The Missing Chapter Podcast

Ok Missing Chapter fans, how many of you enjoy participating in and watching sports?  If you’re a sports fan, like the Phils here, then you can sit down at the end of a work day and decompress by watching your favorite team, or watch a random game with a random team just because of the entertainment value.  What is it that draws us in?  How is it that I can watch the OIympics till the middle of th...

His life is remarkable enough to be considered for an episode of the Missing Chapter Podcast. His innate ability to cheat death can only be rivaled by a figure in history like a Gregory Rasputin. As a child, it’s reported, that he survived a fall of some three-stories, he drank acidic water that he mistook for milk, swallowed a rather large needle, was hit on the head by a large stone, suffered se...

Have you ever had an idea that in your mind sounds great, but in reality, the execution doesn’t really pan out successfully?  I think we’ve all been there.  Take out an ingredient in a recipe, and exchange it for what you think would be an upgrade…turns out to be the most vile thing you’ve ever tasted.  A shortcut that makes sense in your head, but ends up adding double the time and three times th...

Have you ever skipped stones before?  You know, going to a body of water, finding the flattest stones you can gather, and side-arming the disc shaped rocks like you’re an MLB submarine pitcher.  I don’t know about you, but my goal was always 3, let’s see if we can skip it 3 times in a row.  Anything under that, failure, anything over that, celebration.  I guess that’s what you did before the adven...

It’s almost that time again, everyone - warm weather, the glowing orb in the sky is back, no more gray all day, and one of the go-to’s for cooling down on a hot, summer day - ice cream.  You can have ice cream all year round, right?  But can you have soft serve all year round in upstate NY?  I guess, but it’s just not the same.  In our household, soft serve is reserved for summer months only.  Lik...

Everyone loves a good magic trick.  My kids love showing me card tricks, coin tricks, and my favorite, the bippity boppity boo magic wand tricks that makes something appear or disappear.  If only we could do that in real life right?  Well, in 1915, a group of Allied forces kind of did.  In a brilliant evacuation plan, or in this sense, disappearing act, a group of Australian soldiers disappeared b...

For this episode of the Missing Chapter, we’re tapping into one of our new segments, the MC Profile.  This individual, to be mentioned later, and hopefully identified by my co-host and our listeners, is a normal, everyday kind of man who had an affinity for activity, fun, and thinking outside the box.  His life story is filled with unbelievable obstacles, only to be overcome by a strong will, supp...

In February 1825, Samuel Morse, was painting in New York City, blissfully unaware of the tragic news that was about to befall him. At the age of 34, he was carrying out a $1000 commission to paint the Marquis de Lafayette, a returning American Revolutionary War hero, and life was going well. Little did Morse know, however, that his wife, Lucretia, had suffered a heart attack in their New Haven, Ct...

Some of our veteran listeners of the Missing Chapter know a little something about us…the Phils love their 80s and 90s movies and sitcoms.  We loved our Saturday morning cartoons, our Saved By The Bell routine, and our Fresh Prince of Bel Air rapping montage.  My sisters, though, were addicted to one of the 90s shows that was a huge hit…Beverly Hills 90210. But it wasn’t referred to as the full ti...

On June 13, 1926, 26-year-old Gladys Baker brought her 2-week-old daughter, to the foster home of Ida and Wayne Bolender in Hawthorne, California. There was no sign of any father—officially unknown - though Baker would insist for years that it was a Hollywood Studios employee named Charles Stanley Gifford. The sad drop-off of an infant and the sudden and abrupt departure of her single mother, cert...

You know what’s a real pain in the neck?  Well, technically, a pain in your mouth?  When you know you have to go to the dentist.  It’s one of those necessary dreadful things that you know you HAVE to do, and no matter how often you go, it’s never really a good time, right?  Thankfully, I have good dentists in my life, so I’m certainly blessed in that regard, which got me thinking…with all of my de...

The most powerful position in the free world. Regardless of political party, time period, or historical circumstances, the office of president in the United States demands a level of respect and appreciation.  As we recognize President’s Day in the U.S. and reflect on the individuals who have guided our great nation through history, Phil and I take you on a separate journey… the stories you don’t...

Famous author CS Lewis coined a phrase that really speaks volumes about our own society and culture, chronological snobbery - Lewis defines this chronological snobbery as “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited. In other words, we think we’re the best generation and our technology and l...

Today we welcome former guests on the show - Justice Parker and Joe DiVisconti - to kick off a new format on the Missing Chapter. Same show, new episode, different format and we call it The Department Meeting. Educators unite! We talk everything education-related in an informal, yet reflective setting in hopes that we target anyone who has a link to education! Enjoy! Go to ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

If you’re new to the Missing Chapter, welcome! If you’re a continued fan of the Missing Chapter, welcome back! And if you’re a student listening in to the Missing Chapter, welcome to the topic of social studies that you most likely hate the most - geography. For whatever reason, especially within the past few years, students in almost all of our classes have been very vocal about this topic - they...

It’s just the nature of the season right now...  Once one kid gets sick, all of the kids in the neighborhood seem to get it too, right?  And that was the same thing that was happening in the trenches of WWI.  If one soldier became ill, it spread like wildfire. But did you know that from the awful circumstances of WWI came one of the most popular playground games of all time? How did that happen? A...

For today’s episode of the Missing Chapter, we’re going to make you question yourself, the function of your brain, and maybe even question history altogether.   But don’t you dare doubt your coffee cravings, those are certainly real, and there’s no doubt today’s episode is going to be a good one…well, if I remember correctly that is. It's the Top 5 Mandela Effects and if you don't know what that i...

It has become arguably the most iconic image of freedom and independence not only in the United States, but the world over. A gift from a valued ally after a tumultuous period in world history. A beacon, that for decades, has welcomed immigrants to our nation’s shore, as well as inspired those already here, to uphold the values and principles our country was founded on.  But soon after the French...

As we close what many consider the holiday season, one thing is certain - the indulgence of holiday eating is officially closed.  We all know what that’s about - gorging ourselves with the foods that we may not always enjoy throughout the year, so we feel justified in taking seconds, thirds, fourths, oh and the leftovers!  But there’s one food, that unless an international history podcast highligh...

Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to the Missing Chapter Podcast Christmas Special!   Today we are so excited to have a very special guest, Mike Cunningham, on today’s episode.  Mike is the hilarious and brilliant writer of the recently released movie called, The Christmas Letter, filmed mostly locally in Utica, NY and we are so excited to talk about the unknowns of the movie-making world as w...

If you’re anything like us, the miracle of flight is something that has always dazzled us.  We still see the awe in watching planes take off and land, and being on a plane continues to thrill no matter how mainstream and normal commercial flights have become.  There’s something so fascinating about it that it’s hard to describe.  What’s truly unbelievable is how far we’ve come in such a short amou...

The day that will live in infamy.  Those harrowing words might be one of the first things that come to mind when mentioning December 7, 1941.It’s been studied, watched, reviewed, and discussed countless times, evoking the same frightful emotion every time.  But our goal here on the MCP is to look deeper into history’s well-known events and reveal the unknown, and that’s exactly what we’re going to...

Native Americans aren’t often associated with New York City and its dense, vertical, iron landscape. With so many indigenous nations pushed to America’s frontier in the 19th century, they usually appear in popular culture as populates of the rural West, occupying wide open spaces brimming with tipis, buffalo and pow wows. Yet the Mohawk Nation has deep roots in metropolitan New York City—where, be...

No risk no reward, right?  We’ve all heard it.  But have we heard of the focus of today’s episode?  Norilsk, Russia?  Yeah, me either.  It’s one of the unknown areas of history, and is still one of the unknown areas of the world.  A location so remote, so cold, and so polluted, that the environment itself is not only changed, but our perception of what color the skies, precipitation, and water sho...

Did you know that George Washington had wooden teeth? Wait, that’s not true is it? I thought that was a myth.  Well, as teachers, we should probably debunk some of these historic myths, while at the same time, letting everyone know what unbelievable stories are actually… truth. Let’s do it on today’s episode. A Missing Chapter Podcast all about truths versus myths… fact versus fiction. So, did Was...