Don't Look Now

Hello all!  This week we discuss humanitarian and urban missionary Margaret Prior and her founding of the American Female Moral Reform Society, a progressive group originally created to help the plight of poor women stuck in sex work in pre-Civil War New York City.  Prior worked tirelessly to help fellow women, believe in a hand out and a hand up. The society tackled the issues in a frank and fort...

Ever wondered why a worthless item being sold as a miracle cure is referred to as Snake Oil?  Like just about everything else in Modern America is dates back to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.  Clark Stanley sold snake oil to relieve aches and pains.  The amazing thing is that Snake Oil really can help with these issues, unfortunately Snake Oil is something the Snake Oil salesman wasn'...

This week's topic, coinciding with St. Patrick's Day, is Grace O'Malley.  O'Malley controlled a large portion of County Mayo in the late 1500s and was known as a pirate queen.  She famously met on equal terms with Queen Elizabeth I, and received her protection from Richard Bingham, the English lord nominally put in charge of the province of Connacht.

If you are like me, you mainly know Horace Greeley for the expression "Go West Young Man" and are generally aware that he was a newspaper editor.  You might be aware that he was a congressman and crossed paths with just about every famous person of the mid 19th century.  Abraham Lincoln (check), Karl Marx (check), Mark Twain (check), etc.  Take a listen this week and see how burnout can...

This week we take a look at the top five archeology stories in the news, ranging from Greek sculpture finds in Athens, to an ancient woodhenge in Denmark, to kids tripping over ancient idols in Isreal, there's plenty up in the archeological world.

The Shroud of Turin is a mysterious cloth kept in the city of Turin/Torino, Italy that is purported to be the burial shroud of Jesus.  The shroud contains an image of a man baring the marks of crucifixion as if he had burned an image into it while laying on one half with the other half folded over him.  The whereabouts of the are first reported in the 1300s when it was ruled a fake.  However, over...

In the 8th Century an exorcism was performed on a 16 year old girl.  The girl began to speak in Latin, which she did not know, claiming to be a demon named Wiggo.  The demon claimed to have been roaming the countryside doing terrible things because the lack of piousness and Christian behavior of the people and their leaders allowed his presence.  Was this a case of demonic possession or a cover fo...

On the 13th of July, 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last person to be executed in the United Kingdom.  Her story is a tragic one, beginning with childhood abuse and ending with the public shooting of her lover outside a London Pub possibly at the behest of another.  While she felt no remorse and didn't seek to appeal her conviction, her family is still working to clear her name to this day.

The Nazca lines have become famous over the years for their mysterious origins and purpose.  Residing in the high desert in Southern Peru, the lines were created by removing the top layer of desert rocks, exposing the different colored clay beneath.  Some of the lines appear to be an astronomical calendar, some are drawings of birds and beasts, and some seem to have no known purpose. The mystery o...

If you were to think of the quintessential family feud that first thought for most Americans is the Hatfields and McCoys.  Two families whose fame is solely based on hating each other.  While their feud is famous, the actual details of it are not.  Most of us only know that McCoys hate Hatfields and Hatfields hate McCoys, not why that might be the case.  The podcast this week dives into the feud,...

Today's episode is dedicated to a gem that is probably more famous for the rumors and often false history surrounding it then its own beauty... The Hope Diamond.  The Hope Diamond is now known to have been cut from a gem owned by the Royal Family of France and looted during the early days of the revolution.  A lore of the cure of the Hope Diamond made it famous and it now resides in the Smith...

This week's topic is the Lore of Thor.  Legends and religions involving Thor come from ancient Northern European roots and have spread around the world, most notably in recent years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Ever wonder how a random god in the Norse pantheon became universally known today in the form of film and Thursdays?  If so, take a listen, our topic this week is for you.

The English countryside is often associated with many things, rivers, lakes, moors, hedgehogs, but not large predators. The largest official remaining predator in the UK is the badger.  While you might not want to back one into a corner, they're not about to go on a wild killing spree.  However, several locations in the UK report continued sightings of big cats.  Is there a hidden native cat...

When you think about it, the human reaction to tickling is quite odd.  Why do we laugh when someone grazes your feet with a feather or digs their fingers into your unsuspecting ribs?  While a little tickling can be fun, it has been used as a device of torture in different societies throughout history.  Take a listen this week and find out all about tickle torture.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!  This Christmas Eve we are coming to you with a podcast full of the history of several Christmas traditions.  If you've ever wondered why we have Christmas Tree ornaments, why the colors of Christmas are Red and Green, or why some of the figures in the Nativity scene always seem to be wearing the same color clothes we've got the answers (maybe...

Were you aware that the Nutcracker Ballet was not much of a hit when first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia?  While the music was well received, the ballet itself was not an instant fan favorite.  It didn't grow to high popularity until the 1940s when it began to take off in the United States.  Over the years it has become a quintessential part of the Christmas season in America. ...

On June 18th, 1875 a warehouse full of thousands of casks of whiskey caught fire in the Liberties area of Dublin causing a river of flaming whiskey to pour down the streets, often up to six inches deep.  While the fire did a great deal of damage, it most regrettably caused the deaths of 13 people.  However, none died from the effects of the fire itself.  They instead died of acute alcohol poisonin...

Today's podcast is about a divorce case in New York that took place 100 years ago. Kip Rhinelander, the heir to a prominent New York Family, secretly married Alice Jones, a working class girl.  While this would normally draw the ire of his family the situation became national news when rumors began to spread that the new bride was "colored" and not "white".  This kicked of...

This week we discuss the holiday season's most famous bright spot: Christmas Lights.  Decorating trees, houses, shopping malls, and making up vast displays; Christmas lights are a staple of the holiday season.  When did electric lights on objects become a thing?  Take a listen and learn about the origin of the light and when they became a mainstay of the US holiday season.  

This week's podcast in on Cesare Lombroso, an Italian anthropologist and criminologist that had the unfortunate assertation that criminality was inherited and could be directly identified through physical traits.  While we now know that some congenital abnormalities can affect brain function and lead to psychological issues, most of Lombroso's assertations have been proven wrong.  The mo...

While the Candyman movies involve a mysterious paranormal murderer that can be summoned thought the bathroom mirror stalking the projects of Chicago, they are based on a true story.  Today's podcast discusses the bizarre details surrounding the murder of Ruthie Mae McCoy who was killed in her apartment in the ABLA housing project of Chicago's Near-West Side. McCoy's killer/killers e...

This week's episode tells the story of Elmer McCurdy, a not too successful bandit of the old west who was eventually killed in Oklahoma in 1911.  However, McCurdy's story didn't end then.  After being embalmed, no one wanted to pay for his burial, and he went on display at the funeral home.  Elmer's desiccated eventually toured the United States in various ways until it was for...

We're back after a one week hiatus with stories of the bizarre area where the law and ghosts overlap.  We have two stories this week: the first where the testimony of a ghost is officially admitted as evidence in a trial, and the second where a house is declared legally haunted.  Take a listen and see just how ghosts and our legal system have intermingled.

Have you ever wondered where the tradition of the pumpkin patch came from?  Today, every Halloween season, we have active pumpkin patches on farms that have not just the obligatory pumpkins for sale, but giant slides, corn mazes, hay rack rides, and hundreds of other random activities to attract families to spend their time and money.  On today's podcast we look at the history of the pumpkin...

Today's episode is dedicated to the debate about who the childhood scare game "Blood Mary" takes its inspiration from.  Is it Queen Mary of England, a legendary witch, or a Balkan Countess.  Since we are talking about Bloody Marys it's only fitting we spend some time talking about the origin of the drink as well, which is also shrouded in mystery.