Softcore History

Hatshepsut is the female Pharaoh you've never heard of. Why? Because the Egyptians erased her. But the queen turned queen regent turned full-on Pharaoh ruled for two decades and accomplished as much as just about anyone who ever sat on the throne, from conquering Kush to opening exotic trade routes in East Africa. There was also some brother-banging, diabetes, and statue HJs, but mostly she lived...

Titanic Thompson would bet on anything, and usually win. And usually because he was cheating. It's one of the many reasons Titanic is the greatest gambler in American history. He hustled golf at country clubs with a young Ben Hogan. He hustled pool halls across the country with Minnesota Fats. He even cheated the man who fixed the 1919 World Series out of millions. All while dating starlets like J...

Winston Churchill was one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century, taking power over the United Kingdom in the midst of World War II. Jack Mandaville joins us to talk about the Last Lion's unhinged upbringing, blood ties to the United States, his storied military and writing careers, and his rise to power through British parliament. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon fo...

Kyle Bandujo, podcaster and author of the new sports movie book "Movies With Balls", joins the show to talk about one of the most famous figures in American sports scandal history: Arnold Rothstein. Though he was most famous for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series (a.k.a. the Black Sox Scandal), this distinction does the man's criminal history a disservice. In truth, Rothstein was so much more....

Bleeding Kansas was a series of conflicts between abolitionists and pro-slavery forces after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Election fraud, murder, and guerilla warfare were rampant during this five year window that decided whether Kansas would enter the union a free or slave state. Many historians consider it the prequel to the American Civil War. Subscribe to the Softcore Histor...

19th Century Southern lawyer-turned-sociologist and noted shut-in George Fitzhugh was "too online" 140 years before the internet was even invented. He stayed inside all day reading newspapers, books, and political pamphlets, rarely leaving home. As with anyone who shapes their worldview only by consuming media, Fitzhugh started to believe some pretty wild ideas. Particularly, that pretty much ever...

The Wars of Roses were a series of civil wars fought for the English crown from 1455 to 1487. These bloody and nasty conflicts between the Houses of Lancaster and York inspired George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series to the point that you can make direct connections between the real historical figures and characters in his books. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours...

An American meat shortage in 1910 caused people to get real desperate, real fast. Enter Louisiana Representative Robert F. Broussard, who proposed the American Hippo Bill, which would import hippos from Africa to be raised for food on Louisiana swamp ranches. Oh, what could have been. For this show and TWO additional ad-free episodes every week follow the link below. Subscribe to the Softcore Hist...

Presidents aren't only passive victims. Helpless bystanders as gunmen attempt to kill them. This week we discuss every American president who TOOK lives, from the ones you know like Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, to the ones you never would've guessed. And these kills aren't by order or drone strike but, rather, done with their own bare hands. Some presidents killed on the battlefield, but ot...

Gilded Age Americans were hungry for entertainment and because of this, somehow, the simple hobby of walking captivated the country. So much so that it briefly developed into our national sport and the most gambled-on athletic competition during the Victorian era. Pedestrianism was the name of the game and its athletes were looking to get any performance edge they could -- cocaine -- to cash in on...

Not all Protestant movements in the 16th Century had Martin Luther's success. Enter the Münster Rebellion, in which a bunch of anti-Catholic, anti-Lutheran lunatics took over a city, enacted full-on communism (except for its leaders, of course), legalized polygamy so hard it became a sport, and ultimately inspired some of the most metal church decorations in history. Subscribe to the Softcore Hist...

The First Punic War was the first of three conflicts between the established Carthaginians and the rising, upstart Roman Empire. For 23 years these two forces slugged it out in the Mediterranean Sea, Siciliy, and North Africa and suffered immense loses on both sides before the Romans ultimately pulled off the upset and laid the foundation for their rise to becoming the dominant power in the region...

If you’ve ever wondered why whale sightings are such a big deal or why we need to “save the whales”… it’s because the Soviet Union killed them all. Find out why the communist super power had such a lust for whale blood in this week’s episode. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, history movie watch-alongs, an...

For decades Americans have sneered at the French for taking a big, fat L in World War 2 -- but are we too hard on France? How many of their contributions to this country -- let alone its freedom -- have we overlooked?? Special guest Jack Mandaville helps us dive in. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, histor...

A brief overview of warfare's long, rich tradition of using animals in creative and horrifying ways, from Alexander the Great's war pigs all the way up to... pretty much modern day, actually. It's not great. Featuring special guest host Jessie Wiseman of Crime Corner. Listen to Crime Corner wherever you get podcasts! Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history...

Joshua Norton was a 19th century English immigrant who became financially ruined after a deal went south with a Peurivian rice company. After a long legal battle that reached the California Supreme Court, banks took all of his assets and he wandered the streets of San Francisco for the next 20 years. Not one to accept his fate in the gutter, Joshua declared himself Emporer of the United States and...

King Mannesah of Judah is considered one of the worst kings in the Old Testament but is that the reality of the situation or just the perspective of the authors of the Bible? It turns out he might have had some surprisingly good reasons for doing (some) of the supposedly egregious things he did. DONATE to Iris Faust's College Fund GoFundMe HereSubscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds...

In Jake’s final episode, he takes us down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories -- and the history behind them -- that range from somewhat plausible to totally insane, and what unifies all of them. 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 episodes. Go to GhostBed.com/dr...

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, but the Chinese are studying history with the explicit hope that they do, in fact, repeat it. National Security and the Rise and Fall of Great Powers is the Chinese Communist Party's examination of how nations over the last 500 years -- from Spain and Portugal to Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States -- gained and lost power. The i...

From cavemen to Rome to post-Civil War America and the present day, humans have been harvesting and eating oysters for hundreds of thousands of years. Jake, who just got back from working an oyster farm for a week (seriously), details how humans came to eat these little gooey delicacies, the wars we've fought over them, and the myths we've created about how horny they make you. Subscribe to the So...

In celebration of reaching 1,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts, and perhaps in a bit of method podcast hosting, Dan Regester attempts to tell the story of The London Beer Flood of 1814 while flooding his own body with a mixture of Guinness and whiskey. Like the flood itself, Dan's evening ends in disaster. (Maybe come back to this one if this is your first episode.)Subscribe to the Softcore History Pa...

Malcolm Caldwell was a professor at the University of London who loved two things: Communism, and publicly cheerleading Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia. The latter, he insisted, was a beacon of hope for humanity and definitely not killing people by the millions. In 1978, Caldwell was granted an audience with his political and humanitarian hero, but after his meeting with Pol Pot something... interest...

Thomas Midgley Jr. revolutionized the U.S. auto industry in the early 1900s. But, he may have also been responsible for a violent mid-century American crime wave and lowered IQs across the world. 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 episodes. Go to GhostBed.com/dri...

Hong Xiuquan was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion that killed over 30 million people, the self-proclaimed celestial brother of Jesus Christ, and an inspirational figure to future chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong. He (initally) had the backing of Karl Marx and was a massive thorn in the side of the Qing Dynasty for 14 years after a mental breakdown from failing his civil servic...

The Agapemonites were a Victorian religious cult that checked all the boxes. A leader who thought he was God and also immortal and needed multiple wives? Check, check, and check. A way to separate idiots from their money and possessions? Check. A creepy compound with high walls? Check. But even for a relatively early modern cult Henry Prince and his followers found some fun (see: horrible) ways to...