest maritime disaster in U.S. history. | 6/11/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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243 |
CleanRuth Harkness and the First Panda in the U.S. | In the 1930s a New York socialite had a dream. She wanted to be the first person to capture a panda from Asia and return to the western world with it. Her quest had a significant impact on the way the Western world viewed wild animals. | 6/9/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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244 |
CleanThe Treaty of Waitangi | This document -- a treaty between the British the Maori -- established New Zealand as a nation. The spirit of the agreement was to see to the best interests of both the Maori and the Crown, but a hurried translation of the document led to some confusion. | 6/4/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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245 |
CleanGreat Kanto Earthquake of 1923 | Sept. 1, 1923 changed Japan forever when a devastating earthquake obliterated Yokohama and much of Tokyo, killing more than 140,000. | 6/2/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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246 |
CleanDeaf President Now | This episode breaks the rule of thumb about covering fairly recent history. In 1988, the appointment of a hearing president at Gallaudet University sparked a protest that changed the course of both the school and deaf culture in America. | 5/28/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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247 |
CleanThe Red Ghost of Arizona and the U.S. Camel Corps | In 1883, a mysterious beast was spotted in Arizona and trampled a woman. First described a a demon, the creature turned out to be a camel. But what was it doing in the American Southwest in the first place? | 5/26/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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248 |
CleanBets and Burlesque: Joseph Oller | Joseph Oller was an entrepreneur with an incredible head for business. He revolutionized gambling practices as a young man, and also opened the most famous burlesque house of all time -- The Moulin Rouge. | 5/21/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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249 |
CleanOrphan Trains | Between 1854 and 1929, about 250,000 children were taken to new families by train. Except … they weren’t called “orphan trains” at the time, the children weren’t all orphans, and “family” didn’t always factor into it. | 5/19/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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250 |
CleanFrances Glessner Lee and Tiny Forensics | Many forensic investigation standards of today have roots in the work of a Chicago heiress who was more interested in crime scenes than high society. Her most notable contribution to the field came in the form of tiny homicide dioramas. | 5/14/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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251 |
CleanThe Flu Epidemic of 1918 | The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which killed somewhere between 20 million and 50 million people, started just as World War I was winding down. Nobody cured it, or really successfully treated it. A fifth of the people in the world got the flu during the pan | 5/12/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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252 |
CleanVoynich Manuscript Update | Our ongoing update series covers a more recent topic: Even though our Voynich Manuscript episode was just a little more than a year ago, the inscrutable book has been in the news a lot since. What are the latest theories? | 5/7/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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253 |
CleanBlackbeard Update | Since the 2009 episode on Blackbeard, a lot of new information has come to light about the life of the infamous pirate. We'll catch you up on the latest, then listen to the original episode for review. | 5/5/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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254 |
CleanGardner Museum Art Heist Update | Just about a year ago, the FBI informed the press about new developments in the case of the massive art theft in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that took place on March 18, 1990. We'll cover the updates, then hear the original episode on the theft. | 4/30/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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255 |
CleanAlgebra's Arabic Roots | Algebra doesn’t have one single origin point -- it developed over time and in multiple places, with many mathematicians contributing. One of those contributors was an 8th-century scholar from Baghdad named Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. | 4/28/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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256 |
CleanThe Mutiny and Massacre of the Batavia | While most of the survivors of the Batavia were scattered on a few tiny islands off the coast of Australia, a small group went all the way to Indonesia to get help.Meanwhile, a gruesome scenario was playing out among those they left behind. | 4/23/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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257 |
CleanThe Wreck of the Batavia | The story of the Batavia is a perfect storm of nautical carnage: There's a shipwreck, a mutiny and a massacre. This first of two parts deals with the the first part of the voyage, the shipwreck and the rescue mission. | 4/21/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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258 |
CleanWreck of the Ten Sail | It was the biggest shipping disaster in Cayman Islands history -- 10 ships went down together one night in 1794. Why would so many ships be traveling so closely to one another, and how did they all end up in peril? | 4/16/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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259 |
CleanThe Count of Saint-Germain | Accounts of teleportation, alchemy and even immortality swirl around the legend of Count of Saint-Germain. Was he a spy? A concealed royal? A skilled con man? Or just a compulsive liar? | 4/14/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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260 |
CleanThe Pig War | In 1859, the United States and Great Britain nearly went to war over an issue that seems more likely to spark a feud between Hatfields and McCoys: an American settler shot a Canadian pig that was rooting around his garden. | 4/9/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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261 |
CleanKing Eric XIV of Sweden | A handsome playboy who once courted Queen Elizabeth I, Eric started his time as king with focus and ambition. But his paranoia and led him to alienate the aristocracy, fall into violent rages and stab a captive noble to death. | 4/7/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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262 |
CleanCrucifixion in the Greco-Roman World | While the crucifixion of Jesus is the most most well-known instance of this type of execution, crucifixion was a practice that was both common and taboo all over the Greco-Roman world for almost 1,000 years. | 4/2/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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263 |
CleanRose Bertin: The First Fashion Designer | The legendary wardrobe of Marie-Antoinette has been criticized, envied and discussed to no end. But where did all those glorious clothes come from? In large part, they were the work of Rose Bertin, a milliner who found herself the stylist to the queen. | 3/31/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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264 |
CleanAmbrose Bierce | Ambrose Bierce was a soldier, a journalist, an editor, a satirist and a philosopher. He was a complicated man with an unwavering moral code and a life of experiences both fantastic and horrific, which informed his writing. | 3/26/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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265 |
CleanElizabeth Blackwell, America's First Female M.D. | It's not a story of a person with a childhood dream of pursuing a career that wasn’t available to them. Dr. Blackwell had no interest in medicine as a child. But she paved the way for women who came after her, and changed the face of medicine in the U.S | 3/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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266 |
CleanChina's Foot Binding Tradition | Foot binding was practiced in China for more than 1,000 years -- far longer than can be attributed to a mere cultural or fashion fad. Why did such an extreme type of body modification become such an ingrained part of the culture for so long? | 3/19/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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267 |
Clean13 Reasons for the American Revolution | “No taxation without representation” is often thought of as the cause of main beef that led to the American Revolution, but it was only one of many moving parts in the bigger picture. | 3/17/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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268 |
CleanEverest: Getting to the Top of the World, Pt. 2 | After WWII ended, efforts were resumed to conquer Everest, but it took many, many teams and missions to reach the summit. Eventually, a bee keeper and a Sherpa achieved that loftiest of goals. But what's happened on Everest since then? | 3/12/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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269 |
CleanEverest: Getting to the Top of the World, Pt. 1 | Once a British survey effort identified Peak XV of the Himalayan range as the highest point on Earth, a committee was formed with one goal: Get to the top. Early expeditions gathered data and made runs up the mountain, until WWII put a halt to things. | 3/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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270 |
CleanIt's the Jane Austen Episode! | She was not a shy spinster who wrote some little books mostly to amuse her own family. She also was not a real-life Elizabeth Bennett. Jane Austen's life was very different from any of her heroines. | 3/5/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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271 |
CleanThe Peralta Grant and the Baron of Arizona | In the 1880s, James Reavis launched one of the most ambitious fraud schemes of all time when he claimed a huge part of the Arizona Territory as his own. He forged and planted evidence to back up his claim and came to be called the Baron of Arizona. | 3/3/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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272 |
CleanThe Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters | The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first African-American labor union to be recognized by the American Federation of Labor. What started as a campaign for more money and better treatment became an important force for social change. | 2/26/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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273 |
CleanThe Disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater | The 1930 vanishing of Joseph Force Crater is considered one of the largest missing person cases in U.S. history, and has fueled decades of speculation about what exactly happened to the New York State Supreme Court justice. | 2/24/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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274 |
CleanMaurice Duplessis, 'Le Chef' of Quebec, Pt. 2 | While Duplessis had ingratiated himself to voters as a man of the people, he was not exactly viewed as a saint. He’s often described as a man who wanted to be both loved and feared, and numerous controversies are associated with him. | 2/19/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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275 |
CleanMaurice Duplessis, 'Le Chef' of Quebec, Pt. 1 | Maurice Duplessis is described as everything from a lovable rogue to a political beast. He served as Premier of Quebec for longer than any other politician in the 20th century;his time in office is known as "The Great Darkness." | 2/17/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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276 |
CleanAbelard and Heloise | Abelard was a poet, philosopher and theologian; Heloise was one of his students. This is a tragic love story, complete with lovers forced apart, a secret marriage, a castration and repeated exhumations. Happy Valentine’s Day! | 2/12/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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277 |
CleanGiacomo Casanova | Casanova led a life so full of sex and adventure that today we call any particularly charismatic and successful lover by his name. But he was also. smart and witty, traveled and wrote extensively, and had a hand in all kinds of aristocratic intrigue. | 2/10/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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278 |
CleanRosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Pt. 2 | Rosa's arrest for breaking bus segregation laws catalyzed the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the keystones in the American Civil Rights Movement. It was widely covered in the national media, which brought more attention to the struggle for equal rights. | 2/5/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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279 |
CleanRosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Pt. 1 | Anyone who has ever heard about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States is sure to know that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus. But that's but a tiny sliver of her life story. | 2/3/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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280 |
CleanCrown Prince Sado of Korea | Crown Prince Sado of Korea -- sometimes called Korea's "Coffin King" -- has been described as insane, depraved and sadistic, but when you examine his short life, it’s more complicated than a list of acts of savagery (though there are plenty of those). | 1/29/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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281 |
CleanPueblo Revolt | History is written by the victors. But one big exception to that conventional wisdom is the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which Native Americans rose up against Spanish colonists and missionaries at the turn of the 17th century. | 1/27/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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282 |
CleanAvicenna | You may never have heard of him, but Avicenna was one of the first, and probably the most influential, Islamic philosopher-scientists. He’s listed among the great philosophers in Dante’s Inferno and is mentioned in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales | 1/22/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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283 |
CleanEmbalming and Mummification Rituals of Ancient Egypt | So how did Ancient Egyptians actually embalm their dead? Thanks in large part to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, we have some great descriptions of what happened to the deceased. | 1/20/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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284 |
CleanThe Sinking of the S.S. Arctic | When the S.S. Arctic joined the Collins line fleet in the 1850s, it was by all accounts a glorious ship. But in 1854, the steamer collided with another ship in a fog, and the resulting panic led to the deaths of most of the passengers. | 1/15/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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285 |
CleanThe Battle of Hastings | The Battle of Hastings is often boiled it down to a sentence: The Normans invaded Britain in 1066, and their victory ended the Anglo-Saxon phase of English history. But of course, that brief description really doesn’t do the event justice. | 1/13/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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286 |
CleanThe Explosive Career of Antoine Lavoisier | Antoine-Laurent Levoisier was a chemist, biologist, geologist, physiologist, and economist. But at the end of the day, he’s most often referred to as the father of modern chemistry. He also was smack dab in the middle of the French Revolution. | 1/8/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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287 |
CleanListener Mail: FAQ Edition | Time for something completely different! There are a few questions that we get asked over and over. Today, we answer four of the most-common queries posed to us in our listener mail. | 1/6/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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288 |
CleanUnearthed in 2013, Part 2 | The second part of 2013's historical finds includes items unearthed by animals, amateurs and ultra-modern science. Lead coffins, rare torpedoes and mass graves are featured. And of course, there's discussion of everyone's favorite topic: exhumations. | 1/1/2014 | Free | View in iTunes |
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289 |
CleanUnearthed in 2013, Part 1 | What historical revelations revealed themselves in 2013? So many, we need two episodes to cover them all. From Viking jewelry to lost Doctor Who episodes and -- of course -- bodies in car parks, history showed up in some surprising places this year. | 12/30/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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290 |
CleanThe Long Winter | During the terrible winter of 1880 and 1881, which was immortalized in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “The Long Winter.” Laura, both real and fictional, was going on fourteen. And the winter she wrote about was a real event. | 12/25/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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291 |
CleanLaura Ingalls Wilder | For many people, Laura Ingalls Wilder is the primary source of information of what life was like for white people on the American frontier. But she had a whole life as a novelist beyond the youth that unfolded in the books. | 12/23/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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292 |
CleanThe Lions of Tsavo, Pt. 2 | Why did lions in the Tsavo region start to attack humans in the first place? Modern behavioral and scientific research has given us some surprising insights into the causes of the 1898 attacks as well as modern lion attacks in the same area. | 12/18/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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293 |
CleanThe Lions of Tsavo, Pt. 1 | In 1898, two male lions killed and ate dozens of people in Tsavo and shut down construction of the Uganda Railroad. Lt. Col. John H. Patterson, a civil engineer working on the project, made it his personal mission to stop the feline scourge. | 12/16/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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294 |
CleanThe Axman of New Orleans, Part 2 | The second half of the Axman story involves his famous letter to the New Orleans Times-Picayune warning that he would descend on the city, but would spare anyone with a live jazz band playing in their house. But had the Axman been murdering before 1918? | 12/11/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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295 |
CleanThe Axman of New Orleans, Part 1 | In 1918 and 1919, a rash of attacks had all of New Orleans on edge. While the Axman has turned up in modern storytelling, no fiction could top the real story of late-night break-ins and assaults by a mystery assailant who was never caught. | 12/9/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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296 |
CleanSei Shonagon and the Heian Court | Thanks to the pillow book of lady-in-waiting Sei Shonagon, we have a first-person account of court life in Heian Japan. It’s part diary, part commonplace book, part essay collection, and thoroughly fascinating. | 12/4/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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297 |
CleanThe Boston Massacre | -- | 12/2/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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298 |
CleanZenobia and the Roman Empire | Our focus today is on a woman who was actually covered in the podcast several years ago. But she's a figure so mythic and with so many variations to her story that we wanted to give her another look and a little more time. | 11/27/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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299 |
CleanHessians | If you've only seen the Hessians referenced in movies or TV, you probably don't have a clear picture of who these very capable soldiers actually were. Hessian troops were skilled, disciplined armies for hire, and a huge economic boon for their homeland. | 11/25/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
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300 |
CleanEdward Jenner, Father of Vaccines | Smallpox has been around longer than recorded history. It killed royalty, shifted the tides of battles, and was so terrifying that many religions have gods, saints and martyrs associated with it. And Edward Jenner gets the credit for changing all that. | 11/20/2013 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 300 Items |
Customer Reviews
Great Topics, Terrible Hosts.
This podcast is just like listening to a sorority girl and her jock friend flirt and stumble through quasi-history lessons and trying to compel more people to traffic their site...Actually, it's just like that.
Annoying hosts
The premise is great, but these are two of the most annoying women I've ever heard. Please dump the current hosts and I'll start downloading on a regular basis.
Interesting, but hard to tolerate.
The content is interesting stuff to learn about, but Candice's voice is very irritating. It's inexplicably annoying.
