The Backstory with Patty Steele

We take a look behind the scenes the night before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19th, 1863. It’s from the diary of one of Lincoln’s private secretaries. John Hay was 25 years old, drinking whiskey with older guys, and getting a little snarky about his boss. Who hasn’t been there? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Fac...

We all want relief from pain when we're miserable. That’s been true for thousands of years. But how we've dealt with it . . has caused it’s own problems. 10,000 cigars and cocaine water. What could go wrong? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

It’s fascinating to see how someone faces personal challenges and then becomes more than they dreamed. Ted Knight wanted to be a serious TV star but he became a comedy icon of 1970s sitcom TV playing Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnyst...

Did you ever stop to think what’s beneath city streets and parks that we walk on everyday? Take the NY Public Library and Bryant Park on NYC’s 5th Avenue. Did you know that that 4 acre piece of land once held a 50 foot tall reservoir that held 20 million gallons of water for NYC? Where did the water come from and where did that massive mid town reservoir and it’s aqueduct disappe...

Trick or treating on Halloween is a rite of childhood. But it’s origins go back several thousand years and they were pretty dark, including human sacrifice. Centuries later, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought less violent traditions to America where Halloween evolved into something that again became fairly violent. So, how did it turn into the festive celebration we know today? Big busine...

The riots in France last week were all about the same things that caused the American Revolution in 1776 as well as the French Revolution in 1789. Distrust and disappointment in how the government treats us. In France 250 years ago, it was actually a stolen diamond necklace that began the downfall of the monarchy. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook...

What is we love about the blood and gore of a great horror movie or story? And where and when did that spooky interest start? Turns out we’re programmed to love terror . . and Hollywood has made a bundle off of it. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

How does someone go from being a working class kid to being a billionaire before he’s 40? This is Mark Cuban’s story! Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know the term "planned obsolescence”. But where did it begin? We head back to the light bulb manufacturers of the early 1900s to see where basic needs and business collided, and how nothing has ever been the same since. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/liste...

It’s Columbus Day this Monday . . also called Indigenous People’s Day. But it begs the question, who really “discovered” America? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watching the state of Georgia and their botched attempt to execute murderer Christa Pike this past week has been pretty cringy. Only about 1% of murderers put to death in the U.S. are female. It brought to mind one of America’s most prolific female serial killers, Aileen Wuornos. She admitted to killing at least 7 men, before she was executed in 2002. Her life was depicted in the 2003 movie...

Death . . the word makes us uneasy but we’re all sort of intrigued by it, thus our love of true crime, horror, mysteries, and graveyards. Death is the one thing we all have to face that we simply can’t rationally explain. Going back thousands of years it was the same for all humans. How do we celebrate a life . . . and dispose of the body? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you&rsq...

We’re sort of living in a time when finger pointing has become a huge spectator sport. Accuse somebody you don’t like or agree with of something, and you can destroy their life. But human beings have a long history of vicious finger pointing. Case in point, the Salem witch trials of 1692. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Pat...

A lot of people want sex . . but they don’t always want babies. That’s been the story of human sexuality for thousands of years. But the pill has only been around for about 65 years. So . . what did folks do to enjoy sex while minimizing the chance of procreation? Think poison plants, animal dung, lemon cups, and even Lysol. Not all of it paints a pretty picture! Feel free to DM me if...

Born rich, titled, and impossibly handsome . . a British lord’s life falls apart and he chooses murder. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The 7th Earl of Lucan, disappeared over 50 years ago after murdering his children’s nanny, having mistaken her for his ex wife. Did his aristocratic friends help him vanish into a new life? This story may remind you of the Netflix show “T...

We try to imagine what everyday life was like for folks living a few hundred years ago or even longer. But sometimes, we forget to take into account the simplest things . . like brushing your teeth or replacing them if you ran into issues. What did they use before toothpaste or worse yet, implants? It’s not a pretty picture and it will probably make you grit your teeth.  Feel free to DM...

When there’s an outbreak of some sort, like the flu or COVID, we all wonder if we’re going to get it. But some of us are more compelled to think we’ve actually got it when people around us show symptoms. Now, imagine being overcome with the urge to keep moving your body, as if you have bugs in your veins. There were outbreaks of dancing mania throughout medieval times. It sounds...

25 years ago the 9/11 terrorist attacks killed almost 3000 people. It was a horrific moment in our history but as in so many cases, heroes were born in the midst of tragedy. Beverly Eckert was speaking to her husband on his cell when she heard the South Tower collapse on top of him. She advocated for 9/11 families . . until she died in another tragedy less than 8 years later. Feel free to DM me if...

Imagine trying to describe our technology to someone from 1926. Now imagine trying to defend our tech to someone from 2126! Most importantly, how is this evolution impacting our brains and our bodies? Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine walking out your front door and not being able to see where you’re stepping because the air is so thick with yellow, greasy smog. This happened in London for 5 days back in 1952 and it killed 12,000 people! Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

As we watch the royal family feud in the UK escalate, we’re reminded of our own sibling rivalries. Of course, theirs plays out in the media for our questionable entertainment. But William and Harry are just the latest in a long line of royal family battles that frequently turned violent.  Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patt...

You don’t have to be crazy about cats to be at least a little bit fascinated with them, hissing, murder mittens, and all. Great writers like Hemingway, Twain, and Dickens as well as folks like Lincoln, Churchill, Einstein, and Nightingale adored them. As did music icons like Freddie Mercury and John Lennon. They all felt cats gave them one thing . . peace. Feel free to DM me if you have a st...

Believing in yourself is key to success. One of the best examples of that is Steven Spielberg. At the age of 18 he sneaked onto the Universal Studios lot and literally created a job for himself while nobody was looking. Eventually they noticed him, paid him, and he never left. Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagr...

The angelic sounds of choirs from 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries often featured the angelic voices of boy sopranos. But sometimes those angelic voices came from full grown male bodies. They were the castrati, little boys castrated so they’d grow up with powerful soprano voices. Where did they come from and why was this done? Just one castrati left a voice recording Feel free to DM me if...

Love a good pirate story? This is a real life story of the most successful pirate in history. Black Bart Roberts was a gentleman who reluctantly became a pirate . . but who ultimately was a cold blooded killer as he plundered 400 ships in just 3 years, 10 times as many as Blackbeard! He was finally killed in battle at just 39 and it was the death knell for the Golden Age of Piracy. Feel free to DM...