All Episodes

Ep. 145: Circumcision was not something I ever really thought about until I had two sons. When you have a baby boy a decision is suddenly thrust upon you, at least in the United States. I mean, there are lots of decisions thrust upon you: what are we going to name him? What about a middle name? What kind of diapers should we buy? Which car seat? Lots of questions, lots of decisions. One of them is next level though. Because, at some point, someone is going to ask you if you w

Ep. 144: August 6, 1945 began as a normal day in Hiroshima, Japan. I mean, kind of. Of course the country was embroiled in a deadly World War and enemy forces, the United States specifically, had been bombing cities for months, unleashing firestorms that had already claimed hundreds of thousands of civilian lives. But, if you could time travel to a Hiroshima sidewalk on the morning of August 6, 1945, it would seem at least a little bit normal. At 8 am that morning, the city w

Mini Fix # 26: When World War I erupted in July of 1914, soldiers as young as 18 rushed off to the trenches to fight. Most were told it would be a very short war. It would be over by Christmas and they’d be home to celebrate with their families. That’s what they were told. But as Christmas of 1914 neared, there was no end to the war in sight. In fact, it was only just getting started. The men, boys really, crowded into filthy cramped trenches in the ground where they were con

Ep. 143: It’s February 1942 and you’re a born and raised American citizen living on a farm in California. Born of immigrant parents, you’ve worked hard your entire life to carve out the life they’d dreamed you’d have here in this beautiful country, this land of opportunity. You’re well aware that 2 months ago the Empire of Japan attacked a US naval base called Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. You’ve seen it in the news. You’ve felt the rumblings of fear growing. Y

Ep. 142: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost,

Ep. 141: You’ve likely heard of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, maybe Tecumseh. And if you’re a serious History Fix listener you’ve probably heard of Wingina too, who also went by the name Pemisapan. If you’re scrambling to place the name, I’ll help you out. Wingina was the weroance, or leader, chief, of the Algonquian speaking Secotan people who lived in coastal North Carolina when the first English colonists arrived in the 1580s. Wingina’s story, as we know it, mostly

Ep. 140: You’ve likely heard of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, maybe Tecumseh. And if you’re a serious History Fix listener you’ve probably heard of Wingina too, who also went by the name Pemisapan. If you’re scrambling to place the name, I’ll help you out. Wingina was the weroance, or leader, chief, of the Algonquian speaking Secotan people who lived in coastal North Carolina when the first English colonists arrived in the 1580s. Wingina’s story, as we know it, mostly

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