All Episodes

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