History Honeys

In his short life, Jim Henson re-invented an art form, taught millions to read, and entertained the world. His life, career, and philosophy were even broader than that. Why does a work's intended audience devalue its creativity? How do you escape your image to break new ground? How would you make a children's show to end war? Happy Birthday, Alaina! Links! Pierre the Rat Sam & Friends: News Skit ,...

On Christmas Eve, 1913, in the city of Calumet, 73 people died in a panicked stampede, crushed under each other's weight in a narrow staircase. It remains the largest mass murder in Michigan history. But, this is only one episode inside a greater story about the fight for collective action. How much money is it worth to maintain power? Are wins counted in the short term, or the long term? Will Ala...

Happy Valentine's Day! In this holiday special, Alaina talks about the most romantic thing she knows: gruesome murder. How are movie gangsters different from the real guys? Why can't rival operations just get along? Who actually did the dang thing, anyway?   Links: Historical image of the site The Mob Museum Our Sexual History episode #4: A Short History of Syphilis , featuring listener Ciaran! Bo...

Face front, True Believers! Grant takes us through the life and career of every nerd's grandpa, Stan Lee! From humble beginnings as a teenage office assistant, to luminary of the field, to midlife crisis, to global celebrity! His talent, bluster, and talent for bluster carried him through it all. Who deserves credit for a collaboration? Which characters were really being sold? What is the value of...

Alaina continues her Disney Parks series with an episode on Walt Disney World Resort's second gate: Epcot. Walt Disney's original idea for all that Florida land was a planned city so unique that the world would come to see how his people lived and worked. After his death, some of those ideas, and the name, were recycled to be a theme park that serves as a permanent World's Fair. Is high modernism...

Happy New Year! Our New Year's special has two topics for you. First, Grant takes us back to 1816, the Year Without a Summer, to tell the story behind the story of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Next, Alaina pops into 1916 to share the foundations and highlights of Dada. How does a geological event on one small island shape all of Western culture? If art is created by war, can art go to...

In 1968, the Democratic Party nominated a loyal member of the party leadership that did not reflect their members' views and could not present a compelling vision of the future. Meanwhile, prophesies of civil unrest became self-fulfilling as protests provoked a police riot miles away from the convention itself. What sort of protest makes the most change? How do you make leaders listen? Does democr...

It's the Holidays, and we'd like to share one of our traditions with you. Alaina tells us about the creation of a classic film, The Sound of Music. First, we delve into the creation of the fictional family Von Trapp, then look at their actual lives which inspired it. How much fidelity is owed to the truth in an adaptation? What lengths would you go to in resisting a fascist takeover? What unexpect...

Sometimes, when you're talking about history, it happens right in front of you. Grant takes hold of the one good thing to happen in this God-forsaken year and goes back to the 1870s to see how it all began. Alaina does her best to feign interest. How does a legacy push a team forward; how can it hold them back? What arcane might lies inside goats? Links! Cubs' Website Wrigley Field Goats? GOATS! (...

Alaina and Grant return home from Philadelphia and the Wyoming Valley to tell tales of all they learned. Is there a minimum length for a street? Or minimum a width? What DIDN'T Benjamin Franklin do? What's better: a ruin; or a preserve? We share these stories of American Independence on election day, so go vote! We're counting on you! Links: Find your polling place!   Know what's on your ballot!  ...

Welcome to our bone-chilling Halloween special! Alaina teaches us about haunted hotels, haunted graveyards, and other spookum-scarems in the Windy City.  Links: Suffragists protesting Wilson in front of the Congress Plaza Hotel City Cemetery map and information "Suicide Bridge" postcard Inez Clarke monument Frances Pearce Stone Couch Tomb "Eternal Silence" Poe Toaster podcast  (thanks Fiona!) Gext...

America's founders have been immortalized, lionized, and mythologized; but one seems to have fallen through the cracks. Grant shares what he's learned about John Jay, the forgotten father. Was he instrumental to the birth of the United States, or did he just happen to be in the right place at the right time? Is he forgotten because he left things half done in his career, or because he used his ret...

Alaina takes us on a tour of the Great Lakes, pointing out the strange and unusual on the way. Cryptids, ghost towns, and lake pirates make for a new perspective on America's north coast. How technical does the definition of "pirate" need to be? How many cult leaders have also been in Congress? What was wrong with people in the 19th Century? Links: Article with some pictures of Singapore, Michigan...

Grant takes a turn at Chicago tragedy with the Haymarket Affair. In May 1886 a bomb was thrown, igniting a shootout that killed over a dozen people and changed the fight for workers' rights forever. Can equality be gained in a system run by those who profit from inequality? Are the voices of the dead louder than those of the living? While we don't know who started the fight, can we even know who w...

As promised, here's the bonus episode with more letters and outtakes. Some of our favorite bits from Episode 8 fell on the cutting room floor, and here they are for you to enjoy. Logo by  Marah Music by  Thylacinus Censor beep by Frank West of  The FPlus

Alaina brings us to the Most Magical Place on Earth, Magic Kingdom Park in the Walt Disney World Resort. We learn about the park's inception and development, and follow a number of notable attractions from opening day to the present. Does the Magic Kingdom have a unique identity, or is it just Disneyland 2? How does something so compelling come from the collision of family passion and profit-seeki...

Good morning! Today Grant goes for two and talks about the Anabaptists, a movement of related Protestant sects dating back to the early days of the Reformation. Are our civil liberties inspired by people who dropped out of the society they protect? How can small communities survive in isolation, and how could they survive without isolation? Why are people living in modernity fascinated by those wh...

Hello Honey Bunches! This time Grant takes the reigns and teaches us about the history of those campaign ads that plague Americans every four years. We talk about notable examples, trends that come and go, and some points on funding, and how funding impacts form. Is the future of the country sold in the same way as laundry detergent? If big money is the problem, what's the solution? Why did we mak...

In our fifth episode, Alaina teaches us about the fire that claimed Chicago's Iroquois Theatre in 1903, the deadliest single-building fire in history. It's a story with some similarities to the Eastland Disaster, and plenty to set it apart as well. When is a door not a door? Is rational self interest the deadliest force in history? What in this dang city hasn't burned down? Here's this episode's l...

Hello everyone! Here's the 4th episode of History Honeys! Alaina catches us up on Tuberculosis, then drills down to how the disease shaped fashion, then shares stories of how other diseases caused fads, and some stories of how fads caused illnesses. Is anything in history truly isolated? Is there any limit to what people will do for fashion's sake? Have we been using a loaded coin all along? Have...

The third episode of History Honeys brings Grant to the hot seat to talk about The Comics Code Authority; its beginnings, its effects, and its legacy. If it seems like Alaina doesn't say much, it's because she was too busy trying to keep her composure in the face of the all-too familiar story of misplaced outrage and artistic repression. She made some incredible faces, though. Is scapegoating and...

Hello again and welcome to the second episode of History Honeys! Alaina will be teaching us all about the sinking of the Eastland, a passenger steamer whose sinking was the single greatest loss of life in Great Lakes history. How can a system give rise to terrible things and nobody at fault? Can a plan to promote safety actually create danger? If ghosts aren't real, can anyone actually "lie" about...

Hello everyone! This is the very first episode of History Honeys, and we're so glad you could join us. Grant and Alaina swap stories about Mackinac Island and the Michilimackinac region. Does it have the world's worst fort? Where would medical science be without accidental gunshot wounds and uncomfortable ethics? Are the straits in danger of ecological disaster? Have some links! Mackinac Parks Oil...