All Episodes

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

Ep. 85: There is a movie so infamous that it’s gone down in history as one of the greatest horror films of all time. After its release in 1973, The Exorcist won two academy awards and quickly became the highest grossing horror film for over 40 years, surpassed only recently by the 2017 remake of It. The Exorcist horrified viewers in the best possible way. Some even fainted or vomited while viewing the film, the graphic nature of the visuals was so shocking at the time. Childr

Ep. 84: It’s January of 1692 and there’s something very wrong with 9 year old Betty Parris. Her father, the Reverend Samuel Parris, rushes to her bedside. Betty screams. Her body writhes under the blankets, twisting and contorting into grotesque shapes. She grunts, she moans, she snorts, and shrieks. She grabs a candle from the bedside table and hurls it across the room uttering a shrill scream as if defending herself from some invisible apparition. Soon, Betty’s 11 year old

Ep. 83: I love a good ghost story, who doesn’t? But whenever I hear a ghost story or read one or watch paranormal investigators hunting for ghosts on tv or whatever, I’m usually left with a single burning question. Okay, you got a weird cold sensation, you saw a white spectral figure, a face in the mirror, your EMF meter was buzzing, something went bump in the night, that’s all very interesting but what I really want to know is, who was it? Who did you see? Who’s ghost? Right