Our Fake History

In this special series Sebastian presents a story that was originally created exclusively for Patrons back in 2020. The extra-long original episode is now being presented in two installments. Sebastian knew Tesla was figure shrouded in historical myths… he just didn’t know how many. It turns out Tesla may be one of the most mythologized people to have lived in the last 200 years. Tesla was as grea...

In this special series Sebastian presents a story that was originally created exclusively for Patrons back in 2020. The extra-long original episode is now being presented in two installments. Sebastian knew Tesla was figure shrouded in historical myths... he just didn't know how many. It turns out Tesla may be one of the most mythologized people to have lived in the last 200 years. Tesla was as gr...

In this bonus episode Sebastian takes questions about the recent shows on Paul Bunyon and the Children's Crusade. The host takes some time to further unpack the idea of fakelore and draw some distinctions between "authentic" lore and the creations of money writers. Sebastian also compares the differences between folklore and urban legends. Finally, Sebastian shares a few giant stories from the Lak...

In the year 1212 something strange happened in Western Europe, but none of the contemporary historic sources can agree on exactly what it was. Later historians would claim that a religious movement made up of children under twelve sprang up in rural France. After gathering together thousands of pre-teen followers this crusade set out to liberate the holy land. However, we're told that this so-call...

Season 12 begins with the trip to the Northwoods! For over a century Paul Bunyan has been America's best loved lumberjack hero. Statues honoring the gigantic woodsman dot the mid-west. His smiling face has been used to sell everything from building materials to loaves of bread. But, in the 1950's one of America's leading folklorists declared that Paul Bunyan was a prime example of something he cal...

In this throwback episode Sebastian takes you to an episode that is one of his personal favorites. Is it "secretly" one of the best episode of OFH? The character of Stagger Lee has been one of America’s most enduring folk heroes. There have been over 400 songs written about the swaggering, gun-toting, bad man. He has gone by many names: Stacks Lee, Stagolee, Staxs O’Lee. Sometimes he is presented...

With a new star-studded film adaptation of The Odyssey bringing Homer's world back to the big screen, it’s the perfect time to share a teaser clip from our friends at You're Dead To Me. It's the BBC comedy podcast that takes history seriously, bringing together experts and comedians to explore the people, stories and ideas that shaped our world. If you like what you hear you can find full episodes...

In this throwback episode Sebastian takes you to the conclusion of one of the podcast's most discussed series. The island of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, has been called “the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself.” For years it was taken for granted that the people of Rapa Nui had depleted their natural resources in pursuit of bigger and better stone statues called Moai. However, rece...

In this Throwback Episode Sebastian revisits one of the best loved series from Season 6. Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as the indigenous islanders call it, may be the most misunderstood place on planet Earth. For centuries outsiders have tried to unravel what they perceived to be the islands many mysteries. How did stone age people manage to get to such a remote island? How did these people build the...

In this Throwback Episode Sebastian revisits one of his favourite episodes from Season 7 and brings in some new critiques that did not make it into the original show! The legendary hybrid creature known as the gryphon was said to have the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. Despite this fantastical descriptions the ancient Greeks and Romans truly seemed to have believed that gryphon...

Rhiannon Giddens is a multi-instrumentalist, a singer, and a composer. She is a MacArthur Genius fellow, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and one the most dynamic voices in American folk and roots music performing today. She’s also one of the knowledgeable people you can possibly talk to when it comes to history of the banjo and American music generally. In the finale of season 11 Ms. Giddens joins Sebast...

On this Bonus Episode Sebastian takes questions about the recent series on the Knights of the Air and the one-off on the Midnight Ride. The host grapples with questions about the American perception of Canadian history, tarring and feathering, WWI weaponry, and Paul Revere's plagiarized engravings. Sebastian also gives some important updates about the end of Season 11, the start of Season 12, and...

Paul Revere is one of the best remembered heroes of the American Revolution. The Boston silversmith is often credited with rousing the Massachusetts countryside to resist the King's army as they moved against the towns of Lexington and Concord. However, he popular understanding of the famous "midnight ride" was largely shaped by a romantic poem written 85 years after the fact by Henry Wadsworth Lo...

By 1916 the airplane had proven itself as an important new weapon in the Great War. Arguably just as important was the image of the glamorous flying aces. Entire flying units, like France's Lafayette Escadrille made up of American volunteers, were created with the hope of generating positive press that could bring the United States into the war on the side of allies. When America did join WWI in 1...

At the outbreak of First World War airplanes were still a novelty on the battlefield. Originally planes were used for reconnaissance and the pilots were usually unarmed. This quickly changed and soon airplanes were being outfitted with machine guns and tasked specifically with destroying enemy aircraft. Fighter pilots were a new type of warrior, but ironically they started to be described in medie...

In this bonus episode Sebastian takes questions about episode 249, 250, and 251. First, he does his best to grapple with how morality should factor into history education. Then a listener provides an epic email about Orson Welles' legendary production of "Voodoo Macbeth" and cursed run of Romeo and Juliet. Finally, Sebastian looks at the weird legacy of the phrase "bunga bunga." Tune-in and find o...

When the HMS Dreadnought was launched in 1906 it completely revolutionized naval warfare. It made all previous ships obsolete and helped spur an arms race between Britain and Germany. For many the Dreadnought was symbol of the militarism that was sweeping Europe before World War One. Then in 1910 the ship was targeted by pranksters, who managed to get access to Dreadnought by impersonating Abyssin...

Every theatre kid can tell you that Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth is a cursed play. Some believe that even saying the name of the play in a theatre where it is not being performed can jinx a production. Stories of misfortune, injury, and death haunt productions of Macbeth like the ghost of a slain friend. It has been suggested that the curse of Macbeth goes all the way back to it's first perfor...

The Roman Empire is often remembered for it's grand works of architecture and formidable military. However, for most of its history Rome's economy was underpinned by the labour of millions of individuals who had been forced into slavery. Despite the fact that enslaved people quite literally built Rome, their lives were rarely recorded by the ancient historians. In her new book Not Built In a Day h...

In this bonus episode Sebastian takes question from the listeners about the recent episodes on Henry Box Brown and Snow White. First, we hear some comments from a listener in Iceland who wanted to weigh in on the North American Vikings. Then Sebastian unpacks some tricky questions about the line between activism and entertainment. Finally the host muses about the Mandela Effect and considers an in...

The Brothers Grimm once write that "Snow White" was Germany's best known folktale. When the beloved fairytale served as the inspiration for the famous 1937 Disney film the story reached new levels of international recognition. There are many elements of the Snow White tale that seem to be timeless mythic tropes, but there are some in Germany who believe that the character may have been based on a...

One of the most celebrated stories from the Underground Railroad is that of Henry Box Brown, the man who mailed himself to freedom. In 1849 Henry Brown successfully had himself shipped out of slavery in a packing crate from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Brown's ingenious and audacious escape from slavery immediately caught the attention of abolitionists all over the country. T...

In this bonus episode Sebastian takes questions about the recent series on the Viking voyages to North America. In it he reckons with the history of slavery in the Norse world, guesses at why the southern Vinland of settlement of Hóp remains undiscovered, and muses about doppelgängers. Tune-in and find out how controversial episode art, tidal lagoons, and absurdist saga writers all play a role in...

For centuries the western Norse colony of Vinland was known only to scholars of the Icelandic Sagas. But in the 19th century the work of a few Scandinavian historians helped revive interest in these previously obscure tales. When the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn published in his work in English in 1837, many American's were exposed to the idea that the Norse had beaten Columbus to North Am...

The only literary sources we have about the Viking settlements west of Greenland come from the Icelandic Sagas. The only problem is that the Sagas can be totally off-the-wall. Corpses reanimate and speak prophecies, giant-eyed doppelgängers vanish into thin air, and one-legged creatures murder unsuspecting Norse explorers. But, this same sources also describe interactions between the Norse and the...