Yeet the Rich

This week we wrap up our story on Cassie Chadwick. The walls are closing in on ole Cassie, and she's running out of ways to ask people for money. Her bankers are being arrested, her husband is overseas, and there's only a few more times she can say the check is in the mail But she's finally in the same room as her alleged father Andrew Carnegie; that room just happens to be a courtr...

This week we continue our story of the gilded age grifter, Cassie Chadwick. She's got herself a wealthy husband and as many gems as a person could want, but she still wanted more. Inventing a new story for herself as the illegitimate daughter of tycoon Andrew Carnegie, she weaves an incredibly complicated web of lies and manages to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars before the walls star...

This week we start our story with Cassie Chadwick! Aka Madame Devere, aka Lydia Hoover, aka a fraudster who stole money because people couldn't believe women could commit complicated crimes! She forged promissory notes, threw other people under the bus, and told fortunes?  This is a nice silly mess around, without too much righteous indignation! Enjoy!  Sources: The Imposter Heiress- Cassie C...

This week we are wrapping up the hot coffee case and the crazy push for tort reform starting in the mid 80s. Last week we talked specifically about one case but this week we get into the insidious and ultimately successful plan to make it as hard as possible for the everyday American to use the US Court system.  We discussed the formation of ATRA, the American Tort Reform Association, a collection...

This week we are talking about Stella Liebeck and the Mcdonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit. Almost everyone in America knows about the woman who received Millions after she was burned by a cup of Mcdonalds Coffee. But much of what we think is true about the case is exaggerated and misleading.  In this episode we talk about the actual circumstances of Stella's injury and her recovery after recei...

We are finally wrapping up our series on the Irish Potato Famine! We get into the third year of crop failures and the mass exodus of the Irish to ports unknown. People were desperate enough to leave on ships without shoes, without food or water sometimes, to Liverpool, North America and beyond.  The famine didn't end with a big resolution or solution, it unfortunately faded out over time and...

This week we continue our series on the Irish Potato Famine. And it's getting rough here folks. We're coping with the subject matter with a Irish whiskey tasting along with some rough information! We're into a second year of crop failure, and the British government is finally realizing it might be helpful to just feed people? They replace their commissioner and decide to close the p...

This week we continue our series on the Irish Potato Famine. We are really getting into the thick of it. This episode starts in 1846, when the harsh reality of a second year with so much crop failure catches up to everyone.  The new prime minister John Russell has a tough time filling his predecessor's shoes and Trevelyan is still there, mailing people books about scarcity and talking about t...

This week we continue our series on the Irish Potato Famine of 1845. We start to dive into the committee relief programs that Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel instated. He wanted the Irish to work for wages to buy subsidized food, instead of bartering or getting food donated to them.  London also expected the middle class of Ireland to donate to the cause, but they were very hesitant because they fe...

This week we start our series on the potato famine that struck Ireland in 1845. Between 1845-1855 Ireland would lose a third of its population, 1.1 million to death and 2 million leaving the country because of the dire situation.  In this episode we discuss how the Irish had become incredibly dependent on the potato in the years leading up to the famine and the UK's government inability to or...

This week we are wrapping up the Henrietta Lacks Story! We will talk about the increased attention on the Lacks family including a BBC Documentary team, A con artist who called himself Doctor Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield, and Rebecca Skloot, the author of our source material.  We will actually get into the trail of breadcrumbs that Skloot used to meet Deborah Lacks for the first time and then ta...

Hey all, We're taking two weeks off to regroup and catch up on life stuff and try to get our baby to sleep again. We will back July 7th and hit the group running! In the meantime, enjoy some of our old series or just enjoy the warm weather! See you in July!  Thanks for listening!  Send us a text! Let us know what topics you want us to cover!

This episode we get a bit more into how the family was effected by the news that part of their mother was still alive.  We talk about the founding of John Hopkins and the pretty warranted fears that the black community had for night doctors and scientists looking to use black bodies for experiments.  Then we get into the beginning of a legal debate determining whether we should retain property rig...

This week we get into how doctors at John Hopkins purposefully gave misleading information to the public about the HeLa strain. They gave a false name to obscure Henrietta Lack's true name, successfully hiding her identity for about 20 years.  We also talk about Chester Southam and some incredibly unethical uses of the Hela cells. He injected over 600 patients with live cancer cells to see if...

This week we talk about the darker side of cell culturing history including a man named Alexis Carrell and his not so "Immortal Chicken Heart". Also unfortunately more about eugenics... We also get into the final months of Henrietta's life. Her cancer was incredibly aggressive and in the end there was nothing that doctors could do to stop it. However they also could have treated her...

This week we are talking about Henrietta Lacks, a young black woman born in the 1920’s and her cells that would change the face of modern medicine. Scientists would call Henrietta's cells HeLa cells.  The First HeLa cells were removed from her cervix in 1951 at Johns Hopkins hospital only a few months before her death caused by cervical cancer. Henrietta was 31 when she died. These cells howe...

This week we are wrapping up the Jay Gould story! After tanking the Gold exchange, Jay got right back to work messing up the train industry.  He had a dream of connecting a transcontinental rail path, and he got to work purchasing any train companies he could get his rascally little hands on. By WHATEVER means necessary.  All the while, perpetrating some stunning examples of price fixing, insider...

We are back with another installment of the Jay Gould story. This week we have moved on from leather and firmly landed in the world of trains. Gould thought he saw a prime opportunity in the Erie Railroad. however he wasn't the only one. In order to gain control of these tracks and trains, Gould would have to pick a fight with the already infamous Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both men were willing t...

We are back with another installment of the Jay Gould story. This week we have moved on from leather and firmly landed in the world of trains. Gould thought he saw a prime opportunity in the Erie Railroad, however he wasn't the only one. In order to gain control of these tracks and trains, Gould would have to pick a fight with the already infamous Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both men were willing t...

This week we start a new series on Jay Gould, one of the richest men in America in the 1800s. He isn't one of the most well known titans of the time, but he was one of the richest men in America and was one of the pioneers of taking advantage of the stock market.  He manipulated the money markets in innovative, possibly criminal ways, and was the catalyst for a lot of market regulation on Wal...

This week we are wrapping up our series on Floreana Island in the Galapagos. The Baroness and Robert have been missing for weeks, Rudolph is no better off, and Friedrich has forgotten that poison is bad for you.  Thankfully the drought is finally over, and the Wittmers just keep working away and trying to mind their own business.  Sources:  Eden Undone- A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at t...

This week things are getting spicy on Floreana Island. Tensions are rising in a drought that will never seem to end, and the desperation is causing everyone to act a little out of character. People are starting to suffer, animals are dying, and a few folks even disappear!  Dore and Margret's accounts of 1933 continue to diverge, as the story gets more complicated and we work on keeping it tog...

This week we are back on Floreana Island for more flawed  Utopian hijinks. The Baronese with her two sexy male "assistants" have fully moved onto the island. She very quickly begins playing political games all while stealing everyone's rice. They begin work on a "luxury" hotel but do not get very far before it all starts to fall apart. Meanwhile the young family living far...

This week we journey to Floreana Island, in the heart of the Galapagos Islands. Millionaires from all over had started visiting the Galapagos Islands after Charles Darwin did, for the exotic animals and uncharted territory and to bring back plenty of critters and carcasses. Foreign businessmen were also visiting with the intent of figuring out how to profit there, and how to buy the islands for th...

We are Wrapping up the Ma Mandelbaum Story this week and boy is she going out with a bang. We have The SHADIEST of lawyers, wild court cases, Running from the law, vigilantly Private Investigators.  We talk more about Howe and Hummel her silly and corrupt lawyers, The Pinkerton National Detective Agencies. and how ma continued to evade Justice.  Enjoy! Sources: “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The R...