Softcore History

Journalist Nellie Bly checked herself into a 19th Century insane asylum to expose its horrors, discovered Helen Keller, was captured in World War 1, tried and succeeded at going around the world in less than 80 days, and became one of America’s GOAT investigative journalists ever along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Elevator Operator Strike of 1945 was spurred by a desire for higher wages and better treatment after the end of World War 2. So, naturally, the building owners just switched to automatic elevators. But that wasn’t easy either, it turned out, because everyday people were terrified of operating an elevator without any training. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The domestication of cats and dogs, wacky Russian Silver Foxes that wag their tails, and a bunch of weird pets owned by people throughout history - learn all about our furry best friends on this week’s episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, Rob, and Cooper talk about the complicated Scot who is often regarded as the father of the US Navy -- John Paul Jones. From helping the U.S. win independence to fighting Turks in the Black Sea on behalf of Catherine the Great, JPJ lived an action-packed 45 years mostly on water or inside the warm embrace of a European woman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis were the worst Olympics ever held. The Marathon involved a purposeful dehydration experiment and a runner who cheated by riding 11 miles in a car, the swimming events were all done in a pond, and people from various third world countries were forced to compete in what the media dubbed the “Savage Olympics”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices....

Elmer McCurdy was perhaps the worst outlaw in the Wild West but his dead body became a show stopping attraction in everything from back road carnivals to Hollywood films over the course of a literal half century. Dan, Rob, and Jake talk about the extreme embodiment of success after death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trying to handle that dispute over the fence line with your neighbor? Learn how not to as Jake, Dan, and Rob dive into the wild and wonderful world of blood feuds in 1800s America. To work out how much life insurance coverage you need, and compare personalized quotes to find your best price, head to Policygenius.com and get your best quote in minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...

Rob Fox, Dan Regester, and Jake Goldman are joined by Rob’s pregnant wife Courtney to talk about the history of pregnancy, birth control, pain management, and childbirth in the Middle Ages and why if a woman was good at any of that she was a witch and deserved to be burned alive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, Jake, and Rob are joined by Iconoblast's Matt Cooper to talk about Leo Major -- a Canadian scout and sniper who stormed the beaches of Normandy, took hundreds of POWs, and liberated a Dutch town of 50,000 by himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Götz von Berlichingen was a mercenary knight during the end of one of the bloodiest eras in history. He had a metal hand, and also invented a common profanity all of us say every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Fox, Jake Goldman, Dan Regester and special guest Veronica Ruckh go through the history of lesbians from ancient Egypt's reputation for being a girl on girl sin-fest to medieval Middle East believing that women were attracted to other women because they ate too much celery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1932 a New York bar owner and his connected friends took out an insurance policy on an alcoholic homeless man and did everything in their power to kill him. This is the story of how they failed over and over again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake, Dan, and Rob breakdown the life and trials of Topsy the elephant. Was she a serial killing beast? Or just a victim of circus circumstance? Find out the grizzly details of her death, and their consequences on this week’s episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Fox, Dan Regester, and special guest Jack Mandaville discuss the most overrated civilizations in world history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, Rob, and Jake break down the comedy of errors that somehow resulted into the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the butterfly effect that has shaped our modern world as a result. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake, Dan, and Rob discuss P.T. Barnum’s rise to fame including leasing old slaves, sewing monkeys to fish, and adopting tiny boys from their parents and putting them in the circus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Fox, Dan Regester, and Jake Goldman explore the 1788 Doctors’ Riot in New York City, during which the people of New York formed a mob to attack doctors for allegedly grave robbing their deceased loved ones to use for anatomical dissection and other experiments. Once they got into the labs the mob saw… some messed up stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, Rob, and Jake discuss the insanely dumb rags to riches story about a man who couldn't stop failing his way to success in Colonial America -- "Lord" Timothy Dexter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake, Dan, and Rob explore the different substances that may have altered the course of human history and the leaders who imbibed in them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Fox, Dan Regester, and special guest Veronica Ruckh talk about what it was like to get and be pregnant in ancient times, including the birth control plant that was so popular that the Romans banged it into extinction, other birth control theories ancient doctors had like “Just the tip!”, birthing practices such as tying a woman to a ladder and shaking her so the baby would fall out, and ancien...

The East India Company helped shape the modern world in the worst possible ways. Dan, Rob, and Jake break down the true "enemy of the human race" that terrorized the globe for over 200 years on an empire's dime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob, Dan, and Jake break down the horrifying story of Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess who bathed in blood, beat virgins senseless, and could easily take Rob or Dan home after they had a few drinks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Fox, Dan Regester, and Jake Goldman break down the worst year in human history, a year so bad it makes 2020 look like the Roaring Twenties. We’re talking 536 A.D., when the whole world literally lost most of its food and sunlight for 18 months and most of the world was at war. Then, a few years later, a 200 year Bubonic Plague pandemic hit (and the wars didn’t stop). Learn more about your ad c...

The boys go deep into the life of CIA mole Aldrich Ames. This giant piece is solely responsible for the most deaths of American field agents and is the ultimate simp who committed treason to pay off his alimony and mistress's shopping hobby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jake, Dan, and Rob discuss the women of the Soviet 588th night bombing regiment. These ladies dropped bombs from the equivalent of wooden RC planes and took out some along the way, all while suffering minimal casualties. Tune in for babes and bombs, stay for Rob defending Hitler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices