Ep. 139: We know there were vast and impressive cities in the Americas before European contact. The stone buildings and pyramids are still there: Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula, Palenque, Tikal, La Danta pyramid at El Mirador, greater in volume than the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the mystical remains of Machu Picchu, nestled in the Andes Mountains of Peru. We know these once great cities flourished in Central and South America because the stones are still there to prove i

Ep. 138: Last week I came to you with the story of the French crown jewels recently stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris. All 8 pieces included diamonds, most of which probably came from India, and many of which were once part of the jewel collection of France’s King Louis the fourteenth. Diving into the world of Louis the fourteenth’s Indian diamond collection, however, led me directly to a stone that I failed to mention last week, a stone that is, quite possibly, the most

Ep. 137: Two weeks ago on Sunday, October 19th something rather extraordinary happened at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. During broad daylight, thirty minutes after the museum opened for the day, and as hundreds of visitors streamed inside, 8 pieces of France’s crown jewel collection valued at an estimated 102 million dollars but actually priceless when considering historical value, were stolen in less than 8 minutes. I don’t often cover current events on this show, I’m

Ep. 136: It was a Wednesday afternoon, December 4th, 1872. Captain Morehouse squinted into the distance aboard the ship Dei Gratia on its way from New Jersey to Genoa, Italy. Only moments ago, the helmsman had called him out on deck, and now he could see why. In the distance, still some six miles away, a ship was heading towards them. But, something was off about this ship. The way it moved was all wrong, drifting unsteadily one way and then the other, rolling and bobbing lik

Ep. 135: Back in July, I did an episode about Joan of Arc. She was someone who had been on my list for a long time. Her story is honestly bananas: an illiterate teenaged peasant girl with no military training leads an army to victory resulting in the crowning of a French king during the Hundred Years War. Oh and on top of that she claimed to hear the voices of Saints. Oh and on top of that they burnt her at the stake for said claims. It’s truly stranger than fiction. Today Jo

Ep. 134: Grace Sherwood ducked into a twisted patch of rosemary on a crisp winter day in 1697. She snapped off sprigs of the aromatic herb and placed them into a woven basket at her hip. Later, she’d hang them in the kitchen window to dry. She paused to adjust the waistline of her rough spun cotton trousers, pants her oldest son, John, had outgown. Grace knew the neighbors talked. A woman in pants? It was preposterous. That simply wasn’t how things were done in the Virginia c

Ep. 133: The clock strikes midnight, March 19th, 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana. One would expect, on this day and time, for most residents to be asleep in their beds, especially outside of the busier city thoroughfares, but that is not the case on this particular night. Instead, walking down a would be quiet street, you’d find lights on in each home and, what’s more, you’d notice the sounds of jazz music drifting out into the street, a discordant cacophony of noise issuing f

Eps. 131 & 132: You guys know how I’m always going on about how we still basically live in ancient Athens? Well I’m back at it this week. No, Athens isn’t considered a lost city, I’ll get to the point soon. After last week’s Shakespeare episode I’ve been trying to think up other literary greats that were even halfway on his level and the first guy I thought of was Homer. Homer, like Shakespeare much later, was a bard, the original bard. He was a poet from ancient Greece who l

Ep. 130: When thinking of literary greats, several come to mind but all of them, all of them pale in comparison to one name. This man, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time, a playwright, a poet, you all know him - William Shakespeare. Encyclopedia Britannica even sets aside its impartiality writing quote “It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create ima

Ep. 129: The ground beneath our feet tells many tales. Look down at where you’re standing now. It may look like a regular ordinary floor be it tile or carpet or wood planks. Maybe you’re outside looking at the grass or sidewalk. Maybe you’re driving over a road or parked in a parking lot. Nothing too interesting there. But what might you find beneath that layer? Evidence of times come before? An older floor or foundation? Artifacts, bones, fossils? What story does the Earth b

Ep. 128: Game of Thrones is typically considered to be the most popular television show of all time based on its massive global reach and deep cultural impact. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an 8 season historical fantasy series based on a book series by George R. R. Martin about different houses, different families, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, all battling and plotting and backstabbing each other to try to sit on the iron throne. It’s pretty awe

Ep. 127: Walk into any classroom anywhere in the world today and it will look pretty much the same. The students may look different. They may be speaking different languages. There will be slight variations but the overall set up is the same. Education, schooling, is an almost universally shared experience for most humans today. Most of us spent years of our lives in classrooms and if you were to reminisce on it now, to share a story from your school days with someone from a

Ep. 126: Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was a man with lofty goals. He was a big man. Not physically but in character. He had a big personality. Incredibly charismatic, he was an exceptional leader. He was very good at inspiring loyalty in others, at rallying people together. He was very, very ambitious, some might say over confident. Because, despite his big personality, despite his ambition and natural leadership skills, despite being knighted, despite his later f

Ep. 125: Dr. Alexis Turner is a historian of science at Harvard University. While pursuing his PhD, he chose to focus his studies on a particularly interesting drug known as LSD. He says in a Harvard News article by Paul Massari quote “At different times throughout its history, LSD has been a psychiatric wonder drug, a means to world peace, a distraction from political progress, and a poison corrupting the youth of the country. Intellectually, I want to know how it can be all

Ep. 124: It’s 1428. Lady Jane Grey was just 16 years old when she was beheaded at the tower of London in 1554. A secret plot had unexpectedly placed Jane on the English throne, usurping Mary Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII. Just nine days later, an outraged Mary stormed into London with a crowd of supporters and swiftly took back her throne. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later executed. If ever there was a political pawn, it was Jane Grey, a child wh

Ep. 123: It’s 1428. A16 year old peasant girl stands in a field outside her family’s modest stone cottage. Her face is upturned towards the heavens as if listening intently for something. Her mother, watching warily from the window, calls her back inside. This is not a safe time or place to be a girl standing alone in a field, not a field in Domremy (Do-ray-me), France anyway, positioned directly between two enemy forces who had been at war for almost a hundred years now. Joa

Ep. 122: When you think of the word crystal you may think of a fancy chandelier, elaborate drinking glasses, or perhaps priceless gems adorning the décolletage of a wealthy woman, the crown jewels of royalty through the ages. If I asked you what crystal has left the biggest impact on human history, has had the greatest overall value to us throughout time, you may be tempted to say diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, but you would be wrong. There is another type of crystal

Ep. 121: Thomas Jefferson is America’s golden boy. I mean along with George Washington I guess but he already has his own episode, episode 69. In the eyes of many Americans, these guys, these founding fathers could do no wrong. They built our country on the ideals of liberty and freedom for all. And it was Thomas Jefferson of course who wrote those fateful words down for the very first time. Thomas Jefferson who drafted the Declaration of Independence and wrote quote “We hold

Ep. 120: Pretty much everyone knows the story of Noah’s Ark. God decides to flood the whole Earth to punish humans for their wickedness, but he selects Noah and his family as the sole survivors. He instructs them to build a massive boat, to gather animals inside it, and then for 40 days and 40 nights it rains and the floodwaters rise. When the floodwaters finally recede, Noah’s ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah releases a dove which returns with an olive bran

Ep. 119: Fernão de Magalhães (fernow de magalyaisch) later known as Fernando de Magallanes, better known as Ferdinand Magellan, is a rather famous guy. In fact he’s really only famous for one thing in particular. I mean, there is a strait named after him, the Strait of Magellan which passes through the southern tip of South America, but the real reason he’s famous is for being the first person to circumnavigate the globe, to sail all the way around the Earth, a full circle. T

Eps. 117 & 118: It’s July 19th, 1545 and King Henry VIII sits aboard his flagship, the Mary Rose. He admires the intricate woodwork, the lavish decor of his private dining cabin. What an exquisite ship, he thinks, the pride of all of England. Suddenly there is shouting from the sailors and soldiers on deck. A man rushes into his cabin, Vice Admiral Sir George Carew. “You must leave the ship at once your majesty,” Carew informs him. Enemy French ships have entered the Solent,

Ep. 116: Situated over 200 feet above Lake Nasser, near the village of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, four massive figures stare out at the vast landscape. Seemingly cut into the cliff face itself, this man’s face, repeated four times, is vaguely familiar. He is seated 65 feet tall, with his feet side by side, his hands resting upon his knees, four of him flanking a much smaller temple doorway. At his feet, reaching only halfway up his shins, stand other figures - his favorite

Ep. 115: It’s December 1, 1969 and TVs and radios all over the United States are tuned to a live government broadcast. 366 blue plastic capsules, like oversized pills, are poured into a large canister. Each contains a date, one of the possible 366 birthdates throughout the year, including leap day. Lieutenant General Lewis B. Hershey, Director of the Selective Service, an elderly bespectacled man in a suit and tie, addresses the crowd and explains that the birthdate capsules

Ep. 114: There has long prevailed in popular imagination a historical myth of epic proportions: The Lost Colony of Roanoke. It has all the makings of a great story. A group of 117 civilized English men, women, and children journey to an unknown land across the ocean, a land inhabited by quote “savages” so unlike themselves. When times grow tough, their fearless leader returns to England, leaving them behind, stranded on the island. It carries undertones of classic literary ad

Ep. 113: Since the beginning of mankind, mothers have breastfed their babies. It is as natural and as necessary as any other bodily function - a heart beating, oxygen filling the lungs, blinking of the eyes. In fact, it is so necessary that to forgo it, up until very recently, the last hundred years or so, was a death sentence for the infant. We don’t often think about feeding babies. It’s something mothers take care of behind the scenes, part of the invisible load. We certai

Eps. 111 & 112: Throughout all of history there is one name that rises above all the others possibly as the most depraved, heinous, vile human being ever to have walked the planet. Humans worldwide almost unanimously agree, some from the start but most in hindsight, that this man was pure evil. Yes, I am talking of course about the infamous dictator Adolf Hitler. BBC writes quote “Few names from history inspire such immediate and emphatic revulsion as that of Nazi leader Adol

Ep. 110: In April of 1722 Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen and his crew stumbled upon a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They sailed for the Dutch West India Company in search of Terra Australis Incognita, a hypothetical undiscovered continent that doesn’t actually exist. The land they found instead was just a 64 square mile speck some 1,200 miles from the nearest island and over 2,000 miles from the nearest continent. This island, which they spotted on Easter Su

Ep. 109: In January of 1956, Morris K. Jessup opened his mailbox and froze. There inside lay another peculiar letter. He had received several already. He recognized the untidy scrawl with which his mailing address had been written. Carl Allen again, he thought, or, Carlos Allende. The name seemed to switch back and forth. He opened the envelope and slipped out the letter within. Reading it quickly, his roving eyes hungrily taking in each word, a story began to unfold. This ti

Ep. 108: I’ve covered a lot of holidays on this show, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, and honestly, they’re all pretty weird and fairly mysterious. The psychology of holidays fascinates me, especially the widespread and seemingly inexplicable ones. How do we all come to celebrate, rally behind a celebration we don’t even understand? And we’re not just like wishing people a happy whatever day. We go so far beyond that. Americans spend over 10 billion dollars o

Ep. 107: History did not remember Mary Tudor fondly. Nicknamed “Bloody Mary” for the persecution of protestants during her 5 year reign, she’s been vilified ever since. And this isn’t just a footnote in the back of an obscure British history book. Bloody Mary is practically a household name. It’s a popular cocktail made of vodka and tomato juice possibly, although disputedly linked to Mary Tudor’s nickname. It’s even a childhood urban legend, remember that one? Chant Bloody M

Ep. 106: Mid 1800s New York City was an interesting and potentially terrifying place to be. During the 19th century, the city underwent rapid growth with immigrants flooding in such that the population quadrupled from 200,000 to 800,000 people between 1820 and 1860 alone. Many of you listening right now are probably descended from immigrants who at least passed through New York City in the 1800s. The industrial revolution transformed the city into a bustling hub of commerce a

Ep. 105: Fairy tales abound with stories of castles, romantic, picturesque places, homes to kings and queens, princes and princesses. A chivalrous knight may storm a castle, and rescue a lady in distress. A grand ball is held, elaborate, fanciful gowns are worn, fireflies twinkle, a prince falls in love with the belle of the ball and fireworks appear out of nowhere as true love is finally realized. Little girls live and dream in a fantastical world of castles and knights and

Ep. 104: Ancient Greece was not a happy place for women. The epitome of a patriarchal society, women in Athens, for example, could not vote, own land, or inherit property. Their place was in the home, in childrearing, cooking, cleaning. Their names were not even spoken publicly. Almost none of their writing, none of their accounts exist and so everything we know about ancient Greek women comes from the writing of men and, unfortunately, men in ancient Greece did not often wri

Ep. 103: It’s 1938 and Catherine Donahue lies propped up on the couch in her living room, dying. She’s surrounded, not by doctors, not hospice nurses, not even her loved ones, but by members of the Illinois Industrial Commission. They’re conducting a hearing, something that should have been happening in a court room, was happening in a court room until Catherine collapsed, all 71 pounds of her and had to be carried out, the hearing finished instead in her living room. A man f

Ep. 102: When you think of the beach, you likely picture a peaceful, relaxing scene. Warm sun, hot sand, happy children playing in the surf, seagulls calling, it smells of suntan lotion, salt, and something slightly fishy and yet somehow not at all offputting. But if you’ve ever visited the beach during a storm, a serious storm - a nor’easter or a hurricane - then you know first hand that that paradise can just as easily become a hellscape. Strong winds whip, driving sea spra

Ep. 101: Between mainland North Carolina and the narrow stretch of barrier islands we call the Outer Banks, sits a tiny island, just 12 miles long and around 3 miles wide. Dotted with rich maritime forest and bordered by brackish salt marsh on all sides, it’s home to two sleepy towns aptly named Manteo and Wanchese. This is Roanoke Island of course, of Lost Colony fame. But some 300 years later, in the mid 1800s, it was home to another colony entirely, one you’ve probably nev

Ep. 100: If you look at photographs of famous buildings and monuments in Washington DC and then compare them to photographs of Paris, France, you may be surprised to discover just how similar the two cities are. I just recently exploited this striking resemblance when I posted a photo from the January 6th insurrection in front of the US Capital building next to a sketch showing the French Revolution unfolding in front of the Église du Dôme in Paris. Because the two buildings

Ep. 99: The year is 1939. As Nazi Germany advances on France, pushing ever nearer towards her borders, Captain Jacques Abtey of the Deuxième (doze-ee-em) Bureau stalks the sidewalks of Paris with his briefcase at his side. His mission: find Josephine Baker, the woman he’s been told would make an exceptional undercover agent for the French resistance. Josephine Baker, he knows, everyone knows, is a performer, an exotic dancer, singer, actress, whose wild shows shock and deligh

Ep. 98: When you think of medicine, you probably picture pills, tablets or capsules filled with God knows what, some chemical fabricated in a science lab somewhere. But these manufactured pharmaceuticals are a fairly recent invention. They didn’t exist, basically, until the early 1800s, when chemical analysis became a thing. At that point, scientists started to extract and modify the active ingredients in plants that had been used as medicine for millennia. Later, they forgot

Ep. 97: Thomas Alva Edison has always been portrayed as the greatest, most prolific by far American inventor. The man obtained over a thousand patents in his lifetime and is credited with inventing or improving upon devices that changed our world, our lives forever: the lightbulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, telegraphs, telephones, x-rays, and batteries. The list goes on. His contemporaries were blown away. Many viewed him as like a magician. That’s how far bey

Ep. 96: In July 1714, Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, lay on her death bed in Kensington Palace. Despite 18 pregnancies, she had no surviving children, no heir to inherit the throne. Sure, there were plenty of relatives with a bloodline suitable to succeed her, plenty of Stuarts. But all of them were Catholic. And a Catholic could not rule Great Britain, not according to an Act passed some 13 years earlier. No, a Catholic king would not do. And so despite 57 people

Ep. 95: In the 1950s a mysterious man appeared at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. He looked normal enough, just a regular looking mid-thirties white guy in a suit there on a business trip. But when he presented his passport to airport officials, they were puzzled. The passport was unlike any they had ever seen before. It listed the man as being from a nation called Taured, a nation they had never heard of, a nation they were pretty sure didn’t exist. When asked to point out Taured on

Ep. 94: Professor Dr. Johan Gaume, the head of Switzerland's Snow Avalanche Simulation Laboratory, sat before his television screen. But for such a decorated researcher and scientist, the film he was watching may surprise you. It was an animated children’s film. One you’ve definitely heard of. But he wasn’t watching it for fun. He was watching it for science. Dr. Gaume was watching Disney’s Frozen, an animated film about two sisters, one of whom has magical snow and ice power

Ep. 93: You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph of course, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. The most famous reindeer of all. And yet, and yet, have you read “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas?” Of course you have. It’s actually called “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” but we all call it “The Night Before Christmas,” it’s one of those. Published anonymously in a newspaper in

Ep. 92: On a muggy late summer morning in 1900, postmaster Captain William Tate seated himself at his simple cedar desk and unfurled a letter. The paper was slightly damp from the humidity emanating from the marshy swamps of Kitty Hawk woods that surrounded his home turned post office. Tate did his best to flatten the soggy paper enough to discern that it came from the Weather Bureau with a rather strange request. They were asking him to respond to a letter they received from

Eps. 90 & 91: Everyone loves an underdog story, when the people, the normal guys, you and me, rise up and take control from the despots, the gluttonous, oppressive overlords who have abused their power for far too long. It makes for a great story because it’s something for people to rally behind, justice, liberty, long overdue and finally won against all odds. This is why Americans are so passionate about the fourth of July, because we freaking did it right? Things were unfai

Ep. 89: It’s November 11, 1620, 41 men aboard a battered ship gather together as best they can. As the Mayflower bobs, travel weary, atop the rough, cold waters off Cape Cod, William Bradford clears his throat and begins to read. “In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith…” He goes on, reading roughly 200 words outli

Ep. 88:It’s the greatest adventure story ever told, Lewis and Clark’s daring pursuit to cross thousands of miles of rugged terrain, to explore the rest of the continent, to finally reach the Pacific Ocean, gaze out over its vast expanse, with their faithful guide by their side of course, Sacagawea. You know Sacagawea, she’s the most famous American woman of all time. I’m not kidding. She’s the only one with her face on a coin, with more statues than any other woman in America

Ep. 87: In May of 2021 members of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Canada arrived on the grounds of the old Kamloops Residential School with ground penetrating radar. Soon, as expected, they made a grisly discovery: the bodies of over 200 children as young as 3 years old buried in unmarked graves. In June, people of the Cowessess First Nation discovered 751 children’s bodies at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School and in July, the Penelakut Tribe found

Ep. 86: In the Black Hills region of South Dakota stands a massive American monument, the faces of four US presidents blasted into the side of a mountain. George Washington represents the birth of the nation. Thomas Jefferson represents its growth. Theodore Roosevelt development and Abraham Lincoln preservation. Mount Rushmore National Memorial hosts more than 2 million visitors each year who gaze upon the stoic stone faces of our forefathers and feel… proud. Proud of what we