Grim & Mild Presents

Let’s go on a brand new adventure together. EXHUMED officially arrives on August 4th, but you can pre-order it right now.  Visit aaronmahnke.com/exhumed to pre-order your copy today! And, if you buy the hardcover, you can submit your receipt and get a free EXHUMED tote bag. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We didn’t become fascinated with the Wild West until Hollywood gave us gunfights at high noon and heroic outlaws.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 When we think of the Wild West, we conjure up certain characters in our imaginations. But none are more iconic than the outlaw. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hollywood portrays the Wild West as a tough man’s world. Yet, there were some who refused to be labeled.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The post office has a saying about mail delivery in all kinds of weather. Meet Mary, a mail carrier in the West whose story is nothing short of a Western novel.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gold. New lives. Second chances. The West provided many opportunities. But conquering the land often came at a high cost. Here’s the story of one of the most well-known families on the frontier: the Ingalls.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Getting from East to West was difficult, especially for those who chose the Oregon Trail. Survival meant timing their passage and path just right. Those who didn’t served as a dire warning to others.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With westward expansion came the Homestead Act. What followed was nothing short of horrific for the people already occupying the land. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Stetson hats to barbed wire, this episode sheds some light on little-known Wild West icons and how they came to be.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The French, Spanish, and the Americans believed that heading west was a divine calling. This is the story of when beliefs cross the line into territory more dangerous than the land itself. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Gold Rush became a beacon of hope for many. They headed West to seek their fortunes. But Americans weren’t the only ones looking for a better life.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 One of the most horrific times in history came when treaties and deals with Native Americans were broken. In 1836, US troops rounded up Cherokee tribes with acts of extreme violence and forced them across the country.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the Spanish to the French, to the British — everyone had their eye on the vast expanse of America’s western frontier. Then, in the early 1800s, Thomas Jefferson saw an opportunity and made a deal no one expected. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When it comes to tales of the Wild West, there’s one tale that surfaces again and again — and for good reason. Join us for the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the early explorers and the indigenous peoples they encountered, to the gunslingers of legend, and everything in between, this is your chance to learn just how complicated our move into western North America really was—and why so many of the assumptions we have about it are dead wrong. Beginning July 7th 2023, Grim & Mild Presents: A trek into the unknown, the misunderstood, and the forgo...

The one guarantee in life is that it will end—we can anticipate that, and we have tried to cope with that truth forever. But when the suffering overextends itself, we’ve always tried to find ways to adapt.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Humans have been mothering and midwifing since the beginning of humanity. Why, then, did something so natural become so fiercely under fire?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Florence Nightingale set out to change the course of nursing as the world knew it… and ended up getting more than she ever bargained for.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone poops. And for thousands of years, as civilizations have risen and fallen, humans have been trying to figure out exactly what to do with it all. The story of waste is one of ingenuity and class, of innovation and epidemic – and it is one that is deeply human.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A doctor might dismiss your concerns by saying that something is all in your head…as if the brain doesn’t play host to many kinds of illness. Some  of our oldest corpses bear physical evidence that directly cutting into the brain is one way to attempt healing the mind. But what happens when our modern attempts at this become a bit more…misguided? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

Poets have been writing about the madness of love for thousands of years. We love to be in it; we hate to be without it. But what if this wasn’t just hyperbole, and there is something indeed bigger happening to a brain in love? Where does love and madness meet? And, perhaps, where does one end, and another begin?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the world of healing, there have always been folks willing to make money off of the suffering of others. And it was often seen that the more shameful the secret, the more profitable these problems would be for cunning charlatans.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The human body has long been a battleground for morality. And one of the places that these ideas have shown up might be surprising to you: the dinner table.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For centuries, cutting into the human body was strictly forbidden. In fact, for a long time, medical schools taught aspiring physcians not to touch their patients. You can imagine how helpful this was. But then, a turn in the story: along came a class of people whose dirty, rough, and practical work changed the way we practice medicine: the surgeons.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

In the not-too distant past, many European communities had their own local executioner. It was a paid government trade just like any other, but it came with a damning social stigma. But this role was a crucial one: though they brought imminent death, many people believed they also played a significant role in holistic healthcare.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.