History Honeys

Happy New Year! We're starting off 2020 by catching up on two centennials, the Molasses Flood and the Black Sox scandal of 1919. First, Alaina looks at the sudden death and long-term disruption of an industrial accident that covered a Boston neighborhood for months. Then, Grant tries to cut through the legends of the greatest scandal in baseball to find what we can really know, and what that means...

Happy Holidays! We're taking a break from history this week, and sharing some of the stuff from our cutting room floor. Please enjoy these digressions, false starts, and peeks into "the process". As promised, we'll be back next time with our annual New Year's special.

As we look back on the year that passed, Grant is reminded of an even more explosive one: 1848. The great powers of Europe had made themselves the center of the world, and then those powers collapsed as a broad coalition of citizens rose up in the name of freedom. But whose freedom counts most? Is this a story of nations or of classes? Why are revolutions graded pass/fail? Links! BBC4 "In Our Time...

In this episode we're thankful for modern medicine, and tools that help us heal with less harm. At least, that's how X-rays work now. Alaina teaches us about the early days of these mysterious rays, the scientists, inventors, and doctors who sacrificed their own health to develop them, and some of the odder purposes this miracle technology was put to. Links! Rontgen's first recorded X-Ray image, o...

The New Deal was a sweeping suite of programs and policies to combat the Great Depression of the 1930s. Several of those programs provided for artists in exchange for their labor producing new art. What kind of art sprouted from this system? How did society benefit from a boom in freely available art and performance? Why hasn't this level of investment continued? Links! WPAmurals.com WPA Posters a...

It's that time of year again, when Alaina teaches us about the haunted and spooky spots of a certain place, and we do the intro in silly Dracula voices! This year we're getting sub-tropical and talking about the Florida Keys. An island chain once rich from shipping and now a vacation destination, the Keys have been shaken by natural disasters and disease, as well as a few notably creepy individual...

Yesterday was Indigenous Peoples Day, so Grant is here to talk about a recent event in the history of one indigenous nation. The Cold War arms race required fuel, and it was found in the stone beneath the Navajo Nation. Decades of environmental degradation and ethical failures followed, and only ended when demand for ore dropped. Who can we trust to act as stewards of the land? Why is profit the f...

Every few years, a new film or miniseries based on Little Women comes along, and this year is no exception. To prepare for Greta Gerwig's upcoming version, Alaina teaches us about its author, her family, and the circles they moved in. When does writing for commercial gain make lasting art? What about this story makes it so appealing to adapt? Was anyone in the 1800s NOT part of a utopian commune?...

About fifty episodes ago Grant made an offhand comment about one of that topic's figures. Now, it's a full episode. Do not test him. The Pullman strike lasted for months, threatened all American commerce, and set precedents that have lasted over a century regarding government involvement in labor disputes. It all started because George Pullman's perfect town didn't consider the lives of the people...

Alaina returns to our Disney Parks series by going back to the beginning: Disneyland in Anaheim, California. In 1955, after a long time planning and a short time building, Walt Disney presented yet another dream to the world. It was the world's first fully-themed park, complete with a nationally televised opening, and following 10 months of televised previews in prime time. We cover its developmen...

We've mentioned our weekend trip to Milwaukee before, but now it's time to share all we learned! In this episode, Grant talks about the history of the places we went, and some of the history they taught us. Links! Mars Cheese Castle Pabst Milwaukee Brewery and Taproom Pabst-ett Cheese radio commercial Milwaukee Public Museum Making of the Streets of Old Milwaukee Milwaukee Boat Line sightseeing to...

Alaina returns to her most recent topic to make good on her promise. This episode is about a third great train wreck in the summer of 1918, one that destroyed a circus train. We cover the history of that particular circus, its founder's previous attractions, the wreck itself, and what remains to commemorate it. Links! People displayed in Hagenbeck's "human zoo"  The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab First...

The mid-19th century in America was a time of new popular philosophies about the order of the universe and the individual's place in it. One example is the dawn of Spiritualism: the belief that the spirits of the dead can be contacted, and that they have answers to our urgent questions. In this episode, Grant teaches us about two cases: the prototypical founders of movement, and one of its most bi...

Alaina continues marking anniversaries, and also talking about travel disasters. 1918 was in the middle of the Golden Age of Rail Travel, but behind the march of technology and luxury there were millions of travelers trying to get to work on time. Unfortunately, not all of them did. The day this episode goes live marks the 101st anniversary of the worst rail accident in American history, and the e...

We're sure the world is about to be bombarded by retrospectives of Apollo 11, and for good reason, but there's so much more to explore. Grant takes us through the history of Mars exploration, from the first looks from afar, to the first mobile science platforms to rove its surface. Links! Mars Exploration Project Marspedia The "Canali" and the first Martians 1965: Discovery at Mars Soviet Space Pr...

It's our third anniversary episode, which means scenic islands and shipwrecks. Well, instead of a ship it's an escape raft made from raincoats, and concrete cell blocks aren't particularly scenic. That's right, this episode is about the setting of Sean Connery's classic The Rock: Alcatraz Island.  Links! Alcrataz Island, National Park Service  Children Who Grew Up on Alcatraz Recount Life on Priso...

In this episode, Grant tells a familiar story from a less-popular angle. Venezuelan oil interests, for-profit media, and a right-wing coalition launched a coup against the early years of Hugo Chavez' presidency. It also had all the hallmarks of 21st Century American Imperialism, but with a veneer of deniability. Who planted the seeds of today's unrest? How can you see true intent through rhetoric?...

This week, Alaina follows through on her promise to talk about the history of ice cream. Or at least, the probable history of ice cream. It's a full hour of navigating shifting definitions, and weighing competing claims. And everything, eventually, comes close to home. Links! Ice Cream: A Global History Contemporary sharbat recipe Sanders Candy "The Last Howard Johnson's in the Universe" "World's...

Grant wants us to get some culture, so he shines a light on the roots of theater in the West. Hrotsvitha was inspired to use the language of a playwright who lived a millennium before her to impart moral lessons to those who followed her. Hildegard of Bingen steered liturgical drama toward a form much more recognizable as theater, and invented a genre that would become dominant hundreds of years l...

Alaina's gotten inspiration through immunization. Today we're talking about three potentially deadly diseases whose vaccines come in a convenient combo. Why were those dog teams so desperate to move their serum? Do you owe your health to a team of women in Michigan? So the rust DOESN'T matter in itself? Fellowship 2nd Edition on Kickstarter Please help our show succeed by sharing it. Send a link t...

Today, Grant is delivering an episode one day early to tackle our biggest topic yet: Everything. And from the dawn of time, to the dawn of man, to the nearly unbelievable events of recent years, we're touching on as much of it as we can. Realistically, it's impossible. Don't let that stop us! It's a very special episode. Share it with your friends! Thank you for enjoying our first April Fools' epi...

Alaina is back after a birthday break to teach us the history behind something you're probably familiar with: Reading Rainbow. Over 21 seasons LeVar Burton and dozens of guests shared a love of reading with children inside their homes. Now a beloved memory, some people are trying to continue that mission in new media. How can innocuous-sounding parts of legislation have out-sized effects? What goo...

The early 1990s gave rise to many fads, trends, and subcultures. Riot Grrrl has been dismissed as just another of them, but had far greater ambitions and achieved far greater things. Motivation, inspiration, and cooperation led a group of activists to change the conversation, until the structures they railed against stepped in to change it back. What's the difference between having a message and c...

They thought they were peerless. They thought they planned the perfect crime. Lots of twenty-year-olds overestimate themselves. Alaina tells the story of Leopold and Loeb, two University of Chicago students who decided to kill for fun. Is a drive for fame compatible with a drive for being unfindable? When will America deal with the moral epidemic of rich young men? Why do we keep going back to tha...

Grant turns his focus closer to biology, as we look at the history and the meaning of two lists of endangered species. What does the scope of the Endangered Species Act reveal about the national imagination when compared to its predecessors? How can listing turn to recovery? What can we claim to know about the status of biological life when a majority of creatures are not assessed? Links! Endanger...