Softcore History

If you think social media is unhealthy for people, you’re right. But it’s not a new phenomenon. From the invention of the printing press kicking off 300 years of witch trials, to doctors blaming depression in young girls on unrealistic lifestyles portrayed in cheap 18th-century romance novels, it turns out people have never handled the ability to create and consume their own content well. Author o...

*We had a problem with the audio card so we had to pull sound from the camera. Just think of it as a throwback to our garage band days in 2020. I apologize in advance. - Dan*Jack the Ripper has finally been caught thanks to some incredibly intimate DNA evidence. Polish barber Aaron Kosminski is allegedly the famed killer, but are we convinced? Jessie Wiseman of Crime Corner joins us to break down...

After being threatened with a replacement governor for the territory of Utah, Bringham Young and his Mormon coalition went to war against the U.S. Government from 1857 to 1858. Tensions were high and most of the casualties were innocent civilians passing through the region -- most notably the Baker-Fancher wagon party.  Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra histo...

Throughout history, men have always complained that men from the past were WAY more manly, especially in Ancient Rome. And today we're talking about the one time that might have actually been undeniably true. The first hero of the Roman Republic, Mucius Scaevola, did something so astoundingly manly that it changed the course of Roman history forever. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for h...

Iraq War vet Jack Mandaville joins the show to talk about his experience invading Iraq in 2003 with the 1st Marine Division, what he saw, how he was greeted by the Iraqis, and fighting alongside the guys from Generation Kill. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, history movie watch-alongs, and weekly bonus ep...

In 1897, Swedish engineer and aeronaut Salomon August Andrée led two other men on a hot air balloon expedition to the North Pole that quickly went incredibly awry. After crashing their balloon in a literal no man's land, the three had to fend off the harsh elements, polar bears, and the decay of their own sanity for months before ultimately succumbing to their bitter demise. The entire misfortune...

What's the most important battle in American history? Gettysburg? D-Day? Saratoga? Nah. It's the Battle of St. Louis, a little-known Revolutionary War battle between St. Louis's drunken, anti-social citizens and a British and Indian force looking to take the Mississippi River for King George. The battle's outcome forever changed the course of history on the western half of the North American conti...

Pope Benedict IX is often regarded as one of the worst men to take the papal throne. He ascended to the chair of Saint Peter at the age of twenty in 1032 after his old man bought him the position and he proceeded to indulge in habitual sins of the flesh, theft, murder, and even sold his power to the highest bidder. Benny was pontiff three times over the stretch of 16 years, survived assassination...

Enjoy the original Softcore History sketches "Hole Ball" and "The Diary of Helen Slaggerman" and subscribe to our Patreon -- patreon.com/softcorehistory -- for YEARS of evergreen history content including more sketches like these, podcasts, game shows, watch-alongs, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To fully end the Roman Republic and become Emperor Caesar Augustus, the young, wealthy patrician Octavian needed to get rid of the last man standing in his way: Mark Antony. But how could Octavian turn Rome against the Republic’s most decorated war hero and combat veteran — and Julius Caesar’s top lieutenant? Launch a propaganda campaign that said, “Actually, I’m a true strong Roman and this guy i...

The practice of rectal fumigation was a common medical practice in the 17th and 18th centuries that included tobbaco and smoke enamas to treat bowel obstruction, constipation, and even attempt to resusitate still born babies. We dive into one of the many reasons no one trusted doctors for a very, very long time. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history conte...

Herodotus was a Greek historian and geographer often regarded as the "Father of History" who detailed the Greco-Persian War and his explorations throughout the ancient world. Many peers of his time found his works to be greatly exaggerated, misunderstandings, or totally false. Modern historians have grown to appreciate his accounts of events and see him in a more positive light. Hate him or love h...

When the United States entered World War 1 no one was quite sure what to expect. What the Germans definitely didn't expect was a bunch of Doughboys armed with Winchester Model 97 pump-action shotguns -- aka Trench Brooms -- blasting gaping holes in their soldiers. The use of these shotguns became so infamous and terrifying that the Kaiser complained, officially, that using them was a war crime. We...

Mithridates VI was the King of Pontus from 120 to 63 BC who biohacked his body into immunity from poison, survived being struck by lightning with nothing more than a tiny scar, and became a huge thorn in the side of the Roman Empire. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, history movie watch-alongs, and weekly...

Never meet your heroes? How about never try to be friends with your fans. Charles Dickens found this out the hardest way possible when he let his fanboy and fellow famous author Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling) stay at his house for what was supposed to be a two-week visit. Five weeks later the Danish fairy tale author had exhausted the Dickens family with his aggres...

Baldwin IV was King of Jerusalem from 1174 to 1185 and had the crusader state thriving despite constant attacks from outside Muslim forces led by the great Saladin and struggles with his own body turning on him from leprosy. Despite the physical limitations he still led his army out on the battlefields, made savvy decisions with the high court, and had one of the more successful runs of his time. ...

With J.D. Vance winning the Vice Presidency you'll probably hear about his wife Usha Vance being the first non-white Second Lady. This is true, but she is NOT the first non-white woman to be married to a Vice President. This is the story of Vice President Richard Johnson -- a legendary hero of the War of 1812 and the ninth Vice President of the United States -- and his wife, a slave named Julia Ch...

Teddy Roosevelt was one of the most important U.S. Presidents of the 20th century and a complete lunatic who was always up for an unneccesary challenge. Matt Cooper and Joel Benner join the show to talk about his deranged life outside of politics, The Colonel willing the Rough Riders to glory at San Juan Hill, and how he shaped football into the game we know and love today. Subscribe to the Softco...

Béla Kiss is one of the most prolific serial killers you’ve never heard of. He had it all — great looks, his own successful business in tin, a mother that loved him too much — but when he caught his second wife cheating on him with a younger man, it unlocked a dark beast within. Jessie Wiseman joins to talk about how this once charismatic, well-liked, swordsman in the sheets became a monster on th...

Ross Bolen joins the show to talk about the ghosts that still linger from The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, the most infamous mafia killing in American history. The victims of Al Capone's henchmen still haunt the area to this day, including the most unfortunate location (and people) you can imagine. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content includin...

Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily from 1198 to 1250, was a curious man. Curious in that he loved doing medical experiments, no matter how totally useless and violent those experiments were. Suffice it to say the amateur surgeon learned a lot, but almost all of it was useless. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including li...

The Bell Witch of Robertson County, Tennessee, on whom the horror film classic ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was based, tormented the Bell family farm from 1817 to 1828. In the meantime, the disembodied spirit attracted thousands of tourists, skeptics, and more. One visitor was none other than Old Hickory himself, determined to see if one of Satan’s underlings could truly frighten him. Subscribe to th...

The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri is one of the most haunted homes in the United States. Learn the history of the fabulously wealthy family of 19th-century beer magnates who lived in the mansion, how many of them came to their tragic ends within its walls, and how their ghosts now torment the mansion's visitors -- especially any women using the bathroom. Subscribe to the Softcore History Pat...

We start Halloween Horror Month 2024 with an infamous and unsolved mystery about three lighthouse keepers who went missing in the Flannan Isles of Scotland. Was it banshees? A ghost ship? Murder-suicide? Listen and decide for yourself. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, history movie watch-alongs, and weekl...

In 1751 Benjamin Franklin wrote "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind," a letter with a number of interesting observations and ideas, and also one head-scratcher (at least to readers from the present). In it, Franklin noted that he was tired of all the non-white immigrants coming to the New World and ruining white society in Pennsylvania. Which non-white immigrants? Germans. Subscribe t...