The Weird History Podcast

The Weird History Podcast

Joe Streckert

The Weird History Podcast explores the out-of-the-way, obscure, weird, and overlooked corners of history. New episodes appear every Thursday.

238 In the Garden of Monsters with Crystal King

238 In the Garden of Monsters with Crystal King

Crystal King is a long-time friend of the program, and has appeared previously to talk about her debut novel Feast of Sorrow, and her follow-up The Chef’s Secret. Her newest novel, In the Garden of Monsters, blends Greek and Roman mythology, the history of postwar Italy, and surrealism into a page-turning gothic romance. In our interview we talked about the unique setting of her book, the mythological elements she drew upon, and Salvador Dali.

Sep 30, 2024 • 35:20

237 A Danger Shared with Bill Lascher

237 A Danger Shared with Bill Lascher

A Danger Shared: A Journalist’s Glimpses of a Continent at War is the latest book from Portland journalist and author Bill Lascher. Bill joined us to talk about WWII in Asia through the eyes of journalist Melville Jacoby, his own connection with Jacoby, and what he learned from going through an archive of images that included Macau, the Philippines, Vietnam, and beyond. Jacoby’s coverage included scenes of everyday life as battle raged on, up-close images of conflict, and the human faces behind

Mar 26, 2024 • 36:46

236 Piracy in the South China Sea with Rita Chang-Eppig

236 Piracy in the South China Sea with Rita Chang-Eppig

By all reasonable metrics Shek Yeung, who raided the South China Sea in the early 1800s, is one of the most successful pirates of all time. In her new novel Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea author Rita Chang-Eppig tells a fictionalized version of the pirate queen’s life, her rise to power, and her relationship with powers both temporal and spiritual.

May 12, 2023 • 29:31

235 Shakespeare Versus Hedgehogs

235 Shakespeare Versus Hedgehogs

William Shakespeare seems to have hated hedgehogs. We don’t quite know why, but it could have something to do with how the tiny animal is depicted by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. Special Thanks to Jamie Jeffers of The British History Podcast and Miles Stokes of Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men for providing voicework for this episode.

Mar 1, 2023 • 15:48

234 Lupercalia

234 Lupercalia

Before Valentine’s Day, ancient Romans celebrated a festival of fertility in the shadow of the Palatine Hill. Lupercalia was a popular holiday that featured blood, goat sacrifice, and getting whipped by naked guys.

Feb 13, 2023 • 14:20

233 The Golden Fortress with Bill Lascher

233 The Golden Fortress with Bill Lascher

During the Dust Bowl city officials in Los Angeles, fueled by anti-communist paranoia and xenophobia, were determined to keep migrants out of California. To that end, they dispatched the LAPD to remote border crossing points far outside the city in order to keep out anyone who looked like they were fleeing blight or didn’t have work. Author Bill Lascher spoke with us about his new book The Golden Fortress, which outlines how in 1936 LA law enforcement went to the far reaches of the Golden State

Oct 9, 2022 • 37:28

232 Navigating the Asian Maritime World with Eric Tagliacozzo

232 Navigating the Asian Maritime World with Eric Tagliacozzo

Eric Tagliacozzo is a professor of history at Cornell University, and his new book In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds From Yemen to Yokohama outlines five centuries of maritime history in the Asian world. In this wide-ranging interview, we discussed how China created trade routes that stretched all the way to Africa’s Swahili coast, the ocean-going history of Vietnam, and the role of consumer goods, piracy, slavery, and religion in the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, Pacific, and beyond.

Jul 11, 2022 • 42:58

231 The History of Archaeology with Ann R. Williams

231 The History of Archaeology with Ann R. Williams

Archaeology has changed considerably over the past century. In this episode, we spoke with Ann R. Williams of National Geographic about the new book Lost Cities Ancient Tombs, significant discoveries from the past century, and what it means to dig up the past.

Jan 23, 2022 • 55:18

230 The Adventures of Mussolini’s Corpse

230 The Adventures of Mussolini’s Corpse

After his death in 1945, Mussolini’s corpse was autopsied and thrown into a pauper’s grave. But, that was just the beginning of the cadaver’s posthumous career. Eventually the body was stolen by neofascists, hidden away for over a decade, and used as a political bargaining chip in postwar Italy.

Nov 8, 2021 • 11:47

229 Douglas Wolk on All of the Marvels

229 Douglas Wolk on All of the Marvels

The Marvel Universe is massive. Marvel comics go back well over half a century, and span thousands upon thousands of pages. Reading all of them would be a Herculean undertaking. And one man, Douglas Wolk, did exactly that, and wrote a book about it. We talked his new release All of the Marvels, and about how one of the most well-known fictional universes in the world has dealt with real-world history, like war, civil rights, crime, AIDS, Watergate, and more.

Oct 12, 2021 • 59:03

228 The Mustache Strike

228 The Mustache Strike

In 1907 French waiters went on strike, and won the right to wear facial hair.

Sep 6, 2021 • 17:31

227 The Rasputin Disclaimer

227 The Rasputin Disclaimer

Nearly every English-language movie has a disclaimer in the credits that says something like “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.” Obviously this isn’t true. Historical epics, biopics, and other movies are clearly based on real people. Why does this disclaimer pretend otherwise? The answer, it turns out, has a lot to do with Rasputin.

Aug 11, 2021 • 22:29

August 2021 Announcement

August 2021 Announcement

...

Aug 2, 2021 • 2:38

226 Sara and Jack Gorman on Denying to the Grave

226 Sara and Jack Gorman on Denying to the Grave

Covid-19 has killed and sickened hundreds of thousands of people, and transformed our economy, how we work, and how we relate to each other. Even in the midst of this world-historic crisis, though, people deny it. Conspiracy theorists and naysayers claim covid is a hoax, and others refuse to get vaccinated for a variety of pseudoscientific reasons. This denialism isn’t new. During past crisis, such as the AIDS pandemic, plenty of conspiracy theorists claimed that it wasn’t real, or that HIV didn

Jul 15, 2021 • 32:02

225 Los San Patricios

225 Los San Patricios

The Mexican-American War was not fought for good reasons. The war was one of imperial and expansionist ambition and territorial expansion, and even in the 1840s many Americans at the time knew they were on the wrong side of history. Among the Americans who knew that the U.S. probably shouldn’t wage a war of aggression on its neighbor were a battalion of mostly Irish immigrants who became known as Saint Patrick’s Battalion. They defected from the American to Mexican side of the conflict, battled

Mar 17, 2021 • 19:57

224 Carlton F.W. Larson on Treason in the U.S.

224 Carlton F.W. Larson on Treason in the U.S.

Treason is the only crime specifically defined in the U.S. Constitution, and talk of treason has been in the air for the last four years. Carlton F.W. Larson is a professor of constitutional law at University of California at Davis, and the author of On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law. He joined us to discuss how treason is defined in the U.S., why it’s defined in that particular way, and the U.S.’s checkered past when it comes to actually prosecuting (or not prosecuting) people for treaso

Jan 24, 2021 • 39:28

223 Grand Guignol Part Two: Tales of Terror!

223 Grand Guignol Part Two: Tales of Terror!

It’s not enough to just talk about the history of the Grand Guignol. We also want to bring you a little bit of what it was like to take in a night of horror there. On this special Halloween episode, we bring you three adaptations of Grand Guignol plays: Him!, The Ultimate Torture, and The Kiss of Blood.

Oct 31, 2020 • 21:08

222 Grand Guignol Part One: Theater of Horror!

222 Grand Guignol Part One: Theater of Horror!

The Grand Guignol was a small Parisian theater which regularly produced original works of horror. The theater, which operated from 1897 until 1962, showcased short plays about murder, insanity, dismemberment, disease, and other horrors, much to the delight of regulars and tourists alike. The theater produced over 1,200 original plays during it’s six decades of work, and today occupies a special place in the history of the horror genre. However, the Grand Guignol’s mythic status is sometimes at o

Oct 25, 2020 • 29:37

221 Sasha Abramsky on Lottie Dod

221 Sasha Abramsky on Lottie Dod

Sasha Abramsky is a journalist and author whose new book Little Wonder tells the story of Lottie Dod, the modern world’s first female sporting celebrity. Dod came to prominence as a tennis prodigy and later excelled in other sports like golf, archery, and mountain climbing before voluntarily giving up her celebrity and fading into obscurity.

Sep 18, 2020 • 27:21

220 Michel Paradis on Last Mission to Tokyo

220 Michel Paradis on Last Mission to Tokyo

Today’s show is a conversation with Michel Paradis, attorney and author of Last Mission to Tokyo. Early in WWII the U.S. launched the Doolittle Raids against Japan, attacking the Japanese mainland for the first time. Most of the raiders were able to land safely in allied China, but some were captured by the Japanese and put on trial for the attack. After the war, the Japanese officers who put the raiders on trial were, themselves, put on trial by the Americans. Last Mission to Tokyo tells the st

Aug 7, 2020 • 32:12

219 Patient Zero

219 Patient Zero

In 1987 journalist Randy Shilts chronicled the early years of AIDS in North America in his book And the Band Played On. Shilts’ reporting was mostly concerned with the failures of the U.S. government and healthcare infrastructure to respond to AIDS, but much of the promotion and hype around the book focused on a man named Gaeten Dugas. Dugas had been a flight attendant for Air Canada, and Shilts blamed him for spreading AIDS throughout North America. Dugas, later named “Patient Zero” was demoniz

Jul 11, 2020 • 22:55

218 Juneteenth

218 Juneteenth

Slavery in the United States did not end all at once. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in 1863, the last enslaved persons in the United States didn’t know they were legally free until June 19th, 1865 when the Union Army arrived in Galveston, Texas. That day, which became known as “Juneteenth,” has been recognized as a holiday by numerous African-American communities throughout the U.S. since 1865. While it’s still not an official federal holiday, it is recognized as a s

Jun 19, 2020 • 17:49

An Update From Joe

An Update From Joe

Hello everyone. We’re all dealing with a lot right now. This is an update on how I’ve been doing, and the state of the show.

Apr 26, 2020 • 5:11

217 The War of 1812 Part Two: Other Causes

217 The War of 1812 Part Two: Other Causes

British impressment of American sailors and restrictions on maritime trade are only part of the story in the run-up to the War of 1812. Another major factor was American expansionism. The British, at the time, were supplying munitions to Native American populations in the Old Northwest who were violently resisting American expansion, and a war with Britain could, potentially, cut off that support. Also, lots of Americans wanted to take over Canada.

Mar 22, 2020 • 21:56

216 The War of 1812, Part One: Surface Causes

216 The War of 1812, Part One: Surface Causes

America doesn’t talk much about the War of 1812. In the historical narrative that the U.S. likes to construct for itself, its first official, declared war might as well not exist. The war’s been ignored for a variety of reasons (we’ll get to why later) but in this episode we’re going to examine surface causes for the war. Conventional narratives about the war of 1812 point the finger at British impressment of American sailors in the early 1800s, and policies like the Orders in Council that restr

Mar 1, 2020 • 17:30

215 Vortex One: An Excerpt From Storied and Scandalous Portland, Oregon

215 Vortex One: An Excerpt From Storied and Scandalous Portland, Oregon

In 1970 Oregon governor Tom McCall had a problem: An American Legion convention was descending on Portland in August of that year, with a potential visit by then-president Richard Nixon. A group called the People’s Army Jamboree promised to protest the convention and Nixon, and McCall wanted to avoid the possibility of urban warfare in his state’s largest city. His solution: Vortex One, a week-long state-sponsored music festival where attendees could enjoy sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll free from

Feb 16, 2020 • 17:26

214 In Which Loki Ruins a Dinner Party

214 In Which Loki Ruins a Dinner Party

The Poetic Edda is one of our main sources for Norse mythology, and the poems in it feature tales of gods, heroes, giants, and (of course) Ragnarok. However, not everything in the Poetic Edda focuses on quests, battles, heroes, or monsters. Some of the major poems featuring the Aesir don’t feature the gods fighting frost giants or battling with monsters like Fenris or the World Serpent. Rather, they spend an awful lot of time insulting each other. In a poem known as The Flyting of Loki or Loki’s

Jan 26, 2020 • 24:00

Bonus: A Visit From the Spirit of Vengeance or Ghost Rider Saves Christmas

Bonus: A Visit From the Spirit of Vengeance or Ghost Rider Saves Christmas

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Dec 24, 2019 • 5:44

213 Where Does Santa Claus Come From?

213 Where Does Santa Claus Come From?

Santa Claus is the result of cultural crossover and exchange. Historical and folkloric figures like St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas, and Father Christmas combined in various ways over several generations to create the English-speaking world’s most popular personification of Christmas. It was a long, messy journey that involved sailors venerating Saint Nicholas, the Netherlands getting more into the Saint than anyone else in Europe did, New Amsterdam, New York, Washington Irving, and more than a little

Dec 23, 2019 • 32:41

212 St. Nicholas

212 St. Nicholas

Saint Nicholas is not Santa Claus, but he’s now inescapably bound up with Santa’s story and identity. Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, a town in what we no call Turkey, and we don’t have any surviving sources about him from his lifetime. The first major biography we have of Nicholas dates from 800s, centuries after his death, and stories about him are likely fictional or exaggerated. Those stories tell of a man who expelled demons, stayed executions, slapped the Christian heretic Arius (pictured

Dec 12, 2019 • 25:47

211 Stonehenges

211 Stonehenges

World monuments get replicated all the time. There are no shortage of Statues of Liberty or Eiffel Towers, for instance. However, the world monument that’s probably replicated more than any other is Stonehenge. Copies and parodies of the stone circle are everywhere, and in this episode we talk about Stonehenge replicas in general, and the Maryhill Stonehenge in particular. That Stonehenge comes to us via Sam Hill, an eccentric industrialist and pacifist who built his monument as a memorial for s

Nov 26, 2019 • 18:50

210 Soviet Pepsi

210 Soviet Pepsi

In 1959 a Pepsi executive successfully showcased his product at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, an event created to foster cultural exchange during the Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev himself tasted the beverage, and years later Pepsi became one of the few American products widely available in the USSR. Pepsi’s deal with the Soviet Union was essentially a gigantic barter deal: They’d ship Pepsi syrup to the USSR, and in return they’d get Stolychanaya vodka. This worked well until 1989, w

Nov 19, 2019 • 23:25

209 The Ribbon Around Her Neck

209 The Ribbon Around Her Neck

Alvin Schwartz is best known for traumatizing children with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. However, one of Schwartz’s most terrifying tales for kids is from a different book, In a Dark, Dark Room and other Scary Stories. The story The Green Ribbon frightened an entire generation of schoolchildren with a narrative about a woman who wore a green ribbon around her neck every single day of her life… because it was keeping her head on. Schwartz was a folklorist, and his stories all had antecedent

Oct 31, 2019 • 23:16

208 Nosferatu

208 Nosferatu

Today Dracula is one of the most ubiquitous public domain characters in popular media. However, in the 1920s German filmmakers had to get permission from Bram Stoker’s estate in order to make a film based on the 1897 novel. Prana Films, however, was not able to secure permission from Stoker’s widow for an official adaptation. Instead, producer Albin Grau and director F.W. Murnau made Nosferatu, a Dracula film in all but name.

Oct 26, 2019 • 19:47

207 Les Klinger on H.P. Lovecraft

207 Les Klinger on H.P. Lovecraft

Les Klinger is an editor, Sherlock Holmes expert, and annotator of classic fiction. He joined us to talk about his newest book The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham. He talked about Lovcraft’s life, fiction, and how Lovecraft’s racism and xenophobia informed the content of his fiction.

Oct 20, 2019 • 34:53

206 The Adventures of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Severed Head

206 The Adventures of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Severed Head

Franz Joseph Hayden was a brilliant composer and one of the most important figures in European classical music. He inspired luminaries such as Mozart and Beethoven, and even today his music is beloved the world over. However, shortly after he died in 1809 his head was stolen. Why? Because phrenology!

Oct 9, 2019 • 17:42

205 Live at Rose City Comic Con: Roy Lichtenstein, Comics Stealer

205 Live at Rose City Comic Con: Roy Lichtenstein, Comics Stealer

Roy Lichtenstein was one of the most successful American artists of the 20th century, and the figure most associated with pop art after Andy Warhol. Lichtenstein is known for his comics images like “WHAAM!,” pictured below, and his techniques brought be nday dots and comic-book colors into the gallery. However, Lichtenstein’s works were not his own invention: They were based on existing panels in war, romance, and daily comics. While Lichtenstein made millions of art sales, the artists he copied

Sep 23, 2019 • 33:19

204 The Life and Lies of George Psalmanazar

204 The Life and Lies of George Psalmanazar

In the first decade of the 1700s a visitor to London claimed to be from a far-off land: Formosa. He described it as being an idyllic paradise, albeit one filled with cannibalism. The supposed Formosan, who called himself George Psalmanazar, was in fact a blonde-haired, blue-eyed continental European who had never been to Taiwan in his life.

Sep 10, 2019 • 20:25

203 Iran-Contra Part, Four: Fallout

203 Iran-Contra Part, Four: Fallout

The Iran-Contra affair was a failure. It didn’t topple the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, nor did it improve U.S. relations with Iran. And yet, the subsequent cover-up and damage-control by the Reagan administration was a success. Almost no one talks about the scandal now. Despite damning evidence against the administration being out in the open, the scandal did not impact Reagan’s legacy in the way Watergate did Nixon’s, or Clinton’s scandals did his. It was also, oddly enough, probably the be

Aug 26, 2019 • 33:59

202 The Solitude of Michael Collins

202 The Solitude of Michael Collins

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Most people remember Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but fewer remember Michael Collins, the member of the mission who did not set foot on the moon. However, even though Collins didn’t set foot on the lunar surface, he did achieve something almost just as momentous: By orbiting around the moon in 1969 he became the single most isolated human being in all of history.

Jul 20, 2019 • 14:57

201 Duncan Ryuken Williams on American Sutra

201 Duncan Ryuken Williams on American Sutra

Duncan Ryuken Williams’s new book, American Sutra, explores Japanese Internment with a focus on Buddhism. Most Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans were Buddhists, and before and during internment these members of the Japanese-American community were treated very differently than those who’d converted to Christianity. Buddhists in internment camps found ways to practice their faith, despite it being discouraged, and Buddhist soldiers were crucial to the American war effort, both in Europe

Jul 2, 2019 • 35:03

200 Q&A Dinosaur Party Extravaganza!

200 Q&A Dinosaur Party Extravaganza!

We’ve hit two hundred episodes! To celebrate we’re taking your questions. Designer, photographer, and all-around superhero Sarah Giffrow joined Joe to answer talk about how to think about history, the state of podcasting, and dinosaurs.

Jun 24, 2019 • 30:27

199 Melissa Kwasny on Putting on the Dog

199 Melissa Kwasny on Putting on the Dog

Humans are the only animals to wear clothing, and much of that clothing is made out of other animals. In Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We Wear author Melissa Kwasny explores the worlds of leather, wool, silk, feathers, pearls, and fur. Her research into the animal origins of clothing prompted an exploration of both the history of clothing as well as the ethical and environmental issues surrounding wearable animal products.

Jun 16, 2019 • 41:41

198 Iran-Contra, Part Three: Secret Wars

198 Iran-Contra, Part Three: Secret Wars

Congress had made its view clear with the Boland amendments: The United States government would not support the Contras in Nicaragua. However, the Reagan administration was determined to support the anti-Sandinista fighters. To get funds where they needed to be the administration concocted a complicated scheme involving missiles, Iran, hostages, and Hezbollah. It worked at first, with secret American arms sales leading to the release of an American hostage. However, complications at the Lisbon a

Jun 4, 2019 • 18:00

197 Joshua Specht on Red Meat Republic

197 Joshua Specht on Red Meat Republic

Beef occupies a unique place in American culture. In his new book Red Meat Republic Joshua Specht examines the history of the American beef industry. He examines how ranching and range land was seized from Native Americans, how beef shaped industrial and labor history, and the role beef still plays in American ideas of class, gender, and identity.

May 24, 2019 • 34:32

196 Iran-Contra Part Two: The Boland Amendments

196 Iran-Contra Part Two: The Boland Amendments

In the early 1980s the Reagan administration changed how the U.S. engaged with Communism abroad. Instead of following a policy of containment, the U.S. would actively support anti-Communist insurgents around the world. This policy, which later became known as the Reagan administration, positioned the US as the supporter and benefactor of fighters like the Afghan Mujahideen and the Nicaraguan Contras. However, Reagan’s policy of intervention didn’t garner universal support, especially in light of

May 10, 2019 • 17:17

195 Iran-Contra, Part One: Revolution in Nicaragua

195 Iran-Contra, Part One: Revolution in Nicaragua

The Cold War defined geopolitics for much of the 20th century, often turning local conflicts and regional politics into large, proxy battles between the United States and Soviet Union. In 1979 the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) successfully ousted Nicaragua’s Somoza regime, ending four decades of dictatorship. Almost immediately after the revolution, though, the remnants of the old regime began fighting back. These new rebel fighters, the Contras, received support from the American

May 3, 2019 • 16:23

194 Shakespeare Was Shakespeare

194 Shakespeare Was Shakespeare

Since the late 1800s numerous figures such as Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and Malcolm X have expressed doubt about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. These deniers, variously known as anti-Stratfordians, have put forward a variety of other candidates as the possible author of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, including Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. However, all of the evidence suggests that there is no mystery about who wrote the plays. All av

Apr 26, 2019 • 29:28

193 The Many Lives of Notre Dame

193 The Many Lives of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Cathedral, the world’s best-known example of Gothic architecture, was partially destroyed in a fire. The church requires extensive restoration, but this is not the first time that Notre Dame has fallen into ruin. When Victor Hugo wrote his 1831 novel Notre Dame de Paris (known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame in English) the church was in disrepair. Hugo’s novel inspired a restoration starting in 1844, and architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc created much of what we, until last Monday, assoc

Apr 19, 2019 • 18:05

192 False Alarm

192 False Alarm

In 1983 a Soviet satellite system erroneously detected five incoming American nuclear missiles. Stanislav Petrov, the man tasked with reporting the alert to the USSR’s leadership, suddenly had a dire choice: He could do his duty and start a nuclear war, or ignore the report in hopes that it was a false alarm. He chose the latter, and in doing so saved the world.

Apr 11, 2019 • 14:41

191 The Black Paintings

191 The Black Paintings

Francisco Goya is one of the first modern artist, and toward the end of his life he painted his most well-known works, the Black Paintings, into the walls of his home outside Madrid. The most famous of the Black Paintings is Saturn Devouring His Son (pictured below), but it’s only one of fifteen disturbing, dark images in the series.

Apr 4, 2019 • 20:54

Very Important Announcement

Very Important Announcement

The show is going in a new direction. Listen to find out why.

Apr 1, 2019 • 2:52

190 Faro, the Hottest Game in the West

190 Faro, the Hottest Game in the West

The image of cowboys playing poker has shown up again and again in Westerns. However, if you walked into a saloon in the late 1800s, you likely wouldn’t find poker, blackjack, or other contemporary casino games. Instead, you’d probably find a game of faro. The French card game (also known as “bucking the tiger” or “riding the tiger”) was popular throughout Europe and North America up until WWII. Faro was all but synonymous with gambling, and prominent figures like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday wer

Mar 27, 2019 • 16:48

189 Thom Wall on The History of Juggling

189 Thom Wall on The History of Juggling

Thom Wall is a professional juggler and who’s known both for his feats of dexterity and his enthusiasm for old-style vaudeville performance. His new book Juggling From Antiquity to the Middle Ages traces the history of the art across time and place. Juggling has been invented independently several times over in Ancient Egypt, Mesoamerica, and Polynesia. Wall traces its myriad histories into, eventually, the art of throwing and catching we know today.

Mar 18, 2019 • 34:25

188 Swingin’ on the Flippity-Flop

188 Swingin’ on the Flippity-Flop

Find out what a badly-sourced article in the Toronto Sun, a fake list of grunge slang in the New York Times, and an oft-repeated anecdote about a floating bordello can tell us about better evaluating sources and looking at how we know what we know.

Mar 4, 2019 • 22:11

187 Presidential Pets

187 Presidential Pets

This week we look at the animal companions of America’s chief executives, including opossums, eagles, and very good dogs.

Feb 14, 2019 • 25:07

186 Crystal King on The Chef’s Secret

186 Crystal King on The Chef’s Secret

Crystal King is the author of two novels about Italian food history. Her first book Feast of Sorrow delved into the world of food in ancient Rome, and her follow up moves forward over a thousand year to explore food in Renaissance Italy. Crystal’s expertise extends beyond the page. Her Parthian chicken recipe has become a favorite of mine, and a go-to recipe when I’m cooking for company.

Feb 4, 2019 • 32:44

185 The Georgia Guidestones

185 The Georgia Guidestones

In 1980 a mysterious benefactor who only identified himself as “R.C. Christian” commissioned a granite monument in rural Georgia bearing advice on how to reconstruct civilization after the apocalypse. Unfortunately, it’s not very good advice.

Jan 27, 2019 • 19:16

184 Is Taiwan a Country?

184 Is Taiwan a Country?

Taiwan’s status is a matter of debate. In this episode we get into its history and try to suss out whether it’s part of China or an independent country.

Jan 10, 2019 • 29:37

Big News for 2019

Big News for 2019

I’m doing a big thing in 2019, and I need to tell you about it.

Dec 20, 2018 • 4:05

183 Krampus and Friends

183 Krampus and Friends

Over the past decade or so the Krampus, a demonic figure from German folklore, has become something of a Christmas staple in the United States. However, the Krampus is by no means the only German Christmas monster. Frau Berchta, Knecht Ruprecht, Belsnickel, and Pere Fouettard have also struck fear into the hearts of children around the holidays.

Dec 16, 2018 • 19:06

182 Atlantropa, the Plan to Drain the Mediterranean

182 Atlantropa, the Plan to Drain the Mediterranean

In the 1920s German architect Herman Sorgel had a plan: Solve nearly all of Europe’s social, economic, and environmental problems by partially draining the Mediterranean. He called the project “Atlantropa,” and it would have been a massive environmental disaster. View a 1951 clip outlining the plan (in German) here. Below is an image of Sorgel’s plan for a mssive dam across the strait of Gibraltar, which would have dwarfed even the Three Gorges Dam.

Dec 3, 2018 • 15:54

181 Thanksgiving Mummery

181 Thanksgiving Mummery

Thanksgiving, at least in New York City at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, used to look a lot like Halloween. Traditional trappings like turkey and family gatherings were certainly present, but it was also a day for children (and adults) to dress in costumes, make noise, and go from house to house demanding treats and pennies.

Nov 20, 2018 • 11:44

180 Lucy Bellwood on Sailor Tattoos

180 Lucy Bellwood on Sailor Tattoos

Lucy Bellwood is a cartoonist and author in Portland, Oregon. Last year her illustration of sailor tattoos went viral. We talked about nautical tattoos, their meanings, and what it means to get well-known on the Internet very quickly. We also touched on how one researches and studies history, especially in the context of tattoo myths about James Cook and a book Bellwood recommends, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret. Letterpress versions of Bellwood’s print are available here, and regular prints are

Nov 4, 2018 • 44:34

179 Buried Alive!

179 Buried Alive!

Being buried alive was one of the most common phobias of the Victorian era. Fear of premature interment in a coffin inspired the creation of the London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial, an Edgar Allan Poe short story about fear of being buried alive, and safety coffins designed to let in air and light and, in the event of early burial, allow the still-living person contact with the outside world.

Oct 31, 2018 • 16:23

178 Wendigo

178 Wendigo

Cannibalism is one of the the most prevalent taboos across human societies, and people who practice cannibalism have frequently been demonized throughout history. The Wendigo, a creature from Algonquin folklore, is one of the most vivid examples of how cannibalism is demonized. The story goes that if someone consumes human flesh, they will become a flesh-eating monster that never truly satiates its desire for human flesh. The image below is from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, illustrated by

Oct 23, 2018 • 19:42

177 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Be Okay With Ghost Tours

177 How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Be Okay With Ghost Tours

Some reflections on giving tours, ghost tours, and how the Philip experiment is kind of like Dungeons and Dragons.

Oct 9, 2018 • 14:43

176 The Cadaver Synod

176 The Cadaver Synod

In 897 Pope Stephen VI put the corpse of one of his predecessors, Formosus, on trial. The current pope ordered that the former pope’s dead body be dressed in papal finery and put on a throne to stand trial. Stephen VI acted as prosecutor, accusing his predecessor of attempting to have two bishoprics at once and coveting the papacy. The current pope then ordered the Formosus’ body stripped of its finery, the fingers on his right hand be cut off, and his body thrown into the Tiber. The painting be

Oct 1, 2018 • 17:27

175 Approved by the Comics Code Authority, Part Two

175 Approved by the Comics Code Authority, Part Two

From 1954 until 2011 the Comics Code Authority exercised control over what could and couldn’t be in comic books. The first version of the code was one of the most restrictive content regimes U.S. media has ever known, banning subject matter such as sex, drugs, and supernatural elements such as werewolves and vampires. The Code was revised in 1971 and 1989, before slowly fading away after 2001 and then being wholly abandoned by 2011. The Comics Code Authority seal is now, ironically, owned by the

Sep 24, 2018 • 35:38

174 Approved by the Comics Code Authority, Part One

174 Approved by the Comics Code Authority, Part One

From 1964 until 2011 comic books were nominally approved by a content regime called the Comics Code Authority. The Authority grew out of anti-comic book sentiment in the early part of the twentieth century. Anti-comics advocates like Fredric Wertham portrayed comic books as filled with crime, sex, and corrupting ideas. In 1954 a senate subcommittee headed by Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver all but put comic books on trial, with Kefauver grilling EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines about the content

Sep 14, 2018 • 26:37

173 Roanoke

173 Roanoke

The disappearance of the Roanoke colony is one of America’s oldest mysteries. However, the story of the Roanoke colony was only a major pillar of American historiography after the 1830s, and later on in the 1800s Virginia Dare, the granddaughter of colonial governor and artist John White, became a symbol of the American South and white supremacy. For more on the Roanoke colony check out Andrew Lawler’s excellent new book The Secret Token, which I heartily endorse.

Aug 29, 2018 • 30:33

172 Live at the Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, The Tempest and the New World

172 Live at the Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, The Tempest and the New World

Shakespeare’s Tempest is a fantasy, but it’s backgrounded by European encounters with the New World. When the play was written in 1610 or 1611 European sailors had already been exploring the Americas for over a century. References to the New World show up in both the play’s text and themes, and scholars have often viewed the tempest through a colonial or postcolonial lens, though it still escapes easy allegory. This episode was recorded live at The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, a Portland art

Aug 20, 2018 • 14:50

171 Live at Floyd’s, The Mythical Geography of the Pacific Northwest

171 Live at Floyd’s, The Mythical Geography of the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest was one of the last areas to be accurately mapped by European and American cartographers. At various times mapmakers thought that it was near a Asian region called Ania, that California was an Island, or that a great inland sea took up much of the American west. When Lewis and Clark ventured westward, they had a clearer idea of the coastline, yet they were still taken by surprise when they encountered the Rocky anc Cascade mountain ranges. Visuals to accompany this live eve

Aug 2, 2018 • 41:20

170 Phreak Out!

170 Phreak Out!

Hacking predated personal computers. From the 1960s until the 1990s early hackers known as “phreaks” learned how to hack into phone lines, make long-distance calls for free, set up secret conference calls, and explore the global telephone network.

Jul 23, 2018 • 18:47

169 The Telharmonium

169 The Telharmonium

In the first decade of the 20th century you could pick up a phone in New York City and listen to the world’s first ever electronic synthesizer. The Telharmonium was the invention of Thaddeus Cahill, and the 200 ton musical instrument used rotating cogs to produce electronic sounds, accessible to anyone who subscribed to what’s arguably the progenitor of all musical streaming services.

Jul 9, 2018 • 15:50

168 Dorothy and Friends

168 Dorothy and Friends

In the early 1980s the US Navy was determined to uncover a secret gay subculture at the Great Lakes Naval Base just outside of Chicago. All of the men they were looking for seemed to be friends of Dorothy. If the NIS could find, Dorothy, they thought, they could blow this whole thing wide open. We’ve talked about The Wizard of Oz and monetary policy before. This is different.

Jun 30, 2018 • 13:52

167 North Korea Part Fifteen, How North Korea Ends

167 North Korea Part Fifteen, How North Korea Ends

This week we close out our look at North Korea with three different scenarios for the future: War, reform, and reunification. None of the these futures are good. A war would kill millions. Reform could entrench a brutal dictatorship. Reunification could create an impoverished underclass in a new Korea for a generation. Image via CNN.

Jun 23, 2018 • 1:00:18

166 North Korea Part Fourteen, How to Escape From North Korea

166 North Korea Part Fourteen, How to Escape From North Korea

Escaping North Korea is difficult, but it can be done. Notable escapees include Choi Eun-Hee and Shin Sang-Ok, a South Korean actress and director who Kim Jong Il captured and forced to make movies, like the Godzilla knockoff Pulgasari, pictured below. Kenji Fujimoto is the pseudonym for Kim’s personal chef who escaped to Japan in 2001. But, the vast majority of North Koreans escape the country because of famine and desperation, and the trip is a long and arduous one through China and Southeast

Jun 5, 2018 • 25:41

165 Happy Defenestration Day!

165 Happy Defenestration Day!

Happy Defenestration Day! On May 23rd, 1618 a bunch of angry Bohemian nobles shoved some government officials out of a window. The Second Defenestration of Prague kicked off the Thirty Years’ War, but today we mark it as a sesquipedalian occasion to celebrate very large words.

May 23, 2018 • 10:03

164 North Korea Part Thirteen, How North Korea Got Nukes

164 North Korea Part Thirteen, How North Korea Got Nukes

Even as its citizens starved, Kim Jong Il was able to assure that North Korea was able to obtain nuclear weapons. He did this by raising revenue with criminal activity, prioritizing the military above all else, bribing a Pakistani nuclear scientist, and reverse-engineering Scud missiles.

May 22, 2018 • 20:47

163 North Korea Part Twelve, Kim Jong Il and the Arduous March of Famine

163 North Korea Part Twelve, Kim Jong Il and the Arduous March of Famine

The transition of power from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il was a gradual one. From 1980 until 1994, it’s probably that the younger Kim did most of the day-to-day ruling of North Korea, with Kim Il Sung acting in a more removed capacity. When Kim Il Sung did die, it was at an opportune time. His son assumed power in 1994, just in time to preside over a famine that would kill over two million North Korean citizens.

May 10, 2018 • 25:44

162 Michael P. Daley on Bobby Bluejacket

162 Michael P. Daley on Bobby Bluejacket

Michael P. Daley is the author of Bobby Bluejacket, a book about a man who, in 1948, was the subject of one of the most covered trials in Tulsa history. We talked about Bluejacket’s life in the Tulsa underground, his time in prison, and why figures like him are worth studying.

May 1, 2018 • 24:09

161 North Korea Part Eleven, The Tomb of the Eternal President

161 North Korea Part Eleven, The Tomb of the Eternal President

The 1980s and early 1990s were a bad time for North Korea. The DPRK had to endure South Korea hosting the 1988 Olympics, the country sunk billions of dollars into wasteful infrastructure projects, and the Cold War ended, depriving them of Soviet aid. After that, North Korea suffered a symbolic blow in 1994 when Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader, died at the age of eighty two.

Apr 25, 2018 • 34:40

160 North Korea Part Ten, “Meanwhile, in South Korea!”

160 North Korea Part Ten, “Meanwhile, in South Korea!”

For years South Korea was a dysfunctional military dictatorship under leaders like Rhee Syngman and Park Chun Hee. Assassination, martial law, and political repression were the order of the day. North Korean propaganda was able to exploit the militarism, chaos, and violence in their neighbor in propaganda, but after democratic reforms in the 1980s, the relative stability of the Korean peninsula is very different. For the most part. South Korea still does have the occasional presidential scandal.

Apr 13, 2018 • 17:40

159 Spaghetti Trees

159 Spaghetti Trees

On April 1st, 1957 a BBC One news program ran a straight-faced and ostensibly real report on Switerzerland’s spring spaghetti crop, and convinced some of their viewers that spaghetti grew on trees.

Apr 1, 2018 • 11:58

158 North Korea Part Nine, The DMZ, Assassinations, and the USS Pueblo

158 North Korea Part Nine, The DMZ, Assassinations, and the USS Pueblo

During the Cold War, North Korea primarily interacted with South Korea and the United States via building the DMZ, several assassination attempts on South Korean presidents, and the taking of the USS Pueblo, the crew of which are pictured below. Note how they held their fingers when being photographed by their North Korean captors.

Mar 29, 2018 • 20:54

157 North Korea Part Eight, Juche

157 North Korea Part Eight, Juche

Juche is the animating principal of North Korea. It’s usually translated as “self-reliance,” but in fact it means whatever is good for the regime. Juche is the ideology that North Korea uses to convince it’s people, the outside world, and itself that its system of totalitarianism and authoritarianism has a coherent ideological basis. It’s distinct from communism, often incoherent, and is what keeps North Korea from integrating itself into the larger world.

Mar 20, 2018 • 21:49

156 North Korea Part Seven, The Good Old Days

156 North Korea Part Seven, The Good Old Days

The Cold War was a good time for North Korea. For much of the mid 20th century it was relatively better off than South Korea, and North Korean citizens recognized that the new regime was worlds better than what they had under Japanese occupation. In this time period of prosperity, the North Korean leadership played China and the Soviet Union off each other, instituted a caste system, and cultivated a policy of isolationism.

Mar 7, 2018 • 18:09

155 North Korea Part Six: War and No Peace

155 North Korea Part Six: War and No Peace

The Korean War was supposed to be over quickly. However, due to intervention from the United Nations, China, and the Soviet Union, what would have been a quick regional conflict turned into a years-long war that involved over twenty countries and left millions dead. At the end of it, the borders between the two Koreas looked much like they had before the war, and it gradually became apparent that the division would not go away anytime soon.

Feb 26, 2018 • 14:30

154 North Korea Part Five, The Spark of War

154 North Korea Part Five, The Spark of War

Prior to the Korean War, both North and South saw themselves as the legitimate government for the entire peninsula. At the time, the North was considered the more advanced, industrialized part of the peninsula, and Kim Il Sung believed that he could win a war with the more rural South. Stalin gave Kim permission for an invasion, and the Soviet premier believed that the war would be small, regional, and over quickly. However, the United States was able to mobilize the United Nations for what was

Feb 12, 2018 • 15:44

153 North Korea, Part Four: Red(ish) Dawn

153 North Korea, Part Four: Red(ish) Dawn

After WWII, the Korean peninsula was briefly united again as The People’s Republic of Korea. However, the unification wouldn’t last. American and Soviet forces divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, and in the north the Soviet Union set about creating a puppet state. However, the leader they chose, Kim Il Sung, and the founding ideology of their new state would not play out entirely as they had planned.

Feb 7, 2018 • 14:52

152 North Korea, Part Three: Collaborators, Resistors, and Kim Il Sung

152 North Korea, Part Three: Collaborators, Resistors, and Kim Il Sung

Japanese occupation changed North Korea, with various citizens either collaborating with or actively resisting it. One of those resistors was a guerrilla fighter named Kim Song Ju, who would later be known as Kim Il Sung. If you believe North Korean propaganda (which you shouldn’t) Kim Il Sung was born of humble farmers and formed a secret Korean resistance during the occupation. In fact, his grandfather was a Protestant minister, he spent most of his youth in China, and the units he fought with

Jan 29, 2018 • 14:06

151 North Korea, Part Two: Japanese Occupation

151 North Korea, Part Two: Japanese Occupation

Japan’s occupation of Korea was a gradual process. As far back as 1876 Japan approached Korea with unequal treaties that attempted to economically exploit the peninsula. In 1895 Japanese officials assassinated Korea’s Queen Min, who opposed foreign occupation and influence, and Korea subsequently declared itself an empire. However, Japan returned in 1905 with yet another treaty that stripped Korea of its sovereignty, and completely annexed the peninsula in 1910.

Jan 22, 2018 • 19:51

150 North Korea, Part One: The Peaceful Peninsula

150 North Korea, Part One: The Peaceful Peninsula

This year, we’re doing a long-form series on North Korea. We’ll get into the history, culture, and ideology of the isolated, totalitarian country. In order to get proper context, we’re starting with a (very) brief overview of Korean history. In the twentieth century, Korea is often thought of as a country in tumult, and one that is at the mercy of its more powerful neighbors. However, for most of Korea’s history, it was anything but.

Jan 15, 2018 • 13:54

149 Sarah Fraser on The Last Highlander

149 Sarah Fraser on The Last Highlander

Sarah Fraser is the author of The Last Highlander, which details the life of Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat. Fraser’s life was one of political intrigue, feuds, international deal making, and rebellion. He was eventually beheaded in 1747, the last British peer to face such a fate.

Jan 8, 2018 • 36:53

New Series Announcement

New Series Announcement

We’re on break for the holidays. The podcast will return on January 8th with an interview episode, and on January 15th with the launch of a new long-form series!

Dec 25, 2017 • 1:48

148 In Which Your Christmas Decorations Are Wrong and Spain is Into Some Weird Stuff

148 In Which Your Christmas Decorations Are Wrong and Spain is Into Some Weird Stuff

The Nativity scene is an iconic Christmas decoration, but it only has a tenuous biblical foundation. Christmas traditions are often varied and strange, and representations of the Nativity can vary from region to region. In Spain, one element of the Nativity scene is the caganer, a peasant man defecating behind the barn. Yes. That is a real thing. While all traditions are unusual to outsiders, Catalonia’s tradition of poop-related Christmas things might be the oddest.

Dec 18, 2017 • 15:45

147 David Goldfield on The Gifted Generation

147 David Goldfield on The Gifted Generation

David Goldfield is an American historian and the author of almost twenty books. His latest, The Gifted Generation, chronicles the benefits that his peers received from the US federal government, and goes into detail about how the Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson administrations redefined the role and scope of what government does and means to Americans.

Dec 11, 2017 • 39:07

146 The Lost City of Vanport

146 The Lost City of Vanport

This episode is a little different. It’s about a topic that I’ve previously written and spoken about, though not on the podcast. Vanport was one of the largest federal housing projects in the United States during WWII. It went up hastily and cheaply just outside of Portland, Oregon, producing supply ships in less than two months, and was Oregon’s first major African-American population center. In 1948, though, it was destroyed by a cataclysmic flood that wiped the then second-largest town in Ore

Dec 6, 2017 • 18:56

145 Bonnie MacBird on Unquiet Spirits

145 Bonnie MacBird on Unquiet Spirits

Bonnie MacBird (the co-writer of Tron) is writing new, novel-length Sherlock Holmes adventures. We talked about her experience with Conan Doyle’s stories, how she adapted the author’s voice for a modern work, and other Sherlock media. We also discussed whiskey, which features prominently in her new book, Unquiet Spirits. The plot centers on a real-life catastrophe in the French wine industry, that led to more widespread consumption of whiskey in European upper classes.

Nov 27, 2017 • 25:50

Thankful

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I couldn’t do this without you.

Nov 23, 2017 • 2:52

144 The Immovable Ladder of Jerusalem

144 The Immovable Ladder of Jerusalem

Maybe the most famous part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a ladder that’s been propped onto the side of the building since at least the 1750s. The church is sacred to six different Christian sects, all of whom have to agree unanimously on anything in order to change any features of the church. For the past 250 plus years, none of them have agreed on where the ladder came from, who owns it, or where it should go. Tensions have occasionally led to fistfights at the Church of the holy Sepul

Nov 20, 2017 • 11:38

143 Brandon Seifert on Werewolves

143 Brandon Seifert on Werewolves

Brandon Seifert has written horror comics such as Witch Doctor, Hellraiser, and The Fly. Lately, he’s been studying werewolf folklore. We talked about the history of werewolf stories, werewolf witch trials, why people believed in werewolves, and what to do if you live in the 1500s and someone accuses you of werewolfism.

Nov 11, 2017 • 36:43

142 Icelandic Dracula

142 Icelandic Dracula

Icelandic Dracula, also known as Makt Myrkranna or Powers of Darkness, is amazing. The translator/author Valdimar Asmundsson made significant deviations to Bram Stoker’s text. There’s more sexy moonlight vampire temptation, Dracula is a straight-up supervillain who wants to overthrow the democratic governments of Europe, and there’s an underground ape cult. The book was hiding in plain sight until 2014 when a scholar finally noticed, over a hundred years ago, that the Icelandic novel was a very

Oct 31, 2017 • 25:58

141 How Dracula Was Dracula?

141 How Dracula Was Dracula?

Dracula, anymore, is as much of a character type and a trope as he is a single character. Different takes on Dracula abound, from Bela Lugosi to Sesame Street’s Count to numerous other media. There was also, though, a historical Dracula. Vlad the Impaler was a prince of Wallachia in the 1400s, and is often cited as the inspiration for Stoker’s Vampire. But, was he? Was the real Dracula anything like the character type we know now?

Oct 24, 2017 • 20:49

140 The Adventures of Oliver Cromwell’s Severed Head

140 The Adventures of Oliver Cromwell’s Severed Head

When he died, Oliver Cromwell was embalmed and given a funeral befitting a head of state. However, upon restoration of the British monarchy, Cromwell was exhumed and given a postmortem execution. His severed head was placed on a spike over Westminster Hall, and for twenty years his dead visage leered down upon London. The head was eventually dislodged by a storm, and for years it found itself in the hands of several owners, exchanged for debts, exhibited as a curiosity, and passed around at drun

Oct 15, 2017 • 16:50

139 Rosenstrasse

139 Rosenstrasse

In February of 1943 the Nazi regime arrested between 1500-2000 Jewish men in Berlin, and imprisoned them in a former Jewish community center with the address of Rosenstrasse 2-4. These men had, up until this point, avoided deportation to death camps because they were married to non-Jewish women, and instead had been forced to work in German factories up until that point. Their wives, though, showed up in force outside the building where they were imprisoned, and soon a group of hundreds of women

Oct 6, 2017 • 22:12

September

September

Find out why I’m taking September (mostly) off.

Sep 4, 2017 • 3:34

138 Confederate Statues

138 Confederate Statues

Confederate statues have been in the news lately. Memorials always reflect the time they were built in moreso than the time they commemorate, and the vast majority of confederate statues were built in the Jim Crow era, in the early 1900s as part of a neo-Confederate propaganda campaign to bolster the South’s reputation. Most of the statues were built quickly and cheaply by the Monumental Bronze Company, which mass-produced both Union and Confederate monuments. Aside from glorifying white suprema

Aug 22, 2017 • 19:55

137 Isaac Newton and the Cat Door

137 Isaac Newton and the Cat Door

Popular legend holds that Isaac Newton invented not only calculus, but also the cat door. Unfortunately, this colorful legend is not supported by good evidence. Cats have been domesticated for thousands of years, with the oldest known domestic cat possibly dating back to Cyprus 9,500 years ago. Textual evidence for cat doors can be found Chaucer in The Miller’s Tale, centuries before Newton, and there’s no evidence that the natural philosopher even owned a cat. Nevertheless, the myth has been pe

Aug 7, 2017 • 18:07

136 Durer’s Rhinoceros

136 Durer’s Rhinoceros

For almost three hundred years Europeans were not entirely sure what rhinos looked like. The most popular image of the beast was a print made by Albrecht Durer in 1515, which shows an Indian rhinoceros as a plated, scaled, animal with an extra horn between its shoulderblades. The print also includes text about how rhinos hunt and kill elephants. Durer never actually saw the rhino, which was a gift from the sultan of Cambay the the king of Portugal, but that didn’t stop his print from becoming on

Jul 31, 2017 • 17:56

135 Pad Thai, Nationalism, and Mandatory Hats

135 Pad Thai, Nationalism, and Mandatory Hats

Pad Thai is now heavily associated with Thai cuisine, but it’s a relatively modern invention. Noodles were probably imported to Thailand via either China or Vietnam, and the style of cooking of the noodles seems to indicate that it stems from other noodle dishes from southeast China. Noodles in general, and pad Thai in particular, were popularized in the 1930s and 1940s as a way of intentionally giving Thailand a national dish. The prime minister behind reforms, Plaek Phibunsongkhram, also attem

Jul 18, 2017 • 20:18

134 The Imaginary Islands of Benjamin Morrell

134 The Imaginary Islands of Benjamin Morrell

There’s no shortage of things on old maps that turned out to be fictional. Regions such as the Mountains of Kong or the continent of Lemuria dot antiquated maps, and the obviousness of their fictional nature seems quaint today. However, some fictional features of old maps were more subtle. Benjamin Morrell was an American sailor in the early 1800s who, in his memoirs, A Narrative of Four Voyages, invented islands out of whole cloth, most prominently Byers Island in the Pacific, and New South Gre

Jul 10, 2017 • 17:38

133 Hachiko

133 Hachiko

A statue of a dog sits outside Shibuya station in downtown Tokyo. The statue commemorates Hachiko, an Akita who walked to and from the train station every day with his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agricultural science at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1935 the professor died while at work, but Hachiko kept returning to Shibuya to wait for his master. He waited for ten year for the professor to return, until his eventual death in 1935. Like Bummer and Lazarus, Hachiko is a dog that becam

Jul 5, 2017 • 17:00

132 Crystal King on Feast of Sorrow

132 Crystal King on Feast of Sorrow

Crystal King is the author of Feast of Sorrow, a novel about ancient Roman cooking that takes the first known cookbook as its inspiration. We talked about what it would have been like to go to a Roman dinner party, what the common people would have eaten, Roman fast food, and putting spices in your wine.

Jun 19, 2017 • 29:56

131 Polyamory, Polygraphs, and Wonder Woman

131 Polyamory, Polygraphs, and Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman’s origin story is a fascinating one. Diana of Themyscira was created in 1940 by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist who helped invent the lie detector, worked for Universal Studios, and who lived in a menage-a-trois with his wife, Elizabeth, and another woman Olive Byrne. Marston believed that women were inherently superior to men, and in Wonder Woman created a character whom he believed embodied the qualities the world most needed. That, and there was a lot of bondage. So much

Jun 13, 2017 • 22:25

130 Human Mail

130 Human Mail

Sending human beings through the mail is not generally allowed, but plenty of people have tried it. The most notable person in US history to mail themselves is Henry “Box” Brown who escaped slavery in Virginia via a shipping company, and emerged in Philadelphia. Other notable human parcels include W. Reginald Bray, who made a habit of putting strange things through the mail, May Pierstorff, who was mailed by her parents as a parcel, and Reg Spiers, an athlete who mailed himself to from the UK to

Jun 5, 2017 • 18:20

129 Phantom Time, the Dumbest Conspiracy Theory Ever

129 Phantom Time, the Dumbest Conspiracy Theory Ever

One of the most dramatic (and dumbest) conspiracy theories of all time is the Phantom Time Hypothesis, put forward by the conspiracy theorist Heriber Illig. They hypothesis states that almost three centurires of the Middle Ages, AD 614 to 911, never happened, and it was all because of Otto III (pictured below) and Pope Sylvester II. Like the legend of Polybius, though, this is a conspiracy theory with some fascinating truth behind it. There are indeed chunks of missing time in the calendar, a re

May 30, 2017 • 19:17

128 Quest For Thundercows

128 Quest For Thundercows

In 1910 the United States almost imported hippos as a meat animal. Had it done so, the US would have imported the single most dangerous large land animal on Earth and treated it like a cow. HR2361 also known as the American Hippo Bill, would have allocated $250,000 for the importation of hippos and other animals to the US. The bill had the support of former president Theodore Roosevelt, and even the New York Times favored importing hippos, calling it “lake cow bacon.”

May 22, 2017 • 17:37

127 Bummer and Lazarus, the San Francisco Superdogs

127 Bummer and Lazarus, the San Francisco Superdogs

Bummer and Lazarus were a pair of stray dogs beloved of San Francisco in the 1860s. The two dogs were known for their exceptional rat-catching ability, and were a favorite topic of newspapers of the day. Nowadays the two dogs are often associated with Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, but Bummer and Lazarus belonged to no one. The dogs were their own, and are, very probably, the most beloved strays of all time.

May 15, 2017 • 18:14

126 Jenni L. Walsh on Becoming Bonnie

126 Jenni L. Walsh on Becoming Bonnie

Jenni L. Walsh is the author of Becoming Bonnie, a historical fiction novel about how Bonnie met Clyde, and what happened afterward. We talked about the real history of the outlaws, the 1967 movie, and what it’s like to craft actual events into a fictional narrative.

May 8, 2017 • 30:39

125 Italian Fascism Part Fourteen, The Fall of Fascism

125 Italian Fascism Part Fourteen, The Fall of Fascism

After the Kingdom of Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943, Mussolini was a prisoner. But, during a German invasion of Northern Italy, he was sprung from his cell by German commandos and put in charge of the Italian Social Republic, a Nazi puppet state. Mussolini’s new assignment would prove to be short-lived. In less than two years the former dictator would be executed, and his body ripped apart by an angry mob.

May 4, 2017 • 25:03

124 Italian Fascism Part Thirteen, Italy in WWII

124 Italian Fascism Part Thirteen, Italy in WWII

Italy did not perform well in WWII. The Italian economy was not able to support an effective industrial war machine, and Italy saw defeat in Greece, Ethiopia, and in North Africa. In 1943 Allied forces invaded Sicily, and with the noose gradually tightening, the High Council of Fascism voted Mussolini out of power.

Apr 24, 2017 • 18:43

75 Redux, About Mussolini and Those Trains…

75 Redux, About Mussolini and Those Trains…

There’s no new episode this week. instead, we’re re-running episode 75 which debunks the persistent myth that Mussolini made trains run on time.

Apr 17, 2017 • 15:06

123 Italian Fascism Part Twelve, Eve of Destruction

123 Italian Fascism Part Twelve, Eve of Destruction

Italy was not well-positioned going into World War II. The Italian economy was still largely agricultural, and its industrial output was small compared with every other European great power. Also, Mussolini felt himself more and more unable to control Hitler. At the 1938 Munich conference Mussolini brokered a deal between Nazi Germany and the other European powers that gave Hitler the Sudetenland in return for not invading Czechoslovakia. A few months later, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia anyway.

Apr 10, 2017 • 20:03

122 Italian Fascism Part Eleven, Race and Racism in Mussolini’s Italy

122 Italian Fascism Part Eleven, Race and Racism in Mussolini’s Italy

Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany certainly influenced the adoption of racist and anti-Semitic policies by Mussolini’s government. In a 1938 document called the Manifesto of Race, the fascist regime declared Italians to be Aryans, and that Jews and other minorities would be expelled from civil life. However, even prior to the alliance with Germany fascist Italy was quite capable of being racist on its own. Laws in conquered Ethiopia banned marriages between blacks and whites, and the best avail

Apr 3, 2017 • 23:16

121 Italian Fascism Part Ten, Mussolini and Hitler

121 Italian Fascism Part Ten, Mussolini and Hitler

Hitler and Mussolini never had a great relationship. The German dictator modeled his career on the Italian fascist, imitating Mussolini’s speech and mannerisms, and unsuccessfully tried to replicate the March on Rome with the Beerhall Putsch. Mussolini, for his part, didn’t pay Hitler much mind until 1930, much to the Furher’s chagrin. When the men first met in 1934 they got into a horrible argument about the fate of Austria, and Hitler later sent some material aide to Ethiopia during Italy’s co

Mar 27, 2017 • 14:43

120 Italian Fascism Part Nine, War With Ethiopia

120 Italian Fascism Part Nine, War With Ethiopia

It wasn’t enough for fascist Italy to adopt the rhetoric and imagery of ancient Rome, it also hoped to have a present-day empire. To do that Mussolini launched an invasion of a country that had defeated Italy in 1896: Ethiopia. To win this time, Italy would not merely invade with ground troops, like it had the last time. Instead, it would rain down chemical death upon the African kingdom, and then declare it an imperial possession.

Mar 20, 2017 • 18:11

119 Italian Fascism Part Eight, Illusions of Empire

119 Italian Fascism Part Eight, Illusions of Empire

Italy’s fascist regime sought legitimacy by packaging itself as an extension of past Italian glory. Under Mussolini Italy “restored” numerous Roman, Renaissance, and medieval sites, and sought to tie in the glories of the present with those of the past. Unfortunately, most of these “restorations” had little to no basis in evidence-based history, and the fascists often ignored historical periods (such as the Baroque era) that did not suit there needs. Below: Fascist party headquarters in the 1930

Mar 13, 2017 • 17:50

Monday is the New Thursday

Monday is the New Thursday

Hello all! My schedule has changed dramatically. The podcast will now update every Monday. Talk to you then!

Mar 9, 2017 • 1:22

118 Italian Fascism Part Seven, Meagan Zurn on Antonio Gramsci

118 Italian Fascism Part Seven, Meagan Zurn on Antonio Gramsci

This week’s episode is an interview with Meagan Zurn (or “Zee,” co-producer of The British History Podcast) about Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci was a socialist, journalist, and briefly a member of the Italian parliament before getting thrown in jail by Mussolini’s regime in 1926. He died in prison in 1937. His writings, especially his prison writings, outlined the relationship of power and culture, and his insights are especially useful for understanding the rise of fascism in Italy, as well as how p

Mar 2, 2017 • 36:15

117 Italian Fascism Part Six, Church and State

117 Italian Fascism Part Six, Church and State

Italian fascism came to power (and solidified power) by co-opting existing political organizations and interests in Italy. That included the Catholic Church. Since Italian Unification the Church had been at odds with liberal Italy, and for fifty-nine years pope did not even set foot outside the Vatican. In 1929, though Mussolini offered the papacy a way out, with the creation of Vatican City as an independent state. Unfortunately, this would not go entirely well for the church.

Feb 23, 2017 • 21:23

Plague Has Taken Me

Plague Has Taken Me

I’m sick. The harrowing tale of Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI will have to wait until next week.

Feb 16, 2017 • 0:50

116 Italian Fascism Part Five, “All Within the State”

116 Italian Fascism Part Five, “All Within the State”

After Mussolini proclaimed dictatorship in January of 1925 fascist Italy became the first modern totalitarian state. The regime extended its power and influence to everything from the national and local government, to the press, to unions, and even to the private lives of ordinary Italians.

Feb 10, 2017 • 25:11

115 Italian Fascism Part Four, Voter Suppression and Murder

115 Italian Fascism Part Four, Voter Suppression and Murder

Following the March on Rome Mussolini and the fascists cemented their grasp on power via an electoral reform known as the Acerbo Law, voter suppression and intimidation in the 1924 election, and (possibly) by killing one of their biggest opponents, the socialist MP Giacomo Matteotti.

Feb 2, 2017 • 18:12

114 Italian Fascism Part Three, The March on Rome

114 Italian Fascism Part Three, The March on Rome

The March on Rome is often cited as the beginning of Italian fascism. However, there was a fair amount of a run-up to the actual blackshirt invasion of the capital. Right-wing violence ravaged the Italian provinces for years before the actual march and, when Mussolini came to power, he formed a coalition government with conservative liberals and Catholics. In the coming years, Italy’s liberal democracy would be gradually dismantled. Nevertheless, the march was a turning point, and it introduced

Jan 26, 2017 • 22:50

113 Italian Fascism Part Two, What is Fascism, Anyway?

113 Italian Fascism Part Two, What is Fascism, Anyway?

In this episode we try to answer (or at least clarify) one of the most vexing questions of political science, history, philosophy, and contemporary scholarship: What, exactly, is fascism?

Jan 19, 2017 • 25:29

112 Italian Fascism Part One: The Idea of Italy

112 Italian Fascism Part One: The Idea of Italy

Fascism is the most malignant of the major political ideologies, and one of the least understood. For fascism, the nation (and therefore state) are paramount. Considerations for the needs of social classes or individuals are subordinate to the state, if they are considered at all. While Germany is easily the most famous fascist state, this ideology had its origins in Italy following WWI. Prior to 1870 the term “Italy” was a geographic designation, referring to a collection of kingdoms, city-stat

Jan 12, 2017 • 21:22

111 Heather Arndt Anderson on Chilies

111 Heather Arndt Anderson on Chilies

This week’s show is an interview with Heather Arndt Anderson, author of Chilies: A Global History. We talk about the origins of chilies, their spread around the globe, how they were perceived and used by the people who found them, and how, occasionally, they have been used as a highly painful weaponized plant.

Jan 5, 2017 • 26:09

Mystery Series Announcement!

Mystery Series Announcement!

We’re still on break, but we’ll be back with an interview episode on January 5th, and the start of a long-form series on January 12th.

Dec 29, 2016 • 1:56

110 Years of the Reaper

110 Years of the Reaper

2016 has been a year marked by death. In this episode we get into a few other years notable for being especially deadly, and why this past year has felt so particularly lethal.

Dec 15, 2016 • 14:42

109 Moose Cavalry

109 Moose Cavalry

In this episode we tackled one of the major issues of our time: Why haven’t more countries used moose as Cavalry? Sweden tried it. The Soviet Union also tried it. But, the mighty moose has consistently resisted being turned into a weapon of war.

Dec 8, 2016 • 15:20

108 How Not to Kill Fidel Castro

108 How Not to Kill Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro, after being in power in Cuba since the 1950s, is finally dead. Castro was known for his long reign as Cuba’s dictator, but he was also known for surviving a large amount of assassination attempts. The most common figure bandied about regarding the total number of attempts on Castro’s life by the U.S. is 634, but that number only comes from a single source. We’ll probably never know, really, how many attempts on his life there were, but some of the most notable examples included a s

Dec 1, 2016 • 16:29

107 Squanto, Tisquantum

107 Squanto, Tisquantum

Squanto and other Native Americans are a fixture of popular depictions of what has retroactively been termed the First Thanksgiving, such as in the fanciful, inaccurate 1914 painting pictured below, by Jennie Brownscombe. That popular image, reproduced so much in elementary school pageants and dioramas, is pat and unsophisticated. The actual story of Tisquantum (of which “Squanto” is an abbreviation) is much more complex. It is a story of slavery, travel, exploration, tragedy, and politics, all

Nov 24, 2016 • 15:39

106 Live at the Jack London, the Portland Vice Scandal

106 Live at the Jack London, the Portland Vice Scandal

In 1950s Portland, police and racketeers worked hand-in-hand to provide the city with gambling, protitution, and other in-demand vices such as pinball. The man in charge of all of this was Jim Elkins who, for a brief period, was Portland’s king of illegal fun things. However, Elkins had a major falling out in the late 1950s with Portland city officials, and his city’s vice network eventually came to the attention of the federal government.

Nov 17, 2016 • 30:05

105 The Giants of Patagonia

105 The Giants of Patagonia

For about 250 years, Europeans thought that giants lived in Patagonia. The inventor of this myth was Antonio Pigafetta, a member of the Magellan expedition who, in his memoir of the circumnavigation, reported seeing a huge man approximately ten feet tall. Later European accounts of Patagonia repeated tales of immense people living there, and Patagonian giants were a common illustration on maps from the 1500s until the late 1700s. There are (obviously) no giants in Patagonia, but the native Tehue

Nov 10, 2016 • 12:41

104 Thomas Jefferson, Mastodon Hunter

104 Thomas Jefferson, Mastodon Hunter

Thomas Jefferson loved mastodons, in part because he wanted to prove that American animals were not degenerate. In the late 1700s a French naturalist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, published a massive, multi-volume natural history called, appropriately Natural History. In it, Buffon outlined what he called his “theory of American degeneracy,” wherein he argued that all people and animals native to the Americas were, well, degenerate. This enraged Thomas Jefferson, who sought to prove B

Nov 3, 2016 • 20:31

103 How Gothic Got Goth

103 How Gothic Got Goth

“Gothic” has described a lot of things: Mustachioed barbarians just outside the Roman empire, grand cathedrals such as Notre Dame and Chartres, eerie literature like Dracula and Frankenstein, and music by bands such as Joy Division and The Cure. This week we dive into why “gothic” has been the go-to adjective for various forms of art, and what the common threads are connecting architecture, literature, and music. Pictured below: The Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich, painted in 1809

Oct 27, 2016 • 15:52

102 Five Scary Clowns

102 Five Scary Clowns

Anymore it seems like scary clowns outnumber standard, whimsical clowns. Clowns are monsters, figures of fear, and they seem more likely to laugh with homicidal mania than laugh with joy. How did that happen? How did a figure of fun and comedy turn into a figure of fear? How did clowns get scary? Easy: Clowns have always been scary.

Oct 20, 2016 • 19:58

101 Kara Helgren on Witches, Puritans, and the Salem Tourist Experience

101 Kara Helgren on Witches, Puritans, and the Salem Tourist Experience

Kara Helgren has previously worked for the city of Salem, Massachusetts as a tour guide, leading visitors through the ominously-named Witch House. According to Helgren tourist expectations veered toward the lurid and macabre. Visitors expected tales of ghosts, black magic, and torture. Helgren (whose thesis was about the witch trials) gave them none of that. Instead, she crushed their dreams and broke their hearts with a bunch of historical accuracy.

Oct 13, 2016 • 54:41

100 Q & A

100 Q & A

We made it to 100 episodes! For the occasion we’ve a new name, a new logo, and your questions and my answers.

Oct 6, 2016 • 23:15

99 Live Your Life Like You’re Examining a Platypus

99 Live Your Life Like You’re Examining a Platypus

The platypus appears to be some kind of melding or mashup between a duck and a beaver. It is not, though the first Western scientist to examine a specimen thought that it was exactly that: A taxidermy hoax made of existing animal parts. Plus: An important announcement about the future of this podcast.

Sep 29, 2016 • 11:49

98 Blood and Types

98 Blood and Types

Belief that one’s blood type affects personality is common in Japan. Dating sites, celebrity profiles, and vital statistics for fictional characters often include blood type, and belief that it affects personal attitude or character is somewhat akin to belief in astrology in the United States. The beliefs have their roots in pseudoscience from before World War Two. In the 1970s a series of Japanese self-help books claimed that understanding blood type was the key to understanding personality, an

Sep 22, 2016 • 17:05

97 American Exiles

97 American Exiles

Immigration from Mexico to the US is not new. Workers have been deciding to immigrate to the US, legally or not, for over a century. However, legal channels for immigration have often not been forthcoming. In the early twentieth century the Mexican government attempted to stop migration northward so that local agribusiness interest could freely exploit Mexican labor. The US did institute a guest worker program known as the Bracero Program, but it proved to be insufficient. The demand from Mexico

Sep 15, 2016 • 20:45

I’m Not Dead

I’m Not Dead

It was bound to happen eventually. There’s no new episode this week.

Sep 8, 2016 • 1:21

96 Funeral on the Moon, the Story of Fallen Astronaut

96 Funeral on the Moon, the Story of Fallen Astronaut

There is a statue on the moon. In 1971 the crew of Apollo 15 placed a small figurine and a plaque on the lunar surface to memorialize American and Soviet astronauts who had died in the pursuit of space exploration. The memorial, dubbed “Fallen Astronaut,” was meant to enshrine their memory in space. However, the artist who made the figurine itself, Paul Van Hoeydonck, had other ideas. Van Hoeydonck did not see the statue as a memorial. Instead, he wanted to make a statue that represented all of

Sep 1, 2016 • 17:34

95 Live at the Jack London Bar: Teddy Roosevelt and the Mystery of the Missing Time Capsule

95 Live at the Jack London Bar: Teddy Roosevelt and the Mystery of the Missing Time Capsule

Teddy Roosevelt buried a time capsule in Portland in 1903. One hundred years later, Roosevelt’s time capsule was nowhere to be found. The box laid by the president that was meant to preserve history for 100 years could not be found a century later. However, time capsules are generally not valuable finds for serious historians or archaeologists. The artifacts preserved are generally out of context from people’s daily life, and therefore they lack the provenance that is of interest to future schol

Aug 25, 2016 • 28:18

94 The Know-Nothings, Part Two

94 The Know-Nothings, Part Two

In 1854 the anti-immigrant Know-Nothings made their debut into American politics. They ran candidates in 76 of the 82 available House of Representatives races, and won 35 of those seats. At the same time, they also became a force to be reckoned with in state and local governments. After their initial success, the Know-Nothings installed one of their own as the Speaker of the House and, at the local level, began passing laws and ordinances that restricted the rights of immigrants. In 1856 they ma

Aug 18, 2016 • 16:50

93 The Know-Nothings, Part One

93 The Know-Nothings, Part One

Decades before the modern versions of the Democratic and Republican parties formed, the US also had a few other major political parties. One was the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Another was the Whigs, who had intermittent success before collapsing in the middle 1800s. Out of the ashes of the Whig party two other parties rose to take its place: The anti-slavery Republican party, and the anti-immigrant American Party, better known as the Know-Nothings. The Know-Nothings o

Aug 11, 2016 • 19:14

92 We Don’t Know Things About the Mesoamerican Ball Game

92 We Don’t Know Things About the Mesoamerican Ball Game

The ancient Mesoamerican ball game is very probably the oldest ball game in the world. We know that it was played with a rubber ball on a stone court, and that players would try to hit the ball with their hips, knees, and sometimes elbows and forearms around the court. Ballcourts often featured a stone hoop that was possibly the goal, but it is impossible to know if hitting the hoop was the only goal of the game. No written rules survive, though the game is mentioned multiple times in Popol Vuh,

Aug 4, 2016 • 14:37

91 Kory Bing on Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Megafauna

91 Kory Bing on Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Megafauna

This week’s episode is an interview with artist and cartoonist Kory Bing about dinosaurs and other extinct megafauna. We talked about drawing dinosaurs, what dinosaurs are, and how dinosaurs and other extinct animals are portrayed in popular culture. Kory writes and draws the webcomic Skin Deep and regularly illustrates dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and other extinct megafauna. Find her work here. Theme music: Cowboy Surfer by the Vivisectors

Jul 28, 2016 • 35:50

90 The Fiji Mermaid

90 The Fiji Mermaid

Today PT Barnum is remembered as one of the founders of modern advertising and one of America’s greatest hucksters. His first successful hoax was to successfully promote a taxidermy monkey sewn to a fish as the corpse of a mermaid. To do this, Barnum wrote fake letters from different regions of the country to various New York newspapers, and hired an associate of his to pose as an English scientist who had the mermaid in his possession. Using deceit, fake names, and fraudulent correspondence, Ba

Jul 21, 2016 • 14:14

89 Live at the Jack London, Robertson V Baldwin

89 Live at the Jack London, Robertson V Baldwin

In 1897 the US Supreme Court carved out an exception the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery and involuntary servitude. Robertson v. Baldwin held that merchant marine sailors could be arrested by law enforcement, imprisoned, and then returned to their ships. Essentially, forced labor in the United States was legal, as long as it was on boats. It was not until 1915 that Congress banned the practice. This episode was part of Stumptown Stories, a Pacific Northwest history collective in Portland, Ore

Jul 14, 2016 • 34:35

88 The Unknown Origins of Pasta, A Wonder of the World

88 The Unknown Origins of Pasta, A Wonder of the World

As far as your humble podcaster is concerned, pasta is a wonder of the world right up there with the Pyramids and the Internet. We don’t exactly know where it came from, though. In the United States Pasta is often erroneously identified with Marco Polo. Supposedly, Polo brought back a variation on Chinese noodles from his travels, and introduced it to Italy. This story originates, though, in the United States. In 1929 a publication called the Macaroni Journal invented the Polo story, and ever si

Jul 7, 2016 • 15:19

87 Stalin’s Nonexistent Human/Chimp Hybrid Supersoldiers

87 Stalin’s Nonexistent Human/Chimp Hybrid Supersoldiers

One of the most bizarre myths about the Soviet Union is that Joseph Stalin attempted to create human/chimp hybrid supersoldiers. This bit of pseudohistory has become especially prevalent in the alternate universe of fundamentalist Christianity. Often, this myth is held up as a way to conflate Darwinism with Communism. While loosely based on actual events, it does not hold up to scrutiny. Ilya Ivanov (pictured) was a Russian Scientist who, beginning in 1910, attempted to hybridize chimpanzees and

Jun 30, 2016 • 18:55

86 Mandeville, Part Three

86 Mandeville, Part Three

No one knows who wrote The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. There is no record of an English knight alive at the right time with that name who could have written it. One oft-repeated theory is that Mandeville retired to Belgium, lived under a pseudonym, and only confessed his authorship of the Travels on his deathbed. Other than the uncorroborated word of a Liege notrary, though, we have nothing to substantiate this theory. What we do know is that the work was not wholly original, and combined el

Jun 23, 2016 • 18:19

85 Mandeville, Part Two

85 Mandeville, Part Two

As the Travels of Sire John Mandeville move away from the familiar and the Holy Land, they get progressively more bizarre. The laws of convention and even reality seem to break down as Mandeville encounters cannibals, dog people, weaponized elephants, and headless humans who have faces on their chest. In one particularly striking passage Mandeville says that not only is the world round, but that one can circumnavigate it, and he also characterizes the Kingdom of the Great Khan as perhaps the mos

Jun 16, 2016 • 22:15

84 Mandeville, Part One

84 Mandeville, Part One

Supposedly, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville is about an English knight who sets out for the Holy Land in the 1330s. However, the journey to Jerusalem and the surrounding environs are only a small part of a larger narrative that involves fantastical creatures, foreign kingdoms, and wonders both inspiring and gross. During the first part of his journey Mandeville describes the life and religion of the Greeks (including their opinions on beards), a woman who was turned into a dragon (and the kni

Jun 9, 2016 • 13:39

83 Bill Lascher on Eve of a Hundred Midnights

83 Bill Lascher on Eve of a Hundred Midnights

This week’s episode is an interview with author Bill Lascher about his upcoming book Eve of a Hundred Midnights, about two American war correspondents covering the East Asian theater of WWII.  In it, Lascher details how they got into journalism, what it was like to cover wartime China, and their various encounters with and escapes from the dangers of war. Eve of a Hundred Midnights comes out on June 21st, 2016.

Jun 2, 2016 • 38:55

82 For Amusement Only

82 For Amusement Only

Anymore, pinball is an archaic amusement found in the corners of old arcades and bars, but in the mid twentieth century it was the center of a moral panic. Cities across the country banned pinball for its associations with gambling. Most notably, New York’s mayor Fiorello La Guardia had machines rounded up and smashed, often in highly visible public settings. The game’s association with gambling wasn’t baseless, though. After prohibition, coin machines did become a notable stream of income for o

May 26, 2016 • 16:41

81 Dancing Goats and Other Coffee Legends

81 Dancing Goats and Other Coffee Legends

The origins of coffee are encircled by myth and legend, sometimes involving goats. It’s one of the most popular beverages on Earth, and for many people (including your humble podcaster) one of the most important. Drinking coffee is a daily ritual enjoyed by millions, and there are myriad stories about coffee’s history that seem to buttress its importance and mystique. Dancing livestock, beverages on trial, self-sacrificing Frenchman, a sexy Portuguese guy, and a totally wired philosopher all fig

May 19, 2016 • 16:54

80 Live at the Jack London, the Rise and Fall of Claymation

80 Live at the Jack London, the Rise and Fall of Claymation

Claymation was a dominant force in American popular culture during the late 1980s, which characters such as the California Raisins and the Noid achieving a sort of pre-Internet media ubiquity. The creative force behind Claymation was Will Vinton Studios, a Portland, Oregon production house that first rose to fame with the hallucinatory 1975 short Closed Mondays which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Despite a fair amount of critical and commercial success, though, Will Vinton Studio

May 12, 2016 • 44:34

79 Cecelia Otto on the Music of the Lincoln Highway

79 Cecelia Otto on the Music of the Lincoln Highway

Before the interstate highway system spread over the US, the country was knit together through a network of railroads and auto trails. One of the longest of these was the Lincoln Highway, a coast-to-coast collection of roads that linked New York to San Francisco at the dawn of the 20th century, and could take weeks for early automobiles to traverse. Given that this was a huge tract of land, people wrote songs about it. Cecelia Otto is a classically trained singer who recently toured the remains

May 5, 2016 • 34:44

78 A Statue of Crazy Horse

78 A Statue of Crazy Horse

If it’s ever completed, South Dakota’s Crazy Horse Memorial will be the largest statue in the world. The gigantic structure will feature the Lakota leader’s face, upper body, and mount, and will dwarf every other monument and memorial on Earth. Crazy Horse’s head and headdress, for instance, will be larger than Mount Rushmore. If, that is, the work is ever completed. The first blasts to transform Thunderhead Mountain into a memorial were in 1948, and since then, only Crazy Horse’s face has been

Apr 28, 2016 • 16:53

77 Molly Newman on Crafting Good Trivia Questions

77 Molly Newman on Crafting Good Trivia Questions

This week’s episode is an interview with Quizmistress and Jeopardy! contestant Molly Newman. Molly runs multiple successful trivia nights in Portland, Oregon, hosts private trivia events, and knows what makes questions good, bad, boring, easy, hard, funny, and compelling. With hundreds of fans in the Portland area (including your humble podcaster) she has made a career about entertaining people with facts both widely-known and obscure. We talked about how to craft good trivia questions, why some

Apr 21, 2016 • 36:09

76 The Yellow Kid

76 The Yellow Kid

Nowadays, comic books are mainstream. Movies about superheroes dominate the box office, and you can’t go ten feet in a major retail outlet without seeing something related to popular comics culture. This is not new. Comics and comic books have always been an integral part of American popular culture ever since the 1890s, with the introduction of the Yellow Kid, America’s first popular comics character. The Yellow Kid (created by former Edison employee R.F. Outcault) sported a shaved head (a comm

Apr 14, 2016 • 18:49

75 About Mussolini and Those Trains…

75 About Mussolini and Those Trains…

“Sure, Mussolini was bad, but at least he made the trains run on time.” You’ve probably said it. Or, you’ve been in a conversation and you heard somebody say it. Or you’ve seen it written somewhere. This cliche has been repeated time and again in countless different media (such as in the panel below, from DC’s New Earth series) to the point that one is almost more likely to associate the Italian dictator with railways than with the fascist ideology he invented. However, the commonly repeated tro

Apr 7, 2016 • 14:02

74 The Wizard of Oz, Populism, and Dubious Fan Theories

74 The Wizard of Oz, Populism, and Dubious Fan Theories

You can be forgiven for thinking that L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz is all about monetary policy and populism. More than a few scholars, critics, academics, and teachers, have reiterated that line, and found parallels in the narrative between Baum’s fairy tale and the state of American politics at the end of the 1800s. The Scarecrow (the theory goes) is the agrarian worker, the Tin Man (or Tin Woodman, if you’re going by the book’s terminology) is the industrial laborer, and the Cowardly Lion

Mar 31, 2016 • 18:34

73 Jamie Jeffers on the Dating of Easter

73 Jamie Jeffers on the Dating of Easter

Easter jumps around. Sure, it’s always on a Sunday, but unlike, say, the U.S.’s Labor Day (which always falls on the first Monday in September) Easter jumps around. It could be on the third Sunday in March. Or the fifth. Or the fourth. Or sometime in April. It jumps around. The dating of Easter comes from a combination of lunar and solar calendars, astronomical events, and religious tradition all crashing together. The result is that Easter is sometime in March. Or April. It’s complicated. To he

Mar 24, 2016 • 23:57

72 There’s No Such Thing As Lemuria

72 There’s No Such Thing As Lemuria

You’ve probably heard to Atlantis, but that’s not the hypothetical lost continent out there. There’s a whole subgenre of supposed submerged continents, with Atlantis being only the most prominent example. Other mythical lands include Mu and Lemuria. Anymore, Lemuria is now associated with new age pseudohistory, but as an idea it was first posited by an actual scientist. In 1864 Philip Sclater was trying to puzzle out why there were lemurs in both Madagascar and India, but not in Africa or the Mi

Mar 17, 2016 • 16:26

71 Live at the Jack London, The Story of Oregon Trail

71 Live at the Jack London, The Story of Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail is arguably the most successful education video game of all time. Created in 1971 by student teacher Don Rawitsch, the popular simulation began its life as a game played on paper with dice and cards. Eventually Rawitsch, along with two other student teachers, adapted the game for play on teletype machines. The game eventually migrated to what would now be called a PC, and something like 65 million copies of Oregon Trail have made their way to various machines across the country. How

Mar 10, 2016 • 38:22

70 Shirtless Zeus-Like George Washington Versus Alexander Hamilton

70 Shirtless Zeus-Like George Washington Versus Alexander Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton is an antidote to the traditional (and boring) way that America’s founding fathers have often been portrayed. The Founders are often shown as almost godly (like in the statue of Washington pictured below), without flaws, above mere mortals, and removed from the normal experiences humanity in general and politics in particular. However, Hamilton, the rap musical about America’s first ever treasury secretary, acts as a sort of antidote to that. In it, the foun

Mar 3, 2016 • 20:27

69 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part Three

69 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part Three

Mahdist Sudan died violently. The religious state persisted for approximately a decade and a half but after that the British, eager to solidify their influence and control in the region, brought the country to heel. Egypt had never recognized Sudanese independence, and thought of the new country as little more than a renegade province. Under British control and influence, the Anglo-Egyptian forces crushed the independent Sudanese state, making short work of the armed forces. The key to their vic

Feb 25, 2016 • 16:40

68 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part Two

68 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part Two

After successfully defeating the Ottoman-Egyptian and British forces at Khartoum, Sudan formed an independent government based around Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi or “expected one.” Unfortunately for Sudan, though, Ahmad died of Typhus only six months after the birth of the new state, and Mahdist Sudan was almost immediately faced with a succession crisis. It would only be the first of many trials for the new state. Regional rebellions and border skirmishes, a war with neighboring E

Feb 18, 2016 • 18:35

67 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part One

67 Kingdom of the Mahdi, Part One

In the early 1880s Sudan suffered under the heel of the Ottoman empire. Military occupation and heavy taxes led to widespread discontent that eventually led to a religiously-infused rebellion. Muhammad Ahmad styled himself as the Mahdi or “expected one,” a prophesized Islamic figure, and drawing on discontent, Ahmad led a rebellion throughout the country. The British officer Charles George Gordon (pictured below) was put in charge of evacuating Egyptians and other foreigners from the Sudan. But,

Feb 11, 2016 • 20:25

66 Longest War Ever

66 Longest War Ever

Depending on how you measure and define things, the longest war in human history may very well have been between the Netherlands and a tiny collection of islands 28 miles off the coast of Britain known as the Isles of Scilly (the flag of which is pictured below) . The “war” lasted for three hundred and thirty five years and consisted of zero battles. It was a “war” only in the sense that the Netherlands had made a declaration of war in the 1600s, and then simply forgot to rescind it. In 1986 a h

Feb 4, 2016 • 14:12

65 The Amazing Oceanic Adventure of 28,800 Adorable Rubber Duckies

65 The Amazing Oceanic Adventure of 28,800 Adorable Rubber Duckies

In January of 1992 international trade routes, bad weather, and a shipping container full of bath toys all collided to form an amazing natural experiment in oceanography. 28,800 bath toys known as Friendly Floatees spilled into the Pacific Ocean, and over the years the easily-identifiable toys washed up on shores throughout the world. Though often referred to as “rubber duckies,” the toys were in fact made of plastic, and, in addition to yellow ducks, also included red beavers, blue turtles, and

Jan 28, 2016 • 15:01

64 Yesterday’s Tomorrows

64 Yesterday’s Tomorrows

It’s always fun to look back on predictions about the future that were wrong. For instance, Victorian portrayals of the 20th and 21st century had everyone flying around in blimps and ornithopters, which did not exactly come to pass. Looking back at past predictions is especially satisfying now because we are well into the 21st century. For decades, years that started with “20” (or even “199”) were simply vaguely futuristic. Now, they’re simply a date on the calendar. In this episode, we count th

Jan 21, 2016 • 21:20

63 The Forty-Seven Ronin, Part Two

63 The Forty-Seven Ronin, Part Two

Last week Asano, Lord of Ako was ordered to commit seppuku, and his newly unemployed samurai were plotting revenge on Kira, the noble whom they blamed for their lord’s death. This week, the 47 ronin extract their revenge on Kira, and the incident becomes one of the most retold narratives in Japanese history. The image below illustrates a scene from Kanadehon Chushingura, the most famous fictionalized version of the 47 ronin story. The characters in Kanadehon Chushingura have different names than

Jan 14, 2016 • 23:48

62 The Forty-Seven Ronin, Part One

62 The Forty-Seven Ronin, Part One

One of the most famous and bloody incidents in samurai history is the story of the 47 ronin, a group of masterless samurai who extracted bloody revenge on behalf of their dead lord. The actual events of the incident are hard to parse out, as the facts of the events have been occluded by popular culture, drama, reinterpretation, and retelling. What we do know for sure is that in 1701 the daimyo of Ako (a domain near modern Osaka) was forced to kill himself after assaulting a courtier, Kira, in Ed

Jan 7, 2016 • 20:23

The Future!

The Future!

Happy New Year! There are some changes in store for 2016.

Dec 31, 2015 • 7:42

Remasters and an eBook

Remasters and an eBook

No new episode today, I’m taking a break for the holiday. But, I’m happy to announce that I’ve re-recorded episode one and episode two, and the sound quality is much improved. Also, I wrote an ebook. The Legend of Polybius is all about everybody’s favorite mythical video game that supposedly warped your mind. It’s now available on Amazon as a Kindle download for $1.99.

Dec 24, 2015 • 1:35

61 Puritans Versus Christmas

61 Puritans Versus Christmas

There is no war on Christmas. But there was. Contemporary political commentators have, in the past, complained and ranted about a supposed secular war on Christmas, a crusade to erase spirituality and religion from late December, a campaign to turn the occasion of the Nativity into merely “the Holidays.” But, Christmas has always been a season more about revelry and celebration than spirituality. The holiday is a re-appropriating by Christianity of pre-existing Roman festivals such as Saturnalia

Dec 17, 2015 • 14:18

60 The Goose’s Crusade

60 The Goose’s Crusade

At the end of the eleventh century, a group of would-be conquerors followed a goose on crusade. The standard (and almost certainly overly simplistic) narrative of the First Crusade is that, in 1095 Pope Urban II rallied religious leaders at the Council of Clermont to retake the Holy Land. After a few stirring speeches and cries of “deus vult!” (God wills it!) a holy war began. Again, this narrative is almost certainly factually incorrect, but it’s stayed in the popular imagination. The First Cru

Dec 10, 2015 • 10:40

59 Man of Flames

59 Man of Flames

The Wicker Man is one of the most creative and fearsome execution devices of all time. A figure of a giant, made of bent wood and reeds, looms up over a desolate Celtic moor, and hapless captives write inside of its cage-like form. A horde of barbaric and bloodthirsty Celts chant in the distance, eager to see the sacrifice, and a Druid, clad in fur and leather, ignites the massive statue and the captives within, sending them as a burnt offering  to the insatiable gods who are forever thirsty for

Dec 3, 2015 • 13:11

58 Malthus, Borlaug, and Feeding the World

58 Malthus, Borlaug, and Feeding the World

The planet Earth holds over seven billion humans. Somehow, against all manner of predictions to the contrary, we feed all of them. This would have astounded Thomas Malthus who, in 1798, predicted that humanity was careening toward a demographic catastrophe, despite the world population still being under a billion at that time. Part of the reason why humanity can now feed itself is because of agricultural advances in the 20th century known as the Green Revolution. Advances in crop yields, land us

Nov 25, 2015 • 16:48

57 The Mysterious Affair of the Irish Crown Jewels

57 The Mysterious Affair of the Irish Crown Jewels

The Irish crown jewels were stolen in 1907. To this day, no one knows who absconded with the regalia. While known as the “Irish crown jewels” today, they were not referred to as such until after their theft. In fact, they were the regalia of the Order of St. Patrick, a British Knightly Order associated with Ireland (England and Scotland had the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle, respectively) and were worn by either the British monarch or their stand-in during investiture ceremoni

Nov 19, 2015 • 15:31

56 Live at the Jack London, Lewis and Clark Through History

56 Live at the Jack London, Lewis and Clark Through History

Nowadays, Lewis and Clark are lionized and mythologized as American heroes, but their reputation was not always so grandiose. The expedition was initially considered a failure after their return, they were virtually un-talked about in the 1800s. In the early twentieth century they gradually began to molded and shaped into figures of American myth (in particular by a large, World’s Fair-style 1905 expo in Portland that bore their name) but it wasn’t until the sixties that they actually became pop

Nov 12, 2015 • 29:49

55 The Pig War

55 The Pig War

Nowadays the US-Canada border is one of the most peaceful international boundaries in the world, but in 1859 the US almost went to war with British North America in what is now Washington State. A war sparked by a pig. The 1846 Oregon Treaty was poorly worded and it left San Juan Island itself in something of a state of limbo. This island was claimed both by the British Empire and the United States, and for several years American settlers and the Hudson’s Bay Company mutually occupied the island

Nov 5, 2015 • 16:35

54 The Uses and Abuses of Mummies

54 The Uses and Abuses of Mummies

For years, mummies were a commodity. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans used mummy dust (as in real, actual, ground-up human corpse) as a medication to cure just about everything, and the pigment mummy brown was the color of dry, dusty corpses because it was literally made of dried, dusty corpses. Despite being an extraordinarily macabre commodity, there was still demand for mummy dust, so much so that a trade in counterfeit mummies (that is, bodies that had been dried out and treated

Oct 29, 2015 • 15:06

One Year Later

One Year Later

Weird History launched one year ago today on October 27th, 2014. Thank you, all of you, for listening, and here’s to many more years to come.

Oct 27, 2015 • 6:42

53 Bathory

53 Bathory

Elizabeth Bathory is one of history’s most notorious killers. Supposedly, the Bloody Countess (as she is sometimes called) murdered an unknown number of young girls in a variety of way, ranging from stabbing, to burning, to exposure to cold. One detail of the story is that Bathory also bathed in the blood of her victims to preserve her youth and vitality, but that is almost certainly an embellishment added years after the fact. Still, Bathory’s appetite for murder has made her a popular figure o

Oct 22, 2015 • 13:32

52 Little Kill House on the Prairie

52 Little Kill House on the Prairie

It’s October. For the next three weeks, we’ll be focusing on bloody, violent, and generally horrifying historical episodes. This week: The Bloody Benders, America’s first ever documented serial killers. The Benders operated an on the Osage Trail (later called the Santa Fe Trail) where they allowed travelers to stay the night, resupplied pioneers with food and dry goods, and one of them, Kate Bender, promoted herself as a spiritual healer and fortune teller. They also killed several travelers, an

Oct 15, 2015 • 15:37

51 The Ultimate Palindrome

51 The Ultimate Palindrome

The Sator Square is a level of palindromic perfection untouched by other palindromes. It reads perfectly backward, forward, up, and down. The inconsequential sentence (something like “The farmer Arepo works the plow”) is not not profound, but the structure of the phrase is a level of balance and perfection untouched by other word squares. The exact origin of the square is unknown, but it’s been the subject of all manner of speculation and pseudohistory. Multiple (spurious) sources have attempted

Oct 8, 2015 • 14:51

50 The Rise and Fall of Nauru

50 The Rise and Fall of Nauru

The tiny island nation of Nauru once had one of the highest GDPs per capita on Earth. Today, the country has been stripped of resources and impoverished. Nauru’s booming economy during the 20th century was based on strip mining away the small island’s phosphorous-rich bird guano soil. The money flowed in, but a series of bad investments, con jobs, and one very bad London musical left the island impoverished. Nauru turned to money laundering and selling passports to foreign nationals to raise fun

Oct 1, 2015 • 13:28

49 Destroy All Emus!

49 Destroy All Emus!

1932 was a bad year for farmers in Australia. Hot weather withered grain, because of the Great Depression, promised agricultural subsidies were not forthcoming and, worst of all, there were emus. The large flightless bird devoured Australian grain, prompting the government to go after them with machine guns. It was called the Emu War, and the emus won. Related Links: Veritable Hokum did a delightful comic about the Emu War. It features an emu in a hat. Emus probably did not wear hats. Attack on

Sep 24, 2015 • 13:03

48 The Swedish Titanic

48 The Swedish Titanic

The story of the the Titanic is usually one of human hubris, and then nature putting humanity back in their place. Implicit in any Titanic narrative is a critique of technology in general, of human arrogance, and of the supposed ability of our species to strive in the face of insurmountable laws of nature. The Titanic, though, is not the best fit for that narrative. The ship sank, yes, but it still worked the way it was supposed to before it hit an iceberg. Another vessel, though, fits that prof

Sep 17, 2015 • 13:27

47 Live at the Jack London Bar, The Postmodern Icon

47 Live at the Jack London Bar, The Postmodern Icon

This episode was part of Stumptown Stories, a Portland history lecture collective. Stumptown Stories meets on the second Tuesday of every month at downtown Portland’s Jack London Bar, and various authors, journalists, podcasters, and historians get into the good, the bad, and the downright weird of Portland’s past. This past Tuesday, September 8th, I talked about the origins of the Portland Building, the world’s first ever postmodern office building. In the early 1980s the Portland Building, and

Sep 10, 2015 • 27:27

46 Paper Theater, Golden Bat

46 Paper Theater, Golden Bat

Before Batman, before Superman, before even the Phantom, there was the Golden Bat. “Ogon Batto” (as he’s known in Japanese) is, arguably, the world’s first costumed superhero. The skull-headed, ruff-wearing, sword-wielding hero’s backstory was one that would fit in any of the wackier comics that Marvel and DC would later publish: He was a dweller of Atlantis from 10,000 years in the future, and sent back in time to fight injustice. In particular, he battled against Nazo, the evil Emperor of the

Sep 3, 2015 • 17:50

45 The White City of the Monkey God

45 The White City of the Monkey God

In September of 1940 an American Explorer named Theodore Morde proclaimed in the Milwaukee Sentinel that he had found “the Lost City of Ancient America’s Monkey God.” Morde described a city of white stone Is there a ruined city deep in the Honduran jungle dedicated to a mysterious simian god, one who accepted sacrifices of human flesh by fanatical worshippers? No. Probably not. But the story behind the myth is entertaining, at least. Below is an illustration by Virgil Findlay, a pulp artist who

Aug 27, 2015 • 18:12

44 Live at the Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, Thoughts on Richard III

44 Live at the Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven, Thoughts on Richard III

Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s most compelling villains. Unlike other tragic figures who do terrible things (Macbeth, Othello, Brutus) Richard does not fall. He does not have some kind of tragic flaw that drives him to perform an evil act. Instead, he is a through-and-through villain from the very first scene of the play, and is all the more compelling for it. As you can imagine, the actual, real Richard III was somewhat different. Last week I spoke at a Portland performance space, The Stee

Aug 20, 2015 • 20:28

43 Medusa

43 Medusa

One of the most high-profile maritime disasters in French history also inspired a famous, and gigantic work of art. In 1816 the French frigate Medusa ran aground in the Bay of Arguin. The captain and several officers escaped on life boats, but 147 people were abandoned on a hastily built raft. For almost two weeks the raft-goers suffered from starvation, dehydration, and malnutrition. The desperate survivors descended into violence and resorted to cannibalism before being rescued (by chance) by

Aug 13, 2015 • 23:40

42 An Invention of Writing! Maybe.

42 An Invention of Writing! Maybe.

Humans have invented writing not once, not twice, but three times. Ancient Sumeria, China, and Mesoamerica all invented the written word independent of each other. In the case of Mesoamerican writing, there’s some ambiguity about when and who made it. Most experts agree that by around 500 BCE Zapotec peoples had created a writing system, but there’s some debate about whether or not the Olmec, an even older civilization, were the first in Mesoamerica to invent writing. One artifact, the 3,000 yea

Aug 7, 2015 • 15:34

41 His Majesty Gregor MacGregor, King of Con-Men and Cacique of Poyais

41 His Majesty Gregor MacGregor, King of Con-Men and Cacique of Poyais

In 1820 a Scotsman named Gregor MacGregor pulled off one of the most audacious cons of all time. MacGregor claimed to be descendant of Rob Roy and ancient kings of Scotland, and also claimed to have been granted a certain amount of land in what is now modern day Honduras. Calling his new (and entirely fictional) country “Poyais,” MacGregor began to solicit investments for his new, up-and-coming Central American country. The image below is a landscape of the supposed country of Poyais, taken from

Jul 31, 2015 • 23:00

40 Prison of the Mind

40 Prison of the Mind

“Morals reformed – health preserved – industry invigorated instruction diffused – public burthens lightened – Economy seated, as it were, upon a rock – the gordian knot of the Poor-Laws are not cut, but untied – all by a simple idea in Architecture!” Those are the words of Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher who is now known as one of the founders of utilitarianism. The architecture that he refers to is a proposed prison known as the panopticon, a circular prison that would allow a single gua

Jul 23, 2015 • 18:35

39 How to Steal the Mona Lisa

39 How to Steal the Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa wasn’t always an icon. Before 1911 Leonardo’s painting was certainly known and respected, but it wasn’t yet the most famous, most adored, most duplicated, and most parodied piece of art in the world. It was not yet the symbol and pop culture juggernaut that it is today. What made the Mona Lisa famous its theft at the hands of Vincenzo Peruggia who, along with two accomplices, lifted the painting off of the wall of the Louvre and simply walked out with it. He kept the portrait in a

Jul 17, 2015 • 22:45

38 The Secret Plan to Nuke the Moon

38 The Secret Plan to Nuke the Moon

In 1959 the United States had a secret plan to explode a nuclear weapon either on or near the surface of the moon. The plan was known as Project A119 and the hope was that a nuclear explosion on the moon would kick up a cloud of dust visible from the Earth, and would act as a demonstration of American power and technology. The project was shelved (obviously) and classified for years, and the only reason we know about it now is because Carl Sagan, who was involved with A119, let slip the existenc

Jul 9, 2015 • 13:36

37 Roberts Versus Boswell

37 Roberts Versus Boswell

Last week the US Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. It was an amazing victory for equality and a long time coming. There were, however, dissents. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: [T]he Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are? Roberts’ dissent is a ver

Jul 3, 2015 • 15:24

36 Thirteen Ships

36 Thirteen Ships

In the 1590s Japan invaded Korea. The Imjin War lasted from 1592-1598, and it included all manner of land battles, guerilla skirmishes, sieges, spying, and everything else that you would expect to find in a full-on conflict. The entire war would take several episodes to cover properly, and this episode just focuses on the naval aspect, and one naval battle in particular. Under Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the Korean navy was able to successfully rack up victories against the Japanese. Yi was an admiral w

Jun 26, 2015 • 23:07

35 Clairvoyance and Free Love on Campaign Trail ’72

35 Clairvoyance and Free Love on Campaign Trail ’72

It’s very likely that Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee for president in 2016. When/if she does, some talking head will likely call her “the first women to run for president.” That talking head will be wrong. Women have been running for president for decades. The first woman to do so was Victoria Woodhull, a former Wall Street trader, traveling clairvoyant, spiritualist, newspaper publisher, and advocate for women’s suffrage. Woodhull advocated strongly for free love, i.e., the

Jun 19, 2015 • 18:12

34 Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

34 Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

If you were out and about in San Francisco between 1860 and 1880, you might have seen a curious figure on the streets. Joshua Abraham Norton wore a uniform reminiscent of European nobility, made proclamations, and styled himself as “Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.” Norton seems to have been embraced by the city he “ruled” over, to the point where citizens actually used the currency that he issued. His proclamations were popular reading in the city at the time, and

Jun 11, 2015 • 18:08

33 Live at Velo Cult, the Legend of Polybius

33 Live at Velo Cult, the Legend of Polybius

This episode is a little different. About a year ago I was approached by a team of documentary film makers who were making a movie about Polybius, Portland’s mythical video game of doom. I’d previously spoken about Polybius at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, and they asked if I would also like to talk about it on camera for the movie. I said yes. They set up an event at Velo Cult, a bike/bar/event space here in Portland, and I had a great time talking to people about a creepy nonexistent video g

Jun 2, 2015 • 44:38

32 There’s No Such Thing as an Iron Maiden

32 There’s No Such Thing as an Iron Maiden

Imagine a medieval dungeon. You probably imagine prisoners chained to the wall, a torturer in a black mask tormenting the occupants, several machines of torture such as the rack or the Catherine wheel, and, most imposingly, the dreaded iron maiden, a casket lined with spikes that would slowly bleed a prisoner to death in a grim mockery of an embrace. In all probability, though, the iron maiden was never an actual torture device, at least not in the middle ages. There may have been machines that

May 28, 2015 • 16:42

31 The Kingdom of North Sudan

31 The Kingdom of North Sudan

The British Empire and other colonial powers did a lot of things wrong, and they famously ignored actual human patterns when drawing borders of Africa. In 1899, the British drew a border between Egypt and Sudan that simply ran in a straight line across the 22nd parallel, ignoring how people in the area moved and identified. A few years later, in 1902, they corrected their mistake and re-drew the boundary. The result has led to a border dispute between Egypt and Sudan where Egypt claims the 1899

May 21, 2015 • 14:09

30 The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, Part Two

30 The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, Part Two

Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping rebels successfully founded a new kingdom in southern China. The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace sought to overthrow the Manchurian Qing Dynasty and form a new, radically different China. Hong, the supposed younger brother of Jesus Christ, retreated to a life of luxury in an opulent palace, and the actual governance of the kingdom was carried out by his cousin Hong Rengan, who acted as essentially the Heavenly Kingdom’s prime minister. Hong sought out aide from forei

May 15, 2015 • 21:26

29 The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, Part One

29 The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, Part One

In the 1850s a man who styled himself as the younger brother of Jesus Christ led China into a bloody rebellion. China in the early 1800s was ravaged by famine, natural disasters, and British meddling that introduced opium (and the Opium Wars) to the population. The country was ripe for rebellion against the Qing Dynasty who, being Manchurian, were often perceived as foreigners by many of China’s Han population. Into all of this chaos and discontent came a man called Hong Xiuquan who claimed to b

May 8, 2015 • 14:40

28 Attack the Rock

28 Attack the Rock

The foreboding form of Alcatraz Island looms just beyond San Francisco, an obvious symbol of isolation and punishment. Alcatraz was never the biggest, or worst, or longest-lived prison in American history, but it’s definitely the most iconic. The island fortress seems to invite resistance and escape attempts, a setting like Alcatraz demands a narrative just as striking. In 1946 a handful of convicts attempted to violently escape from the island, giving that dramatic setting a dramatic narrative

May 1, 2015 • 14:27

27 King of Jewels and Centaurs

27 King of Jewels and Centaurs

One of the most persistent myths of the Middle Ages was that of Prester John, a mythical Christian king whose supposed domain was located beyond the eastern Muslim regions. Probably the most vivid portion of the myth is a letter received by the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1165 claiming to be from the monarch. The letter (ostensibly written from one king to another, but with an arrogant, bragging tone that glorifies Prester John’s position relative to that of Byzantium) details a kingd

Apr 23, 2015 • 14:54

26 Joseph Barker on Artificial Intelligence, Strategy, and Games

26 Joseph Barker on Artificial Intelligence, Strategy, and Games

Today’s episode is slightly different than our other entries. We have another interview episode, this time with Joseph Barker, who has a PhD in artifical intelligence, and whom I quoted in the last episode about the mechanical Turk. Instead of talking about fake, illusory artificial intelligence, this episode is devoted to how real, actual machines play games and formulate strategy. The picture below shows Claude Shannon (whom Barker mentions in the podcast) and his chess machine at MIT in 1950.

Apr 17, 2015 • 28:45

25 Clockwork Genius

25 Clockwork Genius

Humans have pursued artificial intelligence, in one form or another, for generations. One of the most potent signifiers of intelligence has, historically, been chess. Even though the ability to play the game does not actually require as much cognition as, say, cooking or carrying on a conversation, the ability to play the game has been used as a symbol of intelligence, such as when Deep Blue shocked the world by defeating chessmaster Gary Kasparov in 1997. Probably the most famous artificial che

Apr 9, 2015 • 18:28

24 The Raider, the Playboy, the Sultan, and Roosevelt

24 The Raider, the Playboy, the Sultan, and Roosevelt

In 1904 a Greek-American playboy, Ion Perdicaris was, along with his stepson Cromwell, kidnapped in Morocco by a man who would later be called “The last of the Barbary pirates.” The incident sparked a degree of outrage in the US, and was a talking point for Theodore Roosevelt in the 1904 presidential election. But… Perdicaris himself didn’t mind being kidnapped. In fact, he had a great time being held hostage by a roving band of desert brigands. The 1904 cartoon below from the Review of Reviews

Apr 3, 2015 • 15:17

23 A Dinosaur Named Sue

23 A Dinosaur Named Sue

The most complete tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the world, nicknamed “Sue,” in honor of the paleontologist who discovered her, stands over adoring crowds at Chicago’s Field Museum. However, Sue’s journey the field museum was not an easy one, though. Prior to finally being put on display in 2000, there was a battle for Sue’s bones. A fossil hunter, the ranch owner, the federal government, and a Native American tribe all vied for ownership of the dinosaur, in a fight that involved the FBI seizing

Mar 27, 2015 • 14:49

22 Live at the Clinton Street Theater: How Arthurian Legend is Like Comic Books

22 Live at the Clinton Street Theater: How Arthurian Legend is Like Comic Books

On Sunday, March 15th I had the privilege of introducing one of my favorite movies of all time at the historic Clinton Street Theater, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The organizers of the event asked me to talk about actual Arthurian legend prior to the screening, and I compared the tales of everyone’s favorite mythical monarch with something that I enjoy a great deal: comic books. The illustration of Camelot below is by Gustave Dore and was made to accompany Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of

Mar 19, 2015 • 19:42

21 Shanghaied!

21 Shanghaied!

In the late 1800s countless men were exploited by a system that used debt and indentured servitude to keep them tied to the shipping industry. The process of getting sailors into debt was called “crimping,” and it was practiced throughout the US and Britain, but was particularly prominent on the American West Coast. Quite a lot of mythology, folklore, and pseudohistory has grown up around the subject, most of it with no basis in the actual historical record. Nevertheless, Shanghaiing and crimpin

Mar 13, 2015 • 21:17

20 The Lost Empire of Scotland

20 The Lost Empire of Scotland

In the late 1600s Scotland, in an attempt to start an international trade empire, founded a small settlement in what is now modern Panama. The venture was frustrated at every turn by the English, who did not want their northern neighbor competing on the international scene, and the Panamanian jungle proved to be an inhospitable environment. The settlers were plagued by starvation and malaria, and eventually the Scots were ousted by the Spanish. The dramatic failure of the colony led to the end o

Mar 6, 2015 • 22:18

19 Hey Big Spender

19 Hey Big Spender

You can do a lot of things with wealth. You can buy stuff, make things happen, bribe officials, give to the poor… Or, if you’re Mansa Musa of Mali (one of the richest people in the history of the world) you can give away so much gold that you single-handedly cause inflation in Cairo. The small image below is a detail from the Catalan Atlas, a 1375 Spanish map with a small detail that depicts Mansa Musa in the approximate location of Mali. Related Links: A Huffington Post article declaring Mansa

Feb 27, 2015 • 13:18

18 The Tulsa Race Riot

18 The Tulsa Race Riot

Probably the most violent singular example of post-slavery racial violence in the US happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. Mobs of armed whites burned buildings, killed African-Americans, and utterly destroyed what had been known as Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street.” For years the incident was not extensively talked or written about, but it is now more widely known as one of the most horrifying examples of domestic terror that the US has ever known. Related Links: The 2001 report commissioned by the O

Feb 20, 2015 • 21:11

17 Jaime Kirk on Piratical History

17 Jaime Kirk on Piratical History

This week we interviewed a pirate! Kind of. Jaime Kirk is the current captain of PDX Yar, a Portland organization dedicated to all things piratical. The crew does, indeed, dress up like pirates for the purposes of revelry carousing, but they also do quite a bit with historical reenactment. PDX Yar does demonstrations of black powder weapons, presentations on how ships were actually run and managed, and the leadership have immersed themselves in pirate history for years now. Below is a engraving

Feb 13, 2015 • 37:53

16 The Siege of the Grand Mosque

16 The Siege of the Grand Mosque

In 1979 a group of religious extremists seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca and began a siege that would last over two weeks. The bloody event shook the Muslim world, and prompted reactions in Saudi Arabia that affect that country to this day. Related Links: This issue of Al Majalla, an English language Arabian magazing, has extensive coverage of the siege. Yaroslav Trofimov, author of of The Siege of Mecca, speaking about the event to NPR. Read unclassified US State Department memos about the sie

Feb 6, 2015 • 24:25

Announcement!

Announcement!

I’m committed to keeping this podcast ad-free, and to that end I’ve started a Patreon campaign. Patreon is a service that allows you to support creators you like on an ongoing basis. If you feel like you’ve been getting five dollars worth of utility out of the podcast every month, give us five bucks a month. If you feel like you’ve been getting ten dollars of utility out of the podcast each month, send us ten. Send us however much you like so we can keep this thing going. I don’t want to work fo

Feb 3, 2015 • 1:41

15 Heather Arndt Anderson on the History of Breakfast

15 Heather Arndt Anderson on the History of Breakfast

This week’s episode has a slightly different format from previous entries. We sat down with food historian Heather Arndt Anderson, author of Breakfast: A History, and talked about this history of breakfast. Topics ranged from how orange juice became a breakfast drink, how bacon was marketed as an essential morning meat, the accidental invention of corn flakes, and the gender politics surrounding breakfast.                                 Related Links: Get Breakfast: A History and Portland: A F

Jan 29, 2015 • 37:01

14 Nellie Bly Versus Phileas Fogg

14 Nellie Bly Versus Phileas Fogg

Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days is not strictly science fiction, but it is a book that speculates about technology (specifically steamships and railroads) and what it’s capable of. Verne’s 1973 novel made the eighty day time look like something of an impossible feat, but in 1890 Nellie Bly, a reporter for the New York World beat fictional record set by Phileas Fogg. Bly set out to best Verne’s protagonist, and circumnavigate the globe in 75 days. She did even better than that, thou

Jan 23, 2015 • 33:05

13 Nellie Bly and the Asylum

13 Nellie Bly and the Asylum

In 1880s New York Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Jane Chochrane)reported on the conditions inside an insane asylum by pretending to be mentally ill and getting herself checked into one. Bly’s account of Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum caused a sensation when it was published in the New York World, detailing poor conditions for the inmates, abuse by the asylum staff, and virtually no way to get off the island once one was brought there. The photo below shows the asylum on Blackwell Island in 1893, a

Jan 15, 2015 • 28:25

12 Shortest War Ever

12 Shortest War Ever

The Anglo-Zanzibar war comes up all the time on lists of curiosities, records, weird things, etc., as the shortest war in recorded history. It certainly is a historical curiosity, but it was still an actual, real war, with stakes and politics behind it. This week’s episode gets into a few details about the shortest war in history, and why (for Zanzibar at least) it was more than just a curiosity. The photograph below shows a part of the Sultan’s palace complex after the war which, depending on w

Jan 9, 2015 • 16:22

11 Maps of Time

11 Maps of Time

Happy New Year! It’s January First, 2015, and you probably have a new calendar. Calendars tend to be irregular, weird, and uneven, but some folks have attempted to smooth that out throughout history. Below is the Soviet Calendar. Workers were assigned colors, and based on the color assigned to you, that would be your day off. Related Links: Read about the Soviet Calendar on History Today (login required) Convert Gregorian dates into French Republican dates here. The current time and date accord

Jan 2, 2015 • 17:00

10 The Habsburg and Juarez, Part Two

10 The Habsburg and Juarez, Part Two

Maximilian’s rule over Mexico was never truly solidified or legitimized, and the would-be emperor faced relentless resistance from liberal Mexican forces led by reformist president Benito Juarez. Eventually the emperor (always just a puppet of the French) would lose his foreign backing, get holed up in a siege, get captured, and eventually die ingloriously in front of a firing squad. The painting below by Edouard Manet shows the execution of Maximilian and two of his generals by Juarez’s republi

Dec 24, 2014 • 19:34

09 The Habsburg and Juarez, Part One

09 The Habsburg and Juarez, Part One

One of the most definitive and dramatic struggles against European monarchy happened in Mexico. France attempted to install Maximilian, a member of Austrian royal family as a puppet emperor of Mexico in the 1860s. The would-be emperor, though, was resisted by one of Mexico’s most successful and well-known presidents, Benito Juarez. The liberal leader led an opposition government, fought against both foreign powers and Mexican conservatives, and destroyed the Second Mexican Empire. The 1867 paint

Dec 19, 2014 • 19:40

08 Sealand

08 Sealand

Defining what is and is not a country, state, or nation can sometimes be sort of difficult. China, obviously, is a country. So are Brazil and Morocco. Some states, like Kosovo, East Timor, and Vatican City, are independent and sovereign on paper, yet don’t seem to have the ephemeral legitimacy of an established state, the kind of undefinable real-ness that Frank Zappa alluded to when he said that “you can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind o

Dec 11, 2014 • 12:42

07 The Mountain Range That Wasn’t There

07 The Mountain Range That Wasn’t There

Maps used to have blank spots. California used to be drawn as an island. The Mercator projection makes Greenland look fat. One of the biggest and strangest cartographic errors of all time, though, has to be the Mountains of Kong, a nonexistent continent-spanning mountain range that Europeans kept putting on African maps all the way until the late 1800s. Related Links: Read the entirety of Jonathan Swift’s On Poetry: A Rhapsody A Google Map of Mungo Park’s African travels. James Rennel’s map sho

Dec 5, 2014 • 14:16

06 Franksgiving

06 Franksgiving

The United States has been a divided nation plenty of times. It’s been divided about slavery, about politics, about culture and, very importantly, about when to celebrate Thanksgiving. Related Links: Holiday Highlights, a 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon, showed the date of Thanksgiving as November 21st for Democrats, and November 28th for Republicans. Daily Kos, Huffington Post, and Washington Times on Franksgiving. The 1941 bill that finally established Thanksgiving as an official federal holiday

Nov 27, 2014 • 12:44

05 The Puppet Kingdom

05 The Puppet Kingdom

Before and during World War II Japan (just like Britain, France, and the United States) had a considerable empire. The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere encompassed the Korean peninsula, several Pacific Islands, and holdings in China. Probably the strangest part of the Japan’s empire was Manchukuo, an artificial country in northern China that Japan made by (among other things) bombing a train and kidnapping the former Chinese emperor. Related Links: This 1937 pro-Japanese propaganda film

Nov 21, 2014 • 23:34

04 BONE WARS!

04 BONE WARS!

Scientists are motivated by curiosity, by the desire to help their fellow humans, by compulsion and, sometimes, by irrational personal vendettas. Edward Drinker Cope and Othneil Charles Marsh were two leading paleontologists during the late 1800s, and discovered approximately 130 species between them, and were instrumental in confirming the then-new theory of evolution by natural selection. They also hated each other, and each tried to cut the other down to size with methods and tactics that sim

Nov 14, 2014 • 25:21

03 Incorrect Ideas About Olmecs

03 Incorrect Ideas About Olmecs

The Olmecs are the oldest known Mesoamerican civilization, and we know little about them compared to, say, the Mayans or Aztec. Several people, though, have made a few outlandish claims about who the Olmecs were, and where they came from.   Related Links: This article from Cultural Anthropology is the definitive takedown of Van Sertima’s Olmec claims, in great detail. A more readable debunking of claims regarding African and Chinese Olmec origins. And, just for fun, one of the best 80s cartoon

Nov 7, 2014 • 10:15

02 Axe Murder

02 Axe Murder

The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strange place. In 2008 I was a tourist visiting the peninsula, and I learned about one of the strangest incidents in the DMZ’s history. It was something straight out of a slasher movie, and has gone down in history as The Axe Murder Incident. Related Links: Footage of a DMZ tour. I did not take this footage, but the tour shown here is very similar to the one I went on. A photograph of the fight itself. While the picture is old and blurry, it does portray fatal

Oct 31, 2014 • 10:49

01 Ancient Propaganda

01 Ancient Propaganda

A famed artifact, the Cyrus Cylinder, has often been cited as an early proclamation of human rights. The Shah of Iran, the UN, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and an American president all hailed Cyrus the Great as an early innovator of liberalism and tolerance. Unfortunately, though, the historical record does not bear those claims out. Cyrus the Great was a monarch, and the world still falls for his ancient propaganda thousands of years later. Related links: View the Cylinder at the British Museu

Oct 28, 2014 • 12:08

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