All Episodes

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