Softcore History

Hannibal Barca was a Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War against Rome and considered one of the greatest military minds of his time. He took an army of 90,000 soldiers and 40 war elephants and marched across the Pyrenees and Alps to bring the fight to the Romans and terrorized the legions for years before ultimately failing to reach the capital and slowly losing the conflcit. Even in...

Saving Private Ryan star Max Martini joins the show to talk about his experience filming one of the greatest historical movies of all time and we tell the stories of the unluckiest paratroopers who dropped into France the night before D-Day. WATCH The Channel now! It's in theaters in select cities (LA, New York, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta) or BUY IT on iTunes! Subscribe to the Softcore History P...

John Wesley Hardin was a 19th-century serial killer who cosplayed as an Old West outlaw. He was a degenerate gambler with an impulsive trigger finger for anyone who disrespected him, the Republic of Texas, or the sanctity of sleep. He had plenty of run-ins with the law -- including multiple encounters with "Wild Bill" Hickok -- and had a body count the size of the Lone Star State. Subscribe to the...

A number of noble ideas and beliefs inspired the American Revolution. But history is layered. And full of morons. In this episode, we focus on two such morons: a banker/gambling addict whose financial ethics (and judiciousness) almost single-handedly precipitated a global banking crisis that led directly to the Boston Tea Party, and a very famous, well-meaning whistleblower who put WAY too much fa...

J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, smoked four packs a day, enjoyed drinking cocktails made with pure ethanol, was hazed mercilessly at summer camp, and grew up loving rocks. In short, he was kind of a huge weirdo. Learn all this and more about Oppenheimer, the man who ushered in our nuclear age. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history co...

Roy Chapman Andrews, the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones, led a series of expeditions to the Gobi Desert in China and famously first discovered fossilized dinosaur eggs. Andrews also died almost a dozen times while fighting off bandits, a horde of poisonous snakes, and a boat-hating whale. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including li...

Can love really conquer all? The stunningly beautiful, 19th Century French socialite and heiress Blanche Monnier, whose mother locked her in an attic for 25 years so that she wouldn’t marry a poor man, would probably say no. 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 epi...

What happened when Andrew Carnegie and his robber baron friends made a few cosmetic adjustments to an important dam to upgrade the aesthetics of their fishing club? Just the Johnstown Flood, the most violent flood in American history. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds of hours of extra history content including listener history questions, history movie watch-alongs, and weekly...

Is Brigham Young REALLY the heir to Joseph Smith? After Smith was killed in 1844 there was not one but TWO claimants to lead the Mormon Church. The other would-be Polygamy Pope was James Strang, a lawyer and self-described "cool philosopher" who claimed to have been named Smith's heir by the Latter Day Saints founder himself. And Strang (conveniently) had the legal documents to prove it! The split...

The Catholic Church has a long and bizarre history with holy relics, but the story of The Holy Prepuce — aka baby Jesus’s circumcised foreskin — is easily the weirdest of them all. So odd that Pope Leo XIII issued a decree in 1900 that if a Catholic talked about it (or made fun of it) they could be immediately excommunicated from the Church. Subscribe to the Softcore History Patreon for hundreds o...

Juan Pujol Garcia was a Spanish chicken farmer turned self-made spy. A fervent hater of fascism, he decided to volunteer as a spy for the Nazis and then feed them bogus info from himself and a network of totally fictional agents he said were working for him in London. He was so trusted, and the Nazis were so stupid, that he became their most important spy during the war. His influence was so great...

Think you'd know Latin if you heard it? Can you understand Middle English? Can you even possibly guess what ancient Aztec or Sumerian sounds like? Tune in and guess along with our hosts as they attempt (and fail miserably) to identify what dead languages are being spoken to them. For this show and 2 additional episodes every week ad free follow the link below. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusiv...

Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini was a 15th-century smut writer who climbed all the way up the Papal ladder and became Pope Pius II, head of the Catholic Church. But his reign was during a time of major crisis for the religion. After the fall of Constantinople, with limited options to fight off the Turks, he turned to Vlad the Impaler to save Europe from Muslim rule. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for...

What happens when you eliminate religion during a cultural revolution? Sometimes people, looking to fulfill their spiritual needs, start worshipping mangos. From mango shrines to mango cigarettes, China under Mao went all in on worshiping mangos in the 1960s. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. RSVP knowing you’ve got the perfect look all wedding season long f...

Ramesses III took power in Egypt during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, a literal regional apocalypse caused by a horrifying invading horde known as the Sea Peoples and the fact that sun didn’t shine for about 20 years, making farming… difficult. Despite the invading horde and severe lack of food — and facing the first worker strike in human history — the guy did pretty well. But not everyone was a...

The Great Molasses Flood was a disaster that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston after a large storage tank of the viscous substance burst and rushed through the streets killing 21 residents and injuring 150 more. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The guys discuss a meme floating around the internet that claims medieval peasants had more time off than modern workers. Spoiler alert! That’s not really true. Learn about peasant life this week and be thankful for your soulless corporate job. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The history of African slaves being sent across the Atlantic is well-known, but hundreds of years before Columbus arrived in America the Chinese were importing their own African slaves to do their hard labor, attempt dangerous underwater repairs to ships, and work as “ornamental” palace attendants. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad c...

Riots and angry mobs causing death and destruction are nothing new. In fact, the world has a long and rich history of people causing a commotion over the smallest inconveniences, impolite gestures, wrongdoings, and personal beefs. From a Roman soldier mooning a large group of Jewish pilgrims to a stadium of drunk baseball fans getting overzealous on ten-cent beer night, we cover some of the most a...

Washington D.C.’s upper crust decided it would be fun to tailgate Bull Run, the first major battle of the American Civil War. And, once there, they tried their hardest to armchair quarterback the Union Army. But things got a lot less fun once their side started charging at them in a panicked retreat. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad...

St. Patrick’s Day might seem like a bigger deal in the Northeast and Midwest but New Orleans was actually the second most frequent port of entry for Irish immigrants to the United States. They didn’t necessarily have a great time living in the Big Easy, however. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Fifth-century Romano-British slave turned bishop, Maewyn Succat, was on a mission to convert the entire island of Ireland to Catholicism by any means necessary. From dueling pagan magicians with fire to raising dozens of dead back to life, St. Patrick took no prisoners in his conquest for God. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choice...

This week we learn about Sergeant Stubby, a Boston Terrier who fought for the United States during World War 1. He was no mere mascot, though. He saw plenty of combat and ended up outranking his owner, all while accomplishing quite a bit more than most humans ever do in their military careers SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choices...

Like any culture or region, Islam and pre-Islamic Arabia had stories about a number of mythical creatures. One in particular, though, was codified into official existence by the Quran. They’re made of fire. You can hook up with them. They can eavesdrop on Heaven unless God shoots meteors at them. And they’ll write your poems for you. Meet the Jinn (aka genies). SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusi...

Rough-and-tumble was a free-for-all fighting style in the colonial South wherein contestants would bite, dig, and tear into each other's eye sockets and testicles all in the name of defending their honor. It makes current-day mixed martial arts look like ballet. SUBSCRIBE to our Patreon for exclusive audio, video, and written content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...