The Missing Chapter Podcast

Ahh, it’s almost Christmas.  Hear the fire crackle, see the sparkling lights of the decorations inside and out, the smell of balsam around the house, hot chocolate in hand, and the beautiful traditional sounds of one of our favorite Christmas songs of all time - Morse Code.  Wait, wait, what?  Morse Code?  Yup, that confusion that just struck your ears was the same confusion that some sailors expe...

Hey, everyone, tis the season!  Merry Christmas from the Phils at the Missing Chapter!  And with the Christmas spirit, comes the music, the holiday festivities, and the quintessential customs.  Our families hold dear to some of our Christmas traditions.  Would you be surprised, though, if I told you that some of the more popular traditions don’t have a biblical backing - that they may not have bee...

FDR is President, minimum wage is .30/hour, the digital calculator celebrated its first year, a gallon of gas is a hefty .15, and the Allied forces cross the English Channel to invade Normandy…the year? 1944.  The place, Mattoon, Illinois, and this small town is experiencing great panic and fear over a mysterious illness that seems to be randomly selecting as its next victim.  What kind of symptom...

New territory for The Missing Chapter Podcast – the Vikings. A grizzled, hardened Norseman whose impressive resume warrants an episode in and of itself. It includes the unification of both Denmark and Norway. Reigning as king of these two Scandinavian countries in the late 10th-century, this monarch not only brought these fragmented tribes under his control, he also converted the Danes to Christia...

Any financial advisor will tell their clients to strike while the iron’s hot.  We’re seeing trends toward a certain stock, it’s low, make sure you buy now, as many as you can!  Or eh, not so sure about this investment in this market, you better sell while you still can get something for your investment. For today’s episode, we’re talking some sketchy insider trading secrets…don’t get your hopes up...

A warm crackling fire, the aroma of a turkey bronzing in the oven… is there a more American holiday than Thanksgiving? I’m not sure if there is, and let me add this to the picture you’re painting for our listeners… What’s on the television? Well, that would be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, of course! It’s as iconic to this holiday as the mashed potatoes and the apple pie. You’re absolutely r...

George Washington, Martha Washington, General Philip Schuyler, Lafayette, Benjamin Rush…what do these people have in common?  Well, quite a bit, but the known similarities isn’t what our focus is on this podcast.  We harness the unknown.  Well, in this episode of the Missing Chapter, let’s do just that.  We’re going to look at how these individuals faired during the American Revolution, some bette...

Boy it sure seems like technology is really taking off lately huh?  I say that in the most literal sense because now you can go to your local Target or Wal-Mart and buy a toy that uses technology that was unthinkable only a few decades ago.  To think when I was a kid that I would be able to take a remote control and manipulate a toy helicopter high into the air, and even watch the flight once it c...

History comes in all facets - from artwork, to major accomplishments, huge catastrophes, and everything in between. Historically speaking, the big screen has provided opportunities for history to come alive! And if you're a follower of the Missing Chapter, you know we love our movies! So why not bring back the Top 5 - The Top 5 Historic and Iconic Movie Cars of all time. There is surely to be...

3 simple piano keys… used to create one of the most iconic Hollywood scores in history; one that can invoke a response from its listeners, unlike many others of its kind. In 1978, 2 friends set out to create a scary story and, in the process, produced a groundbreaking film that would change the landscape of movie-making forever, as well as the holiday it portrays. The leaves have changed, the air...

A superstition, according to Oxford Dictionary, is a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or a practice based on such a belief.  Wow, that’s a mouthful.  In essence, it’s something that we do out of habit, or maybe out of fear of bad luck.  Don’t step on a crack or you’ll break your mothers back.  You just spilled the s...

When unearthing evidence of the past, it is unbelievable to read the lengths that governments will go to spy on other sovereign nations.  I’m sure your mind went right to Cold War era espionage, which, if you’ve been a listener of the Missing Chapter for any period of time, you would know that’s one of our favorite eras and topics to talk about.  Of all the spy-tech that came out of that time peri...

The man was a grudge-holder and today… he was already fuming. The smell of smog, the oppressive heat & humidity, the unmerciful rush hour traffic. The overwhelming tidal wave of sidewalk commuters pushing and bumping into him as he left his office for the day. He was exhausted, frustrated, and simply put…wanted to be home. Standing on the street curb, he waved frantically at the handsome cabs...

If you are new to the Missing Chapter Podcast, first of all, welcome to our classroom!  For those of you who are veterans to the Missing Chapter, you know we love our coffee.  Specifically, we love our Utica Coffee Roasting Company coffee.  Almost every one of our episodes highlights a coffee from our beloved roasters in the heart of downtown Utica.  If you are a listener outside of our central NY...

We love highlighting the unknown, the obscure, the forgotten - that has been and continues to be our mission for this podcast.  Many of the stories we discover and are amazed and bewildered by their obscurity and their anonymity sometimes.  Why don’t we know more about some of these stories?  Well, this time, a story came to us - by means of our very special guest today, Dr. Marsha Gordon, Profess...

Chances are that if you apply for a job as a secretary you possess certain skills.  Things like:  multi-tasking, taking phone calls, and… typing. Bette Graham Nesmith, however, was not a good typist when she accepted her position as executive secretary at the Texas Bank and Trust in 1956. And yes, the job description included extensive typing, especially in this day and age before computers and ev...

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the term Renaissance man as someone who has wide interests and is an expert in several areas.  The discussion in the Missing Chapter classroom today is a man that certainly fits the bill.  His knowledge in a variety of fields, combined with his humble beginnings, has given him a mind that many historians have called brilliant, inventive, and history-making.  Th...

History is full of accidental discoveries, including Teflon, Velcro, x-rays, and plastic.  Today we are going to explore the world of music.  Rock and Roll music and the electric guitar to be exact.  Have you ever wondered how a rock guitarist can get their instrument to howl through a 12 bar blues or scream over top of the thundering bass and drums?  Many of those sounds have been created using s...

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, you stumble upon a story that makes you say, no way, come on, really?  Has this ever happened to you?  Well it just happened to me - and let me tell you, it’s bizarre.  Upon researching and studying our country’s origins, I came across a very, uh, peculiar, strange, and I don’t know, puzzling founding father.  Of all the framers of the Constitution, there i...

History iis full of people who set out with grand ambitions – lofty goals of fortune and fame. Others came across these shared desires by chance and their success reached heights even they could never have anticipated. A simple mid-western boy graduated from Purdue University in 1928, with a degree in soil management & crop production. Upon his graduation, he began working as a county agricult...

In many of our episodes the past 3 seasons, we have kept the main character or punchline hidden until the end.  But on this episode, I’m going to hide the main character right out in the open. A guy by the name of Josephus Daniels.  Ring a bell?  Hmm. Well the story isn’t so much about what this individual accomplished, and I mean, accomplished he was, but it’s more about what his name is synonymo...

Memorialized in song by the late Gordon Lightfoot, the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975 is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in history and the worst that the Great Lakes has ever seen. A grizzled sea captain, a boat that boasted to be one of the largest of its kind, and a crew of some 28 sailors set out on Lake Superior on a grey, windy November day. They departed Wisconsin on...

At the end of the American Revolution, the newly formed U.S. Congress was deep in debt. During that time, in order to settle debts, many states ended up selling some land to compensate.  In 1784, the province of North Carolina chose to do just that.  They voted to give away 29 million acres of land. So what would they do with all that land? Why wouldn't they just dig their roots deep into Nort...

One of the most fulfilling aspects of teaching is seeing a student begin to recognize their gift and begin to fulfill their purpose.  From students that are historians through and through and want to pursue teaching, to mechanically-minded individuals that love working on cars and plan on being successful auto mechanics and technicians, to art students that have their artwork being bought from out...

In May of 1905, a 26-year old clerk in Bern, Switzerland was on his nightly commute home from work. As was his usual routine, he boarded the trolley and made himself comfortable for the relaxing ride home. The clerk found himself deep in thought and engrossed in a nagging question that he had been unable to solve for years. The trolley navigated its way through the center of town and past Bern’s f...