History Impossible

History Impossible is back sooner than some may have anticipated for another installment of the Infinitesimal Impossibilities series, this time recorded in the spirit (and in the last hours) of Halloween 2020.   This time, we cover a story that takes place in early 19th century New Orleans. It begins with a fire, or rather perhaps concludes with one. A large mansion whose hosts had been entertaini...

This episode is dedicated to Franco Bolelli. Since it's the year of our lord 2020, it was only inevitable that we'd talk about pandemics on History Impossible. What follows is an exploration of not just a pandemic and not just the most physically destructive pandemic in all of human history. What follows is an exploration of what a pandemic actually does. And by "does," we're talking about what it...

As many of you are aware, I was recently featured among many other, far more talented history podcasters on Daniele Bolelli's History on Fire podcast in which we all discussed various figures and events in history that created massive ripples that no one could have predicted. My segment was focused on Confucius and how he basically shaped Chinese civilization forever, from the level of the family...

As History Impossible reaches its two year mark and the episodes get longer and longer, I figured that now was the time to do something different, namely to add a new show to the History Impossible family, as I've been calling it: Infinitesimal Impossibilities. These are stories that are simply too small--bite-sized, if you will--in comparison to the epic stories that have come to characterize His...

Japan in the 16th and 17th century was going through profound changes, not least of which being the ongoing civil war that had been ripping it apart for over a century, with warlord fighting warlord on a whim, the famed samurai chopping each other to bits on scales rarely seen elsewhere in the world. The other profound change involved men in black robes preaching the word of a god that the Japanes...

In the mid-19th century, as one country in the West was on its way toward the most famous civil war, another country in the East was in the grips of one far larger and more significant than any that had come before or would come afterward, if only in terms of numbers. By the end of this conflict, known as China's Taiping Rebellion, over 20 million people would lay dead, and China's relationship wi...

In this newest entry into the Impossible Interview series, I had a chance to sit down (via Zoom) with the incredibly talented and generous-with-his time J.D. Huitt, the brains behind and face of History Underground and the excellent History Traveler series on YouTube (remember: LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE!). He ranks among the top three history content creators that I diligently follow on YouTube for his e...

Surprise! In light of the current quarantine in which becoming starved for content is actually a very real possibility, as well as a way to say thank you to all of you for your patience as I toiled away at this most recent episode, I decided the time would be right to toss a freebie everyone's way, with a special thank you directed at all of you kind enough to be financially supporting History Imp...

Let's set the stage: The most explosive event of the 20th century has just occurred and it has nothing to do with Nazis or atomic bombs or American blue jeans. In 1917, the world's largest terrestrial imperial power began to rip itself apart and would continue to do so during the next half decade, leading to the only other power with the ability to challenge the United States. The First World War...

In this inaugural 2020 episode of History Impossible (and on the one year anniversary no less!), I sit down with CJ Killmer, host of the long-running and incredibly well-done Dangerous History Podcast. CJ has been one of my long-time inspirations for his capacity for detailed, deep dives into parts of history I literally had no interest in for most of my life (i.e. The American Civil War) and mana...

Content Warning: This episode contains graphic depictions of physical and psychological torture. A world away from the war raging across the European continent, a completely different theater of warfare was being conducted by the Empire of Japan and the Allied forces in Asia. Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, attacks were made against the British Empire's...

Content Warning: This episode contains extremely graphic depictions of genocide, torture, and human experimentation. On April 29th, 1945, one day before Adolf Hitler killed himself, the true evil of the National Socialists--and the necessity of crushing them--finally became known to the American men fighting through Germany. It all began with seeing a set of boxcars, filled from stem to stern with...

It's the end of one era and the beginning of another. With the launch of History Impossible's Patreon, things with the Pop Quiz are different. This will be the final free episode the Pop Quiz series, which will now be accessible to the supporters of History Impossible at the 5 dollar level or higher (along with other great goodies). So to celebrate, Molly and Alex took a trip down memory lane abou...

On April 30th, 1945, Adolf Hitler's brain was ripped apart by the bullet he'd fired through his skull. That is how we believe the Second World War ended. But in reality, the struggle to crush the most evil of regimes and its ideas was just beginning and arguably never ended. This is the story of how that struggle began with the Germans who refused to believe that the end--their end--had come, and...

In this special edition of History Impossible, a trend is broken: this is not about a particular story in history. This is about a man. Or rather, a conversation with a man. The one, the only, Daniele Bolelli, host of popular podcasts History on Fire and The Drunken Taoist and known for semi-regular appearances on popular podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience and the Duncan Trussell Family Hour....

After a mega-sized two-parter episode of History Impossible, it seems only fitting that listeners get a pseudo-mega-sized Pop Quiz episode (if only because there was indeed more ground to cover). Ms. Molly's recap of the Great Hollywood Coverup is certainly fun and full of the usual holes and minor errors that chip away at her final grade, but in the end, she did (relatively) well recapping all th...

When we last left the side of renowned and loved silent film director William Desmond Taylor, he was lying dead on the floor of his bungalow and his valet was shrieking for someone--anyone--to help. Little did the valet know that "help" would indeed come, but the only people being helped were the ones who hired William Desmond Taylor to clean up the tarnished image Hollywood had earned for itself....

Nearly 100 years ago, scandal after scandal was rocking the new kid in town, the motion picture business; Tinseltown; Hollywood. Overdoses on mercury bichloride, cocaine-addicted starlets, prostitution and drug rings, suicides, and an alleged raucous orgy ending in the rape and murder of an actress by one of the top stars. This was all occurring while this new art form was under constant scrutiny...

The Pop Quiz returns for a much lighter, more fun episode (or fun recounting for Molly, at least) of the third episode of History Impossible, the story of Simo Häyhä, the White Death, the Magic Shooter. Give this quiz a listen to see how Molly manages to find such a cold-blooded bad-ass mass-killer so "cute", manage to call him a butt-face, and still be in awe of his accomplishments and monk-like...

In the winter of 1939, a Soviet colossus came bearing down on the small Baltic nation known as Finland, sparking off a 105-day conflict known to history as the Winter War. Facing impossible odds, the Finnish Army did all it could to fight off their Russian invaders, all with the simple goal to remain free from tyranny. During the fighting, one man would set himself apart from the struggle with ext...

For the second episode of History: Impossible, we have our second episode of An Impossible Pop Quiz! This time around, we discuss the misery that was the second episode of History: Impossible about sexual assault in times of war--in particular the American Civil War. As impossible (ha) as it might seem, we managed to have a few laughs, but unlike the first Pop Quiz, there is less of a narrative re...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contents graphic depictions of sexual assault and violence, occasionally involving minors. The American Civil War was supposedly a war of liberation. But the question of who some of these liberators actually were rarely gets asked. Most of the soldiers on the side of liberation--the Union Army--were simply grunts; uneducated, poor men who were completely unprepared fo...

And now for something completely different... In light of the fact that there inevitably will be delays and desires to hear more from the world of History: Impossible, I've decided to have my history-ambivalent lady friend Molly Pan along for the ride. And since she can't be bothered to learn anything unless a grade is being given to her (her words, not mine), we decided to start our own little Hi...

WARNING: This episode contains harsh scenes and quotes involving mass murder, racial slurs, and child abuse. Nearly a century and a half before populist messaging was used to propel the unlikeliest and most divisive of candidates into the Oval Office, the groundwork was being laid amid the most terrifying time in American history. A true vision of a post-apocalyptic landscape on the verge of explo...

In this introductory episode to History: Impossible, self-imposed ground rules are laid out, information on past, present, and future is provided, and thanks to inspirations are given.  This will probably be one of the few times you'll hear such an off-the-cuff ramble in this series. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/history-impossible--5634566/support .