All Episodes

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