Dirt Nap City - History's Most Interesting Dead People

William Mathias Scholl, also known as Dr. Scholl,  was born in Indiana as one of 13 children. He studied medicine at Loyola University Chicago. During his studies, while working in a shoe store in the evenings, he became interested in podiatry. Dr. Scholl saw the lack of attention the medical and wellness community paid to people's feet and was able to build a business based on maladies and c...

If you remember the early days of television, then you surely remember the variety show! From Ed Sullivan in the 1950's to Donny and Marie Osmond in the 1970's all the way up to Pink Lady and Jeff in the 1980's, variety shows had something for everyone in the family. Some were silly, some were serious, and some were just stupid - but if you ever hummed along to the singers on Hee Ha...

John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed, was a Christian evangelist one of the first American conservationists. He lived in the late 18th and early 19th century and was known to have planted apple nurseries throughout the northern United States and parts of Canada. He was rumored to have had a pet wolf and walk through the snow with no shoes. But despite his shabby appearance, Johnny Applesee...

Every time you throw in some bluetooth ear buds and go for a walk, did you know that you are following in the footsteps of the OG of personal soundtracks? The Sony Walkman was introduced in 1979 and was originally designed out of a desire that the head of Sony had at the time to listen to music on his walks! This innovation eventually lead to the Walkman with a radio built in, the disc-man, the MP...

Stede Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados in 1688. He had money, land and eventually a wife and children. But in 1717, at the age of 29, he turned to a life of crime on high seas to become a pirate of the Caribbean. And because of his status before turning to piracy, he became known as "the gentleman pirate".  But being a gentleman and being a pirate w...

If you grew up somewhere in the southern US, you probably remember riding in the back of a pickup truck when you were a kid. Riding to little league practice, riding to the Dairy Queen - these were some of the memories many of us have from childhood. But was riding in the back of a pickup truck really a good idea? While we don't want to say what people should or should not do, riding in the b...

Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Because she was born in 1897, she grew up at the dawn of aviation and she was bit by the aviation bug at an early age. After convincing her parents to finance flying lessons, Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air...

Do you remember going to recess at school, running around, getting hot and thirsty, and then lining up to get a drink at your school's water fountain? If not, then you missed out on something really special. Water fountains were common and used frequently not too long ago. But did you know that they originated as the primary source of clean water for most people in big cities a few hundred ye...

Reformer or dictator? Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the greatest military strategists of all time and served as not only the leader of France, but the Emperor of the French Empire. During the late 1700's and early 1800's, France was a formidable military power and ruled a very large part of the European continent and beyond - mostly because of Napoleon. But why did he divorce the wife th...

Everyone loves shoes that fit just right. But did you know that not too long ago, people loved them enough to risk their health for perfectly fitting shoes? In this episode, we take a look at the X-Ray Shoe Fitter, also known as the Foot-O-Scope was a popular device used at shoe stores in the 1930's, 1940's and even 1950's to show people a real time view of their foot in a shoe. And...

In today's world, Tesla is often associated with Elon Musk's electric car company. But the original Tesla was a brilliant man born in 1856 in Croatia. Nikola Tesla lived at the dawn of electricity and sometimes butted heads with other great minds of his time like Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. But did you know that this brilliant scientist had a strange obsession with a pigeon in...

If you are over 40 years old, you probably remember going to the "All You Can Eat Buffet" with your family or friends. It was an amazing display of food and it was all for one low price! But this style of low cost gluttony has fallen out of favor in recent years - both because the food was generally not healthy and the business model was unattainable for many restaurants. In this episode...

Beyond the shamrock lies a story of adventure, faith, and cultural transformation. Join us as we peel back the layers on St. Patrick, the man behind the legend. Was he a snake-banishing miracle worker or a shrewd political operator? How did he come to represent the country in which he was enslaved as a young man? Whether you are here for the history lesson, the funny stories about Alex in Ireland,...

There's nothing more 1970's than the mustache, the Camaro, and the waterbed. If you grew up in the 1970's or 1980's, you probably knew someone with at least on those things. In this episode, we take a look at the origin of the waterbed, it's rise in popularity, and what eventually killed it. Yes, you can still get a waterbed today - but if you really want to GET waterbeds,...

One of the greatest industrialists of the 20th century, Howard Hughes was a man who built his own fame and fortune on the shoulders of his father's company. Yet while his father had been in the oil drilling business, Howard Hughes Jr had ambitions in much sexier industries - Hollywood movies, aviation, real estate, mining, casinos, and even a Houston based brewery called "Gulf Brewing Co...

Just to be clear - we are not saying that litter is completely a thing of the past, because unfortunately, it still exists today. However, we do believe that awareness about NOT littering has gone way up with the help of some clever campaigns that really began in the 1970's and 1980's. This episode of Dirt Nap City Dead Ends looks at the way people used to look at littering and the way w...

When it comes to the kings of movie reviews, no one comes close to Siskel and Ebert. The duo brought movie reviews to the masses with their syndicated television shows and "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" rating system. But despite their success and popularity, they were not really great friends - in fact, they often berated one another during their reviews of films on which they d...

If you are over the age of 20, you probably remember when CD-ROMs were how you stored all the data you ever needed from your computer. They were somewhat durable, relatively small, and held a decent amount of data for the time. And they were everywhere - you even got them free in the mail from some companies! If you ever listened to music on a compact disc or loaded a program onto your computer fr...

Bob Marley is considered one of the greatest musical pioneers ever. He uniquely blended  elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady, and had a very distinct vocal and songwriting style. His father was an officer in the British Royal Navy and his mother was from a farm on Jamaica. He was raised in the Trench Town area of Jamaica and grew up around other people like Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who sha...

Did you ever drop your film off to be developed at a Fotomat? In this episode of Dirt Nap City Dead Ends, Alex and Kelly take a nostalgic look at those tiny kiosks that populated over 4,000 parking lots in their heyday. When film was king, Fotomat was the titan of developing it. And if you keep your eyes out today, you might still see a Fotomat kiosk that has been converted into a drive through co...

Despite the name, Hanna Barbera was not the name of a character on a 1990's Disney show, nor was it a female wrestler from the 1920's - in fact Hanna-Barbera is the name of the company founded by two cartoonists, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who made many of the cartoons that Americans grew up on in the 1960's, 70's and 80's.  Scooby Doo? Yes. The Flinstones? Check. The Jet...

We recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Katie and Deborah from the podcast "It's My Screen Time Too" about the movie WONKA. Find out  if Alex & Kelly enjoyed the movie and if it's worth going to see with your family  by listening to this promo and then then listening to the episode of "It's My Screen Time Too" on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Link to...

Season's Greetings from Dirt Nap City. If you are looking for the perfect gift to give your loved ones this year, we have you covered. For a limited time we are not only offering Dirt Nap City stickers, but we are also offering to come to your event (wedding, bar mitzvah, birthday party, funeral, etc.) and record our podcast live in front of your audience. Of course this will require some pla...

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! We are excited to share the story of Saint Nicholas with you today. Of course, Saint Nicholas eventually went on to become the person we know as Santa Clause. But what's the real story of this saint who lived from 270 - 343 AD?  Was he fat and jolly? Well, actually he was not. He was a very fiery and fierce defender of early Christianity - but he was also a giver of...

Merv Griffin began singing on radio at age 19 and went on to become one of the biggest names in entertainment on American television.  He appeared on Broadway, he was a big band singer, and he hosted his own talk show from 1965 to 1986. Today he is probably remember best for creating two of the biggest game shows on television - Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.  If ever there was an icon of 20th ce...