Softcore History

Lewis Charles Levin was a 19th century Jewish American politician, newspaper editor, and conspiracy theorist who believed that Irish immigrants were soldiers of the Catholic Church sent by the Pope to cause division in our nation. He became a congressman for the state of Pennsylvania and was a major voice in the nativist movement. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of...

As American soldiers liberated France, they had one thing on their mind: Boning. It turns out that the GIs who were landing in Normandy and fighting in the hedgerows were at least partly motivated by the fact that they were convinced Francewas going to be their own personal Panama City Beach circa Spring Break 2003. Between the famous brothels in Paris, the French having a reputation for... being...

In 1919, rumors were swirling that a naval base in Newport, Rhode Island, was rife with immoral (gay) behavior. In response, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt commissioned a sting operation. Send fresh, young sailors into the base to honeytrap men into having sex with them. What followed was one of the biggest scandals in U.S. Navy history. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreo...

We put together a 68 person March Madness bracket of some of the most evil and despicable humans to ever grace this planet and decide who is the worst of all time. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. Download thePrizePicks app today and use code SOF...

When you think about prostitutes and serial killers, you generally assume the former is being killed by the latter. But in the case of Bridget Fury, the former IS the latter. Fury was infamous in antebellum New Orleans for killing Johns who didn't pay, mutilating rival ladies of the night, and all other manner of horrific crimes. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of e...

With the MLB season about to start we pick our starting nine for Hell’s baseball team — the most talented and least moral person at every position in MLB history, dead players only. We also pick the All-Heaven starting nine and decide who would win between the two. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicem...

King Xerxes launched a second invasion of Greece in 480 BC to avenge his father's failures a decade before. The massive Persian army of over 100,000 men was met by Leonidas and his force of 300 Spartans (and roughly 7,000 other soldiers) at a pass in Thermopylae. This three day stand turned the Spartans into martyrs and a rallying cry for the Greek city states. Subscribe to the Softcore History Pa...

Maybe we don't talk about the Pacific Theater in World War 2 as much as we should because we don't want to acknowledge how gross it actually was. The Battle of Peleliu is arguably the best example of how foul it was. Unspeakable war crimes, temperatures exceeding 110 degrees, crabs eating dead bodies that had exploded from the heat, human mutilation by normal men who'd been broken by the savagery...

Huey Long was one of the most radical and powerful politicians in American history. Between his time as both the governor of Louisiana and senator he completely steamrolled his enemies and changed the state entirely during the Great Depression. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alo...

The Japanese committed a lot of war crimes in World War II but cannibalism wasn’t one of them, though only because cannibalism wasn’t technically a war crime because no one thought to make a rule against it. Still, Imperial Japanese soldiers practiced cannibalism more than you would think, and NOT because of a lack of food. We talk about the instances Japanese soldiers ate Allied troops both as an...

Michael A. Aquino Jr. was an American military officer, specialist in psychological warfare, Nazi admirer and Satanist priest who started his own religion. This is the story of the Temple of Set. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. Rob Foxhttps://ww...

Captain Royce Williams will receive the Medal of Honor soon, for a secret he kept for 50 years — that during the Korean War, badly outnumbered and outgunned, he took on and defeated 6 Soviet MiGs by himself despite the fact that the Soviet Union was not an official combatant in the Korean War. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episod...

The minute President Roosevelt stepped foot on the USS Quincy to meet with Ibn Saud on the Bitter Lake, he changed the course of America's future in the Middle East. We dive deeper into the complex and often rocky relationship the United States has had with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like...

Porter Rockwell was many things. A man with three wives and twenty-one children, a lawman, and one of the OG Mormons. But above all he was the early Mormon church’s muscle. Their enforcer. And he had no compunction about killing for church leaders like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like th...

Franz Reichelt was an Austrian born tailor who became obsessed with the idea of creating a wearable parachute for pilots and aviators. This passion was only fueled by the many peers who doubted his invention and it ultimately led to a day of destiny at the Eiffel Tower in 1912.Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, lis...

Rob, a southpaw survivor of human society’s systemic left-handedness oppression, breaks down all the horrible ways basically every civilization throughout human history has demonized, ostracized, and genocided left-handers. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus...

Harald "Hardrada" Sigurdsson was a Viking mercenary in the Byzantine Varangian Guard and eventual King of Norway who threw his hat in the ring to conquer England in 1066. He lived an extraordinary life traveling far and wide participating in campaigns against Muslim Caliphates, Bulgarian rebels, and other Norsemen. Find out why he is often considered "The Last Viking."Subscribe to the Softcore His...

Moe Berg was a defense-first journeyman catcher for the Dodgers, White Sox, Indians, and Red Sox who faced the likes of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio. He also had multiple Ivy League degrees and was such a trusted spy for the OSS during World War II that FDR personally sent him on missions. But above all, he was kind of a weird guy. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of e...

Jefferson Davis was a malcontent long before the American Civil War. The Eggnog Riot or Grog Mutiny was an 1826 drunken Christmas rebellion by dozens of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point including the future President of the Confederate State of America firmly in the midst of the party gone horribly wrong. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra his...

Forget puking secretaries and handsy office creeps, BY FAR the worst company Christmas party in American history happened on Christmas Eve in Michigan in 1913 when a group of striking miners had their party tragically and violently ruined by strike breaking goons. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this and sports shows...

U.S. Army Air Corps pilots Kenneth Taylor and George Welch had a few days off in tropical paradise and decided to let loose at an officer Christmas party. They parlay that into an all night poker game before eventually getting to bed -- three sheets to the wind -- at around 7 am...December 7th, 1941. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including...

This is a free preview of the content we offer on the Softcore History Patreon. It is the best way to support Dan and Rob and keeps the podcast going. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this and sports shows on the higher tier. Rob Foxhttps://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree https://www.tikt...

Samuel Whittemore fought in the American Revolution. He fought despite the fact that he was born in 1696. At 78 years old, Whittemore, who'd already served in two wars prior to the American Revolution, ambushed a British unit, completely by himself. Why? Because the man was A) a fierce patriot who'd been heavily involved in colonial politics for over a decade, and B) an absolute animal. Find out a...

The real story behind Thanksgiving. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including episodes like this, listener voicemails, movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus episodes. Rob Foxhttps://www.instagram.com/robfoxthree/ https://twitter.com/RobFoxThree https://www.tiktok.com/@robfoxthree Dan Regesterhttps://www.instagram.com/danregester/ https://twit...

Mitsuyasu Maeno was Japan's last kamikaze pilot, but there were a couple of other interesting things about him. First off, he was BORN in 1946, a year after World War 2 ended. Second, he was one of Japan's most famous porn actors. Find out how and why he ended up kamikazing a plane for the glory of Japan. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content incl...